Merlin Room at 2004 HE Show in NY

I was just there for a little bit. Speaker looks about 40" tall with a 8" woofer. Same old, 3 metal stripes down in the front baffle. Sound was warm and pleasing as I remember. Never fatigue sounding. Nice room.

I heard them and thought they sounded great. Frankly I didn't realize it was a new merlin model. It seemed to have the merlin house sound, which to me means extremely detailed and accurate across the midband, yet smooth at the same time - at least driven by the Joules. I heard the Kharma, driven by Lamm, and it was nice, but for me, didn't have the life that the merlins had.

I heard both rooms. I enjoyed the clarity and power of the Merlins. The sweet spot was nice and wide too.

The Kharmas were truly transparent and disappeared, even when sitting quite close. The term 'tonal colour' comes to mind--the sound was truly rich and satisfying.

I suppose it's a bit unfair to compare the 2, since the systems in both Kharma rooms were quite a bit pricier than the Merlins room.

The Merlin room was much better than the Kharma 3.2 room.

I think the Kharma/Lamm/Walker room was superior. I could find no fault whatsoever with the sound. Of course, you are dealing with some serious money in that room. Everything is the best of the best, and it costs that way too. Lloyd's turntable is otherworldly, and even the Audio Aero Capitole in the Merlin room is nothing in terms of a match for it.

There was not perfect sound in the Merlin/Joule Electra room, but it was very, very good. There was a bit too much bass, which overpowered the room. Slipknot1 felt the room was overtreated, which I cannot disagree with. I felt the bass was plump and plummy. I wondered if the Merlins need a big room, despite their small size. I also wondered if removing the BAM from the equation might work better in that room, but I don't really have enough experience with the speaker to say for sure.

While the sound was superior to what many will ever achieve, I have heard the speakers sound a lot better than this. In fact, I have heard them sound so good, that I actually suspended belief in what I was hearing, and felt I was listening to live music. To be honest, I have never heard better sound, EVER.