How to divide up $4,500, Amp/Speakers

I spoke with Tony about the amp and its specs prior to buying the speakers and he said the speakers would work fine with them. My room at the time was much smaller than what I have available to me now so I was sitting closer to the speakers. The speakers are on loan right now and set up in a larger room and I still get the "in your face" sound from them. These speakers image incredibly well and are one of the few I've heard that seemingly project the image in front of the speakers, as opposed to some that are more recessed.

Don't get me wrong. I think Tony builds some fine speakers, including the 12.1(?) model that I heard in SF over the Summer and nearly bought on the spot. Its just that the Tonian and Merlin sounds are so different, that the OP who is familiar with the Merlin sound might actually feel overwhelmed by the Tonian.

Yup, I think we have to settle the speaker issue first, but certainly one could build a Merlin based system with good amplification for $4,500 used. Or a Maggie based system, Or.... it is all going to start with the speaker and only OP can answer the question of what type of sound he is looking for - having started with Merlin (a really good start) we can move forward, but every change in speaker changes the equation and if OP never heard the speaker himself, I'm not sure I would every feel comfortable saying one way or another whether a speaker would be good for him. As for horns, the one horn I really liked was that Audiokinesis I heard at RMAF, but not sure if that was a Jazz or Dream Maker or something else, but it sure did sound good with the 30 watt Atma-sphere OTL.

It was the Dream Maker the year you attended.