MERLIN OWNERS: Need Suggestions on Amps/Preamps

Yag17,

Have no fear using the Berning Zh-270 in a home theater setup. I'm using mine with Rosinante Dulcinea speakers 91dB/ 8 ohm, with great success. Prior to the Dulcinea's, I was driving Aerial 7B's with the Berning. Again, no problems, even though the Aerials were significantly less efficient at 86dB/6 ohm. The Berning is a gutsy tube amp that's able to handle a variety of speaker loads.

I was curious about whether you wanted to use the same amp for both because I wasn't sure about using OTL's for home theater. Apparently Kenl has had a good experience in that area, so my concerns were unnecessary.

Hi, I have the same speakers and have used them in combination with a Theta Casa Nova preamp processor for almost a year now. My home theater amps are B&K reference and for just 2 channel music I use Joule Electra 160 monoblocks. I do not use the Merlins for home theater, only music. I know what you are trying to do and tried the same thing. I wanted the best combination for both home theater and music. I wish you luck , after a few years I found that home theater is much easier to get right that 2 channel music. I would suggest you just start there. The whole family can enjoy it together and it gives you a great place to send the mistakes you make while putting together your own personal 2 channel system. There is alot of trial and error in this. The Theta preamp\processor has stood the test of time and has been here for about 5 years. I would buy it again. The Merlins work best with Joule Electra OTL amps so thats your goal and most would agree with that . I would buy a 3 or 5 channel solid state amp for home theater . I have tried a few and the B&K's have worked perfectly for years. I would looks for some good monitor sized speakers to finish off the rest of a 5.1 setup and buy a great sub to match. Hope this helps.

I am now going throught the saem thing. I have the Merlins paired with Rogue 99 Pre and Rogue M120 Mono's. I like this combo a lot musically, but quite frankly have not heard much else with the Merlins. Im afraid to hear them with Joule Electra.

But I did find that this setup is lacking in the HT, blow yer socks off Dept.

My next steps would be to add another sub, and setup a seperate amp system for HT. I was looking at some old Aragon stuff, 8008x3 and (2) 8002x2 amps. Per Bobby, the dampining factor on thoses should be ok to use with the tube harness.

i used to own a belles 350a which was a nice amp, but the CTC BBQ (reborn as the parasound JC1s) just ate it for breakfast. do take a look at these world class SS monoblocks---they are incredible.

also, i used to own joule la100mk2---slow and thick in the lower mids, no freq extremes. makes for a nice match w/ harsh SS gear, but for good SS / tube gear, it will be too much.

rhyno