[drphoto]

Danny, has anyone send in any variant of the Merlin TSM monitor for evaluation? I have one of the last iterations, the Mme. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think this speaker is spectacular. This has a totally inert cabinet a modded Morel tweeter (by a company I think called Renascence, Morel mid bass (matched) Holland caps, Caddock resisters and Cardas binding post ($52/ea retail) Dunno inductor brand. I recently ordered the upgrade crossover for my newly purchased Maggie LRS.  It pains me to say, as Maggie fanboy,  but I think these kick the crap out of the stock LRS. And not just in dynamics. I think remarkably transparent and fast. Bobby refined this basic design for over 20 years. Dunno if he had employees or was a one man band, but I know for a fact he built my pair by hand. Now granted at around the $3K mark when new, these are not a cheap speaker, but given the parts quality, when you factor in mark ups, seem like a bargain.

Anyway, not an ad for Merlin, as they sadly or no longer as Bobby passed away a few years back. But you seem to find (rightfully) fault w/ a lot of off the shelf speakers for using crap parts.....but this one doesn't. So wondered if you heard.

My only knock on them, is they're pretty ugly. Not because of truck bed paint, but because horrible socket things for the grill, as I removed.

Sorry for long winded post.

[jmimac351]

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[Danny Richie]

A customer brought in the larger VSM model.

It used first order filters with no compensation for the baffle step loss. So the lower end was pretty thin compared to the bass region. So Bobby incorporated an active EQ system he called a BAMM to bring the bass levels up, but it only jacked up the very bottom and left a hole in the midrange. The opt amps and power supply used in the BAMM also colored the sound. It also had phase issues in the vertical off axis, and I think it had a peak at about 1kHz.

I thought I was going to get to design a new crossover that balanced it all out, but the customer heard our X-Statik model and that ended that. He said he wasn't going to waste money fixing the Merlin as the X-Statik bettered it all over. He bought the X-Statik kit and I have no idea what he ever did with that Merlin. 

[jmimac351]

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[Danny Richie]

Danny, when I get my VSM together... am I going to be able to take relevant / useful measurements with a UMIK microphone and REW?  I'm really curious to see how my VSMs measure compared to the ones you measured, and whether REW is good enough for doing any of that stuff.

I hear that the newest REW will allow a gated time window. That transforms it from a room measurement device to a speaker measuring device.

Some of the lesser expensive mics typically used with them can roll off the top end. So it is all about the mic as much as the software.

I'll drop in the measurements of the VMS model.

[Danny Richie]

The Merlin VSM

On axis response:



Crossover:



Horizontal off axis:



Vertical off axis:



Spectral Decay:



Impedance:

[jonbee]

I had a pair of vsm-se many years ago. They sounded just like the measurements suggest. I didn't get why they were so well regarded. They went away pretty fast.
I had a couple pairs of tsms lastly tsm-m. Pretty decent, but little bass and the mids seemed a bit un-natural. They had very good detail presentation, though. Not bad, but not good sonic value for $.

[DaveC113]

Many years ago when RMAF first got going, Merlin were one of the few that made coherent sounding speakers. This was the time when single drivers were very popular, because most multi way cone n dome speakers sucked. YG sucked, Wilson sucked, going around RMAF there were VERY few speaker manufacturers who could make even ok sounding speakers. Merlin was one that wasn't just bad sounding relative to other choices. Times have changed and I don't think Merlin speakers would hold up today, but for what they were and when they were selling, they were good. It could easily be argued many single driver and vintage speakers were better though, and some speakers stood out like the Oswald Mills speakers with the solid cherry cabinets and ribbon tweeters. Overall those were pretty dark days for high end audio, very few rooms at RMAF weren't just plain bad, and not because of setup, the products were simply bad.

[jmimac351]

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[FullRangeMan]

I have read Merlins were voiced to pair tube amps,
but at that low efficiency they need power.

[jmimac351]

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[FullRangeMan]

Congratulations, they are great amps. 

[jmimac351]

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[knotscott]

Merlin threads don't come up much anymore, so apologies in advance if this is a bit off topic from the OP, but I couldn't resist. 

