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Merlin TSM-MXr update
With a good 300 hours and counting on the Merlin TSM-MXr speakers (as well as the Manley Stingray II amp) I found a evolving difference that is notable.
The speakers have opened up and I will define this in three separate areas
Bass
The bass has changed, perhaps not in absolute terms but more in the way bass is presented, creating an impression of deeper bass. In the beginning bass was articulate but lacking some dimension. It drew a bit of attention to itself and I ended up changing from kitty litter to sand on the Skylan stands. At this point the bass has taken on LESS character. Does that sound strange? It's the closest to what I hear, which is more the sound of low notes reproduced without sounding like a "speaker." While the Merlins had this ability early on it is now more constant, which indicates an absence of low frequency coloration to a degree I find unique to these speakers. It seems that I was getting the sense of the skin of a drum and now I hear the resonance of the drum's body more distinctly.
Midrange
This is what you really paid the money for. The midrange has opened up substantially. In my initial review I had commented that the Merlins provided a "window" to hear music. The window is mostly gone now and the speaker's entire presentation is no longer framed as such. We get into a tricky set of very subjective semantic interpretations, but let me say simply that the speakers transformed my room into a field of music unmatched by any speaker I've owned. My previous Magnepan 1.6 pair came close at times, but the Spica TC60's and Totem The One cannot do this nearly as well. If there is any fault it is occasionally too much transparency for recording to withstand. Listening to the SACD of Dark Side of the Moon brought me deeper into the recording than I thought possible, but I also felt a bit distracted by hearing so much exposed. Is there a point where transparency might reduce involvement? I would say this will come into play when the listener is VERY familiar with a recording and the ear is trained to hear things a certain way. I can't fault a speaker for digging so deeply, but the same recording on the Spicas was more of what I was accustomed to and somehow more involving, at least at first. Over the last week I returned to that same CD and became more accustomed to the new details. On "superb" recordings the Merlins were without fault. I know how that sounds; more of a speaker groupie, but the Merlins really do go into rare territory when it comes to resolution.
The Tweeter
The new TSM-MXr features a new and (I'm told) superior tweeter. I have not yet compared the pair to my friend's older MMe version, but he feels the new speaker is improved quite a bit. What I expect from the speaker's high end tweeter is additional air and dimension. I also expect extreme detail, integration and uniformity on both units. And I fully expect this without a fatigue factor that may often come with highly resolving speaker systems. To be honest I have NEVER heard a excellent speaker that wasn't harsh on some recordings. That's rather obvious; the better speaker will resolve more of what's wrong with a recording just as much as the better attributes. You can't have it both ways. With great resolution comes great responsibility on the listener's part to "expect" negative elements to be also presented more strongly. And with that said I find the Merlin's high end to be superb, but as unforgiving as any other excellent design I've heard. The nuances of the high frequency elements are different from the Totem's, which I do find more fatiguing while not adding to the resolution. Over the last few weeks the tweeters have also opened up. For a brief while I thought they sounded separated with a lack of continuousness, but that issue vanished after a while and now the speakers have a very full and almost "single driver" sound once again.
Summation
On many recordings you can't hear the Merlins. They vanish, leaving only a curtain of sound that spreads beyond the walls of the room. On vocals most listeners are compelled to walk over to the speakers, certain that the sound is coming from behind them, above them or from the much larger home theater speakers against the screen. The Merlins have no trouble with large complex passages, but I do like my MJ sub (which is comparable to the REL) turned on for larger scale stuff. In the end my simple statement is this: The Merlins have opened up after 300 hours revealing more detail and transparency.
So...if you can't tell, I'm rather fond of my newest system.
Polite comments always welcome!
Original review with some pix can be seen here:
http://carew.synthasite.com/
Rob
We Need a Bigger Boat
Follow Ups:
It's great to hear from someone enjoying their system as much as you seem to be. I also went from 1.6's to an outstanding stand mount monitor and sub. Harbeth C7es3 using a REL R-555 (I think that's the model) to fill in the low end. I mention them only because a lot of your comments sound a lot like what I hear from my system. It truely is a pleasure to listen to. Seems there are more than a few Maggie owners going this route. I never thought a box speaker could satisfy me, now there appears to be several that can and do. Keep the reports coming!
