SS for Merlins VSMs?

Paul,

I have been a tube man for years believing that there could be no SS that I would like as well as a great tube system. I tried Pass, TRL, Rowland, and more but none to my ears were as enjoyable as a great tube system until now.
I have discovered a SS integrated. Yes believe it or not a integrated amp from a French company named Neodio. I have their NR 600 Signature. It replaced a Air Tight 300b amp and Joule Electra ME300 pre amp and believe or not its not even close favoring the Neodio.

I will take a look. Thanks. Anything that can beat a Joule/Air Tight combo is worth a look.

Pubul, I owned the VSMs in the late 90s through 2003. At the time, Bobby was recommending the little Belles 150A. It had a nice sweetness to it, and Bobby actually preferred it to the 350A and other SS offerings at the time. Of course, he always recommended a tubed pre which in my case was the Audible Illusions L1.

I guess it depends on what degree of tube freak you are and whether you have some tone control potential with your pre-amp. Other SS pieces I have owned that fall into the category of "not like tubes, not like SS" are Intuitive Design Coordinate monoblocks and the TRL Samsons. Dale's earlier generation of SS mono amps (Essence) are even more tubey with rich midrange, but they are hard to find (people don't sell them) and are pricey.

Bob and I have been chatting about the Neodio on another thread and it sounds very promising. I would love to hear it as well. Bob now owns Dale's Gamma Summits (great speakers) and they are a fairly difficult speaker (IMO) to match amps with. The Gammas like high current to really open them up, which typically means SS or big push-pull tube amps. Those speakers are mucho revealing so most SS falls short. The fact that the Neodio is able to make them sing is really saying something.

One final thought: the LSA statement tube hybrid. I have heard a lot of good things (I have heard John Tucker's modded Shanling CDP and his Exemplar pre and like the sound; he was involved in their design), and they may work as well. That amp is on my list for a second system....

Question: since Bobby is a Joule man, have you ever tried his monoblocks?

I only owned the Joule LA150 MKII and then the LA150
Signature preamps which I used at various times with the
amps listed in my OP.

While I certainly enjoyed the Joule mono-blocks at shows, I
would say no better than the Atma-sphere M60s which were
also more affordable - I now use an Atma preamp with them. I
went back and forth with the Lightspeed Attenuator and the
Joule preamp with my Music Reference RM10 MKIIs and loved
both combos, so I sold the $7000 Joule and kept the $450
LSA.

If I bought an SS amp I suspect the LSA would not work right
because of impedance problems in most cases, and I would
probably feel the need for tubes somewhere in the chain.

I presumed your LSA would not be in the equation....