TAS review Berning 211/845 amplifier

[bonzo75]

The 211 Amperex will give you way more tone, oomph, bass, stage... Then the other 211s . Can't generalize sound across. Better to try

 

[Audiocrack]

The 211 Amperex will give you way more tone, oomph, bass, stage... Then the other 211s . Can't generalize sound across. Better to try

I know Justin also has a strong preference for the Amperex 211 valves. Justin and you are probably right as regards the superiority of the Amperex 211's but I have not yet tried the Amperex or United Electronics 211 tubes.

 

[heihei]

Congrats and great write-up. Also fantastic to meet the man himself - I have to make do with email conversations and still find him incredibly helpful!

I fell in love with the Quadratures for all the reasons you outline and couldn't find anything in SS land to compete, although Constellation and Soulution got closest. I currently have the Pre One on home demo along with a second set of Quadratures to experiment with bi-amping my speakers! Am definitely in the Berning fan club!

 

[ksalno]

Hope you are going to be very happy with this high quality tube amp.

Wondering why you think that the 845 tubes will sound better than the 211 tubes; does David maybe have a preference for the former (as well)? Both are great valves imho: played with the 845 in the Zanden 9500 mk iii amps and I am still playing with the 211 in my Kondo Kagura amps. In the latter amp the quality of the 211 valves make a big difference (never experimented with various 845 valves) and the RCA nos 211 I am currently using are so much better than the (Chinese made) current production 211 tubes. Are you playing with modern made 845/211 tubes?

I’m just starting up the steep learning curve on tubes. As an EE student, I started with transistors and quickly moved to IC, so have been playing in the solid state world for a long time. My observation on the 211 vs 845 is purely based on their specs. The 845 has lower impedance and distortion and a little more power. I’ve been told to expect a sweeter midrange from the 211s but at a loss of some high end detail. We’ll see. The amp ships with Erlog 845s and Psvane 211s. These are spec’ed by Rick Brown who has done the tube rolling to test what’s out there. David runs his amps with inexpensive Chinese tubes and apparently doesn’t see the need for anything more. It’s probably a system dependent thing, as I think his speakers are either fairly old or built by himself.

 

[Audiocrack]

I’m just starting up the steep learning curve on tubes. As an EE student, I started with transistors and quickly moved to IC, so have been playing in the solid state world for a long time. My observation on the 211 vs 845 is purely based on their specs. The 845 has lower impedance and distortion and a little more power. I’ve been told to expect a sweeter midrange from the 211s but at a loss of some high end detail. We’ll see. The amp ships with Erlog 845s and Psvane 211s. These are spec’ed by Rick Brown who has done the tube rolling to test what’s out there. David runs his amps with inexpensive Chinese tubes and apparently doesn’t see the need for anything more. It’s probably a system dependent thing, as I think his speakers are either fairly old or built by himself.

Clear. Have fun during your (tube) journey.