October 10th Update!
Hello to all you helpful Berning owners! Well, it's been a couple of weeks and here is what I have to report.
1) I took the unit to an electronics expert person who just happens to live in Flagstaff (used to work at UC Santa Barbara), and he took it through some bench testing. The results were interesting, much of which above me. But the tubes were working fine.
2) I have kept the amp on for over 100 hours, and the break-in has improved the bass response to that of (or near that of) my other amps: Pass Aleph 3 and ARC VT100-mk2. Still dominant in the midrange though, and a bit fatiguing.
3) Alan B (see posts above) lent me a quad of Cryo'd Sylvania output tubes, and I popped them in and listened today. There was a significant improvement. The bass got more detailed and stronger. Overall detail increased, openess increased, and soundstage improved. Despite a ground problem with my Rogue 66 preamp, the noise floor still seemed way, way down there! Listening to Nora Jone's "Come Away With Me", the cymbal brushes lost a bit of excess metalic nature and became more "brushy". There was a reduction of the midrange emphasis, but it is still a bit there to my perception. Now at the point where I could see adjusting to it, as a different sound approach.
4) I'm away for four days vacation, but when I get back, I will be doing more listening comparisons between the amps. A quick impression now: while the Pass sounds flatter than the Berning, the Berning sounds clearer (e.g. clearer vocals and kick drum). Anyhow, I'll also be working with system synergy. Newly arriving are a pair of Cardas Neutral reference biwire speaker cables, two Neutral Reference interconnects, a Golden Cross interconnect, and some Harmonic Tech interconnects. All are on loan in order to work with the synergy. I will keep y'all informed.
5) I'm really wondering whether I should be trying different input tubes, while I'm trying to make this decision. Any advise? Where to get them...
Thanks All. Peter
Hello to all you helpful Berning owners! Well, it's been a couple of weeks and here is what I have to report.
1) I took the unit to an electronics expert person who just happens to live in Flagstaff (used to work at UC Santa Barbara), and he took it through some bench testing. The results were interesting, much of which above me. But the tubes were working fine.
2) I have kept the amp on for over 100 hours, and the break-in has improved the bass response to that of (or near that of) my other amps: Pass Aleph 3 and ARC VT100-mk2. Still dominant in the midrange though, and a bit fatiguing.
3) Alan B (see posts above) lent me a quad of Cryo'd Sylvania output tubes, and I popped them in and listened today. There was a significant improvement. The bass got more detailed and stronger. Overall detail increased, openess increased, and soundstage improved. Despite a ground problem with my Rogue 66 preamp, the noise floor still seemed way, way down there! Listening to Nora Jone's "Come Away With Me", the cymbal brushes lost a bit of excess metalic nature and became more "brushy". There was a reduction of the midrange emphasis, but it is still a bit there to my perception. Now at the point where I could see adjusting to it, as a different sound approach.
4) I'm away for four days vacation, but when I get back, I will be doing more listening comparisons between the amps. A quick impression now: while the Pass sounds flatter than the Berning, the Berning sounds clearer (e.g. clearer vocals and kick drum). Anyhow, I'll also be working with system synergy. Newly arriving are a pair of Cardas Neutral reference biwire speaker cables, two Neutral Reference interconnects, a Golden Cross interconnect, and some Harmonic Tech interconnects. All are on loan in order to work with the synergy. I will keep y'all informed.
5) I'm really wondering whether I should be trying different input tubes, while I'm trying to make this decision. Any advise? Where to get them...
Thanks All. Peter