OTL amps with Wilson Watt/Puppy 6s

The Berning amps are OTL amplifers, read the technical data on the David Berning website. They are a highly advanced OTL design, I believe that is why this may confuse you. Just because this design does not correlate with other designs based roughly upon original Futterman principals and/or designs certainly does not mean this is not an OTL amplifer. Read the technical data on the website or e-mail me for more specifics which are clearly laid out within the pages of the instruction manual. This is clearly not anything like the old school of thought on conventional OTL's which for the most part incorperate "brute force" technology. There is nothing wrong with the sound or design of many of the favored OTL companies/products and that is not the point that I am attempting to make. It is my point to illustrate that the current David Berning designs represent a state of the art assault on traditional OTL design drawbacks and represent a giant leap forward in OTL design technology. Who would gripe if every OTL amplifer possessed the ability to mate with much larger varieties of loudspeakers as a result of impedence swing tolerances and at the same time retain the wonderful sonic characteristics of an OTL???

www.davidberning.com

Wb6rhq brings up an interesting point here, he's kind of right when he says that the Berning is not a OTL amp, if you mean OTL in the respect of the 50-60 year old design that is still being currently used by most OTL designs.

Technology has come a long way since then, the Berning uses a RF matching transformer, the audio signal is piggy backed on a RF frequency, the transformer is therefore for the RF frequency, not the audio signal, which gets a trouble free ride, what you end up with is a new type of OTL, sophisticated cutting edge, able to drive low impedance.

So the question is, do you want to listen to music as it was reproduced 50 years ago, maybe?
The other choice is to listen to music as it can be reproduced today, with today's technology, designed by a brilliant Physicist.
Allan

Hi Chris

You have touted the Berning in many threads. Certainly one would be curious about its performance relative to other OTL designs with all the other pluses it offers, low heat and an ability to drive speakers with low impedance dips. It really seems to me that there aren't too many audiophiles that have done direct comparisons with ALL the popular OTL's with a few exceptions, Atmasphere and Tenor come to mind as of late. I have traced back to all threads on this site and AA for comparisons of various OTL amps. They all have their pluses and drawbacks but there seems a consistency in their overall presentation of music, pure midrange, frequency extension and ultra-transparency. A window into the music. The SE Class A designs seem described by concensus a bit purer and maybe harmonically a little richer(?) than the Transcendent which is a direct coupled AB design. Problem with those (Atmasphere, Joule, Graff) is the heat, the Transcendent runs a bit cooler.

So are you saying the Berning offers the sonic trademark of other OTL amps? Have you compared and to which ones in particular?



Will

Hi Will,

Thanks for your note, I think your curiousity about the Berning products is absolutely valid in regards to how it compares sonically to other OTL amplifers on the market. Aside from the information I have read in various articles and columns I have not yet had the opportunity to listen to another OTL amplifer. Very soon however, a friend of mine and myself are going to Chicago to listen to the Atmasphere MA 1 Mk11's on a pair of Soundlab U1's and we are taking along 2 Bernings with the channels strapped for comparison. I think this should prove interesting and make for an excellent comparison of two different designers out to achieve what they believe is possibly the best sound attainable from audio amplification today. It should be a very intrigueing adventure :)

Chris

Chris I certainly look forward to your impressions. The Transcendent OTL amp has been a revelation in my system. It outperforms, by a significant margin, every tube and solid state amp I've listened to of late including the Rogue m-120's and Pass amps which are highly regarded in this price range. It is an incredible value at 2.1K and the performance is so good that it could encourage one to look for a speaker system to match with its limitations.

I am considering the Joule VZN 80 for my Merlin VSMs (the choice of Bobby P) and would certainly love to hear the Berning. I could use a bit more power at times in my room. One thing is for certain, after having an OTL in the system there is no going back!