[electricbear]

Many thanks to MerRev for having Sturgis, Mark and myself over for a listening session on Friday evening. We started the evening off by totally rearranging the basement listening room and moving the speakers to the opposite wall. This allowed them to be spread further apart and open up the soundstage. The Merlins sounded great ,well defined bass even below 30hz.His combination of a tube pre with solid state power gave good speed and control with an open and natural soundstage. This was further enhanced when Mark added his CJ dac to the system. For those of you who have never heard the Merlins you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. Thanks again MerRev.

[Scott F.]

Hi Tim,

Sounds like you guys had a good time listening over at MerRevs. I've got to make it over there one of these days to hear those Meadowlarks.
(Oh Tim, I editied your post to rename it from MerRevs System to Weekend Gatherings. Hope you don't mind

There were a few of us that had another mini-gathering over at Alan's (one of the other new guys) on Saturday night.

I wanted to thank Alan for having a few of us over last Saturday night. Alan is one of our many ‘new guys’. The guys that showed up were MathewM, SteveK, Blackmore, bpape, Sturgus and Deadfish. Alan invited a few people over that he met at a mini-gathering over at Steve’s a few weeks ago.

I don’t think Alan has mentioned his system here at GAS but it looks like this,

Speakers - VMPS RM40’s
Source - SONY 555es SACD, Squeezebox 3 unmodified
DAC – MSB (I forget the model)
Pre – Rogue Magnum 99 (I think that’s the model)
Amps – Carver Pro Digital driving the woofers(I don’t know the model), VTL 85’s (?) driving the midrange and tweeters.

Alan just recently picked up the VTL. Previously he was using the pair of Carver digitals to vertically biamp the VMPS’s. We didn’t listen to it but from what we gathered, the Carvers were a wee bit too much for the VMPS’s.

Here’s a pic or two of his system (sorry about the quality, we all forgot our cameras so these are from my cell phone).





Alan mentioned that before we showed up, he wasn’t convinced that the VTL helped as much as he thought it would. After talking to him on the phone, I decided to bring along my modded Korato pre to replace the Rogue just to see if the pre might be a contributor to what he was (or wasn’t) hearing.

We listened for an hour or so to his system while we waited for all the guys to show up. Once everybody had a good feel for his system, we started swapping stuff out. First up was the Korato. After inserting it into the system, there was a pretty drastic transformation for the better. The whole system opened up. The highs got cleaner and more extended, midrange had better definition, bass got tighter and we gained some significant dynamics.

After listening to the system with the Korato for a while, we decided to pull his speakers out about three feet (they were about a foot away from the back wall). The system opened up even more. Moving the speakers out also helped dramatically with the bass and mid-bass hump that we were hearing.

After that we decided to roll in that little Mhdt tubed DAC. After it warmed up, the soundstage opened up even further and we were hearing some nice signs of life and breathiness to the music. The little tubed DAC came with some compromises. In Alan’s system it was a bit midrange forward which gave the illusion that the treble was rolled off just a smidge. Not too bad but it’s something I noticed.

After we got done operating on Alan’s system, he said it was the best it’s ever sounded. From the sounds of it, we may just be getting the soldering irons out and start going to town on the Rogue pre.

A good time was had by all and another big thanks to Alan for inviting us over and providing us with the tasty munchies and cold drinks.

[MerRev]

it's good to see the Gas group so active.  Alan, it looks like you have some terrific equipment to listen to, and WOW- I didn't realize just how big and beautiful the VMPS's really are.  Thanks to the entire Gas Group, it's nice to have you guys out there pointing newbies like me in the right direction.  I feel very lucky to have already heard some incredible systems and cannot wait to hear more.  It's nice to have such a diverse collection of speakers and equipment within the Gateway area and to be able to share music with other crazy obsessed music fools like me (with much better ears ).  

Thank you Tim , Sturgus and Blackmore for coaxing me to change walls- it's a huge improvement that changes everything.  The room is a little lively but it's something that can be addressed.

[alana106]

MerRev wrote

WOW- I didn't realize just how big and beautiful the VMPS's really are.

  Your right they really are big.   I often wonder how I was able to sneak them in here past the BOSS.

  Occassionally, I still get slapped around, when she stops and takes a good look at them.