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David Berning preamp..looking for suggestions

I am on a look out for a good tube preamp with preferably a reference grade phono stage inbuilt. I am moving from a tube amplification to solid state amplification primarily to feed my Tannoy Prestige with all the power it needs. In the process I dont want to end up in an all SS system which will be too much of a deviation. So I would love to have at least a tube preamp and if possible a tube phono too. I know it may ultimately involve using a SUT but I can take that much of a compromise (if at all). 

I am considering the Berning ZOTL-One preamp with in-built phono stage. There are many reviews of his power amp but not much about his preamp. Has anyone heard his preamp, any impressions (even second hand) would be very helpful.
pani
pani OP
1,049 posts
 
Transparency and black background is something we get in digital playback in spades. Most Lps don't sound as clean as a good cd. Yet there is something about analog playback which is more like the real life (even cassettes sounds more natural than CDs). The artifacts that make digital sound "digital" is embedded deep in the mix and we only hear it as a whole along with the music. Ultimately we respond differently to analog and digital playback and that's what I hear between digital power supply and linear power supplies. 
lewm
6,770 posts
 
Lancelock,
The unique experience with the Berning design is probably because DB himself is just smarter than anyone else in the industry.  Quiet and modest, as well. (I have met him a few times in my life, but I have none of his gear currently, and I have no financial interest in his success.)  A few decades ago, one of my friends purchased a Berning amplifier (I think it was an EA230), and he had it placed right next to his Modulus preamplifier, in a cabinet.  (At that point in time, DB was known to us as a local genius designer.) We could hear the switching noise over the speakers, until we moved the amplifier a few feet further away from the preamp.  Since that one experience, I know of no instances where switching noise has been a problem with a Berning product.  My friend ended up with a pair of Berning ZH270 amps running his Acoustat speakers.  I auditioned the same pair of amps on my own 'stats.  They were dead silent in both venues.

psag
450 posts
 
Don't listen to that nonsense about SMPS and digital hash/artifacts. Its all about implementation.
palasr
453 posts
 
lewm,

The EA-230 (great amp, btw) was the last Berning amplifier to use a linear power supply, so hearing switching noise from it would be impossible.  Every amp and preamp thereafter used SMPSs (we're talking the 1980's here, just to give you an idea of how advanced the man's thinking is).  I've used various Berning amps over the years, and the ZH270 is still one of the finest sounding amplifiers I've heard.
cerrot's avatar
cerrot
1,606 posts
 
psag is spot on.  Its implementation.  David Berning makes some of the e st stuff I have ever heard.  He makes some of the best stuff anyone has heard.  
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