2. amps-preamps
  3. 137701-10098

Merrill Audio ELEMENT 118 on Tour

As some of you know I had to deal with a serious family medical issue which has been miraculously cured. So the new ELEMENT amplifiers are getting out to all those asking about them and the few lucky ones that have purchased them.

The ELEMENT 118 and ELEMENT 116 will be going out to reviewers and on tour to various audiophiles and dealers. So more will be showing up. I will provide a short trail and welcome questions and comments, all in good spirit.

After years of research and using OEMS, we have a proprietary design that we believe is an order of magnitude improvement over the previous amps and also sets a standard across all the classes of amps in terms on sonics. Of course taking a listen and doing a comparison is the best way to confirm this.

The new design is an open loop, zero feedback, and zero deadtime, using the Gallium Nitride Transistors - which unlike other transistors have close to zero capacitance and hence allow very fast switching. Additionally the PCB and layout is a highly advanced layout that reduces the parasitic capacitance and inductance to near zero, allow close to zero overshoot and ring, and of course the zero deadtime. The open loop, zero feedback, zero deadtime allows a spacious and precision stage with long detailed decays, very fast attack without the parasitics causing other distortions. The first 10 seconds impresses the listener with a musical tone, that is open, wide and fast. The rest is musical immersion.

I will post the systems as they are run through as best I can. Enjoy and I hope you get to listen to the ELEMENT Series of Power Amplifiers near you.
merrillaudio
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2019/05/03/merrill-audio-introduces-the-114-new-gallium-nitride-amplifier/

"Merrill Audio ELEMENT 114 delivering power across all complex loads that doubles 200 watts into 8 ohms, 400 watts into 4 ohms and 800 watts into 2 ohms."

Hi Merrill, congratulations this really is akin to "perpetual motion" stuff. Being a stickler for "trusting" bench measurements presented.
So for the third maybe lucky time I’ve asked the same questions, on these "doubling" figures presented.

Using the same frequency, are they all taken just before clipping, all at the same distortion level, single or both channels driven?
Or are the 8ohm and or 4ohm figure understated?

And while I have your attention, are you using the higher switching frequency 1.5mHz available with the GaN technology? If not what frequency?

Cheers George
unsound
7,304 posts
 
Will these new amps have direct digital inputs?
merrillaudio OP
63 posts
 
All the Merrill Audio ELEMENT series amplifiers have Fully Balanced analog inputs.
See here.  https://merrillaudio.net/element-114-power-amplifier-monoblocks/



viber6
2,438 posts
 
Thanks, Merrill.  Can any of the Element amps be used with any preamp of your own choosing?  I don't like the wideband design of Spectral which requires using a Spectral preamp.
      Does the 114 double again to 1600 watts into 1 ohm?  Put another way, what is the maximum continuous current, maximum peak current?  Live classical music from the front row has levels from 20 to 90 dB for most music with rare peaks of 100 dB.  Delicate nuances heard at 50 dB or less and even average levels of 70-80 dB require less than 1 watt in most systems.  I believe that lower powered amps have more accuracy given less chance of matching errors in multiple transistors and shorter signal paths, so how is the accuracy of the 114 compared to 116 at low power levels?  Of course, the 116 has the advantage at very large power levels, although the 114 is still a high powered amp.
viber6
2,438 posts
 
mattnshilp,  I sent you a message.
More to discover