Everyone whose Merlins...

just to clarify some points, also posted on aa.
the x max of the woofer is 24 mm which equals some 15 to 18 inch jbl drivers. with the fs of the driver being 28 hz, it likes to go low and move a lot of air. the filter at 28 hz in the super bam, removes out of band output which reduces im distortion elsewhere. with the use of the bam we were able to optimize the bottom end of the speaker in amplitide and phase while utilizing a smaller encloser to keep sensitivity higher, reduce distortion and greatly improve the midrange clearity and uniformity. this enables the vsm/bam to be used with lower powered finnessed amps. in essence, what is missing is 16 to 30 hz. this is the lowest octave so you would be wanting for the lowest pipe organ notes and some electronic music only. all other acoustic instruments, jazz, blues and rock are handled by the in band response of the speaker. the speaker is just not designed to fill large spaces or go super low which can be a benefit in a large environment. the vsm is designed to work in normal sized living environments. if you need more bass quantity in your set-up consider changing something in your system to improve the tonality. give me a call for a discussion.
thanks,
b

I picked up my “Super BAM” (is this a trademark now Bobby?) back in June when Bobby was just shipping them out the door. I already had the VSM-MX for about 1.5 months. I followed his suggestion of fully charge/fully drain cycle perhaps 10 times. Now I usually unplug the AC and listen in battery mode for one hour and plug it in again and flip the switch back to fully charge. Once a week I do the fully drain/fully charge cycle simply because it does not require much effort.
Bass? Damn straight it does and it does it right. Among others, I have owned a pair of Revel F30 and Gershman Acoustics Avant Garde RX-20 speakers that, in absolute terms, put out more bass in the sub ~150 Hz region. The Merlin’s, however, put out the “right” amount of bass – the amount that did not call attention to it and was just part of the music. I can understand the comment that this speaker system is somewhat bass shy, but I cannot agree with those opinions whatsoever. If one owns a bass heavy speaker (i.e. there is a bump in that frequency region), the whole spectrum of the music is off and sounds irritating. At least it does for me. As an aside, I had all three speakers mentioned above at the same time for direct comparisons (the Merlin’s then were the VSM-M with the “regular BBAM).
System matching is very important with these speakers. This has been noted many, many times. A couple of years back, I did have a subwoofer for a short period with my VSM-M’s but sold it after replacing my preamp (Sonic Frontier Line 2 SE for a Joule Electra LA 100 MK III). It made the speakers sound fuller – not deeper really, just fuller to the extent that a sub was not required.
To the question at hand: What do I think about the Merlin’s after numerous hours under their belt? They are the cornerstone of my system and I will change my system based upon what I feel is the best match for the speakers.

David

David,

There is no question in my mind that I have built my sytem around the VSM speaker. I was quite unprepared for the quantam leap in performance that the MX has brought to my set up. (although after two other VSM upgrades you would think I'd had a clue!) In my room, with my equipment it is a sound that I feel I would have to spend tens of thousands more to attain and for that I have no interest. (or budget)

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David,
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How long did it take for your Super Bam to fully break-in ?
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Thanks,
Larry
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Larry,

I honestly cannot say. I, at the best of times, have 45 minutes a day to listen to my system at night and I try my best during that time not to think about the equipment (I do that during the day, however :)). It could very well have a break in period, by it completely went by unnoticed.
I just followed Bobby’s advice about the best way to “break in” the Super BAM and have been enjoying it since day one.

David