The Amp of All times ???

[rollo]

  David Bernings ZOTL design. Heard that this baby shook up the show in Washington. According to ears I trust this amp is the amp to have on a desert island. A truley innovative design. Check it out. Wow !!! www.davidberning.com/products/qz  Not a Dealer.


charles
SMA

[JLM]

His amps from a few years back were tiny output, but heralded as well.

Wonder what the price is.

[tmazz]

 David Bernings ZOTL design. Heard that this baby shook up the show in Washington. According to ears I trust this amp is the amp to have on a desert island. A truley innovative design. Check it out. Wow !!! www.davidberning.com/products/qz  Not a Dealer.


charles
SMA

I don't know about innovative, as OTL (Output transformerless) designs have been around for many many years. The best known probably are the Julius Futterman designs built and marketed by Harvey Rosenberg under the New York Audio Labs banner (in the pre-Moscode days) and later the Atma-Spheres. OTLs always had wonderful sound but were plagued with other problems like high power consumption (with the corresponding heat generation) and reliability issues (not to mention the fact that they beat the hell out of their output tubes - as usual, nothing for nothing). However; it does look like a nice refinement to the classic OTL concept that could make an OTL amp much easier to live with.

[tmazz]

His amps from a few years back were tiny output, but heralded as well.

Wonder what the price is.

Berning currently has two power amps in their line. The ZH-230 which put out 30wpc and lists for $8350



http://www.avguide.com/review/david-berning-zh-230-stereo-power-amplifier-tas-210?page=1

and the Quadrature Z monoblocks that put out 220w each and sell for just under $30k per pair





http://davidberning.com/Files/reviews/BerningQZ-hifiplus200811.pdf

[BobM]

He makes a compelling argument for his design ... the elimination of transformers and "fixing" the problem with other OTL designs. Most of it is over my head technically though. I guess the proof is in the sound and its ability to mate with most speaker designs and not blow up, like some other OTL designs are prone to do.

Still, expensive little watts those are, but good they sound, maybe.

[tmazz]

He makes a compelling argument for his design ... the elimination of transformers and "fixing" the problem with other OTL designs. Most of it is over my head technically though. I guess the proof is in the sound and its ability to mate with most speaker designs and not blow up, like some other OTL designs are prone to do.

Still, expensive little watts those are, but good they sound, maybe.

OTLs were always at the higher end of the price spectrum. Another one of their drawbacks. 

[steve]

I got to hear the Belles Reference 350 amp and it was very very
good as well. I think it rivaled the OTL amps I have heard and
designed.

Cheers.

[hogg]

A cheaper way to have OTL's is with Transcendent Audio's products.

http://www.transcendentsound.com/Transcendent/Products.html

Jim

[richidoo]

I see Transcendent has some new stuff I didn't know about. Building the Grounded Grid preamp was fun, very easy kit to build. My only reservation about Beast and the new MiniBeast is the power tubes are made only by JJ, who have quality issues. But JJ E34Ls was the best power tube I ever heard, and their 12AT7 too, until they blew up. 

[JLM]

Anyone have any experience with the Transcendent Audio amps?

I heard the Grounded Grid pre-amp at a Decware audiofest several years ago and thought it sounded nice, but quite warm compared to the Decware stuff (but I know Decware sounds more like solid state "done right").

[richidoo]

The pre can be tuned to be cleaner sound, there are a couple mod websites. The amps use a generous helping of feedback to get that low impedance so I expect that does take away some of the free spirit, but OTL has a lot of that to spare. I'd like to hear the amps.

[Regg]

It's sad I guess, but the only OTL I've had the opportunity to hear is the one I currently own, and I only became interested in going that route because my speakers were tuned with the very same amp. I'd love to hear a Berning, or a Tenor, or a Joule Electra OTL, but not only are these cost-prohibitive for me...I'm also quite certain that speaker matching will be just as critical, no matter how far you go up the line.

Conversing with a few audio buddies, I realize the OTL 'sound', if you want to call it that, is not for everyone. I've heard someone call it 'whitish', though I'm not sure I agree, and others I know just don't find it very engaging to begin with. In my opinion, my OTL offers a very open, very clean, clear window to the source. Whether or not this is an advantage will depend on what's going on upstream, I suppose. If your speakers are a good match, then the OTL will demonstrate what they are really capable of, from top to bottom. I haven't heard anything else quite like it.

[Triode Pete]

His amps from a few years back were tiny output, but heralded as well.

Wonder what the price is.

Berning currently has two power amps in their line. The ZH-230 which put out 30wpc and lists for $8350



http://www.avguide.com/review/david-berning-zh-230-stereo-power-amplifier-tas-210?page=1

and the Quadrature Z monoblocks that put out 220w each and sell for just under $30k per pair





http://davidberning.com/Files/reviews/BerningQZ-hifiplus200811.pdf

From a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) guy who has low powered SETs that are "point to point" wired, those Berning amps look overly complicated to me... would love to try one of his lowered power amps one day, just to "hear"!

[richidoo]

I think the actual amp circuit is the bottom small PCB with the tubes, and all the crazy shit above the shield is the various power supplies, which of course are very important, but I agree that looks a little crazy!