The following is from an earlier post and an update on the Veritas amps by Merrill Audio.
*** I have no financial interest or benefit of any kind of Merrill Audio or Hypex who make the Ncore NC1200 and NC400.***
I am just a big fan of how great the Ncore based amps sound.
Update:
An Audiophile friend got a pair of Sanders Sound speakers with a Roger Sanders Magtech amp ($11,000 mono) for the top end and a Sanders sound ESL amp ($9,000 mono) for the bottom end as the speakers need to be bi-amped per channel.
They had a wonderful sound and I was impressed but I thought the sound could be "smoother". I felt that I could hear a very slight sound of "noise". So when I mentioned this to the others in the room it was "really?". Well I insisted and suggested a challenge. The Merrill Audio Veritas to replace the Sanders amps. Well we had to come up with four of them. I had my pair and I got Merrill to bring a pair. It was some sight. We first listened to the Sanders amps and then put in the Veritas amps.
After awhile of listening I made no comments as I did not want to be the first. To a man (4) they all thought the Veritas had a better sound from top to bottom, was smoother, dead quite, more dimensional, better tonality and control. The difference was enough that the owner of the Sanders decided to buy the Veritas amps.
Well the above post "could hear the cellos and violas breath" could be experienced when the Veritas was being used in place of the Sanders amps.
Now, do not get me wrong, the Sanders amps are very fine indeed. It is just that the Veritas are that good.
Repost;
I was lucky enough to know Merrill from one of the local NJ/NY area Audio Clubs we both belong and had the opportunity to assist Merrill in listening tests of his prototypes. Besides myself there were a few other Club and Rave Audiophiles that gave their input from time to time. This was in my system as well as several of the others.
My system is: B&W 802D speakers; PS Audio Perfectwave DAC MKII with Bridge by Ethernet and PW Transport by I2S/HDMI; Synergistic Research Galileo Universal Bi-wire Speaker Cells and Balanced Interconnect Cells; Power Conditioning is Synergistic Tesla PowerCell 10 SE MKII; Power cords to the amps and DAC and Transport are Triode Wire Labs Ten Plus (Very impressed with Pete's power cords. You owe it to your self to try them. Money back Guarantee).
I have tried MANY amps but could not find the RIGHT one with the BEST sound with also the following: Mono Blocks; True Differential Balanced Inputs; Not to weigh a TON but also to have quality chases; Cool running, for an amp; Quality parts, and no throw away power cords; Sound that is Pure, life like, true to tone, fast with total control of the speakers, real sounding rise and decay of the sound of instruments, deep, wide holographic sound-stage, not sterile but not warm, even sounding from top to bottom, able to reach well into the highs and dig deep into the lows, easy to maintain, no added noise of its' own (I can not believe how quite they are) and also musical/toe taping. And the price is NOT an arm and a leg. Yes, Merrill's amps are not inexpensive but to even come close to the sound, let alone everything else Merrill is including, someone would have spend a HELL of a lot more. I quit after hearing $16,000 to $30,000+/- amps and while some were really great sounding amps, NOT one can give me the sound that Merrill's Veritas amps do.
Now, every person, who I know of, who heard Merrill Audio Veritas in their system (who has a system that can really take advantage of it) have all been surprised and impressed. ONE CAVEAT!! They are very sensitive to power cords and power conditioning. We found out that you can not just assume that a well regarded power cord will work well with the amps. They did not like a pair of Synergistic Basik cords but their active type were fine. Also there were other well known brands that had some issues. They LOVE Pete's Triode Wire Labs Cables, both Ten Plus and Seven Plus. So make sure you try several types if you upgrade from what Merrill Audio already gives you(but I think you would have to spend a lot more before you "might" get an improvement over the TWL cables). And 9 out of 10 times they will sound better NOT plugged into a power conditioner.
If you have the source and speakers that can take advantage of what this amp can do you will be AMAZED!! My B&W 802Ds never sounded this good. I hear things, from top to bottom, that I never heard or as well. And base, who needs a woofer?!
As with food we all have different tastes and this my not be yours and that is fine, more power to you, but if you have no ax to grind and really hear them set up properly you are in for a treat.
Now these are my opinions and observations and YMMV but if you take the time and set it up properly you will be amazed. It REALLY takes A LOT to impress me enough to make me spend my money and I rarely post. That is how impressed I am. Call me a FAN BOY.
I have no financial interest in Merrill Audio. Yes I have bought a pair. Are they perfect, no, nothing is but they come pretty close to it, and at this price for new, I have not heard anything else like it and as good.
PS These amps need to be left ON, not standby, and seeing that they use like 8-9 watts when not in use it is like leaving on a night light. They need several hundred hours of play four the amps, fuses, power cords to sound their best so take your time and you will be rewarded. If you do shut them off it will take a couple of hours to sound good but after a day or two you are back to great.
