Hi Theo, the Merrill Veritas is a very fine sounding amplifier. You will find my discussion of its internals, break-in process, and performance relative to my own system in my article for PFO:
http://positive-feedback.com/Issue68/merrill_audio.htm
Saluti, Guido |
Teajay, there are at least two extreme ways on how to look at the value of a piece of audio electronics....
From a purely functionalistic point of view, the value is purely based on how the device performs when compared to devices of comparable/lower/higher price. Under this criterion, based on my modest experience listening to a variety of amplifiers, including Veritas completely broken in at 1K hours of processing sound, I am confident that Veritas price is attractive. Please note that I have not had the opportunity yet of listening to other amps that have declared to be based on Ncore NC1200 technology, nor to amps based on other new class D technologies like Pascal or Abletech. So my statement above does not take into account other such new contenders.
Conversely, if we look at the value of a device based on the amount of active internal components, the relative crowdedness of the layout, the complexity of the design surrounding the fundamental power conversion modules, and the mass ratio of circuit elements vs metalwork, you may have a good point.
Needless to say, it all depends on what is important for the OP, and in what ratio.
G. |
Long time no talk AudioOracle!
What Ncore amps have you listened to other than Veritas?
Ncore amps take an inordinate amount of time to reach peak performance, both in terms of break-in and warm up time... 1K hours of break-in, and two days of warmup.
Furthermore, if the amp has been implemented as bi-wirable, it should be bi-wired to the speakers for best results.
Paul, there are a couple of other manufacturers that have declared of having developed Ncore NC1200 based amps: Acoustic Imagry has ATSAH, Audience manufactures WavePower, Mola-Mola has Kaluga (will be at RMAF exhibited by On A Higher Note in the Long's Peak room)). Sorry, I have not listened to these yet, so I have no idea how they would compare.
Veritas will be exhibited at RMAF by Merrill Audio in Room 582.
Concerning my own reference amp, it is the Rowland M925 monoblock.
Guido
|
Theo, there seems to exist an old wives' tale that class D amp suffer from some arcane form of pernicious system dependencies... The answer is both yes and no....
In olden days, a number of entry level class D amps suffered of relatively high amounts of the shrillies, as they seemed to leak persistent hash from everywhere... They did need some kindly filtering somewhere in the system, lest they could drive you batty. Furthermore, some class D amps had relatively low input impedance, limiting successful coupling to preamplifiers.
With newer generation power conversion modules, such as NCore technology for example, the above is definitely no longer a problem. The Veritas in particular, have an input impedance of 90K Ohms... You will have a hard time finding a preamp that is not compatible. On the output side, unless you try to drive absurdly sensitive speakers, the 1K damping factor will serve you well.
Merrill Veritas are extremely sweet sounding, and do not appear to be feeding perceivable hash into the AC line. having said that, while the amps are shipped with fine power cords, you may want to experiment with PC alternatives. I have experienced excellent results with Aural Symphonics on Veritas, as explained in my scribbling. In older days, with ICEpower class D amps like Rowland M312, Bel Canto Ref1000M Mk.2, and REF500M, I had the opportunity of testing with the Shunyata Z-tron series, which controlled treble intermodulation artifacts to a superior degree... I have it from reliable sources that the Cardas Clear family may also be consistent with this behavior.
Best, Guido |
Dave, as of less than one month ago, the Mola-Mola kalugas had not been release yet.... What you probably heard were prototypes, unless they were the basic Hypex (non Mola-mola) Ncore NC1200 engineering demonstrators that Hypex has been circulating to garner interest amongst OEMs.
apologies for beating a totally dead horse... But unless you had the amps churning audio material full time for a good two months straight, it is not terribly likely that you heard what an Ncore NC1200 implementation is capable of.
Saluti, Guido |
Looking forward Paul.... How many hours of active operation with a sound signal through them do they have already? |
Hi Paul, Veritas should stay on all the time... Feed them interstation hash from any old FM radio tuner whenever you are not listening to music for the first couple of months... Turn them off during thunderstorms. Aftrer 12 hours of operation, Veritas have barely scratched the surface of their capabilities, and may be yielding a bit of very temporary anomalies. G. |
Paul, now I am intrigued... What kind of AudioQuest wires are you using on Veritas...
