David Berning Co 211/845 OTL

Call +1 612 817 1599. 

Local demonstrations in your home or in my demonstration system can be arranged by appointment.

See my website for rbhifi1.com for reviews and my demonstration system. And please sign up for my newsletter on the site.    

These amplifiers have been updated with the series 2 capacitors, Stillpoints feet and new (October 2019) chassis isolation device, a 20-pound copper constrained layer dampening sub-chassis. See photos.

This pair of amplifiers is significantly improved beyond the 2015 Absolute Sound review pair.

My company is the exclusive worldwide sales agent for these Hi-Fi One Edition amplifiers. They have been recertified at the factory and come with a new warranty.   

They run real-world loudspeakers. They are not as speaker-dependent as are all conventional OTL's. The patented ZOTL impedance matching circuit and advanced switch-mode power supply provides sufficient power transfer to run all Magicos, Wilsons, Sonus Faber, Karma (et.al.), electrostatic, horns, ribbons (except Apogee) and planar magnetic. Additionally, the super-low noise floor was specifically developed with horns.  
60 WPC, Triode, Class A, OTL and runs 211 or 845 tubes without adjustment for either tube set. Auto biasing and utilizes PFC (power factor correction) allowing plug-n-play operation at all worldwide voltages.

In short, this is not a conventional OTL amplifier in design nor does it have the typical OTL load sensitivity and large number tubes run in parallel (and highly biased greatly shortening tube life) to get the impedance down enough to drive the loudspeaker directly. This typically limits conventional OTL designs to 6C33 and 6AS7 tubes. A conventional OTL will require eight 6AS7 output tubes to get 60 wpc. The Berning design, four 211 or 845 tubes generate 60wpc class-A, triode. More importantly, neither conventional OTL tube provides the triode sonics the 211 and 845 are capable of.   
 
 Excerpted with permission from Robert Harley's Absolute Sound review:   

"...I won’t mince words: The Berning 211/845 is the most beautiful sounding amplifier I’ve ever heard. One could easily invoke the stereotype of a triode amplifier that has no feedback and lacks an output transformer and immediately jump to the conclusion that the word “beautiful” means that the amplifier imposes itself on the music in a flatteringly euphonic way, like a soft-focus filter on a lens. But that’s not the case. The Berning sounds beautiful because the music sounds beautiful; this amplifier simply introduces less artifice and coloration that would diminish that beauty.

 
The 211/845 is unique in the way it strips away a kind of electronic tincture, leaving in its place a totally natural and believable musical presentation. With most superb systems, certain recordings can, at certain times, create a “fool-you” realism that sounds so lifelike you experience a sudden frisson. The 211/845 delivers such delights regularly, and with apparent ease. Moreover, the experience doesn’t last for a brief moment before the illusion collapses but is sustained for entire pieces of music. It’s quite a magic trick, conjuring a startling palpability by stripping away the last vestige of an electronic signature. It’s as though instruments and voices have been laid bare, with a natural and organic quality.
 
Reproduction of the human voice is a particularly stark example of this amplifier’s utter transparency. I could cite any number of instances, but two come immediately to mind as particularly vivid: Ella Fitzgerald on the 45rpm Analogue Productions LP of Ella and Louis and Jennifer Warnes on The Hunter[Impex LP]. On the track “Moonlight in Vermont” Ella’s entrance is genuinely startling, so convincing is the illusion of a living, breathing human being standing between the loudspeakers. The more modern recording of Warnes was rendered by the Berning with such immediacy that I felt that I heard her voice’s beautiful and unique timbre fully for the first time. In both examples, the Berning conveyed nuances of timbre, dynamics, inflection, phrasing, and expression in previously unparalleled abundance. Thanks to these qualities, the Berning is a crystal-clear window back through time to the original musical event. The 211/845 experience is like that of the best direct-to-disc LPs or first-generation analog tapes; you can immediately hear that a layer has been removed between you and the music. In its ability to reproduce instruments and voices with this level of believability, the Berning has no equal in my experience..."