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Merrill Audio ELEMENT 118 on Tour

As some of you know I had to deal with a serious family medical issue which has been miraculously cured. So the new ELEMENT amplifiers are getting out to all those asking about them and the few lucky ones that have purchased them.

The ELEMENT 118 and ELEMENT 116 will be going out to reviewers and on tour to various audiophiles and dealers. So more will be showing up. I will provide a short trail and welcome questions and comments, all in good spirit.

After years of research and using OEMS, we have a proprietary design that we believe is an order of magnitude improvement over the previous amps and also sets a standard across all the classes of amps in terms on sonics. Of course taking a listen and doing a comparison is the best way to confirm this.

The new design is an open loop, zero feedback, and zero deadtime, using the Gallium Nitride Transistors - which unlike other transistors have close to zero capacitance and hence allow very fast switching. Additionally the PCB and layout is a highly advanced layout that reduces the parasitic capacitance and inductance to near zero, allow close to zero overshoot and ring, and of course the zero deadtime. The open loop, zero feedback, zero deadtime allows a spacious and precision stage with long detailed decays, very fast attack without the parasitics causing other distortions. The first 10 seconds impresses the listener with a musical tone, that is open, wide and fast. The rest is musical immersion.

I will post the systems as they are run through as best I can. Enjoy and I hope you get to listen to the ELEMENT Series of Power Amplifiers near you.
merrillaudio
ricevs
1,539 posts
 

Another amp in this price range to A/B with the Merrill is the new Totaldac AMP-1....($20K for single rca input amp and $40K for XLR mono blocks).  Naturally the XLR mono blocks would be the ONLY way to go.  I am pretty sure the zero feedback tube/solid state output Totaldac would be more rich sounding but as detailed?  He developed the amp using the Magico M6 and high sensitivity horns.  Nothing but raves, so far.

http://www.totaldac.com/amp-1-en.htm

Some have said the Audionet Heisenberg amps (over $100K) are the best solid state amps they have heard.  Of course, the monster DAgostino amps are killer....back and wallet killers for sure!.  Then you have the big latest mono Sim Audio, Classe, FM Acoustics, VAC tube amps, Hegel Reference, etc, etc.

If an amp has a fuse or many fuses then they must all be upgraded to super fuses or the results will be not right.  Also, if you have a solid state amp that has heatsinks and you do not dampen the heatsinks (easy to do)....then you are hearing the ringing of the heatsinks.  If you run your fingernail along the heatsinks and it "zings".....then you are adding that sound to the output......very important to get rid of that ringing.  From pics I can see the Soulution and the CH precision both have ringing heatsinks (bad for sound).  They would sound much more natural with heatsinks damped....  Totaldac amp has lots of ringing heatsinks.

viber6
2,442 posts
 
What is happening with the 6moons review of the 114?  Srajan seems to be bored.  "To be continued" has been there for a month or so.
merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
Hot off the Press from Dr. David Robinson, and his final impressions on the ELEMENT 118. Along with a good sampling of his albums and pictures. I am most impressed with his Stowkowski, although no the original pressing.
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/impressions-final-thoughts-on-the-merrill-audio-element-118/

If anyone would like to do a bake off, bring your amps to the VPI house in Matawan, NJ Sept 28th and 29th. Or arrange with any of the dealers in NJ who have the ELEMENT 116 and ELEMENT 118 each.

merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
@viber6  Regarding 6 Moons and the ELEMENT 114 - that is enroute to 6moons. see their front page on updates from Srajan. 

Also many thanks for your violin recital and comparisons. that was certainly a very informative and entertaining recital and discussion. I which I could post pictures here but I will do that on my facebook page. 

Look forward to more listening on your speakers especially. 


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