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.
Merrill Audio ELEMENT 118 on Tour
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. |
Probably Merrill was just stating the factory spec for the NC1200 module whereas he is actually measuring? his 116......A lot of "factory specs" never are realized in real life. Maybe Merrill will chime in here. These specs mean very little in terms of listening. You could have a no oversampling DAC with pretty bad signal to noise ratio that sounds way more transparent than some DAC with tons of filtering (digital and analog). We know the 116 is better than Veritas (verified by many). But is it better than the $5000 mono Van Alstine amps that clobbered the Veritas? How about the Cherry Megachino II amps? How about the Nuprime biggies, the NC1200 amps from Nord, my $2500 dual mono tweaked to the max IceEdge amps?......not to mention tons of other class A and A/B amps (transistor and tube). In the above review what amps do width, depth and decay better? He only rated the 116 4 or 4.5 notes on these categories. Another fine review telling us nothing. Wouldn't you love it if some reviewer got the "reputed best" 20 amps under $25,000 and tested them all at the same time. Burning them all in for a month. Testing them on different feet and with different power cords and on several systems. Then we will know something. We know nothing!!!!!! High end audio is just a bunch of illusions.....he he. Buy whatever makes you happy, just don't compare it to anything else.....you might not like what you paid big bucks for. |
As a violinist, I think this latest review by Dr. Michael Bump is reasonably informative. Many audiophiles describe sound in terms of width, depth, decay. These are all derived characteristics, particularly width and depth which are subjective, whereas the fundamentals of music are frequency balance and extension, transient response and tone. Dr. Bump certainly describes the amps with the educated ear of a professional musician whose training and present activity revolve around clarity and precision, as he states. These are the most important characteristics of both live and reproduced music. It would have been more informative if he compared the 116 and Veritas in the checklist at the conclusion. Importantly, the 116 is given the maximum 5 notes for attack, but is the Veritas only 4 or 4.5 notes? I didn't research any prior review of the Veritas in the same magazine which could have been done by someone else. Maybe they rated Veritas as 5 notes for attack, but what counts is how a single reviewer rates both products in various criteria. Dr. Bump is very articulate, but it helps to see numerical ratings as a summary at the end. I hope the upcoming review comparison by Srajan in 6 moons of the prototype amp with Purifi module and the 116 is properly informative. Let's keep our eyes peeled. |