What new amp for my Merlins

I have the Ars Sonum and a Joule LA150MKII/CAT JL2. So you might think I have some pretty good amplification for the Merlins, and of course your right. I love both combinations and that is saying something for the Ars given the separates it is "competing" with - the Ars is simply great value and just plain great with the Merlins regardless of cost. My question is have any of you had good experiences with SS and the Merlins. I'm going to use the Joule with the SS, which may limit some choices. Bobby has mentioned the BEL 1001, Ayre, McIntosh with the autotranformers, and in the past he mentioned Belles (may SIM was on that list as well). I have always liked the Pass Aleph series so I might consider the Pass XA30.5, although its 15kohm input impedance is a slight concern for the Joule (and the fact the XA series know to be warm for SS and with the Joule that may too much of a good thing), altough I am told it should work fine. Obviously the Merlin has specs that make it an ideal match for tubes and I think I'm covered on that front. What experiences do any of you have with the Merlin and SS, and have any of you prefered an SS amp to a tube amp with the speaker? I pretty much think a tube preamp is mandatory. Thank you.

Good to hear you loved a system with the Joule LA-150 for a pre. I ultimatley chose it after having has a CAT SL1, LAMM LL2, and Placette Active. I think it works fantastically well with the CAT/Merlin and I imagine with the VAC as well, which are very highly regarded. I just wonder if there is an SS option out there to be used with my Joule that will blow me away being that I usually listen to the CAT JL2. I'm not going to sell the CAT, but I would like to see what SS might do for my system and not completely dissappoint given what I'm used to.

Arthursmuck, did you hear the Clayton, Cary and/or Herron with the Merlins? What might be great with Thiel, may not be the Merlin's cup of tea.

I think Merlins are a special case because they have very smooth impedance curves and never dip below 6.5ohms, don't require high damping from the amp and they are also sensitive so they don't need much power - 30 watts should do. They are basically ideal for low/medium power tubes; that is tubes can work very effectively into their load. Some great sounding SS have lots of power, high damping factor, and capapble of driving difficult impedances - non of which the Merlins need, so my thinking is the a simpler designed SS, with relatively low power (I equate low power with better sounds quality and purity - if it is enough power), without heavy damping may be great with the Merlins, but not necessarily with a wide variety of speakers of all stripes. That is in part what interest me about the Pass XA-30.5, though compared to a tube amp it is fairly high damping factor (150). It seems that one property that some of the SS amps Bobby recommends have zero or very low negative feedback. Thing is, I can imagine an SS amp sounding fantastic with some speakers, but not necesssarily mating well with the Merlins. I get the feeling few Merlin owners use SS with their speakers, though I hear there are a few.

That's the thing, on some speakers the Moscodes are fantastic. I suspect that no SS will sound as good as CAT, Joule, Atma, and perhaps Berning (VAC, and a few other grat tube amps) with the Merlins, but I would like to have an SS amp that is competitive with the sound I'm getting with the CAT, and for that matter the wonderful Ars Sonum. An alternative soundscape that is just as convicing, compelling and enjoyable. But I doubt there are many Merlin owners that have moved from tubes to SS and never looked back.

Santacore, I had the Quicksilver V4s and liked them very much, but it was not as good as the CAT (not much is), but I could certaily live happily with them if the CAT was out of reach, there are many very happy QS owners. I do wonder how his Triode might sound. For the money (they are remarkably good values, especially if reliabilty means anything to you), I think Quicksilvers would sound mighty fine with the Merlins, especially, like you say, the Mini or Mid models -- you don't need a lot of power for the VSMs, I'm not sure how sensitive the TSMs are. The 30 watts from the Ars Sonum are plenty powerful in my 13x20 room. I don't know what your current equipment is in terms of your pre, etc. But if I had to choose between any pre with QS and an Ars Sonum with Merlin speakers I would take the Ars Sonum in a heart beat. Not that the Quickies are not good, they are very good, but the Ars and Merlins match so well through calaboration between the two manufacturers that you will not beleive $4,000 of pre/amp can sound so good, I think it is an endgame strategy with the Merlin if (IF) you want to get off the equipment merry-go-round - not that you should, by the Ars is that good.

If you are committed to Merlin speakers I would hold off till you can get the Ars Sonum. If you think you might try different speakers in the near future, the Ars may be limiting in your speaker choices. But if you stick with Merlin, you will not regret getting the Ars. Then again, I doubt many QS owners regret their decison either. One good thing about the Ars is that you will have two less decisions to make, no pre, no IC and you don't even have to worry about the power cord, oops, that's three.