Hello Viber6, we were fortunate... The eye passed some 60 miles North of us when Florence had already been downgraded to a tropical storm... Thankfully no material damage... Only lots of anxiety before and during evac.
Now, back to our beloved topic...
The Element 118 prototype, even in its state of incomplete break-in, comfortably exceeded the performance of the original Merrill Veritas... THis is not surprising... Veritas was an excellent "entry level" NCore NC1200 amp designed to exceed the expected performance for its $12K price several years ago. It did that splendidly.
On the other hand, Element 118 is far from being an entry level device. Its design is complex and features a lot of "moving" parts, each contributing to the synergy of the whole. In that GAN transistors are one of many technologies that contribute to the whole, but neither GaN nor any other component parts or circuit features are the sole contributors to the result..... It's the synergy of the whole that counts... Or in other words, "'Tis all in the handle!"
If I compare the two devices in my mind, I find some obvious differences.... Element 118 is significantly quieter than Veritas, has larger staging in the three dimensions, clearer images, greater resolution of very low level detail revealing/exposing harmonics.... And comfortably greater authority.
However, the relative immaturity of break-in and the fact that Element 118 was a prototype may have introduced some artifacts.... As I mentioned, treble might have been a little overpressured... This does not necessarily reveal low level tonal components like harmonics... Rather, treble overpressure can dampen the perception of low level harmonics. Similarly, there were still faint traces of intermodulation... You could hear them mostly on ff orchestral or string cadenzas... Typical on 7th chords built on the dominant... A byproduct of faint treble intermodulation was also a bit of over-punchiness in transients. But as I said already several times, what I heard was only a prototype with incomplete break-in... And yet, once this was factored in, ELement 118 was alredy extremely promising.
When I reluctantly sent back Element 118 to Merril, the amps were still evolving significantly. So, Because of the likely temporary/transitory nature of the artifacts I detected, it would be completely meaningless for me to attempt to contrast the Element 118 with the Rowland M925, which I have had in my system for several years and, once nicely warmed up, is totally stable.
Saluti, G.