Just back from AXPONA in Atlanta. In the DCCA room they had Merlin TSMs set up with B&K Pre and an SS amp that I am sorry to say I do not recall. BUT, the sound was glorious and spooky good. Palpable, organic, deep and wide soundstage, clear, no digital hash, great mid range, smoooooth in the mids and on top without any syrup added. And I know smooth as my EgglestonWorks Fontains use the same tweeter (Esotar) and are driven with powerful SET amps. I do recall that the amp was nothing esoteric (no pun intended).
A gentleman walked in to the room and was surprised to hear how good the TSMs sounded, especially the deep bass, as he has the same speakers but never got them to sound that deep. The DCCA engineer said it was due to his cables (ICs, SC, and PCs), specifically the Power Cables. I'm not sure I can believe him, but I can say the sound was very relaxed and extremely believable, holographic. Perhaps instead of a new SS amp, give DCCA a call and speak with the engineer (Doug?) about his products? He was super nice and more than willing to discuss his cables, or even just music in general. I am NOT a high-price cable kind of guy, especially when it comes to PCs, but his (supposed) results were hard to dispute.
Anyway, just a thought. Good luck in your search.
A gentleman walked in to the room and was surprised to hear how good the TSMs sounded, especially the deep bass, as he has the same speakers but never got them to sound that deep. The DCCA engineer said it was due to his cables (ICs, SC, and PCs), specifically the Power Cables. I'm not sure I can believe him, but I can say the sound was very relaxed and extremely believable, holographic. Perhaps instead of a new SS amp, give DCCA a call and speak with the engineer (Doug?) about his products? He was super nice and more than willing to discuss his cables, or even just music in general. I am NOT a high-price cable kind of guy, especially when it comes to PCs, but his (supposed) results were hard to dispute.
Anyway, just a thought. Good luck in your search.