ProAc or Merlin

Vox, after reading some of John Atkinson's comments regarding the Merlin's I thought something was definitely amiss. His comments about "boxy colorations" concerning recorded piano was really off the mark. As an afficiando of piano music I can say that this speaker gets as close to real as I have heard comparative to ANY system I have heard over the years. The fact that Atkinson is predjudiced towards British designs is well known if not acknowledged by him. I have little doubt that he would probably prefer the Proacs knowning his taste but I may be mistaken. Which is where I am going with my point. The several Proacs are very nice speakers, the Merlins are just the best most involving 2-ways I have heard to date. They do it all, including well defined to mid 30 hz articulate bass in a really nice compact package as Hoosier1 notes. Folks that say these speakers don't do bass are just not familiar enough with them set-up properly, I used to believe it myself until I discovered what it takes. Believe me, I have tried MANY differnt combos with the VSM. They will completely reveal what works and what doesn't. This is the reason it is imperative to talk with the designer and owner's familiar with the speaker so as not to make any missteps along the way.

After 4 years of ownership there is not another speaker that I have a yearning for. The VSM keep on rising to the occasion with favorable upgrades. I am convinced I haven't found their limits. I feel they are among the best choices for a small to medium room and with sufficient power will work well in a large room. The Proacs again, nice but not even in the same league IMHO.

PS The quality of high frequency response is subject to room reflections and wiring choices as much as anything else. This must be properly addressed with the Merlins as well as any well designed speaker system.

Tubegroover, what equipment are you running with your Merlins? Since you have achieved such a good synergy, I am curious to know the rest of your system. I have always been interested in the Merlins, and I have and love a pair of small Proacs (1SC monitors).

Hi Vox,

Sorry, I cannot make that direct comparasion for you with that particular Proac speaker. I have owned two pair of Proac monitors and while I enjoyed each of them not to the same extent as I've enjoyed the Merlin VSM M speaker. I do have a comment on your interpertation of the review.

I think what Mr. Fremmer in his Stereophile review stated was that playing the VSM M too loudly upset what he described as "perfect tonal balance". How many speakers can make the claim of a perfect tonal balance? No where do I see any reference or description of the high frequency sounding bad. In my 19 X 15 room, they play plenty loudly with no compression or strain and with the perfect tonal balance he suggests.

The VSM M speakers are ultra-revealing transducers. They are very sensative of what is feed to them upstream. Consequently, upstream components and wire must all have their ducks in a row or you will know they don't and quite quickly.

The Merlins IMO are a speaker to build a system around. Careful system matching yields outstanding, long term musical enjoyment and satisfication for fatigue free listening of music.

why not try Dynaudio Contour S3.4 ?

If you are concerned about sheer volume level Vox, get the VSM MX because any issue of dynamic compression or tonal shifts at high levels are gone (and that's not to say that there ever was a problem to begin with). Mr. Fremmer's point was that he felt that the speakers leaned out slightly at higher levels, which IMHO, they do not. He also mentioned that he had a heavily damped room which set the tonal balance to the light side to begin with.
Bobby@merlin