what percentage of us really knows sound

I will flat out state I don't want it to sound exactly the same as "live" in my room. Can you imagine a drum kit, horns, and guitars all playing in my average size room. It would sound like crap and be way too loud for comfort.

We only have recordings to listen to, not the real live band. We also have the ability to regulate the sound level of a recording within in our listening space. We don't know the SPL of the original recording, but if we did, and our room and chosen equipment could achieve that SPL, recreating that level would make the replay closer to the original event.

Musicians can play their chosen instrument loud or quiet, but it is a different technique to effect that change. It's not like the thing we achieve with a volume knob.

Do you really want to listen to every performance at "live" levels? I certainly don't. So any reduction in playback level is an instant but essentially necessary distortion. Now we get to the illusion part of the program. How good is your imagination? How many sonic clues does it take for you to accept and find pleasure in the illusion? Do you like row "A" or row "S" in the hall? There are so many choices and so many perspectives. There is no one right choice for everyone or we wouldn't be here.

To the OP, you purchased speakers on reputation/recommendation not your own needs and bias. You want a speaker with big bass and that is not Merlin. Find what you like and buy it. There are thousands of speakers and amps to choose from. BTW I always like Merlins at the shows. I don't own them.

Hi, Pubu, Merlins are fine, took me a while set them up, got them about 48" from front wall and close to 8 feet apart, this speakers are tricky to set, you move them an inch or two, and you notice the change, looking for some Cardas G/R, I/C, and speaker cables,(used, speakers midrange is awesome,
Bass is lacking, but I' will fix that, when get time,
I'm an HVAC, contractor, and been running like Crazy last four days, leave in the East coast, and got pretty hot lately
Hopefully, will find some Cardas soon, and then will tell you in details, my impression of the Merlins,
My wife held a birthday party last Saturday, when got home,found a broken Pinata on top of one of the speakers, almost got a heart attack:

Like Rhjazz says, the Merlin really isn't a BASS lovers speaker, though it is +/-2db 33hz-22khz, not world class bass depth, but not too shabby either and too me it sounds pretty darn realistic handling acoustic bass on jazz recordings. But true, it is a 7" woofer, BAM or no BAM, but it is a very tuneful and fast bass that is pretty realistic for my taste. I did have the same preamp as you with the Quciksilver V4s (don't know how different they are compared with your M100s)but as you know QS makes some pretty nice amplifiers. I would think you have the makings of a really satisfying system there, and getting the speaker just right in the room will help enormously, but it is after all not a 3-way with 10 or 12" woofers, but it does things those big sluggish drives can't to well, especially in handling the midrange. Stick with a while, there are many Merlin lovers, though I suspect most are not headbangers.

Tvad, none of us can have complete exposure to outstanding equipment. Since it is quite evident that few of us share tastes in audio, an extended trusted group whose tastes we share becomes all the more invaluable in these days of few dealers and even fewer with a broad range of manufacturers.

I share tastes in wine, in places to travel to, and of course in politics with divergent groups of friends with only some overlap. All of this saves me enormous amounts of time is testing. Life is great. Agreed?

All I know for sure is that in general we all have ears and a license to use them.

I try not to worry too much about what other people hear since I will never know.