What new amp for my Merlins

Santacore, I had the Quicksilver V4s and liked them very much, but it was not as good as the CAT (not much is), but I could certaily live happily with them if the CAT was out of reach, there are many very happy QS owners. I do wonder how his Triode might sound. For the money (they are remarkably good values, especially if reliabilty means anything to you), I think Quicksilvers would sound mighty fine with the Merlins, especially, like you say, the Mini or Mid models -- you don't need a lot of power for the VSMs, I'm not sure how sensitive the TSMs are. The 30 watts from the Ars Sonum are plenty powerful in my 13x20 room. I don't know what your current equipment is in terms of your pre, etc. But if I had to choose between any pre with QS and an Ars Sonum with Merlin speakers I would take the Ars Sonum in a heart beat. Not that the Quickies are not good, they are very good, but the Ars and Merlins match so well through calaboration between the two manufacturers that you will not beleive $4,000 of pre/amp can sound so good, I think it is an endgame strategy with the Merlin if (IF) you want to get off the equipment merry-go-round - not that you should, by the Ars is that good.

Pubul57, thanks for the input. I contacted Mike at Quicksilver and he said there would be no benefit in using the Triodes due to the benign impedence of the Merlins. Those were the amps I was originally interested in. He recommened the V4's due to my comment about liking his old MS190. The V4's seem like too much power and too much money. Right now I'm struggling with going all the way with the ARS or trying to put together more reasonable seperates. I'm currently running a Manley Shrimp/Mahi's rig which sounds great but just lacks a bit of mid-range magic. Decisions, decisions.

If you are committed to Merlin speakers I would hold off till you can get the Ars Sonum. If you think you might try different speakers in the near future, the Ars may be limiting in your speaker choices. But if you stick with Merlin, you will not regret getting the Ars. Then again, I doubt many QS owners regret their decison either. One good thing about the Ars is that you will have two less decisions to make, no pre, no IC and you don't even have to worry about the power cord, oops, that's three.

I am using audio aero capitole 55 watts classe A, with audio aero prestige, I have one audiopax 98 ( 30 watts SET), and the audio aero is better , more headrum, more bass and definition,mediuns are fantastique; I do not think I can get one better.

Hi all

I have ARS fila se, pathos logos & Exposure 3010 S2 pre/pow full SS

and i can honestly tell everyone that Exposure is the best among the three ,with merlin VSM, superb matching...

If you have more money you can buy exposure pre/monoblocks 3010S2

no heat,very valve like sound, not very expensive

I have tried a lot of solid state amps with Merlin, cheap to very expensive..in the last 10 years... exposure was the best(UK)

i will soon upgrade to monoblocks