Hi all. Merry Christmas.
I wanted to give a brief report on the Merrill Taranis stereo amp and Cara Pre-amp I was fortunate enough to audition. The Taranis is 400wpc into 8 ohms class D in the same design as my nCore Veritas amps. The preamp and amp are a matching design with a top panel mounted over an underlying chassis; not like the aluminum billet milled Veritas chassis. The front is polished with central screens. Very attractive overall. The case rings with a finger tap and doesn't have the solidity of the Veritas. The amp sounded like a budget version of the Veritas; neutral, dynamic, engaging and quite a bargain at, I think, around $4k. The Cara is also around the same price and had a warmer, sweater sound with a nice deep soundstage. A bit tubelike. I would say the amp is flexible in that it would sound good with solid state or tube gear. I think the preamp needs the Taranis to sound it's best. For under $10k it's a nice sounding combo but there is a LOT of competition in that price range and some is very good. Merrill has a very flexible audition policy and if your in the market for that price range gear then it's worth a consideration.
I wanted to give a brief report on the Merrill Taranis stereo amp and Cara Pre-amp I was fortunate enough to audition. The Taranis is 400wpc into 8 ohms class D in the same design as my nCore Veritas amps. The preamp and amp are a matching design with a top panel mounted over an underlying chassis; not like the aluminum billet milled Veritas chassis. The front is polished with central screens. Very attractive overall. The case rings with a finger tap and doesn't have the solidity of the Veritas. The amp sounded like a budget version of the Veritas; neutral, dynamic, engaging and quite a bargain at, I think, around $4k. The Cara is also around the same price and had a warmer, sweater sound with a nice deep soundstage. A bit tubelike. I would say the amp is flexible in that it would sound good with solid state or tube gear. I think the preamp needs the Taranis to sound it's best. For under $10k it's a nice sounding combo but there is a LOT of competition in that price range and some is very good. Merrill has a very flexible audition policy and if your in the market for that price range gear then it's worth a consideration.