Yes, I'm sure you have great speakers. But don't forget the wonders of world class bass. Before the painful dot-com boom I had an amazing system with Dunlavy Millenniums. These wonders were +/-1dB from 20Hz to 20KHz. That's right they effortlessly pumped out 20Hz. Plus they were not ported so the bass was very clean. You could clearly hear the bass strings being strummed and hear it as the stings' frequency varied as their vibration decayed. Drum strikes would move the couch. Even at modest volume of normal music, your pantlegs would move with the bass as you walked by. Absolutely nothing like it. Every single favorite of mine had to be listened to again. Of course these Millennium's had world class waterfall and pulse responses so the imaging was without peer. To this day it saddens me that I had to sell the system off due to the realities of the day.
We'll have to agree to disagree about global warming until the next global cooling scare comes along
Brian....I agree 100% on bass and I love a big full range speaker as well. Part of the compromise was that I wanted to be able to move the speakers easily. I plan to have a dedicated music room, but at the moment I only have the theater room. Adding a very good sub evened up the game and I do have world class sonics within the scope of what I was able to use in the room.
Previously I had Magnepan 1.6's with filled Mye stands....boy, moving those was tough. I felt guilty asking my 6 year old to do it!
Rob
We Need a Bigger Boat
Hey Rob,
You should be slightly embarrassed as you're publicly stating the following: I am a Merlin cult member, and drink from its Kool-Aid willingly, in mass amounts, on a daily basis.
Sheesh...
Bobby says mine will ship soon (exact model as yours) and I CANNOT WAIT for it to come in.
Cheers.
Mamoru
LOL...I remember that troll!
Well, be prepared. These speakers have gone beyond what I even hoped for.
What will you be using to run with them?
Rob
We Need a Bigger Boat
I'm really looking forward to hearing them, that's for sure. I've got a decent arsenal of speakers and am hoping that the Merlin's will allow me to dump most of the others (have to keep the TC-60s for sentimental reasons) without much pain.
If I go the SS route, I'll drive them with a Marsh P2000/A400 combo. If I opt for tubes, it'll be the Rogue Magnum 99/VTL MB125 combo.
Once properly burned-in, I'll do an in-depth comparison to the 901's...wait, wrong thread.
Hey,
Sorry to be a butt-in. But I think that the Marsh could be a really nice choice. You may also want to look at the Manley amps, - they have a great Synergy with Merlin. The Manley really takes command of the speaker.
"I'm not locked in here with you, You're locked in here with ME"
I also have a pair of TC60's here, though they're not mine. Still, it was very interesting to listen to them and compare. Other speakers I compared directly is the well-liked Totem The One Anniversary edition. What the owners of Magnepan 3.6's had to say really warmed my heart to say the least.
I've not heard the amps you own, but I did have the Rogue Metis pre, which I liked quite a bit. What I keep telling my friends (the few who have not heard them yet) is that here is a speaker that has ultimate resolution without sounding bright. I know I sound like a "speaker racer" but the truth is that I enjoy most good speakers for their varied approaches to the same goal.
A few weeks back one of the tubes on the Stingray popped and I had no spares. So for a short while I tried connecting the Emotiva XPA-3 and the UMC-1 processor. This is hardly a match anyone would ever suggest, yet the Merlins sounded terrific and suffered mainly in the soundstage department. They still out-imaged the Spicas!
Take your time dialing them in and experiment. Bobby (along with other Merlin owners) will have plenty of suggestions.
Rob
We Need a Bigger Boat
If you are half as pleased with the Marsh 400 on the Merlins as I am with them pushing my Dunlavy SC IVs then you will be just short of ecstatic.
Hey Jack,
Funny you mention the SC-IV's. The last time I looked into my music room the A400's were powering...yep, you guessed it, the DAL SC-IV's.
And I do agree that they do sound quite nice with the Marsh. I'm in the process of moving from a house into an apartment and not entirely sure I'd be able to make the SC-IV's work. I hope they do, as I really don't ever want to part with them.
But if the room won't allow for them, then they'll have to go. I do have their little sibling, the SC-I, also, which I really like. So those, I'm sure, would work well in a smaller room (not that my current music room is really big at all), but I've been so curious about the whole "Merlin" thing for a number of years now and just wanted to hear what all the fuss was about.
My plan is to have the largest bedroom as my music room, with more of a vintage type of system in the living room just for kicking back and listening to some tunes while doing stuff around the apartment. For that, I've got a Sansui 9090DB enroute, which will be driving either a pair of 901's or the Large Advents.
Wish me luck.
If you can find a pair of Dunlavy SC-IIs and a REL Stadium III -- or take your pick in the REL ST line -- you'll have a system that comes very close to matching the SC-IVs. I know this because I owned SC-IV/As. While I wish I had kept them, the SC-II/REL combination works similar magic and doesn't require as much space.
Very cool. Thank you for the information.
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