2. amps-preamps
  3. 137701-10098

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
ricevs
1,543 posts
 

I am not suggesting that you can just throw some GaNs in any old class D module and get great sound. Merrill has a super power supply, has a custom zero feedback circuit, has copper plates inside, is damped, uses great jacks, etc. However, the GaNs themselves are not expensive. What I am saying is that we will have competition real soon from other way less expensive class D amps and maybe even the Van Alstine class AB amps now. By the way, if you tweaked the Van Alstine amps they would sound way, way better. He is no tweak. Just look at the crappy jacks, undamped heatsinks, fuses in line with the speakers, ordinary parts, etc.

Putzy has already released his new module.....check out Purifi-audio.com. Suppose to be sonically way better than the NC1200 used in the Veritas. There will be $3K? amps available in a few months using these modules. No, they do not use GaNs nor are they zero feedback.....but I bet they will be really great. Will they be as good as Merrill?  We won't know till a few manufacturers make amps the them and people compare.....months down the road. They certainly will be way, way less expensive......$3K versus $15K or more. 

There will be other manufactures using GaNs soon as well.  Nuprime is working with GaNs right now.

viber6
2,448 posts
 
ricevs,
I'm with you.  I posted on your latest comment at the very bottom, page 2.
merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
EnjoyTheMusic.com puts out a review on the Merrill Audio ELEMENT 116 Monoblocks and surprisingly covers the VERITAS, and other Hypex Ncore NC1200 Implementations.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio/equipment/0619/Merrill_Audio_Element_116_Veritas_Review.h...

Other news - Merrill Audio ELEMENT 116 Monoblocks now available for listening in Hong Kong. Send me PM for listening info. Driving the MBLS's.
aolmrd1241
1,042 posts
 
Looks as if the Veritas monos are holding their own against the E 116...And 10G less to boot...8)
mrdecibel
3,064 posts
 
The " stated " signal to noise ratio on the Veritas seems to be much lower than on the 116, 128 db vs. 110 db. Is this a mistake ?
More to discover