Reviews
Quadrature Z reviewed by Hi-Fi+ Magazine, Issue 60, October 2008 [PDF] "With these amplifiers the music is the message and the method of delivery is awesome."
ZH270 commentary and comparison by StereoMike on ZeroGain audio forum, August, 2007.
Starting at the bottom, the bass is wonderfully rounded and perfectly damped, yet solid as a sledgehammer unlike any valve amplifier I had heard before or since. ... Indeed the midrange and treble are utterly natural and delightfully transparent. People talk of veils. With this amp, all the veils are off before the first note's finished. ... I have not heard an alternative amplifier with this speed or openness regardless of price. And this speed is coherent - not varying at all across the audible response. This coherency all adds to the illusion of real musicians playing real instruments - something the Berning is extremely good at purveying. ... A remarkable performance for a 70wpc [push-pull output stage] device that can drive real world loudspeakers to real listening levels.
ZH270 reviewed by Rick Becker, Enjoy The Music, December 2006
"...more importantly, waves of goose bumps rolled over me as I listened... outstanding focus, combined with the outstanding transparency... the estimated tube lifespan being in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 years. Compare that with your own life expectancy. ... Acoustically, it leaps over almost the entire field, landing in the upper echelon of the finest sounding amplifiers."
ZH270 reviewed by Gary Beard, Positive Feedback, Issue 5, 2002 The Berning showcases the beautiful tone and timbre of instruments and voices. It is exceptionally clear, and has excellent inner resolution. When you least expect, it will thump you in the chest with deep tuneful bass, serenade you with a beautiful midband, and give you chills with exquisitely delicate treble. The attack and decay of notes are excellent, and the amp’s speed and ability to present dynamic contrasts can be startling. All the airy images and soundstaging that I’ve come to expect of a first rate amplifier are present in spades. All these audiophile qualities add up to an amplifier that is wonderfully musical and engaging.
ZH270 reviewed by Charles Hansen, Glass Audio, vol. 12 iss. 1-2, 2000
"Right out of the box, the ZH270 was a sonic pleasure. ... The bass was tight, far more so than I have ever heard on any tube amplifier. Acoustic bass was woody, resonant, and full of life. The extra harmonic richness in electric bass came through in spades, and kick drum had a lively pop...the bass never became tubby or boomy. The soundstage was spacious, wide, and deep. You could hear each individual instrument in even the most complex orchestral crescendo. Piano was portrayed as though you were standing right above the soundboard. You could hear each hammer and pedal in realistic detail. The sound never became confused, nor did the soundstage retreat even the slightest bit. This amplifier was absolutely unperturbed at even the highest volume. Complex pop music with layer after layer of synthesizer was more detailed than I have ever eheard. Yet the ZH270 also tames the bright, edgy CD mixes that seem to be in vogue these days. The best of both worlds!"
ZH270 reviewed by Martin Appel, stereotimes.com, 1999
"My system, however replaced with the Berning ZH270, immediately became more alive, with a good dose of vibrancy, not to mention a metaphoric veil was lifted between the music and the listener. This dear reader added an increase in palpability to instruments and voices with each and every disc. ... The soundstage is much more open, possessing more air that few amps can match. The mid-range, where the majority of music happens, is special. Clarity and articulation go hand in hand with imaging and depth. Instrumental timbres and voices are detailed, three-dimensional, and accurate, with dynamics to match. (Nothing mushy, boomy, or vague here.) High frequencies are clear and bell-like, and free of any grain, without that electronic etching that can irritate--I'm talkin' making music."
ZH270 reviewed by Dick Olsher, Fi Magazine, 1998
"In several respects, the ZH270 pushes the state-of-the-art envelope forward. ... The first and lasting impression was of speed and control-speed beyond ordinary tube amps and control in the class of the finest solid-state designs. It is felicitous of treble transients like almost no other amp in my experience. Transients were articulated with delicacy and a silky smoothness, unfolding with a totally believable organic wholeness. Plucked strings, in particular, were reproduced with convincing attack and decay. Midrange textures took on an electrostatic-like clarity. It was easy for me to resolve harmonies or to make out densely layered orchestration. Low-level detail and the decay of notes into the noise floor of the recording were clear. ... True to its tube origin, the ZH270 dished out a lifelike harmonic palette. ... Feelings and emotions are buried in the music's microdynamics. The Berning had no difficulty at all in retrieving the music's full emotional gamut. It excelled in highlighting inflections in human voice and the filigree-like nuances in bowed strings. It could deliver quite a punch into a compatible load and recovered quickly from overload conditions."
