Triode versus Ultralinear/Pentode

Pubul57, Merlins don't need a lot of power. We have had many Merlin customers over the years using our M-60 and I never hear about power issues. If you can get a triode amp that makes at least that much, unless you are in a very big room you should be fine!

With Merlins it all about finesse rather than power- they are plenty revealing- going triode with them will definitely pay off.

See if you can find one of these for sale: (http://www.stereophile.com/tubepoweramps/1200cary/) You won't do much tube tasting as far as the output tube(T-1610) 'cause there's only one company that makes them(KR). Then again there's the price of a pair of those glorious triodes. At least they'll give you 100 watts on peaks. BTW: If you can afford those- Are you interested in adopting a son?

I'm not so much worried about power, as the Music Reference RM9 SE would be 70 watts in triode - way more than enough for my Merlins, I'm thinking about whether converting an amplifier from ultralinear to triode makes much sense if the amp was not desinged for triode operation from the ground up; I just fell there must be some compromise in this apporach rather than being built and spece'd specifically for triode appplication, like my CAT JL2.

I'm 95% there Tvad. It's why I have doubts over the wisdom of what I am considering. I think your logic is impecable. It's not like Roger said, "great idea, I don't know why I didn't think of that." - Although I'm sure he was also interested in bringing something to market with more power than triode would have provided. The whole triode idea is driven by the fact that my speakers (Merlins) like to be driven by amps with very low damping and NFB, and triode operation theoretically permits use of less NFB (or none?), etc. But I do hear the logic behind what you are saying, and I'm leaving well enough alone and going with the amp as designed by Roger.