2. amps-preamps
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Amp shootout.....Tenor 75wi verses Berning ZH270

in a recent thread there was much discusion of the above 2 amps, whether the Berning was indeed an OTL, and which one might be better.

i have no opinion as to whether the Berning is an OTL. but today a Berning ZH270 owner brought his amp over to compare to my pair of Tenor 75wi's. my system is OTL friendly, with easy to drive speakers, so the Berning's acknowledged advantage in driving difficult loads was neutralized.

these amps have very similar power, the Tenor is 75 watts into 8 ohms, the Berning is 70 watts into 8 ohms. otherwise it is not really a fair comparison....the Tenors are $19900 a pair, the Berning $4500, the Tenors weigh 70 pounds each, the Berning weighs about 10 pounds.....it seems like Goliath verses David. the result is somewhat closer than that.

we played three different discs and each of 3 people listened to their disc in the sweetspot. the Berning owner felt that the Tenor had a more dimentional sound, deeper soundstage but felt the Berning was equal in bass extension and detail retreival. the independent listener felt the Berning was excellent for the money but not in the league of the Tenor in any paramter. my perception was similar to the independent listner; that the Berning, at $4500, is amazing in it's top to bottom excellence, dynamics and musicality.....but....does not do things like the Tenor. the sense of space, detail in the soundstage, texture and microdynamics of the Tenor are at a whole different level.....and they better be for $15000 more.

like the Berning owners, i am a shameless Tenor lover and consider the Tenors better than any other amp i have heard at any price, assuming a reasonably easy load to drive.

the Berning is more like a $8k to $10k amplifier.....and Berning owners should be justifiably proud of their amps.

i did think the Berning had slightly more bass slam than the Tenor, but with much less bass articulation and extension than the Tenor.

we spent the rest of the enjoyable afternoon listening to some great vinyl......an enjoyable time had by all.
mikelavigne
mikelavigne OP
2,200 posts
 
i think we should rename this thread "the Berning love-in"

now.....let's all do a communal hug!

;^)

Enjoy the music, guys!!
twl
3,251 posts
 
A hunka hunka Berning love.
twl
3,251 posts
 
Ken, welcome to the Berning Owners Club. Enjoy.
allanbhaganinfo
121 posts
 
Asa, in this company my system is humble.

It consists of,

Front end
AVID, Volvere Turntable, SME arm, with a Audioquest 7000fe5
cartridge modified by Van den hul. Stage III concepts phono cable, silver cables with Silver RCA's
NAIM CDX, with Stage III concepts DIN to RCA IC, silver cables with silver pins in the DIN and silver RCA's.

Rack is a A.M.P Delta.

Current preamp is a modified Blue Circle BC3000, with stage III concepts umbilical between power supply and pre, hope to have new David Berning prototype preamp late this year.
Stage III Monument IC to power amps

Power amps are, David Berning prototype mono blocks, both low impedance and high voltage capable, directly driving a pair of Sound labs Millennium 3's with Stage III high voltage silver ribbon cable.
Direct drive amps also have high voltage multipliers for a 8KV static charge, it can however be made for much higher, 8KV charge is not high enough to give the Sound labs it's full efficiency, so I use the sound lab static charge transformer for that.

Mixture of stage III concepts and Van den hull PC's.

Everything is floated with Aurios, including the M-3's

Most the wall behind speakers are treated with acoustics first panels, as well as side walls up to speakers, room is 15x23.

just put together with lots of love for music, nothing awe inspiring, except maybe for the direct drive, it's the only pair in existence and maybe also the only pair of direct driven sound labs?

Mikelavigne is proberbly saying, hey, I threw all that stuff out last week :)
mikelavigne OP
2,200 posts
 
Allan, hopefully, you don't think i'm an audio snob....i certainly don't want to be. some comments in this thread mention that possibly Tenor owners are in another class or something like that.....i don't see it that way at all....just because you don't spend $100k on audio doesn't mean that you couldn't......or that $100k guarantees you audio happiness.....or $5k means you can't get close to the music.

what counts to me is passion and pursuit of musical truth.....and the enjoyment of that effort. more $$$ CAN give you choices you may not otherwise have.....but the choices have to be the right ones.....for you.

in my pursuit of musical nirvanna i had spent some big dollars but still was unfullfilled......then i heard a friends system much more modest than mine that gave me much more musical pleasure and involvement....i realized what i was missing.....at that point i reoriented myself to another direction that has resulted in much more enjoyment without many more dollars.

yes, i am shameless in my enjoyment of my system....but not at the expense of any other music lover's system.
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