Hi Mike,
I hope you are enjoying yourself. Can you please contrast the sound of the Lamm with the sound of the Berning? Broad brushstrokes are fine.
Thank you
P.S. I apologize in advance if this is already somewhere in this thread
it's now been 4 years since I had the Berning 211/845's in my room for a weekend spin. they did make a very positive impression at that time, and I remain a big fan of these amps. considering forward steps of my overall system performance since then, my mind can rationalize a few various twists and turns which might change my objective recollections. but I would be splitting hairs and maybe reaching to read too much into system changes needing to be factored.
so going for my gut perspective; I would say that the 32 SET watts of the Lamm ML3 likely bring more meat on the bones and for whatever reason seem to bring an authority and energy to the bass which is a few levels beyond my recollection of the 60 OTL watts of the Berning. OTOH 2 years ago I solved a 12 db in room suckout at 28-32 hz which might be a significant factor in my perceptions of the Berning back then.....or not. i'd say that the holographic abilities of both amps are similar. likely the ML3's can keep the dynamic and scale thing going just a bit better on large music than the Berning's. and maybe the Bernings might be a bit quieter.....blacker backgrounds. the ML3's are very quiet, just not quite as quiet as my recollection of the Berning's.
and maybe the Bernings are not as focused and maybe fill out the soundstage a bit more. i'd lean toward the ML3's for vocals and degrees of spooky 'they are here', but the Berning's excelled there too.
another way to put it would be that the in terms of character; the Bernings are closer to the dart 458's......maybe a third of the way toward the darts (from the ML3's) in terms of tonality and the space-focus balance, the Berning's are more open on top. they have less of their own character......they do less enhancing....and are less beguiling than the ML3's. this is a matter of degrees, not a night and day issue.
maybe on a 105-110 db horn, the lower noise floor of the Bernings might have advantages. in my system, owning the darts already, the ML3's scratch my itch perfectly......but the Bernings do play in this ballpark too. and whereas I do think in some systems (not mine) Lamm amps can sound slightly dark, the Berning is open and neutrally lit and so maybe fits more predictably with a tube front end. the Berning will not darken your view. at least with the tubes I used. and lastly; the Berning is an OTL and so needs proper speaker matching more than the ML3's.
as I recall, I only listened to the 211 tubes on the Bernings, not the 845.....for whatever that is worth (and I could have that backwards...too).
Although it was possible to get an upgrade, some local owners were so anxious to get the NHB 18 mk2 that they immediately bought the new preamplfier, giving the old one in part-exchange.
