How does Berning ZH270 compare to Cary Cad211 AE ?

>> 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.

We each learn more every day, I try to tell it, how I hear it. I gave a valid suggestion of what I found to be true, for me. If you want more details comparing the ZH270 VS CAD 211, email me.

Good luck in your journey

Sorry to hijack this so shamelessly Nr9,but what made you decide to use the sub with your Merlins?I ask this as a Merlin VSM-MM owner who's curious.Thanks for your patience,Bob

The Merlin doesn’t have much to give from 32hz and down. It’s easy to implement the Velodyne DD12 with the speaker, because of all the possibilities with this sub.

In my room I have a peek round 50Hz and a dip around 100Hz. I know this is because of a room resonance problem. The Velodyne’s FQ seep shows me this, and it is easy to hear it to.

From the Velodyne’s FQ sweep I can actually graphically see what’s going on. I can se the Merlin’s low FQ cut off. It’s also easily to hear that the sub put some extra weight down there. The FQ is now flat from 100Hz to 15Hz.This is fun, believe me. That’s why! (Sorry my bad English.)

What might lend greater insight to this discussion is musical preferences. For midrangy acoustical, female vocal music which seems to be the darling of audiophiles and most of the show demos I've been to, SET's and low powered tube amps would be a great choice. But what if one is attempting to recreate large scale vocal, orchestral and piano music with its fast dynamic swings? Isn't this a main criteria of "musicality"?

I've heard what the Berning is capable of at Montreal last year driving Verity Parsifals and I must say as far as musical realism and natural dynamics is concerned, it was quite remarkable. Nothing at the show touched it to my ears. The Verity folks had 2 other rooms with their Ovation and Sarastro models and were stunned as well. I think it had a LOT to do with everything in that system, least being Allan Bhagan's remarkable protype Berning amp and pre-amp. To my ears I haven't heard better and only a few as memorable. The rest of the system consisted of Stillpoint stands, cones and all Stereovox cabling and the Audio Aero Capitol Mk2

The range of music was full orchestral to organ recordings to vocals which displayed the type of dynamic shadings one might hear in a live performance. Tonality and timbre reproduction were 2nd to none. There was no gravy, all music sounded as you would expect a performance would without anything additive. But these are my preferences to give guidance to where I'm coming from. SET's and low powered tube amps are great for certain types of music, or do we eventually end up listening to the type of music that accomodates the addictive sound we hear with these amps?

The Berning is indeed like a microscope but it seems a bit over the top to say it isn't musical if musical is to mean the same as musical realism. My guess is that there are probably other issues with the system, at least that is my experience. I have owned the amp for 4 years and have compared it head to head with many amps out with the Joule being the only real temptation with Merlin speakers. There are more than a few that could own any amp they want and own the Berning out of choice not pricepoint.

This hobby is for sure a matter of taste.

711smilin:
Thanks for the heads-up on the Dodd 120s. Their website is pretty thin though... any reviews out there online?? Are the 120s class A? Low feedback?

Have you tried their pre-amp?

I'll email the designer also, but am hoping for more impressions from you. TIA!