Berning ZH270 amp


Anyone heard or owns this amp? Opinions, please.
ryllau
I owned a ZH-270 for the better part of a year. Very musical little amplifier, and very user-friendly. I had considered becoming a Berning dealer, but the little amp really wasn't up to driving the speakers I sell (Sound Lab electrostats). I was sorry to let it go. I especially liked the clarity and natural timbres in the midrange, and the variable output impedance which allowed optimizing for different types of loudspeakers. Superb with Original Quads. Amazingly lightweight and cool-running for what it does.
This is an incredible amplifier and most don't realize its potentials or understand its radical technology. A close friend of mine has had one for about 6-7 months and I have had the pleasure of listening to it on many different occasions. What you miss out on with the Berning products is the lack of typical OTL downfalls and the "old school" technology and circuit design. Not only does it self bias constantly, you may also switch feedback levels on the fly to tweak to your favorite sound with various speakers, it matches impedance automatically therefore increases output power as impedance curve dips, has thermal protection circuits, brown out protection, tubes have an estimated 20 year life, and further amazes by using radio waves to piggy-back the audio signal thereby allowing only 2 output tubes per channel and still runs relatively cool at all times.

It also sounds just incredible and has embarrased so many big amps we have stacked against it its sick. Everyone seems to think an amp must weigh a hundred pounds to be great. With this kind of technology, this is not so. Really this design is light-years ahead of the pack.

Chris