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In Reply to: RE: Boy, this thread has taken on a life of it's own - combined response posted by bobbypalkovic on January 30, 2008 at 13:06:47
Guess you failed to notice. :)
rw
Follow Ups:
and yet he made no comparison to them. what's your point? he only referenced them because they too chose to keep the same model in production rather than change every year (Wilson and Vandersteen) or use the same tweeter - thought implemented differently (Rockport) - not a word comparing the sound of these speakers to the Merlins.
guess you saw them in print and that was good enough...
you're just digging yourself into a deeper ditch of desperation :)
d,
agreed, not one word of any comparison in sound to other mentioned products...period.
he keeps twisting the facts to suit his statements.
he is making himself look foolish as i pointed out earlier.
fremmer's review was a review on the vsm millennium compared to the mx. what the original product had become if you will.
and that was exactly what rob was doing comparing the vsm mx to the mxe.
e-stat is familiar enough with the product and my reputation and i take exception to some of the things he said about me and rob and his implications.
he should step back and read all this very carefully again and again until it makes sense to him. or, just drop it until he digs an even bigger hole.
best, b
Amen Brother Bobby, Amen :)
D
First of all, this is a follow up to a previous full review in which he most certainly compared the sound to other products and used musical references. Begin by reading at page 1 before you jump to page 8.Within the follow up, however, he pointed out that the Merlin uses a variation of the same ScanSpeak 854506 woofer used by the Wilson WATT. Later, he points out that the Dynaudio Esotar D330A tweeter is also used in the Rockport Antares. Then he observes that the Merlin faces "serious competition" to the Vandersteen Quatro.
Gee, some might consider these to be valuable points of reference.
Back to your rant!
rw
"First of all, this is a follow up to a previous full review in which he most certainly compared the sound to other products and used musical references." I commented on the review you specifically referenced in your last post, so try keeping apples to apples
"Begin by reading at page 1 before you jump to page 8."
I have read both reviews several times over the years - you however made the crazy leap in logic that because he mentioned other speakers at the beginning of the followup (you know, the one you referenced) he was comparing their sound quality (he did not)
"Within the follow up, however, he pointed out that the Merlin uses a variation of the same ScanSpeak 854506 woofer used by the Wilson WATT. Later, he points out that the Dynaudio Esotar D330A tweeter is also used in the Rockport Antares. Then he observes that the Merlin faces "serious competition" to the Vandersteen Quatro." Yes that is certainly riveting information, particularly since he specifically wrote that the tweeter is implemented differently in the Merlin, and the woofer is another variation. What do you discern from those facts in terms of comparing the sound of those various speakers? Yeah same here - very little. Yep the Quatro is a well reviewed speaker - but again no comparison was written between the two speakers. Again, "mentioning" something is not the same as "comparing" something.
I only joined this thread because you (and others) disparaged a well meaning reviewer/contributor - not to suffer through someone's dialectical breakdown, so I'm off to listen to my wonderful, magical Merlin VSM-MXes and will leave you to your own devices.
DKL
Conclusions
When he set out to design and build the VSM Millennium, Merlin Music Systems designer Bobby Palkovic told me, one of his goals was to build a "device that controls its destiny"—in other words, a well-damped speaker that would be able to successfully react to a wide variety of acoustic environments. While my room is probably somewhat overdamped compared to the average listening room, and the VSM is designed to be overdamped, the combination yielded outstanding performance. A more lively room might offer somewhat better bass, but I have no complaints about what I heard during the month the VSM Millenniums resided in my listening room. The VSM is a highly evolved speaker capable of successfully handling every kind of music. It combined the tactile thrills of the Amati Homage with the linearity and detail of the Avanti III. That's a winning combo in any music-lover's book.
This latest and, probably, last iteration of the VSM—Palkovic told me he's "closed the development book" as of last July—is a graceful-sounding speaker that should offer any audio or music enthusiast years of listening pleasure, regardless of musical or sonic tastes. It impressed me whether playing softly or scaling the SPL heights, though it did its best at medium volume levels, where its tonal and dynamic balances were most effective.
Some speakers can play louder without strain and/or go deeper, but in terms of overall balance, the VSM Millennium's strengths would be hard to beat at any price. $8150/pair is a lot to pay for a two-way speaker, but with the BAM included, the VSM delivers everything but the very deepest bass in a sleek, compact package. This is one music-lover's speaker you need to hear, however much you're prepared to spend. The brand name doesn't lie: The Merlins are...
You'll have to finish that sentence yourself. I can't bring myself to use the m word.
geo,
i would like to thank you for posting this, fremmer's vsm m conclusion. i have not read it in a while.
vsm m pricing actually took effect in the end on 1999. and as i told you a few weeks ago, we were trying to lift the prices so we could make a fair profit over what was made on our early offernings (where no profit was made at all to get a foot hold). that being said, if you do the math and see that a 3.5 time mark up is from $1000 to $3500, this price increase reflects an additional $1000 in material cost and overhead. have we had this increase? hell yes and then some! between the cost of the euro almost doubling and everything else going up, my last price increase of january 1, 2008 or 10% just put us back at 3.5 time mark up. consider the difference in my cost and the associated mark up to the dealer, neither the dealer or merlin is making any more on the product. costs are costs and that is a realistic point of view. i certainly appreciate they sell for more but i need to stay in business.
right now (not knowing what will become avaiable in technolgy) i think the vsm is far beyond what i ever expected it to be, at the pinnacle of its performance if you will. i have nothing else planned and may start on another project before i get too old. :-)
best,
b
I liked the favorable comparisons made by Fremer. At the time of the review, I think I still owned my VSM SE. The $3,150 increase does not really seem out of line given it has been 6 years. This thread has meandered along way from E-Stat's initial observation which I believe was that a review should at least make some comparison to what may be logical alternative products. Fremer seemed to do that at least in his conclusion. I did not go through the whole article. The audio business is tough. Many names have come and gone because it is not easy. I have a customer that manufactures cables, interconnects, power conditioners,power transformers and other audio related stuff some of which is OEM for speaker manufacturers. It is a well known name. The cables and audio stuff are only a small part of the business and we talk audio all the time. I do know that audio isn't easy given changing taste / lifestyles.
i agree geo.
the vsm m was the same price in late 99 and early 2000. the fremmer review was done in 2001. so its not like we just keep putting the prices up every so often. with it now being 2008, the elapsed time has seen a lot of things change, none of which i can control.
my reference was to the vsm mx follow up review where fremmer made no comparisons in sound what so ever. both dkl and i, said this many times.
rob's review was primarily a commentery of the mx to the mxe. a consumer does not have a great many things to compare to like a published reviewer would have. so he did what he able to do and discuss the difference in his two vsms. if e-stat did not like his appraoch he did not have to read rob's comments. let alone infer the crap he did about me and rob.
but he does not know me, does he?
anyway...thanks geo.
best, b
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