Least power for Merlin VSM-SE's

Soupcon I can't speak first hand but I can say that I have heard the Merlin's can be successfully driven with some SET amps and is suppose to work well with the Bel Canto which is 30 watts. Bobby recommends no less than 17 watts I believe. This speaker is a presents a very easy load for virtually any amp mimimum impedence is 6.5 ohms and a 8 ohm nominal sensitivity is 89 dB. If you haven't spoken with him yet give him a call at (716) 367-2390, he is quite accessible and always willing to help. An added benefit of owning these speakers in addition to the music they make. I highly recommend tubes in any case. The Joules OTL's are suppose to be a match made in heaven and on a lesser scale, the Trancendent OTL's at 25 watts are also recommended and quite a bit less expensive, around 2K. I am currently using 100 watts of tube power which is way more than required.

Vtvu How do you like the Trancendent amp? By the way nice review! Too bad you don't have the Battery Bam. In AC mode it is a big improvement and the thinness in the bass fills out, in ac/battery mode there is a notable improvement in the other frequencies as well. The mid band frequencies flesh out more. In battery only mode your jaw will drop again! Most likely you'll be dumbfounded how a 6 1/2" driver can provide that type of low bass performance. These speakers with the BBam and the right ancilliaries are absolutely among the best speakers I have heard, bar none. I am finally getting there with the most recent addition of the Bel Canto, JPS digital power cord and Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cables. Get the Battery BAM! Soupcon I have talked to Bobby about the upgrade and plan on doing it myself. All that is involved according to him is replacing the wiring harness and 4 solder connections per speaker. If you can solder you can do it and save $200-300 in shipping. Then the cones are one single post instead of the 2 points meeting at the center as they do with the old wooden bulldog cones. It is quite amazing how something so simple can manifest itself in improved coupling of the speaker to the ground and improve all aspects of the speaker's sound. Well here I go talking about something I haven't even heard yet but from those I have talked to it is a great improvement over the SE's. I'll be finding out soon.