How does Berning ZH270 compare to Cary Cad211 AE ?

Can anyone tell me if the Joule VAMP integrated has the same sound as the seperates described here . I have been checking into this int. and the Berning 270 . I would like to know how these two integrateds compare to each other .
My apologies to you Nr9 !

Two quick comments:
Saki70 - I believe Joule is no longer supporting the VAMP. I don't know this for a fact but I would contact Joule before buying one.
Nr9 - I find the Audience AU24 cables to be slightly lean. I like it better than Valhalla but if you are looking for a warm cable I'd look elsewhere.
I have not heard the Berning or this particular Cary amp but I find most Cary products too warm and euphonic for my tastes. I don't know how well they work with Merlins but the Atma-Sphere amps are very, very good.

The Air Tight and EAR are two very different designs, the first being SET 300B and the second P/P EL34. One with 8wts and the other 70. I had to sell the Air Tight because it wouldn't properly drive my Harbeth C7-ES2s. They like and need some power.

The Air Tight was a superb SET and I wish I'd found speakers that were easy to drive and would work in my small room. However, I have to say that I have not for one minute missed the SET "sound" as the EAR is also superb and I get beautiful music making from it. It's also a little quieter than the Air Tight and also has dual mono gain control. That is a great feature on the Air Tight. If the Harbeth was 90db, 8 ohms flat, and had a simple and easy crossover, I'd have not gone looking for a new amp and would have kept the Air Tight. I don't miss it one bit though - the EAR is that good. I bought Stereophile reviewer Art Dudley's unit as he bought the sample he reviewed. He had to buy $20,000.00 Lamms to beat it.

I also found the Audience a bit lean in my system and with a slight upper end hash. I use Cardas Gold Refs for ICs and TG Audio speaker cables.

I have also heard that Joule is no longer supporting the Vamp. They discontinued selling the Vamp due to the high cost of production and I have to imagine parts and such are increasingly harder to come by. I was interested myself in a Vamp, but not the integrated. Based on the fact that it is a hybrid model using the same signal path as the LA-100 MkIII, the Vamp integrated should provide a slightly warmer sound, but with the addition of solid state power. My guess is that it would fall somewhere in between the Berning and Cary, probably closer to the Berning.

>> 03-09-06: Khokugo
>> ....
>> IMO if you are seeking the true sound of what is
>> recorded (and pressed), then ZH270 may be the way to go.
IMHO, from my experience with the ZH270, I find the same: good sound but very little or no music.
I can see why Bobby Palkovich likes the ZH270 - it allows him to "debug" his Merlin speakers (much like a studio monitor allows a mixing & mastering engineer to "debug his/her CD production).

>> 03-10-06: Greenman
>> I have not heard the Berning or this particular Cary
>> amp but I find most Cary products too warm and euphonic
>> for my tastes.
In general, that is my experience w/ Cary as well. However, of the few products that I have heard in their factory listening room + at friends places, if you can, do listen to the 805C Anniversary Edition. It is superb. It does not have the palpable midrange of their 300SEI amp but it is very close & far more balanced over the entire audio spectrum.
My friend has a pair of Cary Sixpac monos driving his Merlin VSM-MX speakers. This combination is absolutely divine. There seems to be a balance - the palpable EL34 midrange & high freq combined w/ the lean(er) Merlin VSM-MX speakers. Really fantastic music. It beat the ZH270-VSM-MX combination by many, many miles.

>> 03-10-06: 711smilin
>> ......
>> My suggestion is neither, as my Dodd 120 bettered each,
>> and most others in my most important catagory. Musical.
>> Extended. Detailed. Musical.
Good to read this 711smilin! It appears that you have been listening w/ your ears! Your words above are quite diff from what you had written in that other ZH270 thread back in Nov 2005.

>> and Merlin told me (it wasn't Bobbie but was another
>> guy there who said this was "Our opinion") they respect
>> and like the Berning but love the Joule.
The Berning comment is consistent w/ what I heard myself.