Frankly, I have no idea:
I have been using for a while the E550 with the Merlin VSM MXe to great success, very comarable to the Berning version, which says a lot for that great amp! but ultimately I could not stand the flash look of it, so passed it on. As it is, i did use it in both versions, as you can set it to "Monitor", i presume this is a tape loop, or am I wrong there?
I doubt that any of the other integrateds would do the Merlins justice, of course the E530 as well, or any of the Class A poweramps, from above 30Watts.
I have been using for a while the E550 with the Merlin VSM MXe to great success, very comarable to the Berning version, which says a lot for that great amp! but ultimately I could not stand the flash look of it, so passed it on. As it is, i did use it in both versions, as you can set it to "Monitor", i presume this is a tape loop, or am I wrong there?
I doubt that any of the other integrateds would do the Merlins justice, of course the E530 as well, or any of the Class A poweramps, from above 30Watts.