Amp suggestion for Merlin TSM speakers

@troutbum If you're on a budget, you might want to look into something like a refurbished or new Dynaco ST70. You can easily find one for well within your price range and its a very competent amplifier in its stock form. 

If you get a used one make sure its fairly new or has been recently refurbished so it will be reliable. The biggest weakness of this amp is the power rectifier which is at its limit when the amp is at full power. But if you are not pushing the amp hard its very reliable and will give you a good idea of what tubes can do.

everything I've read seems to suggest Merlin TSMs perform at their best with tubes. Not poo booing your suggestion, just telling you what I have read. I've nothing against solid state at all. Any response to this? Thanks.

@troutbum The Merlins were literally designed for OTLs. Bobby had a very good relationship with Jud Barber of Joule Electra. We sold many of our M-60 OTLs to Merlin VSM owners and showed with the speakers at CES.

You need about 30 Watts to make the TSM sing. There are no SETs that can that speaker justice on account of the speaker being 87dB. That's just no sensitive enough for an SET, which typically has only about 25% usable power. Most push-pull tube amps have more like 95% usable power.

Since 30 Watts is good in most rooms you have a wide range of amplifiers that will work on it.