I met Bobby Palkovic sometime around 1983 or 84.  Bobby was an extremely charismatic and likable guy....we hit it off very quickly, and I ended up working part time with him (and Paul Heath) at Merlin while they were still based out of Paul's store on Alexander St in Rochester.  Bobby had just introduced the Merlin 1, followed by the 2, and later the 3 and 4s, long before the VSM and TSM models.  They started dragging me to CES shows by the mid 80s, when they were showing with Convergent, who had just introduced the SL-1 preamp.  Such great memories of serious audio overload!  I think the last version I owned were the 4+... they were huge!   I was very saddened to hear of Bobby's passing. 

A couple of years ago I got offered a pair of Merlin Signature 3s.  They needed refoaming, and some refurbing to the wood, along with some soldering and general TLC to the pots.  The came out great, and ended up making a wonderful grad school gifts for one of my sons.  Thanks for letting me tread on your thread for a bit! 

[jmimac351]

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[drphoto]

One of my former business partners had a pair of those old foam wrapped Merlin towers from the 80's. I thought they sounded very good.

Ok, so being someone who is always willing to admit when I'm wrong, I have the my Merlin TSM-MMe in a desktop, near field system. I recently acquired a Schiit Vidar 1, as I like it's small form factor. A lot of love out there for these. The rig sounds very good overall, but I think vocals sound sorta gritty and harsh. Thought it was amp, so I sent to factory. They said it was fine. Maybe it's the speaker after all. I have the original shipping box, maybe should send to Danny for eval. Some people mentioned 'ringing' of the Morel mid driver. Where does that come from? Is it a basket issue? Can it be fixed?  I'm now getting back to the hobby after a 10 year absence. I had 'audio nervosa' and would nit pick system flaws instead of enjoying music. Took away all the fun.

Oh, I have a pair of GR OB subs I need to finish when I set up a new main rig w/ my Maggie LRS (with GR crossovers) but for desktop I got one of the RSL 10" Speedwoofers. Very nice unit. Does suffer from cabinet vibration, so I installed some No Rez. But it is indeed fast and punchy, not bloated.

Thanks for everything over the years. I really miss when folks from the Midwest area would gather at Rob (Marbles) house. Everyone was cool as hell. I had fun playing kickball w/ Rob's kids on the tennis court.

[Tyson]

The evaluation from Danny is free so nothing lost if you send them to him. 

You might find that it's cheaper and easier to get great sound from something Danny designed from scratch to be great, instead of fixing a sub-optimal design by someone else.  Especially for a desktop the new LGK series is really good.

[drphoto]

I think audio nervosa my rearing it's ugly head again. For the most part, this system sounds fantastic. But I just listened to 'Last Night of the World' by the great Bruce Cockburn Ripped from CD to MacMini using dBpoweramp in lossless format. Vocals on verses just fine, but gritty on chorus. Switched to a track from Sheryl Crowes magnificent debut album 'What I Can Do For You'. Vocals fine......high hat a bit nasty. Maybe the Merlins are revealing flaws in the recording?  One of my favorite test records is Jazz at the Pawnshop and it sounds very good, not a bit of grit or harshness on anything.

I thinking I'm losing what's left of my mind sometimes.

If I didn't work in healthcare, I'd go back to smoking weed like the early 80's when even a Marantz 1060 and Advent speakers sounded great. 

BTW: if people say the Morel mids have 'ringing', does that mean they smear sound or cause actual distortion. Can one apply damping material to the basket or is it something inherent in the speaker design. Really don't know.

Thanks for playing along.

[drphoto]

As a quick followup. Listening to more 'Pawnshop' at very high volume. sounds really....I mean really good. Nothing etched, gritty or harsh.  I'm going to lean into the recordings maybe having an issue. I think I always like speakers like ProAc because they tended simply sound pleasant. Everything smooth and warm. Maybe a characteristic of a lot of the British stuff. Actually always wanted a pair of the old ProAc Response 2.5, but always thought they were just ridiculously overpriced. I think the Merlin is ruthlessly revealing. I know some of you have said it's not that great, and that's fine. I'm not defending the purchase. Not loyal to any brand, except maybe Mac computers. (As someone who was in the commercial art field, it was the industry std.....and I stuck w/ 'em even during the dark days. Too bad I didn't buy a bunch of stock when it got down to around a dollar/share when John Scully was CEO. But the Mac OS was and is superior at least for me) But that's way off topic.

[jmimac351]

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