merlin with conrad johnson?

egidius,
i have not heard the einstein amp and what i do not know i do not comment on.
design seems good but you must listen to it on the speakers too and decide that for yourself.
dave g is a very bright man and he really knows what he likes. his amp does sound a little too present for my tastes and he is right that he can pull the speakers farther apart but he will lose tonality and would then be a good candidate for a sub.
the likelihood that you will need one is remote if you liked the gen 3s. the mxes sound much more room filling and fleshed out, more continuous, more complete, more expansive and offer a real improvement in the musical center. all important things to a violinist like yourself. depending on your room size, i am very doubtful you will want a sub but again, leave that decision for when you get the vsms broken in and judge for yourself. i quite sure i know the way you will go on that topic.
which einstein do you have, the 50 watter or 100 watter? and which output tubes, 34s?
bobby

Hello, the einstein is called "the absolute tune" which seems somewhat absolute to me, but it does deliver; I am not a technician, it is an ciclotron-OTL design making 50 watts, and not output tubes: it actually uses one mosfet per channel, but has four 6922 in the prestage. egidius

this is something you have to hear for yourself egidius.
i was thinking of something else but this is very interesting. bel amps do sound very good too, keep that in mind if need be.
50 watts is more than enough power and the output impedance should be high making for an undamped sound.
one listen will tell all for you.
regards,
bobby

Ther is nothing like an OTL spes on the merlins.

Oi Bobby when are my MXE's finished? :))

Also Egidius has bought my Berning amp...will be sorry to see it go :(

I had also had great results using the Leben CS-300X integrated. Its an EL84 design but seems to love the Merlins.

Now i'm looking for an amp after the departure of the Berning next week.

Bobby, what element of the new mxe speakers makes them more easier to mate with solid state?

Richard