David Berning Co 211/845 Gen 1 ZOTL monos

Contact Information
Rick Brown, Hi Fi One
website: rbhifi1.com
YouTube intro: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvElcZO4dC0
Audiogon listings: www.audiogon.com/stores/hi_fi1

PayPal plus 3.5% domestically. +4.5% internationally.

These 60 WPC, Class A, Triode OTL amplifiers come with the optional $8,000 Stillpoints Ultra 6 feet as pictured. They will ship Psvane Western Electric Replica 845 tubes sets.

The ’secret’ to these amplifiers is converting the music signal to Radio Frequency so the OTL can drive the speaker directly, but with low output impedance. That singularly allows a minimal number of linear triodes (211 or 845) to operate OTL. The advanced switch mode power supply and full power factor correction allows world-wide operation. Again, no adjustment. All automatic. There are no adjustments on these amps. No biasing, no adjustment for either 211 or 845 tube operation and full computerized tube monitoring. They are super quiet and work extremely well on horns as well as conventional loudspeakers.

These amplifiers have no direct competition.

Do not think of these amplifiers as "traditional" OTL. They have almost nothing in common. In fact, they have almost nothing in common with any other tube amplifier other than they use tubes. Such is the advanced nature of the the patented ZOTL circuit designed and built by David Berning in Potomac, Maryland.

They weigh 38 pounds per mono chassis, run relatively cool with just two output tubes per channel. Compare this fact vs all conventional OTL’s which must use use massively paralleled, hot running non-linear tubes (vs super linear 211 and 845 output tubes) to get the output impedance low enough to drive the speaker load directly. And even then they never play bass like this amplifiers with it even lower output impedance and output current.

Here are a few excerpts from the Robert Harley review.

"...I won’t mince words: The Berning 211/845 is the most beautiful sounding amplifier I’ve ever heard. One could easily invoke the stereotype of a triode amplifier that has no feedback and lacks an output transformer, and immediately jump to the conclusion that the word “beautiful” means that the amplifier imposes itself on the music in a flatteringly euphonic way, like a soft-focus filter on a lens. But that’s not the case. The Berning sounds beautiful because music sounds beautiful; this amplifier simply introduces less artifice and coloration that would diminish that beauty.

The 211/845 is unique in the way it strips away a kind of electronic tincture, leaving in its place a totally natural and believable musical presentation. With most superb systems, certain recordings can, at certain times, create a “fool-you” realism that sounds so lifelike you experience a sudden frisson. The 211/845 delivers such delights regularly, and with apparent ease. Moreover, the experience doesn’t last for a brief moment before the illusion collapses, but is sustained for entire pieces of music. It’s quite a magic trick, conjuring a startling palpability by stripping away the last vestige of an electronic signature. It’s as though instruments and voices have been laid bare, with a natural and organic quality.

Reproduction of the human voice is a particularly stark example of this amplifier’s utter transparency. I could cite any number of instances, but two come immediately to mind as particularly vivid: Ella Fitzgerald on the 45rpm Analogue Productions LP of Ella and Louis and Jennifer Warnes on The Hunter[Impex LP]. On the track “Moonlight in Vermont” Ella’s entrance is genuinely startling, so convincing is the illusion of a living, breathing human being standing between the loudspeakers. The more modern recording of Warnes was rendered by the Berning with such immediacy that I felt that I heard her voice’s beautiful and unique timbre fully for the first time. On both examples, the Berning conveyed nuances of timbre, dynamics, inflection, phrasing, and expression in previously unparalleled abundance. Thanks to these qualities, the Berning is a crystal-clear window back through time to the original musical event. The 211/845 experience is like that of the best direct-to-disc LPs or first-generation analog tapes; you can immediately hear that a layer has been removed between you and the music. In its ability to reproduce instruments and voices with this level of believability, the Berning has no equal in my experience..."