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In Reply to: Than again.. posted by JeffH on May 19, 2004 at 15:06:17:
Speaking of jazz, do you mean warm and forgiving like Charlie Parker, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, John Zorn, etc. I listen almost exclusively to jazz and classical music and had a pair of warm and forgiving speakers before I got a pair of VSM's. I was bored by those speakers and missed the nuance and detail that is the essence of music. Merlins are tonally accurate and easy to listen to (with my equipment) when the music is supposed to be warm. But it seems to me that speakers that are warm on all recordings, even those recordings that are not supposed to be soft and fuzzy, have colored the music in an unacceptable way. Indeed, such speakers commit what is to me the inforgivable sin: they make music boring. All I can say os that since my merlins arrived six months ago, I listen to too much music (and do not practice my instrument enough) -- no listener fatigue here. I wonder if people who are criticizing the VSM's have really listened to them. Of course, I understand that differenct folks like different speakers, but the negative descriptions of the Merlins in this thread are not accurate.
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Follow Ups:
Some folks confuse warm with easeful. I have seldom found 'live' music warm but always find a sense of ease in its presentation. And yes, even 'live' jazz. Jackie McLean plays a nasty wonderful sax and the wonderfulness is the ease that we hear beneath the nasty.I have never found systems (speakers in particular) that can't do ease along with their clarity and expressiveness bearable.
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What about "difficult" or "challenging" music? There is simply no one characteristic that all good music --live or recorded--shares. Music is more complex than that.
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I think Bob nailed it. And I think my terminology was lacking. I typically use the term "warm" when meaning "ease".
Thanks, Bob.
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I do not think it is just a matter of defining terms. Playing and istening to playing music is not always like practicing yoga or zen meditation. Good music does not always calm the listenter or player or put her at ease. Often music conveys just the opposite: a sense of urgency or even shrillness. Of couse, good speakers must be able to convey a sense of ease or whatever when the music or recording demands it. The Merlins can do that, but they also capture the broader specrum of the thought and emotion in the music. They can, when the occasion demands, make me uneasy.
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