What new amp for my Merlins

Arthursmuck, did you hear the Clayton, Cary and/or Herron with the Merlins? What might be great with Thiel, may not be the Merlin's cup of tea.

You know that's a great point, I have not heard those amps with Merlins, just thought of them as really good ss amps and ran off at the keyboard. Good catch, I amend my comments to include "your mileage may vary with Merlin, I have not heard these amps with this particular speaker"

Thanks.

I think Merlins are a special case because they have very smooth impedance curves and never dip below 6.5ohms, don't require high damping from the amp and they are also sensitive so they don't need much power - 30 watts should do. They are basically ideal for low/medium power tubes; that is tubes can work very effectively into their load. Some great sounding SS have lots of power, high damping factor, and capapble of driving difficult impedances - non of which the Merlins need, so my thinking is the a simpler designed SS, with relatively low power (I equate low power with better sounds quality and purity - if it is enough power), without heavy damping may be great with the Merlins, but not necessarily with a wide variety of speakers of all stripes. That is in part what interest me about the Pass XA-30.5, though compared to a tube amp it is fairly high damping factor (150). It seems that one property that some of the SS amps Bobby recommends have zero or very low negative feedback. Thing is, I can imagine an SS amp sounding fantastic with some speakers, but not necesssarily mating well with the Merlins. I get the feeling few Merlin owners use SS with their speakers, though I hear there are a few.

That's the thing, on some speakers the Moscodes are fantastic. I suspect that no SS will sound as good as CAT, Joule, Atma, and perhaps Berning (VAC, and a few other grat tube amps) with the Merlins, but I would like to have an SS amp that is competitive with the sound I'm getting with the CAT, and for that matter the wonderful Ars Sonum. An alternative soundscape that is just as convicing, compelling and enjoyable. But I doubt there are many Merlin owners that have moved from tubes to SS and never looked back.