in my auditions the closest thing i came to buying was a Linn Majik 140. I had heard Razia Sultan that day on an all Linn setup and i was floored..but..
But somehow i never got around to doing it. something held me back... dunno what.. maybe spidey sense
Not that the Linn is not a good speaker but maybe my badluck or call it a turn of events.
Why did i get the merlin tsm ..?
a. Was looking for a larger standmount .. having grown up on 2 way standmounts.. i am charmed by a simple 2 way design. I never felt bass was inadequate for the kind of music i listen to. The Titan Monitor & Epos M12i kept me quite happy in the bass department.
b. For some stange reason i was always fascinated by the Dynaudios.. yes dynaudios.. especially the focus 110. I felt i missed out on sidvee's sale sometime back. But i later realized they are very good 4 ohm speakers and i did not have an amp to exploit them to the fullest. Somehow the 3 inch large voice coil always fascinated me very much. This is crazy but the 3 inch voice coil thingy is true
c. The Merlin TSM has a large 3 inch voice coil on its Morel MW164 midbass. Besides this is an 8 ohm speaker and the spec sheet says the min impedance is a very healthy 6.5 ohm so i figured my 50W Naim could take it. And yes .. it does very well..the Naim Nait runs absolutely cool.
d. I did read many things on the internet about the Merlin TSM being more suited for tube amps but many emails exchanged with Merlin convinced me the new tweeter was more amplifier neutral. That being said.. it may still be partial to tubes though i havent tested the merlin tsm with tubes and i dont intend to atleast not in the near future anyway as i feel quite OK with the Naim + merlin combo.
The new Renaissance tweeter on the Merlin TSM seems to be quite refined and unruffled but not too rolled off as well.
e. The sealed speaker means that i can push it a bit more closer to the rear wall also parallel to my equipment rack so the decor is maintained.
f. Many friends have suggested that with the kind of room i have a floorstander would have been more appropriate but simply having a room is not enough. My room is a shared space
g. The Merlin is a rather heavy speaker at about 12 kg each. To my mind - as far as speakers go - heavy is good.
h. I figured truthfulness to the recorded music is the way to go for longer term satisfaction. One can never fully know the "coloration" in a recording but the speaker must be able to follow the ebb and flow of the music rather than averaging it out.
This means that the speaker has to be more costlier with better construction and components and crossover design. I may get whacked for this
but thats what i think / thought.
i. I liked that Merlin has only 2 models - a standmount and a floorstander and these have been continuously refined over the years with many incremental steps. No confusion with various models though the name Merlin MMM TSM BME is quite something
j. Arj had Merlins TSM MME with him for quite some time and i was encouraged by his response and PM's.
Anyway.. we have about 10 hours on the TSM now and maybe the next 50 hours will see it open up even more.
Havent toed it in as yet to my listening position but have placed the stands / speakers more aesthetically keeping about 6 to 7 feet between speakers as recommended in the manual.
As of now, my Merlin TSM have come with the standard Ovland musicaps in the external RC n/w and i am due to get the ones with the Duelund caps in a month or so..
I removed the banana connectors on the Naca 5 as i found myself uncomfortable with connecting them to the cardas binding posts and now the Naca 5 are connected to the speakers in a bare wire fashion. Plan to go in for Cardas spade connectors and solder to terminate the Naca 5 properly. Just wanted to terminate it neat and clean.
Despite the home audition i had, since Merlin had a new tweeter on it.. it was a calculated gamble of sorts. One never knows till one gets it home and plays it. The speaker design and the room interaction play such an important part in the reproduction of sound.
mpw
hyeah::licklips:
