David Berning live

One of the LTA missions was to bring the Berning designs to a much wider audience at an affordable price.  Their focus is on the craftsmanship of the finished product, their working with Fern & Roby to fine-tune the industrial design, and their exemplary customer service are all among the reasons that they have been so successful in doing this. 

It's also amazing that they don't raise their prices every year like so many others.  They offer an improved version of the Z40i and don't raise the price!  I can't think of another manufacturer that is dedicated to their mission in that regard  LTA only passes on actual increases in their costs not whatever they can get away with in the marketplace.  In light of all that, any criticism of Mark based on a video seems specious and misguided.

I'm hardly new to Berning gear or the man himself.  When I wanted to hear what Merlin speakers sounded like with David's amps, Bobby Palkovic (RIP) reached out to David who graciously invited my wife and me over to his Potomac house about 20 years ago to hear his setup.  One of the most enlightening 90 minutes I've ever spent in audio!  Also learned a little something about model trains :-).

When I bumped into the LTA version of the microzotl at CAF a few years ago (maybe 2015 or 16) in a headphone lounge I almost jumped out of my seat I was so excited.  I think Mark was nearly as excited as I knew what it was,  There is a reason David chose Mark and his team to expand the reach of his work,  Turns out to have been a great choice!

@soix Thank you for posting the link to the chat David gave. I had only known about LTA’s products from a video of their latest product, I think it was a 40 Watt integrated amplifier, but I was so impressed by both their quality of construction and their price. I want my next amp to be a ZOTL amp. I found David’s exposition of the basic DC to DC conversion fascinating. He was able to make relatively complex things seem simple enough that I felt I could begin to grasp them. It is much better, to me, to be looking at a schematic than talking about various stages of amplification. I had to break up the video into two parts; but I watched all of it, while changing the oil in my truck and checking the air in the tires of my two vehicles and cooking spaghetti for supper. Great stuff in the video, appreciate the fact you shared it and I’m envious of you getting to listen to a ZOTL amplifier.

Happy listening!

@lancelock here is I wrote:

In my opinion, David Berning is one of the top audio engineers of our time. Mark Schneider on the other hand did not impress me at all.

Here is what you wrote:

@clio09 so you’re not impressed with David Berning’s choice to work with Mark?

What I wrote was an opinion based on comments Mark made during the presentation. What you wrote was based on the assumption that I was commenting on the relationship between Mark and David. Not sure how you arrived at that conclusion but it is completely wrong.

I understand you're quite enamored with LTA as a product owner and I'm happy for you in that regard. I'm also happy that David Berning has found a situation where he can focus on what he loves doing which is R&D and designing circuits, while leaving the heavy lifting, namely manufacturing, sales, and marketing, to others who have more expertise and patience in these matters.

What a great video. David Berning is practically a living legend. I agree with @dodgealum on Mark Schneider’s contribution. He brought unique tube amplifiers designed by David Berning to many more audiophiles. @clio09 so you’re not impressed with David Berning’s choice to work with Mark? Did you know David tried to work a deal with at least two other audio manufacturers to bring his designs to the market but both companies failed? It seems David’s ZOTL amps are extremely complicated to build. This is where Mark and his team have excelled. The customer service LTA offers is above and beyond. As a rabid audiophile, like myself, Mark’s commitment to a quality audio product is motivated by progressive excellence. Mark’s manufacturing and marketing success has inspired David to continue to crank out designs as we will see in the form of new products in the very near future.

My Quadrature Z monoblocks have a base that Steve designed. It’s made of copper and provides a multi-layer damping and ground system.

@clio09 Yup, my DNA 0.5 has Steve’s Gravity Base he adapted from development work he did for Berning.  Due to the expense of copper these days they now use a highly-engineered and dense wood-based product they find as effective but much cheaper than copper.  All I know is it added several lbs. to my amp and can’t wait to finally hear the thing.

Thank you for the post!

My Quadrature Z monoblocks have a base that Steve designed. It’s made of copper and provides a multi-layer damping and ground system. This feature is available through Rick Brown at Hi-Fi One who represents the Berning product line.

Steve is one of the nicest guys in the business. I had the pleasure of meeting him at some of the SoCal audio society events when I lived in the area. In my opinion he is another one of the top audio engineers out there, but he tends to keep a low profile.

I recently ordered an LTA MZ2 to be both a preamp and headphone amp and looking forward to hearing the benefits of the ZOTL design.  I also recently had my McCormack DNA 0.5 RevA amp get full upgrades through SMcAudio and was interested to learn that they do high-end research for David’s cost-no-object designs and that the fruits of that research trickles down into SMcAudio’s DNA upgrades.  I’m about to hear the results of adding both the MZ2 and upgraded DNA 0.5 to my system and feel like I’ll be wired into David’s brain in no small part.  Truly an icon in our audio world. 

@dodgealum No I didn’t miss that and I think it’s great that David Berning’s technology can reach more people. However, in my opinion, there are distinct differences between Berning components and LTA components.

I also don’t agree with your comment that without LTA only the ultra rich can enjoy David’s designs. I don’t consider myself ultra rich, although I am far from indigent, yet I have a few Berning gems in my possession. In the scheme of things while the price of entry to Berning products has gone up considerably over the last decade, they’re not out of reach, not by today’s standards anyway.

Agreed, David has been a powerful creative force in the world of high end audio (and beyond). The ZOTL circuit coupled with his proprietary power supply topology are what make his amps and those produced by LTA among the best available at any price. 
 

@clio09 What you may be missing is the role that Mark has played in bringing David’s technology to a wider audience. His gifting is in product design and manufacturing. As is often the case with brilliant thinkers like David, his capacity and interest in scaling production while maintaining reliability was somewhat limited and this is where his partnership with Mark has paid dividends for audiophiles who want world class sound and dependable gear at sane prices. Without Mark’s talents only the ultra rich would be able to enjoy the benefits of David’s designs.

Being a member of SFAF I was able to attend this virtual meeting and can say that it was a very educational experience. In my opinion, David Berning is one of the top audio engineers of our time. Mark Schneider on the other hand did not impressive me at all.