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 of extension, 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. In discussing this with fellow audiophiles we came to see this thusly: The Merlins have all the resolution one might want without being bright. I can contrast this with many B&W speakers costing far more than these that provide extreme resolution but at a COST of some brightness and fatigue.
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. Listen to a pair, then switch off the lights and let them play. It may alter your ideas of how a speaker should sound.
