What new amp for my Merlins


I asked this question about 6mo ago. A lot of you told me to get the X upgrade first, I did and what a great improvement. So now I ask the same question again.
jaydiane
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.
I would take a look at Clayton, some of the best ss amps I've heard. Another I really liked quite a bit were the Cary 500 ss mono's.....
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.
You know that's a great point, I have not heard those amps with Merlins, just thought of them as really good ss amps and ran off at the keyboard. Good catch, I amend my comments to include "your mileage may vary with Merlin, I have not heard these amps with this particular speaker"

Thanks.