I am looking for a brand new loom of wires for my system... Soup to nuts kind of thing.
G. |
For the Veritas review project on PFO, I fed Veritas through a Rowland Criterion linestage. Veritas drove Vienna Die Muzik speakers.
G. |
Hi Matt, the Rowland PC-1 will be converting 120V AC into high voltage DC, clean up any mains grundge, and will feed that into the Capri autoranging SMPS. At least in theory, this should reduce Capri S2 sensitivity to power cords. As Capri and PC-1 will both undergo significant break-in for the first 700 hours, it is not possible to determine during the first couple weeks what the effect will be with any aftermarket PCs on them. Once they are stabilized, you might try the new Shunyata Z-tron Alpha, which was designed specificclly for devices with SMPS... Place it on PC-1 and let it break-in.... Then exclude PC-1 and use it directly on Capri S2.... Assess the difference.... Only then you will be able to determine what solution is preferable.
Just warning to anyone getting too audacious and groovey... PC-1 is not a general-purpose conditioner.... Unless you apply it to a component set for 230V or equipped with an autoranging power supply, you are likely to blow the component all together, with much pops, scented fumes of fried plastics, and sudden knashing of teeth... Your theeth that is!
See the following section of the Rowland Knowledge base for 24 article on operational and compatibility information on PC-1:
http://jeffrowlandgroup.com/kb/categories.php?categoryid=23
Saluti, G. |
PTheo, do you have any craving to try out the new Veritas Siamese Twins? I have not quite found their detailed technical specs yet, but my understanding is that they utilize a pair of NCore NC1200 per channel in a bridged configuration... Their drive and authority should be quite delicious. G. |
Hi Matt, I am not surprised you love Veritas... like the Mola-Mola Kaluga, the Rowland M825 stereo and M925 mono, the Merrill Veritas use the amazing Ncore NC1200 power conversion modules designed by Bruno Putzeys at Hypex.... These modules are incredibly high starting points for an amp.
Merril has then chosen the conservative approach on Veritas. From a pure active circuit design point of view, one might consider Veritas a basic NCore implementation... However, what Merrill has done is to surround the modules and matching NCore unregulated SMPS with high quality and carefully chosen parts that work in wonderful sinergy with the active components from Hypex to make real music without distortions and artifacts... Internal wiring and XLR connectors from Cardas, IEC from Furutech, StillPoint footers, largely non resonant milled chassis, and mechanical dampeners for internal components.
Could you do markedly better than Veritas? Sure, but more than likely you would need to be prepared for a significant investment up the NCore chain.... Like $18K for The Veritas Siamese Twin monos with two NCore NC1200 modules per side that I suspect might deliver even more authority than Veritas, or the over $32K Rowland M825 stereo, which pushes the NCore potential to its limits with a cost no object power supply, regulation, and I/O design.
There is also the very interesting $15K Mola-Mola Mono... A fine NCore implementation, which uses custom NC1200 modules I believe.... I did like it quite a bit at RMAF, but not having had Mola-Mola in my system yet, I cannot guess the audible difference with Veritas.
Guido |
Hey Al, I tried to find the technical specs of the Siamese on the Merrill site, but no cigar... Do you have a link to them?
G. |
All, fans of NCore-based amplifiers like Merrill Veritas, Theta Digital Prometheus, Audience WavePower, Rowland M825 / M925, and the Mola-Mola Kaluga, might enjoy this 48 minutes long technical talk by Bruno Putzeys, designer of the NCore technology inside all these amps...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vsOugSsANs
The presentation is mostly above my technical head... Never the less, I found his analysis of the problems of jarring sidebands caused by treble intermodulation particularly interesting, and congruent with my own observations of the incredible sweetness and harmonic richness of complex treble in all NCore amps that I have experienced. |
