Good match for Merlin?

I don't think the Ayre V-1Xe will work at all with the Merlins, so please sell it to me so that I can save you from any case of extreme "sonic euphoria"!

1markr,
I take it by your comments and your system threads, you approve of the Ayre match. Would you give me some additional insight other than unselfishly saving me from "sonic euphoria"?

In a system with VSM-MM,Cardas wires,modded DVD players and Counterpoint pre,in a room 13x20,lower volume levels were excellent.When we went up to mid-high levels the sound got a little bright and glaring.2 of us felt the same way.This is not necessarily a negative comment on the Ayre,we just liked the sound with other amps we tried.Good luck,Bob

I had owned the VSM-Ms, but always ran them with tube amps (ASL Hurricanes, Berning, Joule OTLs). The only SS amps I heard on my Merlins were the Parasound Halo JC-1s, but it was not a good match at all.

I can tell you however, while between speakers right now (using the small but very good Von Schweikert VR-1 bookshelves) the naturalness and spacial virtues of my Ayre V-5X are nothing short of impressive. The Ayre (while not necessarily tube-like, and much less SS-like) has many redeeming qualities that make me forget the tube amps I've had.

Disclaimer: I still use, and always will, a tube preamp and tubed cd player. A tubehead like me has to have tubes somewhere!

I don't own Merlins, but respect them a lot and have a couple of friends with Merlins.

My suggestion would be that you look for an amplifier with a fairly high output impedance, as at least to my ears the Merlins are overdamped in the bass region. A high output impedance means the same thing as a low damping factor. Single-ended triode amps and OTL tube amps are good candidates. Such amps will "warm up" the bass a bit, improving the overall tonal balance. As a welcome side effect, such amps also tend to sound very good, especially when they employ little or no negative feedback. I have heard the Merlins sound very good on OTL amps with a 4 ohm output impedance (corresponding to an 8-ohm damping factor of only 2).

Duke