“Zero Feedback, Zero Dead time and bottomless noise floor using Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors on the ELEMENT 114 Stereo Power Amplifiers from Merrill Audio make it simply one of the best amplifiers available,” claims the latest press release from Merrill Audio, continuing and adding that they are “very excited to release this new advanced technology at a lower price point”.

The new amps utilise trickle-down technology from their ELEMENT 118 and ELEMENT 116 Monoblock Power Amplifiers released last year.

Using Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors and advanced PCB design techniques, the dead time is reduced to zero, which Merrill says removes any distortion. They explain “Dead time is the time the MOSFET transistor takes to discharge or charge when changing states. Since there is no dead time distortion, the ZXOL proprietary design also has Zero feedback”. The combination is what Merrill refers to as the Merrill Audio proprietary ZXOL, which stands for zero crossing, open loop design.

The Merrill Audio ELEMENT 114 Stereo Amplifier, just like the ELEMENT 116 and ELEMENT 118 utilises a custom LLC resonant power supply with a custom transformer as an inductor.

The Merrill Audio ELEMENT 114 Stereo Amplifier, like its higher-end amplifiers, are load invariant says the press release, with the Merrill Audio ELEMENT 114 delivering power across all complex loads that doubles giving 200 watts into 8 ohms, 400 watts into 4 ohms and 800 watts into 2 ohms. Full protection circuity is built in, with no clipping using a fast signal reduction design to avoid clipping on the outputs.

The Merrill Audio ELEMENT 114 Stereo Amplifier comes in a stereo package, with polished Black Nickel and Rose Gold faceplate and accents. A 20Amp AC inlet is used for a tighter connection. The XLR input has a full Teflon body with rhodium plated silver pins. The speaker binding posts are pure copper. Gain is 26 dB, 400 watts into 4 ohms at 0.08% distortion.  The Merrill Audio ELEMENT 114 Stereo Amplifier is priced at USD$15,000.