Viber7,
Many thanks for your informative review of the 118, which I found helpful because we have similar values/tastes in music and audio. Mike Fremer in a recent Stereophile found the CH Precision 1.1 to have a touch of warmth but otherwise reasonably good detail. Do you find the same? Coolness of tonality may be associated with fatigue and HF extension but is somewhat different from thinness. The new Boulder 1160 amp has been reviewed as extremely revealing. Although some people have found previous Boulders as having very cool/ruthless tonality, the 1160 and possibly the lighter lower powered 1161 may be serious competition for the Merrill 116/118 for sound quality. I wonder if the 118’s still non fatiguing nature suggests that it is warmer and not quite as revealing in upper mid/HF range as the Boulder. I don't know if the 118 amp has the same soft landing feature as the Christine preamp, but I am concerned that you found the guitar plucks rounded and not as lifelike sharp as they are in real life. Unamplified guitar is not loud, so this is a red flag for me in that the Merrill duo may be somewhat forgiving at all volume levels. As you know, live classical music up close can be fatiguing at high SPL, such as hearing a trumpet projecting its bell toward your ears. In fact, the conductor Benjamin Zander said that Mahler wanted the brass section to play as loud as they can at the climax in the 1st movement of the 5th Symphony. The object of high fidelity in audio systems is to play the music at a sensible volume so that maximum clarity can be heard, without the fatigue that comes mainly from blasting the volume. Another way to say this is that an accurate amp will sound fatiguing at unnaturally loud SPL, but reveal all the detail at lower SPL while avoiding fatigue.
Many thanks for your informative review of the 118, which I found helpful because we have similar values/tastes in music and audio. Mike Fremer in a recent Stereophile found the CH Precision 1.1 to have a touch of warmth but otherwise reasonably good detail. Do you find the same? Coolness of tonality may be associated with fatigue and HF extension but is somewhat different from thinness. The new Boulder 1160 amp has been reviewed as extremely revealing. Although some people have found previous Boulders as having very cool/ruthless tonality, the 1160 and possibly the lighter lower powered 1161 may be serious competition for the Merrill 116/118 for sound quality. I wonder if the 118’s still non fatiguing nature suggests that it is warmer and not quite as revealing in upper mid/HF range as the Boulder. I don't know if the 118 amp has the same soft landing feature as the Christine preamp, but I am concerned that you found the guitar plucks rounded and not as lifelike sharp as they are in real life. Unamplified guitar is not loud, so this is a red flag for me in that the Merrill duo may be somewhat forgiving at all volume levels. As you know, live classical music up close can be fatiguing at high SPL, such as hearing a trumpet projecting its bell toward your ears. In fact, the conductor Benjamin Zander said that Mahler wanted the brass section to play as loud as they can at the climax in the 1st movement of the 5th Symphony. The object of high fidelity in audio systems is to play the music at a sensible volume so that maximum clarity can be heard, without the fatigue that comes mainly from blasting the volume. Another way to say this is that an accurate amp will sound fatiguing at unnaturally loud SPL, but reveal all the detail at lower SPL while avoiding fatigue.