All Merlin family members.

Has 7.5 feet been an improvement over 8?

hi dave,
you and i spoke of your specific situation a number of times. with silver cable and bat gear in particular, the presense range will be enhanced and enable you to move the speakers farther apart. a more continuous sounding set of cables and electronics would benefit from my suggestions and show more depth of field due to the contrast potential being heightened. it sounds like you are not trying to get as much depth out of them anyway but a wider presentation. the wilson would have benefitted from your ancillaries due to the way they sound. the merlins are more continuous and therefore like other things for them to show their true potential.
have fun.
b at merlin

Dave,

As a newbie, I have much to learn. It does appear to me that speaker placement is system and room dependant. When I get my tsm based system together, it will be fun to experiment.

How far from the front wall have you placed the speakers?

btw....I`d also like to apologize to Tab for taking his thread off topic, but as merlin family members, perhaps we can discuss all things merlin and make Tab`s thread the official merlin forum.

Dick

Possibly a tad more energy & better focus at 7.5'.

Dick,

I have a 16'x16'x 8.25'H room, with a fireplace/chimney protruding at front wall center. The speakers are about 3' out from the front of the fireplace, and there are cavities to the sides of the chimney which effectively extend the distance directly behind the speakers to 5'. I listen on a couch against the rear wall. So the distance behind the speakers is pretty good, but the listening position against the rear wall is suboptimal but necessary in order to position the VSMs the desired 9.5' from the listener.

I experimented with acoustic treatment between the speakers, and found that 80% results can be obtained by hanging a 1.5'H x 5'L band of sound absorbent material on the front wall at ear level between W & T. I used a Navajo rug covering some Cornertunes (IMO never much good when placed in the corners for which they are designed). Hanging a blanket floor-to-shoulder height added just a bit more clarity, or "contrast" as Bobby said.

Finally, on a spectrum analyzer in this room I have measured flat bass response on the VSM-MX +/-3db down to around 30hz., with audible bass all the way to 27hz. But the bass is so clean that sometimes you don't realize it's there, relative to the warm, distorted bass of some other designs.

I also have a TSM-MX used in another system as a CC speaker. It is a damned nice CC!

My apologies as well for moving off topic.

Dave