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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
rsf507
2,313 posts
 
@mattnshilp I take you are or have bought the Element 118? 
mattnshilp
917 posts
 
Rsf507- nope. What I have is amongst the best there is already. For me to go from what I have to the 118 would be like changing from a Ferrari to a Lamborghini when the Ferrari is already paid off.

But if someone took what I had and left the 118 in its place, I’d be happy as a clam and want for nothing.

The big difference is, the 118’s retail
for pretty much half of what my 911mk3 monoblock retail for. Which makes the 118’s extraordinary. 
mattnshilp
917 posts
 
To be honest, I have not directly compared the 118’s to the Burmester 911mk3’s yet. I expect each to be world class but have different strengths. So I can’t say 100% that I’m not replacing my 911’s with 118’s, but with the level of performance I have and the synergy I have with the matching Burmester 077 preamp I don’t see me making a change. 
ricevs
1,543 posts
 

Sounds like these are world class. How much $ per pair will the Element 114 be and how much of the 116/118 sound will you get and how much power, when will they be released, etc.?


Also, what is the input impedance and output impedance of your new amps? No listings for these in your specs.

merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
@ricevs 

Thank you for looking. The ELEMENT 114 has not been priced yet. It is expected to be between $9k and $12k. We are trying to bring it in as low as possible. The ELEMENT 114 will be a stereo unit which results in a little less stage. The ELEMENT 114 will also have less power. Both of these are difficult to hear unless you have a very resolving system and listen to the ELEMENT 116/ELEMENT 118 side by side. By itself the ELEMENT 114 sounds excellent with all the charateristics fo the ELEMENT 116/ELEMENT 118 - speed,detail, transparency,stage, control, musical and very easy to listen to.  The ELEMENT 114 will be released towards the end of the year. All the prototyping has been done. We just have to take it to production and will do so once we clear the backlog of the ELEMENT 118, and the ELEMENT 116 - which has not been announced yet! 

Input impedance 100k, output 2mohms. As always, listening is the best gauge of the control and sound.
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