Anyone using Duelund VSF capacitor in Merlin VSM

look forward to your impressions after the burn-in.

I finally received my upgraded Master BAM and RC's and, as promised, my impressions follow.

But first, I want to put in a plug for the hideous, but remarkable Altmann DAC. My system has undergone about three major upgrades since I first got the battery-powered Altmann. Each time I was worried that it would not keep pace, and each time I've been amazed at how musical and analogue-like the darn thing is and how much more detail was waiting to be revealed. Definitely the best value I've come across in audio, if you can put up with its appearance and inconvenience (car battery needs to be recharged every hundred hours or so.)

Now on to the Master BAM and RC upgrade. First, a bit about burn-in. I have to disagree with the information sheet provided. To me, it did NOT sound good right out of the box. Yes, there was some noticeable increased resolution in the higher frequencies, but quite edgy, and lower frequencies were pronounced in their absence. I found the overall sound to be quite constricted. (I think I'm particularly sensitive to a lack of smoothness in the high frequencies, so ymmv). After 10 hours, however, hints of magic slowly started to become evident. But only hints.

By the end of day three (36+ hours,) it was sounding really good, significantly better than pre-upgrade.

It is now the end of day four (~50 hours), and I think it's fair to say I'm blown away.

My general subjective experience is simply that of a giant leap forward in my enjoyment of the music. Of course, that's not to say that the VSM system that I had before was at all a slouch. That's why it's surprising, but true, for me to be saying this. Especially on good recordings, I'm just hanging out with the musicians, heart to heart. The unconscious stress that we all experience trying to fill in missing sonic details, or removing what doesn't belong there, has faded.

I think the simplest description is that more than ever before with the Merlins, the speakers have just disappeared. There is now a venue in front of me with discernible acoustic characteristics and musicians playing within that venue. Again, this definitely varies from recording to recording, but the best recordings are startling in their realism.

I think much of the improvement can be attributed to the blacker background. It allows all of the complex harmonic details that contribute to realistic tone to be heard. And tone is key. Without natural tone, all the other audiophile goodies are worthless, as far as I'm concerned. The VSM's have always excelled at natural tonality. This upgrade has hit it out of the park.

One other observation: there is a manifestation of distortion that I've never given any thought to, but it has to do with accurate relative sizing of instruments. It's obvious that different systems throw different sized sound stages. And it's also obvious that some systems bloat or constrict the size of all instruments. But the flattening out of size of instruments is a more subtle aspect of distortion. It wasn't until now that I even became aware of the phenomenon. The Master BAM improves the relative sizing, which makes a significant contribution to overall realism. A double bass is big, a violin is small. A baritone sax is big, an alto sax is small.

It's not so much that I'm hearing things I've never heard before, although there is some of that. But more importantly, I'm hearing things in ways I never heard before. I'm hearing full, well-rounded piano notes, with all their harmonic complexity. Saxophones have body. Drum sets are particularly interesting. Each cymbal and drum has its own signature, yet the set is presented as a coherent whole.

I still have 50+ hours of recommended break-in period and the thought that there's more coming is making my lips smack. How much better can it get? In my opinion, this upgrade is a tremendous value, provided your upstream equipment can keep up.

System: Equitech 2Q balanced power unit; Drobo hard drive storage unit; Mac Mini and iTunes; Altmann DAC; ARS-Sonum Filarmonia integrated tube amp; Merlin VSM-MMe w/Master BAM; Cardas GR interconnects; Audience AU24e speaker wire.

g, i wrote the break in sheet that accompanies the master products before we had to change how the mbam's were made.
the original proto-type had the caps wired directly to the input jacks to minimize solder connections and pc board issues. but after having my prototype shipped back to me we encountered an issue with damaged caps. so we now solder them to the board and run a three inch piece of cardas to them. what you are hearing is this new piece of wire and additional solder joints needing burn in. up to 120 hours there were significant improvments evident so i am still expecting that you will hear more especially in the way of realism and a truly relaxed inviting nature.
have fun.
b

Turboglo,

Thanks for leaving your listening impressions as promised. I agree with all of your observations. I think you are right on the mark about hearing and listening in new ways as well.

The speaker is so relaxed and resolving that it just disappears and the music flows. For me, it has brought me closer in chasing my 40 year dream of my own piece of the absolute sound. Very exciting indeed.

My experience says to "hang onto your hat" as your sound will continue to evolve and improve over the next 100 hours.

Bobby has just hit the freaking ball so far out of the park with this upgrade it isn't even funny :-)

Hi all,

I just wanted to chime in about the Master BAM upgrades. I purchased a new pair of VSM-MXe from Bobby which I've been using for the past 1+ year. They replaced Dynaudio C1 monitors which were nice but needed much more power to get them going. The Merlins sound great with tube amps and don't need much power. I actually am currently using an Art Audio PX25 amp which only puts out 6 watts. I still have pretty good bass and plenty loudness in a room about 12x25x8 ft.

I was using the balanced BAM unit between a phonostage and my linestage, and a single ended BAM unit between my digital source (Modwright Transporter_ and the linestage). I sent the single ended BAM for master BAM upgrades and received the unit and Master RC's back last week.

I'm now using the Master BAM between the linestage and the poweramp, so that both digital and analog sources can use the BAM ( I don't have a tape loop in my preamp). Even though this configuration is not as recommended by Bobby, it sounds great where the previous BAM unit did not sound good after the linestage.

After so far probably about 15 hrs., I can attest to the above posters, better black background, better delineation of instruments/voices, increased size of instruments and stage height - I now notice on some recordings the voices actually coming from a height significantly above the speaker drivers, as if the person were actually standing up in front of the mic. Also most suprisingly, as I didn't expect this, the bass definition has improved and become more well delineated. The overall bass quality is shocking coming from a two-way 6.5" speaker, and especially with 6 watts pushing them.

Sounds like another plug for the Merlins but the Master BAM makes a speaker that was already amazing and turns it into a speaker that sounds better and suits me better than any number of speakers I have listened to, which cost up to 40k. None of the speakers I've heard have the overall righteous sound of the Merlins.

My system:

Merlin VSM-MXe
Nirvana SX-Ltd speaker cables
Einstein tube MKII linestage
Einstein balanced phonostage
Modwright Transporter source
Nottingham space 294 table with SME312 arm, Lyra Skala
Antipodes Audio Reference interconnects
Stealth hyperphono phono cable