Stupidgood: Ars Sonum

That makes sense.

Sherod, the wife liked it, but she said I better never say it in public.

Just to throw in my two cents. I've been running the Filarmonia with my VSM-MX's, (soon to get the 'e upgrade), for about a year and a half now and it's a brilliant match. It's a really special amp with the Merlin's. Buy one, forget about it and when it shows up it will be like a surprise and you won't agonize over the wait.

Highly recommended and well worth the wait.

Myself and one other here on A'gon are probably the only two who didn't have to wait since we bought ours slightly used(in my case, 70 hours).
I've stopped agonizing over aquiring the hard-to find Wytech Opal preamp and Brazillian Model 88 mono's that I dreamt about all day and night.

"I've stopped agonizing..." That very much describes how I'm feeling. I won't say the Ars is better than the Joule/CAT, and that pairing will certainly be better for a broader array of speaker options, but I'm just as happy listening to the Ars Sonum with the Merlins as with them and that is close enough for me. I've stopped agonizing about speakers when I bought the Merlins (Merlin owners will knowwhat I mean), I think of the Ars Sonum in much the same way. No thinking about the pre/amp combo, the interconnect, or power cord for that matter. And when the unit is fully broken in I'll roll some NOS in the 6922 slot (I think this is the only tube that makes sense playing with on this unit) and we are talking one [1] tube to play with - makes it affordable to try an Amperex,Mullard,Siemens, and Mullard - and no worrying about matching pairs. No matter how bad you feel waiting for this gem to be made for you - you'll think it all worthwhile once you have it - at least with the Merlins.