David Berning preamp..looking for suggestions

Audioman, You've posted a bald-faced advertisement for something you apparently build and sell. That may be against forum rules, but do you have a website? That fact that Lamm use Hammond transformers does not per se raise the prestige of Hammond transformers, in my eyes, but Hammond products (tranformers and inductors) are certainly decent quality.  There's better, and there's worse,

If you are interested in a David Berning preamp I would suggest give the Micro ZOTL2 a try. I purchased it as a headphone amp and its the best headphone amp that I've heard. I knew it was made to use as a pre and can power high effiency speakers as an amp. I tried it as a preamp just for kicks and was shocked how good it was. It left no sonic charicter at all. No phono however. It's built and sold by urban audio and David Berning licensed the tech to them. Don't let the small price fool you. This little thing is a beast.

The MicroZOTL2 is actually made by Linear Tube Audio. Urban Hifi is our retail store, which has a soon-to-be opening location in Takoma Park, just across the Maryland line in the DC metro area. They are separate companies, though, and Linear Tube Audio sells its products through dealers, and Urban Hifi carries more than just LTA stuff. Several reviews of the MicroZOTL2 as a preamp are linked on our website, lineartubeaudio.com

I don't mean to be advertising, just clarifying. Knowing quite well what goes into a David Berning product versus a Linear Tube Audio product, I think the Berning preamp will be step above the MicroZOTL2, though I have only heard the MicroZOTL2.  

I am using the Micro ZOTL as a preamp as of yesterday and I am very impressed. If your looking for any type of tube coloration you might as well look elsewhere. It is the most transparent pre I've ever heard. Still breaking in so more to come.

I recently borrowed and tried one of David Berning's ZOTL-One preamps with a phono stage and compared it to the phono preamp I have now, a two box unit built by DIY guru Charlie Phelps that he and mutual friends believe is better than any commercially available phono preamp. To my surprise, the ZOTL-ONE was better still - more extended in the treble, tighter bass, higher transparency. I like it so much that I'm in the process of buying one.  But a caution: If you like the "warm" sound of many tube preamps to balance off the detail of a solid state amp, this preamp won't do that.  The ZOTL-One sound is very detailed, but without any unpleasant edginess. More than any audio component I've heard, its sound is simply "natural/ live." If that's what your after, the ZOTL-One is the best I've encountered.