David Berning Co845 ZOTL Hi-Fi One Edition. Gen 2.usedDavid Berning Co 845 ZOTL Hi-Fi One Edition Gen. 2Call Rick Brown +1 612 817 1599 web: rbhifi1.com email: [email protected] One owner, new in 2019. Condition 9/10. Current production Elrog 845 (matched pairs) tubes are included. A new 2-year fact...40000.00

David Berning Co 845 ZOTL Hi-Fi One Edition Gen. 2

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Condition
9/10
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Ships fromCarlsbad, CA, 92009
Ships toWorldwide
Package dimensions26.0" × 26.0" × 12.0" (60.0 lbs.)
26.0" × 26.0" × 12.0" (60.0 lbs.)
Shipping carrierFedEx
Shipping costSpecified after purchase
Original accessoriesBox, Manual
AverageResearch Pricing

Call Rick Brown +1 612 817 1599
web: rbhifi1.com
email: [email protected]

One owner, new in 2019. Condition 9/10. Current production Elrog 845 (matched pairs) tubes are included. A new 2-year factory warranty accompanies these re-certified amplifiers.

Call Rick Brown at +1 612 817 1599
Website rbhifi1.com
email: [email protected]

The amplifier auto-biases to the 211 or 845 tube based on a high-speed switch mode and full power factor connected advanced power supply.

Plug n' play worldwide with full power factor correction.

These 2nd generation amplifiers are significantly improved beyond the 2015 Absolute Sound amplifier of the year generation 1 review pair.  Note an unprecedented second review for the exact same amplifier was written by Robert Harley over a year apart  -- to chronicle his experience with the amplifier over time and multiple loudspeakers. Read both reviews to understand the one-of-one and unequivocal performance.

60 WPC, Triode, Class A, Zero feedback, OTL with 2 parallel output tubes that are super linear -- 211 and 845. Compare this tube compliment with any other OTL running multiple nonlinear output. tubes that have short services lives. In short, this is not a conventional OTL amplifier in design nor does it have the low load sensitivity as a typical OTL. lt does not require a large number of tubes to run in parallel (and highly biased greatly shortening tube life) to get the impedance down enough to directly drive the loudspeaker. This typically limits conventional OTL designs to 6C33 and 6AS7 tubes. A conventional OTL will require eight 6AS7 output tubes to get 60 WPC. In the Berning design, four 211 or 845 tubes generate 60wpc class A, triode. More importantly, neither conventional OTL tube provides the triode sonics of the 211 and 845.

SMc Audio’s (Steve McCormack) developed a twenty-pound brass multi-layer damping and mechanical ground system expressly for Berning/Hi-Fi One amplifier. It forms the base of the amplifier, adding stiffness, rigidity, and a termination path for vibrational energy. Stillpoints OEM Ultra bases are installed and will accept any 1/4-20 pitch foot. I recommend the RevOPod as the ideal isolating foot. I can provide them at additional cost. Note, this step is absolutely mandatory to create a termination path, (think mechanical diode), for vibrational energy. Thus providing the proprietary circuitry an idealized environment to reproduce sound with the least degradation. The amplifier is transformed in combination with other electrical and mechanical upgrades.

The tube sockets (pictured) are made of milled Teflon and beryllium copper with next-generation circuit board material, silver wiring, NOS small tube set, Elrog German 845’s, Panasonic capacitors, dual silver WBT binding posts, iGO IEC’s, WBT RCA’s and silver internal contact Switchcraft XLR connectors.  See my website for rbhifi1.com for reviews of the original amp and the demonstration system.

These OTL amplifiers run real-world loudspeakers. They are not as speaker-dependent as conventional OTL’s. Not even close. The patented ZOTL impedance matching circuit and advanced switch-mode power supply provides sufficient power transfer to run all Tidals, Magicos, Wilsons, Sonus Faber, Karma (et.al.), electrostatic, horns, most ribbons and planar magnetic speakers. Additionally, the super-low noise floor was specifically developed with horns.

The elegant Berning solution to the conventional output transformer is an impedance converter that does not have the output tubes directly connected to the speaker.

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..."

There are no user-replaceable fuses, and the amplifier’s protection circuitry is that effective. No more chasing expensive audiophile fuses. Or listening through one.

The amplifier ships in the original box and packaging.

"Technology in the service of music" is more than a sales slogan with the David Berning company and Hi-Fi One.

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