Problems with my Berning ZH270

What we have here is the fable of the eight blind men describing an elephant.
What George needs, is the dreaded, (drum roll and oooooh's)Brick and Mortar store guy with a brain larger than a peanut. They are difficult to find I know, since I traveled over the country for THIEL as Director of Sales for a while, and visited more than 100 stores.
Joe, er, a George, stated that it is bright sounding. I have a friend (former) who has this exact ststem, and while it is not my taste, it is not inherently bright. The Merlins lack weight below 50hz (read impact and tonality) in the room I heard them in and with this equipment. (Note the caveats there)
Disassemble the system, clean all connections.When finished first try another speaker in the system (bookshelf if you have to) and see if the sound persists. (Bookshelf since it likely has less bass) This will let you know if the problem is coming through some elevated sound/combination/flaw. Then check as someone astutely pointed out, the law of reciprocity for bass. Bass sounds the same at adjascent relative points. The former friend of mine had a low ceiling, cramped room but benefited from a nearfield experience. This won't allow for bass development, but it sure eliminates lots of other problems. Also, try something like a power conditioner, since we have headed into summer, maybe all the noise in the line generated by the hundreds of air conditioners, are coming through.
Lastly, get another opinion of someone like your wife or significant other. George's problem sounds new, not old. Connections to the BM may have become loose, the batteries low. If this is my former friend, (when I rebuilt his crossover, I may have (since I am now disabled with back problems from surgery) not done the best of jobs on some of the soldering. I know that all the geniuses out there don't want to hear it because unprovable speculation is always more fun than facts, but great dealers are worth their weight in gold.(ie, I hate this shit, take it back)
Good Luck George, but for God's sake don't run out and buy a bunch of crap. Start back from scratch, putting the system back like it was before you began the problem, then work forward til its there.
Larry R. Staples

As a follow up. George's statement was conclusion selective. He blames the amp for the problem, and offers no explanation of any actions he may have taken to solve the problem. To reiterate, start over and keep adding pieces until the problem manifests itsself again, using replacement speakers if necessary to replicate the problem.
My earlier comments about the Brick and mortar guys was a little harsh, but unfortunately true. They have created such a false mystique around this stuff, in their pseudo intellectual approach, that everyone with an opinion is an expert since no imperical evidence to the contrary exists in some of these obtuse areas.
The fun in this business is the chase, I know because I am still chasing that Holy Grail. But so what, my liquor intake is eaten up with audio expenditures now, even with my professional accommodation pricing. But I will continue to look.
George if you want private consultation email me personally at [email protected] I have solved problems like this hundreds of times, most often without additional expense. Oh, but the chase....... What did Spock say, "You will soon find that wanting is much greater than having."
Larry R. Staples

I own a Gryphon Callisto, and I can tell you that the Berning does not go nearly as deep, linearly as the Gryphon. The speakers in question, the Merlins don't even go there,(don't get me wrong I have known Bob P. since 1987 and love him. He is one of the good guys and a brilliant designer) so this description has to be an abberation. First of all, a lack of bass, can sound like more control, and this would have to be the answer. Plus, try using the Gryphon with a pair of speakers which can actually go down into the 16hz reqion, like the VSA 4 HSE III, this is the better way to judge bass control. Saying this, would be analagous to saying that a Volkswagen Beetle does not handle well at 240 mph, it doesn't happen, so there is no basis for judgement.

Hi Tubegroover. My room is 5 meters long, 4mt wide and 3mt high. I didn´t has problems with my older systems. A friend of mine is going to bring home his ZH270 to compare to mine, so I will no if there is anything wrong with mine. If I can´t resolve this problem I would go back to solid state, keeping the Joule as pre. After trying for so long is sad, I really hope my ZH270 can go well. My speakers are placed more than 1mt away from the back and side walls. I have a big carpet and I have used the alignement tool provided by Merlin. Thank you very much.

Hi George

So the speakers are placed 1 meter from the back and side walls on the 4 m wall? Where is your listening position relative to the speakers? As Duke notes, if you position the chair against or close to the back wall, see if the bass comes back. It does seem you are getting too much high frequency energy relative to the bass which would make things sound bright. But this usually can be fixed . The Merlins can astound you with their bass but it takes trial and error and minute changes in position to zero in on it.

Do you have any treatments at the reflection points on the side walls or absorption devices behind the speakers or in the corners? I was having a similar problem with my Merlin/Berning set-up, different pre and source but really improved the bass dramatically with the addition of some home brewed bass traps placed in the corners and behind and between the speakers. Another trick might be to run the speakers on the diagonal if you have the space.

Of course the tonal balance of the amp may not be something you are used to relative to the Gryphon. I would try moving things around and experimenting and definitely consider room treatments. A while back there was another Berning owner with similar problems you are describing that gave up way too soon, it is not the amp. Don't give into that temptation just yet. The Berning can sound lean if you aren't getting the bass you expect and should receive from this combo. And forget about tube rolling and tweeks for now and keep your focus on speaker placement, listening position and treatment. Check out this site for info on these devices, inexpensive but extremely effective.

http://www.geocities.com/jonrisch/a1.htm

There is also some very detailed information about bass traps and diy treatments at this link:

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/search.pl

Good luck and please keep up posted. Please don't give up though, the Berning is really stellar with the VSM when all is right, ask Bobby P., he'll give you the low down.