I am really happy that some of you seem so attached to the SFG. I know, I'm a manufacturer and the competion but above else, I am a music lover. I know how hard it is to find a speaker system that gets out of the way so you can enjoy the music.
I am not sure what version of the VSM you have heard. There are seven. Or whether you listened with or without the BAM. So, I will use the VSM M/battery BAM as the reference to clear up a couple of points (and only those points) mentioned earlier.
Alexc mentioned that a friend of his listened to the VSM and felt that the SFG had more body and a deeper bass. Again, I am not sure what version of VSM was listen to, whether a BAM was in the system or not and what system interfaces were used but I can tell you that this is totally impossible. The reason for this is because Merlin uses a larger woofer with a greater excursion, the woofer used in the Merlin has a much lower Fs of 28 hz, Merlin's cabinet is over 33% larger, Merlin's cabinet is Hemholtz tuned to 38 Hz and not 46 to 50 Hz, Merlin uses a line amplifier (in the BAM) to augment bass at 35 Hz, correct phase and filter out distortion below 28 Hz and finally tune the system so that it is only 4 1/2 dB down at 30 Hz. The Merlin woofer responds more like a 10 inch driver in quantity, impact and extension. As far as the SFG having a richer mid band, that is impossible too because of the afore mentioned. Treble is certainly a strong suit of the SFG but the Merlin, IMHO, is still superior because it has greater bandwidth protection to reduce distortion, it is impedance corrected and uses electronic circuit damping to rid the HF circuit of crossover induced resonance. Filters are also employed to rid the system of RFI and EMI while providing the amp with a termination of 100 Ohms at 100 KHz.
My last comment pertains to Kiwis post. Speaker choices are personal in nature. But, these two designs are so very different that there is more to consider than taste. The SFG is a lesser damped design than the VSM M. Because of this, a totally different sounding amp would be used to get the most out of each design. Just because the SFG sounds best with more current and a higher damping factor doesn't mean the VSM M will respond in the same way. In fact the exact opposite is true because the the Merlin likes a fuller sounding and less damped amplifier. The reason for this lies in the crossover design. The SFG has greater impedance in the components that create the knee of the crossover. You need current and damping to control this region so ultimately, you'll be looking for a high powered SS amp to diminish the output here. The VSM M measures only .11 Ohms in the circuit creating the knee thus allowing lower powered and less damped amplifiers to be employed. Yet, you can still use an SS amplifier of any power or design as long as the amplifier sounds full and realxed (with a lower damping potential). Tubes will actually embellish the output in this range.
Both the SFG and VSM M are great speaker systems but they are designed for a very different listener and set of circumstances. IMHO, the VSM M compares more to the Amati Homage in over all performance.