A personal amplifier. 1 Watt. Line or battery powered. For driving headphones. ZOTL technology.
microZOTL reviewed by Dick Olsher, enjoythemusic.com, October 2000
"There's undeniably a lot of magic in that little box. ... Just as a lark I plugged [headphones] into the Berning, and I almost fell out of my chair! All of a sudden, resolution and clarity galore! The ugly duckling was instantly transformed into a beautiful swan. Bass lines gained tremendous impact and precision. The midrange snapped into focus as though a thick veil had been lifted from the soundstage..."
microZOTL reviewed by Harvey "Dr. Gizmo" Rosenberg
"[microZOTL] is the best sounding headphone amp I have heard to date."
Single-Ended Amplifier. 5 watts. ZOTL technology. "A most amazing amplifier. Output transformerless using one Western Electric 300B output tube per channel. The amazing thing is it sure doesn't sound like what one would imagine a low powered amplifier should. It is, quite simply, the most dynamic (that's right), realistic presentation I've heard from any amp. It's all there from the frequency extremes to an eerily realistic midrange. Just magic." --Weldon K. Jackson, 19 Jan 1999, source
Siegfried - 811 Svetlana reviewed by Harvey "Dr. Gizmo" Rosenberg
"When Mark Conese and I compared the sound of David Berning's new ZOTL single ended circuit 811 amplifier to the 300B version we thought that there something wrong with the 300B amplifier... Marco the pianist completely agreed with us. The 300B amplifier sounded warm and fuzzy compared to the 811. The 811 was much closer to the sound of the Steinway, and the 300B was not!"
Siegfried - Directly Heated Triode review by Harvey "Dr. Gizmo" Rosenberg
"David's patented circuit, for the first time, solves the impedance problems endemic to all conventional OTL circuits; lack of stability at low impedances: all OTL amplifiers are very weak in the bass region. The ZOTL circuit is the first OTL circuit that doesn't go bonkers into low impedance loads, and this is the only tube amplifier on the face of earth, since the Futterman OTL-1, that doesn't have an output transformer and has regulated power supplies, and ZOTL is far superior in every regard! And this is a major big deal..THIS IS A DIRECTLY HEATED TRIODE OTL... it lets us hear the tone of directly heated triodes in an OTL circuit. This is unquestionably one of the major breakthrough in the thermionic arts. Those of you who are using OTLs that have video compactron/pentodes output stages are in for a big thrill when you hear the totally superior tonal qualities of directly heated triodes. But rather than rave about this circuit here, just check out Dick Olsher review in March 98 FI Magazine (also available on this site) where he puts David's amazing technical wizardry in perspective."
Tube pre-amplifier. Tube + FET hybrid technology.
TF-12 reviewed by Absolute Sound Magazine, vol. 70, Mar/Apr 1991
"The TF-12 delivered soundstage-creating performance at a truly spectacular level in my room, using two phono sources, Magnepan MG-III speakers, and three different amplifiers. For me, the Berning preamp has no superior in its ability to craft a large, no, a gigantic stage, and to place specific images in or on it with eerie focus and precision."
TF-12 reviewed by Stereophile Magazine, vol. 11, no. 7, July 1988
"The first thing I noticed about the TF-12's sound was its incredible liquidity. There is no spurious texturing whatsoever; the sound has all the limpid clarity of a dewdrop in the morning sun. It reproduces an impressively wide, spacious soundstage, while stage depth and front-to-back perspectives are rendered as well as from any preamp I've ever heard..."
Tube amplifier. Resonant power conversion technology.
EA-2101 reviewed by Absolute Sound Magazine, vol. 80, June 1992
"If the Berning's soundstage is wide, deep, and filled with stable images, even more impressive is its ability to present detail-to make subtle aspects of performances audible, and previously obscure details recognizable. ... The point is that the Berning starkly revealed the phenomenon."
Tube pre-amplifier. Tube + FET hybrid technology.
TF-10 reviewed by J. Gordon Holt, Stereophile Magazine, May 1979
"Let it first be said that this is unquestionably the most listenable wideband preamplifier that we have auditioned to date. It seems to be entirely free from any sonic texturing, producing the most liquidly transparent sound we have ever heard from discs. ... Hard transients—those producing the fastest rise times—are reproduced with incredible sharpness, yet there is no trace of that irritating edginess at the top which has characterized every other preamplifier having comparable rise time. ... The TF-10 is an unprecedented amalgam of quickness and accuracy with musicality."
Tube amplifier. Screen drive technology.
EA-230 reviewed by Stereophile Magazine, vol. 5, no. 1
"Like Berning's TF-10 preamp, the EA-230 is almost perfectly neutral in perspective, having neither the forwardness of typical tubed equipment nor the slightly laid-back character of good solid-state amplifiers. Because of this, it avoids one of our major criticisms of most audiophile-type audio systems: Their tendency to sound recessed and more distant than most recordings are supposed to sound... In other words, this is THE amplifier of choice for driving electrostatics. ...the EA-230 has finally unseated our long-time favorite power-amp: The Infinity HCA. ... We just never expected the massive, 80-pound HCA to be outperformed by a pair of relatively-diminutive 28-pounders."
David Berning's Burning Brain
alien abduction
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