Couple of questions on the Merlin VSM speakers...

Budrew,

Our room sizes are very similar and I have my Merlin VSM's about 28" (front of speaker to wall) off of the long wall in my room.

Most of my listening is at low volumes. I've found that the VSM's maintain a very lifelike presentation as the sound goes down. Instead of the instruments compressing on each other, the stage just gets further away. I think that this is a great complement to Bobby's product.

I listen mostly to jazz and I think that I'd be hard pressed to improve upon the Merlin speakers.

Well Rich why don't you try to "sribe" it to me, I'm feeling this great loss now! btw, what % improvement do you conservatively estimate it is over the existing Millenium? Rumors are flying.

Thanks guys (or gals). My wife reminded me as she heard me speaking to a local dealer that i had promised not to upgrade anything else in my main system until my bday in October. She is very much against consumerism and our disposable society and got tired of me trying new components. The speakers were my last thing to consider, but I cut myself off to be fair. I explained the second hand market and she's figuring out how much I enjoy this hobby, but her frugality still shines through. It's all part of the great negotiation called marriage! By the time October rolls around we'll be close to having kids so low volume listening will be important. I'd like to have my system in a good palce by then so I can focus on family.

The Merlin speaker is still high on my list. I love a deep, rich red and the Ruby Red sounds great in the description. My associated components are Mcintosh tube amp and preamp, Audio Note DAC, Accustic Arts transport, and Nirvana and Audience cabling. My current speakers are Tannoy D500s which I ended up with early on without having tried many speakers.

Budrew,

I am in a dedicated room 20 X 14 treated with MG Tunepack and 4 Argent Room lenses. My VSM M speaker fronts 72" inches from rear wall and about 5'6" apart (Rule of thirds). They throw an incrediblely deep, wide SS filled with holographic images that is to die for.

I suggest you use Bobby's set up guide as a reference and try the speakers w/o the feet at different locations in the room and when you find a spot that has the best sound, mark it with tape, install feet and be prepared to be wowed : ))

Tubegroover, when I first heard the VSM-MX at the Merlin plant just a week or so before we brought them to CES, I thought the improvement was about 15% over the VSM-M. However, after spending more time with the speakers at CES I think the improvement is greater.... I find it very tough to put numbers on things becuase when you get down to it, one guy will think a 15% improvement is nothing and another guy would think that it is a major difference. I will say the improvement is *significant* and that I tend to be conservative when assigning numbers to descibe improvements.

Rich Brkich,
Owner, Signature Sound