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Merrill Audio ELEMENT 118 on Tour

As some of you know I had to deal with a serious family medical issue which has been miraculously cured. So the new ELEMENT amplifiers are getting out to all those asking about them and the few lucky ones that have purchased them.

The ELEMENT 118 and ELEMENT 116 will be going out to reviewers and on tour to various audiophiles and dealers. So more will be showing up. I will provide a short trail and welcome questions and comments, all in good spirit.

After years of research and using OEMS, we have a proprietary design that we believe is an order of magnitude improvement over the previous amps and also sets a standard across all the classes of amps in terms on sonics. Of course taking a listen and doing a comparison is the best way to confirm this.

The new design is an open loop, zero feedback, and zero deadtime, using the Gallium Nitride Transistors - which unlike other transistors have close to zero capacitance and hence allow very fast switching. Additionally the PCB and layout is a highly advanced layout that reduces the parasitic capacitance and inductance to near zero, allow close to zero overshoot and ring, and of course the zero deadtime. The open loop, zero feedback, zero deadtime allows a spacious and precision stage with long detailed decays, very fast attack without the parasitics causing other distortions. The first 10 seconds impresses the listener with a musical tone, that is open, wide and fast. The rest is musical immersion.

I will post the systems as they are run through as best I can. Enjoy and I hope you get to listen to the ELEMENT Series of Power Amplifiers near you.
merrillaudio
merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
Good detailed review of Class D and the ELEMENT 118 in the March issue of HiFi+ Magazine, on your newstands now. Alan Sircom, editor and a very good, succient writer dives into both. Take a read.

This review was done in the UK. 
merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
The ELEMENT 116 is touring Texas right now. Soon to be back in NJ. Any one looking for a listen, there are ELEMENT 116 in Northern NJ and soon to be in NYC also. 
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
merrillaudio OP
300 watts into 8 ohms, 600 watts into 4 ohms and 1,200 watts into 2 ohms

Very impressive, to good to be true?? Even "close to it" is impressive.

Hi, just to clear thing up, this is almost "perpetual motion stuff", as there are always losses.

Unless the 300w 8ohm figure is "under quoted", to make the 4ohm look to be doubling, and also again the same for 2ohms wattage figure???

In other words are all three "8, 4, 2ohm" at the same distortion % for these 300w 600w 1200w figures?

Cheers George
mattnshilp
917 posts
 
Hey George.

Don’t forget it runs cool, is essentially immune to power cords or conditioners (Merrill can clarify) and has a noise floor lower then the Marianas Trench. 😇
merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
Hi George,

Perpetual motion would be creation of energy. This is simple ohms law principals. Voltage = Current x Resistance. If the power supply can deliver, then the voltage and current will act in proportion, hence power in proportion. Power = Vsquared/R or I squared x R. Distortion quoted at full power. Note there is no feedback loop. So distortion in this design is not dependent on feedback or power. The Transistors are capable of over 4,000 watts however it will shutdown based on current, which generates heat and the heat cannot be dissapated as fast for 4,000 watts. Hence the limitations. The power supply is quite capable of 2,000 watts and adjusts to load unlike others that drop voltage with a higher current, for example a transformer based linear supply.

cheers

Merrill

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