Tenor Hybrid v. VTL MB-450 Sig.

Rhyno, I have to respectfully disagree with your statement that Merlins don't get venue. This goes back to the issue of room size. I have heard some quite large systems myself including Infinity IRS 5's and the big Genesis system that get venue about as right as it can be. The VSM's do this but maybe not in a large room? Room size can't be overlooked. Why add a subwoofer to the mix at the expense of losing the coherence of the VSM? This is their point and appeal. Subs don't cut the cake. If you are going to mate a sub with a speaker such as the VSM I would agree, you're better off going with a larger system.

Venue information the Merlins get just fine........Size of presentation they don't achieve as the size of the presentation grows 30% when woofers are added.....Reason I no longer use subwoofers is they don't match with my amps in the high pass as you intimated can happen.....Someone once said "If you ain't got no bass, then you ain't got no space" and that is what Ryan was referring to, size of presentation, not venue information, but they are interrelated....Lots of speakers out there in the 20K range that will achieve a life sized presentation with the VTL450s and the reason I suggested another tact in the first place.......If I had a small room the Merlins would be on my short list of possibilities........I wish Merlin would finally get around to doing a subwoofer/crossover as Bobby has been talking about it now for well over five years......

traditional sub hookups are problematic, i admit. i had a custom passive x-over designed to roll off the merlins at 100hz at 6db/octave and let the subs come in there. coherence was not lost---i certainly couldn't hear the extra x-over, but i could hear lots more venue info per the subs...

with a sub, the merlins can play Big. but ask them to play loud and, as fremer noted in his stereophile review, their tonal balance skews towards edginess and some brightness. ---its not merlin's fault, every 2-way compresses when driven too loud. merlins do it less than most, but they compress at higher SPLs.

rhyno

Being familiar with rcrump's and rhyno's systems, I'll throw out a couple of thoughts, biased as they may be.

The Merlins excel at what they do, portraying a detailed, musical image, revealing much of the character of the associated equipment. They are most commonly suited to smaller rooms, as their capabilities for moving a lot of air are limited. They work well with music associated with smaller ensembles, such as small jazz and folk groups, as large symphonic works can reveal their limitations. That said, they are still very good speakers. I admire Bobby P's dedication and persistence in refining his products over the years.

The requirements of hefty amplifiers for Sound Labs are about to go away, as Sound Lab demonstrated a pair of Ultimate-1s at CES implementing some new technology realizing significant gains in efficiency and dynamics. Driven by some 100 watt solid state monoblocks, they had no trouble reaching adequate levels despite the lack of a preamp which was held up in customs...they had to make do with a CD player putting out only 0.7 V into the amps which require 1.3 V for full output. With the right preamp driving the amps the sound would have been much fuller and more dynamic. Anyone wanting further information on this can contact me offline.

Brian Walsh

I haven't listened to Merlins, Rockports, Avantgardes, or MBL's, or the big SoundLabs and JMLabs, but I have always taken it as a given that no speaker can fully capture the dynamics of live music or adequately present the scale of a large venue (acknowledging that these limitations are also shared functions of the recording end of things). Some here apparently think I'm wrong in this assumption?...