What new amp for my Merlins

I have to join the others in suggesting that you upgrade your speakers before considering anything else.

hi jay,
i have to agree with the people that suggested you have the speakers and bam upgraded. imho, you will get a 50 to 60% improvement in every aspect of the speaker/bam sound. then you can consider the amp and pre amp combination. the wonderful sonic qualities of my recommendations would be more audible too because the speaker system would have less of its own character.
i like the joule la or lap 150 pre and their otls, the vzn 100s. a very organic sound, superb tonality and relaxed yet specific spacial quality.
in a sligtly different vein, the cat pre and jl 2's. this is a more energetic sound but still relaxed and very spacious. you get the best of both worlds here. with the joule the wonderful otl sound and with the cat the best of the transformer coupled style. either is exceptional and i am sure would captivate you.
one more to consider is the ma 1 or 2 from atmasphere. i have heard this amp too and it is very realistic too. so now you have 3 to consider.
regards,
bobby at merlin

music reference amps are a great match, i used the RM9 series2 with my merlins past.. great match.. get upgrade first... call bobby, easy to deal with...good luck...

I was looking at the ARS Sonum but the word is the Berning ZH-270 is better...

However like the previous guy said before the Dodd audio 120's are what people are upgrading to, from Bernings!

The Berning ZH-270 may not be everyone's cupa tea but it's neutral and remains so on whatever speaker, it was designed to be extremely reliable (Not one has failed), easy maintenance (decades on tubes, cool running), light weight (10lbs), environmentally friendly (Power smart) and accurate.
It also has a high resale value and is currently used by two well known European speaker manufacturers to design their speakers and they having 3 or 4 speakers on the current Stereophile Class A recommend components.