No sophiscated isolation, I have a two shelves (Maple Wood) on a rack with a sandwich between them of cork and rubber (like the Mapleshade stuff). I also use Herbie tube damppers on the small tubes, but frankly, I can hear the difference. If there is ever a MKII, I would not send it back unless there was a one month turnaround, but this thing is so good, I'm not worrying about - really (well, maybe I would worry a little bit). By the way, I was worried about it not being loud enough at 30 watts, well, watts ain't watts (these are Class A and tubes)this integrated has plenty of power for my music and my room (12x19). If you had a very large room that needed a lot more power, you would probably have the mistaken assumption that the Merlins were too small - looks can be deceiving.
Stupidgood: Ars Sonum
There are lots of "terms of art" used by audiophools to describe sound and equipment. I propose a new one - stupidgood - a piece of equipment that blows you away, as good as it gets (more or less), and the price or the looks of it makes you incredulous as to how good the equipment is. Of course, I did not come with the term; that would by Bobby P. (Mr. von Merlin) describing the Ars Sonum integrated amplifier. I've had separates from ARC, Joule, LAMM, and CAT, and I can tell you, the Ars Sonum is stupidgood driving Merlin VSM-MXes, which can driven very easily be this little 30 watt gem.
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- 59 posts total
- 59 posts total