CAT versus Berning

Where does the Ars fit in this equation? You could keep all three for a personnal "Flavor-of-the-Month" club? I heard the Berning with the Caliburn TT in the Signal-Fi room last year in L.A.(I forget the name of the speakers)and it sounded great.

I was only able to audition the Joule amps (with the LAP-150) and Merlin speakers at RMAF last year and chatted with Bobby P. quite a bit in the process. Overall, while I enjoyed the sound, it was a bit too warm for my tastes. My thought in using a Berning with the Joule preamp was the comments I read about the Berning being a very neutral amp. I thought this would compliment the LA-100 MkIII which tends to be a tad more neutral than most tube preamps, but still has a lush and warm sonic signature.

The ARS will be used in summer, when the CAT runs to hot for my comfort. I'm thinking along the lines of Clio09, that the slightly warm Joule pre would work real well with the Berning (cool running), and that I could possibly sell the CAT -- if, I did not find the Berning to be a step down in any significant way. Owning three amps goes against my grain, I a little excessive, but I do have limits.

As a JL-3 owner driving an older pair of SoundLab A1s, I had a chance to hear the Berning in a direct comparison to the CATs into these speakers. The SL speakers are not the easiest load out there, but they are not the most difficult either. The Berning did fairly well but as expected, it lacked the ultimate control on the bottom end. The top end was a bit soft too vs. the CATs extension here. The CAT had a bigger and more open sound, a little more fullness but otherwise the two amps had a similar tonality. All was fine with the Berning until the volume was turned up to the mid 80s db and more.....then of course the Berning crumbled.

Tubegroover's advice is good: contact Merlin to get a feeling if the Berning is suitable for these speakers. The amp->speaker interface is critical; these should always be purchased as if they are one.

if, I did not find the Berning to be a step down in any significant way.

If you are running the JL-2 with stock small-signal tubes, get those horrible things out of there! With some time and effort, a number of tubes in the 12ax7, 12au7 and 6922 sockets can take the CAT amps to a whole new level, particularly in dynamics, resolution and portrayal of space. When I did the CAT vs. Berning test, I had stock tubes in the CATs. I am now even more aware of the CATs being in a totally different league with premium small-signal tubes.

John

Jafox, you have pretty much done ii for me, I won't be giving up the CAT. I'm very interested in any tube recommendations you could make (I'm using stock), and what supplier you trust for them.