David Berning live

@dodgealum No I didn’t miss that and I think it’s great that David Berning’s technology can reach more people. However, in my opinion, there are distinct differences between Berning components and LTA components.

I also don’t agree with your comment that without LTA only the ultra rich can enjoy David’s designs. I don’t consider myself ultra rich, although I am far from indigent, yet I have a few Berning gems in my possession. In the scheme of things while the price of entry to Berning products has gone up considerably over the last decade, they’re not out of reach, not by today’s standards anyway.

I recently ordered an LTA MZ2 to be both a preamp and headphone amp and looking forward to hearing the benefits of the ZOTL design.  I also recently had my McCormack DNA 0.5 RevA amp get full upgrades through SMcAudio and was interested to learn that they do high-end research for David’s cost-no-object designs and that the fruits of that research trickles down into SMcAudio’s DNA upgrades.  I’m about to hear the results of adding both the MZ2 and upgraded DNA 0.5 to my system and feel like I’ll be wired into David’s brain in no small part.  Truly an icon in our audio world. 

My Quadrature Z monoblocks have a base that Steve designed. It’s made of copper and provides a multi-layer damping and ground system. This feature is available through Rick Brown at Hi-Fi One who represents the Berning product line.

Steve is one of the nicest guys in the business. I had the pleasure of meeting him at some of the SoCal audio society events when I lived in the area. In my opinion he is another one of the top audio engineers out there, but he tends to keep a low profile.

Thank you for the post!

My Quadrature Z monoblocks have a base that Steve designed. It’s made of copper and provides a multi-layer damping and ground system.

@clio09 Yup, my DNA 0.5 has Steve’s Gravity Base he adapted from development work he did for Berning.  Due to the expense of copper these days they now use a highly-engineered and dense wood-based product they find as effective but much cheaper than copper.  All I know is it added several lbs. to my amp and can’t wait to finally hear the thing.