Merrill Audio Element 114 Stereo Power Amplifier
The Element 114 delivers lightning-fast transients, a vanishingly low noise floor and commanding low-impedance control from its GaN Class D architecture. Srajan Ebaen heard exceptional resolution, dynamic contrast, broad imaging and firm bass grip, while Dagogo spotlighted its ease, detail and immediacy. It is a thrillingly explicit amplifier for systems that prize speed, scale and holographic precision.
WATT RECOMMENDS
Save your favorites. Compare them anytime.
Create a free HiFi Hub account to save products to your Wishlist and compare your favorites side by side.
Deliciously Crispy
Sound Quality
92/100
Build Quality
90/100
Value for Money
85/100
Pros
Exceptionally fast, clean transient response with high resolution and dynamic contrast.
Broad, evenly populated soundstage with strong image separation and holographic specificity.
Powerful bass control and load-tolerant output suited to demanding low-impedance speakers.
Cons
Its close-miked, explicit balance can sound bright or occasionally hard with revealing recordings and forward systems.
Balanced XLR-only inputs limit compatibility with single-ended source components.
WATT RECOMMENDS
Save your favorites. Compare them anytime.
Create a free HiFi Hub account to save products to your Wishlist and compare your favorites side by side.
What Reviewers Are Saying
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 92/100
The Element 114 is described as exceptionally immediate, quiet and highly resolved, with unusually strong dynamic contrast and bass control. Its broad, evenly populated stage is a further strength, though one listener found its very close-miked presentation occasionally bright and hard.
Transparency Resolution
93/100
6 Moons heard a small but meaningful advantage in contrast ratio and resolution, describing the amplifier as if the listener's head hovered closer above the strings. Dagogo likewise highlights an exceptionally low noise floor, detail, openness and immediacy.
Tonal Balance Musicality
86/100
Review coverage praises the amplifier's musical detail, ease and realistic immediacy, while 6 Moons also found somewhat weightier bass. That same review characterizes the presentation as ultra close-miked, explicit, bright and occasionally hard, a consideration with already forward loudspeakers or ribbon tweeters.
Dynamics
95/100
Speed, dynamic contrast and control are central strengths. 6 Moons found the 114 faster, better able to bridge the listener-to-performance gap, and superior in bass control; its 200W/8-ohm rating doubles through 4 and 2 ohms, with stated stability to 1 ohm.
Soundstage Imaging
92/100
6 Moons reports perfectly even image density across a substantially broader soundstage and describes the intended effect as holographic. The review's close, explicit perspective may favor presence and image solidity over a more relaxed, distant perspective.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
90/100
The amplifier combines balanced-only XLR operation with pure-copper WBT terminals, a Furutech 20A inlet, custom Teflon/rhodium-plated XLR connectors and IsoAcoustics GAIA III footers. Its GaN switching circuit, resonant supply, substantial 20kg chassis and built-in anti-clipping protection indicate a carefully specified engineering package, although the reviews offer little long-term reliability commentary.
Value for Money
85/100
At $15,000-$16,000, the Element 114 sits in a serious high-end power-amplifier segment while offering high output, load-tolerant power delivery and premium connection hardware. The supplied coverage states the price but does not directly compare its value against competing amplifiers.
Reviews & Sources
Professional reviews and sources for this product's Watt'n Potatoes analysis.
Online Reviews & Mentions
YouTube Reviews
No reviews found yet
Forum Mentions
No forum mentions found yet
Specifications
- S/N
- 110dB
- Gain
- 26db
- Power rating
- 200W/8, 400/4, 800/2 ohms
- Speaker Terminals
- WBT ? 0710 CuMc binding posts, Accepts Bananas, spades or wire.
- Input
- XLR Balanced input, Merrill audio Custom Teflon, rhodium plated XLR
- Power AC
- 20A AC inlet, Furutech
- Footers
- GAiA III from Isoacoustics
- Size
- 430mm (16.9?) W x 110mm (4.3?) H x 418mm (16.5?) D
- Shipping size
- 559mm (22?) W x 254mm (10?) H x 559mm (22?) D
- Weight
- 20kg (44lbs)
Manufacturer's Description — Merrill Audio
We understand that not everyone wants the complexity and expense, relatively speaking, of a dedicated monaural power amplifier per channel. If you require a more compact solution that, nevertheless is able to satisfy the most discerning lover of recorded music Element 114, our stereo offering is sure to appeal.
The Element 114 stereo power amplifier is the smallest and least powerful sibling in our power amplifier range, but still packs a punch with its 200 watts into 8 ohms, 400 into 4 ohms and 800 watts into 2 ohms. The ability to double output for a halving of impedance is the hallmark of a truly well engineered amp.
Element 114 is built with the same dedication to musical, and emotional fidelity that is at the heart of our philosophy and passion? ? music first, connection, immediacy, the moment filled with all the detail and nuance in timing, harmony, ambient data, dynamics and speed that make the concert hall or the recording studio come to life for you in your own home.
Element 114 has the same ‘blacker than black’ ultra quiet noise floor of our other power amplifiers, to allow the most delicate of musical information to emerge unmolested from its circuitry. We insist on it ? silence is the beginning of music, silence pervades the music; music is the dance of sound with silence. Everything we have learned about how to create ‘the void’, this purity of noiselessness in components and signal paths goes into the Element 114 stereo power amplifier.
All great music seems to revolve around a fundamentally still point. Perhaps we can appreciate this most keenly in the work of J.S. Bach, especially the fugues. The music emerges from nothingness, moves around emptiness and returns to stillness at the end.
Without this fidelity to no sound ? to quiet, we lose that all important sense of anticipation as the needle hits the groove, or the play button is pushed. We lose our connection to the heart of performance as extraneous anomalous sonic events enter the signal path and vital cues are swamped by interference, however tiny. Music must emerge from purity, and live in it till done.
Element 114 ? the art of sound, and silence.
Verified Dealers
Online Dealers
All Dealers
Zoom out the map to see more dealers
Authorized dealers for Merrill Audio Element 114 Stereo Power Amplifier
- Distinctive Stereo — in-store — River Vale, New Jersey, United States (website)
- J&J Audio Solutions — in-store — San Jose, California, United States (website)
- soundstage ultra — in-store — El Cajon, California, United States (website)
- Technology Factory — in-store — Antwerpen, Vlaanderen, Belgium (website)
- The Analog Shop — in-store — Victor, New York, United States (website)