Merlin VSM-M and Bass


A bit of background:

Equipment:
Marantz SA-14 SACD player
Sonic Frontier Line 2SE preamp
Belles 150A Hotrod amp
Merlin VSM-M with BBAM

Setup and room:
diagonal placement
speakers about 5-6' apart and fairly close to the side walls in a 20'x20'x10' sloped ceiling room with a big opening into a 20'x12'x8' kitchen

I bought the Merlin's (VSM-SE) about 2 months ago and had Bobby upgrade them to the Millenium w/ BBAM. My question is how can I get more bass from them? These speakers are (were?) going to replace my Revel F30. The Revel's have the bass that I'm looking for, however, from maybe 100Hz on up, the Merlin's are much better. I just do not get the bottom end that the Revel's put out.

Integrate a sub? And if so, any suggestions?

Thank you,
david_berry
Oh, excuse me...:-(

"Imho VSMs sound is not as coherent as TSMs. I usually hear some midebass hump in VSMs removing deep bass from the audition..."

The only thing I can say about this fact is that I always have heard VSMs with BAMM activated and I am starting to think if there is some relation between this not linear bass response and the Bamm function.

For example I spent some weeks with a compact monitor Raidho speakers last month and they bring really big scale (for his size) adding some kind of hump but imho better resolved than VSMs.
TSMs midbass response is honest, particulary linear and it give them this transparent and revealing sound I like a lot. At this time they are one of my reference compact speakers in the market, really nice stuff
p, it sounds to me like the set ups you have heard the vsms in, have had some sort of bass reinforcement in the upper bass. if anything, the vsm is more linear than the tsm, has higher resolution and much less distortion. because the speaker can go lower it can combine with room nodes the create a false sense of mid bass boost. or...is it you do not like equalizers? :)
bobby
Maybe there is a relation between Bam and bass hump...
Could you explain shortly about frequency response differences between these two options?
Thanks for your inputs
"Maybe there is a relation between Bam and bass hump"

Pojuojuo, it is interesting that you hear a mid-bass hump or boost, must be a room node as Bobby notes. I have never had a mid-bass issue with the VSM-M which I have used for 12 years now, but it took a while in the early days to get the low bass right including dialing in placement, room treatments, isolation devices and matching the right components. I might have welcomed a mid-bass hump in those early years, cause the balance wasn't right but I perservered recognizing the other aspects of their presentation with the encouragement that yes, the speakers do bass.

Until you REALLY get things right, dialed in, it might seem that the speaker doesn't do bass but still.... I never had the hump issue you are experiencing. This is one of their virtues, especially for a 2-way, no humps, no gimmicks. The low bass articulation, control and pitch accuracy of instruments is just unbelievable when it is right. I'm not too sure I have heard well recorded solo piano sound more natural, coherent and resolving top to bottom on any system regardless of what John Atkinson said in his comments in the Stereophile review. ;^).
p, the bam causes no mid bass hump because its boost plateau is actually centered at 35 hz. the vsm response is actually + or - 2.25 db. the tsm is + or - 2.75 and because the qts of the morel woofer, its response is actually boosted by over 1 db in the range up to 180 hz. it is also playing below resonance of 52 so the im distortion is higher and impedance variations considerable because the driver in not kept in linear drive like the scan/bam. i am sure what you are hearing is a room mode. if the vsm's were set up by the 1/4's rule that would probably disappear.
bobby