A common solution is to introduce high levels of negative feedback, but Wettasinghe rejected that because it also introduces harmonic issues and, perhaps worse, lower overall gain.
Element 118 how to#
His attempts to achieve this goal did not come without challenges, not least of which was how to minimize the inherent noise and distortion produced by the on/off switching of high-frequency output devices. In fact, he believes that class-D amplification, when properly designed from input to output, has the highest potential of delivering the most accurate, most holistically convincing reproduction of live music. The Element 118 is Wettasinghe’s latest attempt to prove that class-D amplification has a place in high-end audio, and need not be relegated to driving woofers. In 2015, confident that he could improve on the Veritas in several key areas, Wettasinghe began designing its successor and the topic of this review, the Element 118 monoblock ($36,000/pair), named for the position in the periodic table of elements of oganesson (Og), a chemical element first synthesized in 2002. At the time, it was also one of the few amps to use point-to-point litz wiring of ultrapure copper, rhodium-plated binding posts of solid copper, and top-quality XLR connectors - all made by Cardas. The Veritas was considered a breakthrough product not only for its sound quality, but also for being one of the first amplifiers to be based on Hypex’s Ncore NC1200 class-D power module. In 2011, Wettasinghe released the first Merrill Audio amplifier, the Veritas monoblock ($12,000 USD per pair, discontinued). Merrill Audio Advanced Technology Labs, LLC, was founded in 2010 by Merrill Wettasinghe, who not only earned a BS in electrical engineering and an MBA, and enjoyed a career in R&D and marketing with Hewlett-Packard, but has long had a passion for purity of sound.
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