GMA Callisto VS. Merlin TSM

Minbean,
I appologize if I came across as pushy, as that was not my intention. I was, and am trying to help you find the source of your problem (hence the headphone recomendation). I'm hoping the speaker is not the problem, in all honesty. Bobby has been very helpful to customers and potential customers alike. He is one of the few designers that takes time to respond publically to customers needs and questions. That says a lot about him as a person. I respect him for that even though we don't see eye to eye.

I have been working with my amplifier to re-route feedback from "from the final out to differential input" to "from the driver stage to differential input" with a purpose to decrease the amplifier's damping factor and isolate the feedback loop from the speakers.

I have never expected such a difference!

The charactor being picky for recording dissapeared to almost none or nothing particular.

Everything is so clear, smooth and musical. And most amazingly, the speakers dissapeared completely leaving only a very compehensive sound stage. I can't hear anything like distortion if not known from original source. Now I understand what the other TSM-MM users were about to praise!

I have to do more things to clarify why this happened but it looks like the change brought the whole system almost to the level of perfection.

I applaud Bobby of Merlin for his excellence in designing the speakers and also for his enthusiasm to support the users! Thank you!

songwriter72@,
I did A/B according to your suggestion and honestly I could not hear any more distortion or harshness from TSM-MM than the headphones. Or TSM-MM was not interpreting music in any less enjoyable way than the headphones. I recommend you to have a chance seriously listen to TSM-MM in correct set up. I have to say that your assumption orignally had too much gap from the reality.

songwriter, i read this prior to your further comments:

"The ability to play and enjoy ANY recording is one of the primary advantages of time/phase aligned speakers. I no longer have un-listenable or un-enjoyable recordings in my collection since purchasing the GMA speakers."

and undertood that "ANY" actually means "ANY". i interpret "play and enjoy" to mean "sound good". i don't think i was "twisting" anything. i was just reading your thoughts. thoughts which you obviously felt the need to elaborate upon further and i appreciate your further qualifications to your remarks. take care.

minbean,
thank you for the new information. if you had watched me closely for many years i have had the preference for amplifiers that are less damped/lower feedback and actually run my joule vzn 100s with the feedback off or the berning in the lowest feedback setting. when you have a speaker like the merlin that is so uniform from top to bottom a damped amp/wire or source will choke the tone to a degree. if a speaker has the bbc style dip, the mid depression relative to the bass being up by comparison calls for a damped amp for control. even changing the wire to a more finely stranded copper cable will sound like you have extended the bandwidth extremities because you have relaxed the mid band.
keep me posted and enjoy!
thanks,
bobby at merlin