Merlin TSM comparisons

Mapman, I think they bested the Cometes, a speaker that I feel is an excellent high value monitor, very clearly in just about every area. They are much more transparent, have much greater tonal accuracy, a bigger and more natural sound stage and better imaging, much better bass and I am not talking about quantity here, but the Merlins have tighter and better detailed and much more satisfying bass. I felt the bottom end was not as natural with the Cometes with a little void in that area, but I have that feeling in most monitors with them either having a sluggish midbass emphasis or just a not sufficient bottom end. The Merlins are much more balanced than the Triangles having superior performance from top to bottom without emphasis on any particular area, the music just flows and they disappear much more than the Cometes or just about any monitor I am familar with. That is just off the top of my head.

I would LOVE to put the TSM's up against the Magico Minis!

Rob

Robbob,

Yes, I would like to put several much less expensive monitors including MErlins up against those.

Have you heard Magico minis?

Yes, I did hear them, but really can't say that I had a fair chance to really evaluate them. My friend bought and sold them at a good profit. He did not think they were worth anything near what they cost. In fact he preferred his little Totems, which cost a fraction of the Magico price. He has since adopted the Merlin TSM-MMe has his top monitor. We did not like the top end of the Totems.

That said I'm not going to suggest that the Merlins are better because one or two owners felt that way. I will say, and I hope he doesn't mind, that Bobby believes he has the superior design. Before I got the Merlins Bobby also told me the TSM's would be better than my previous speakers, the Magnepan 1.6 QR's with Mye stands.
I will honestly say now that I did not believe him. The Maggies did a lot of things very well. But the Merlins do exceed the performance of the Maggies substantially, even in soundstage/image, which is the Maggie's home turf.

I guess the bottom line, echoed by other owners, is that I'm very impressed with these speakers! The system is warming up right now....going to check out Cyndi Lauper's new blues CD!

Rob

The Magico's I heard sounded very good but then again I would expect most any good speaker matched to the system I heard them on to sound very good also. The electronics and wires alone probably pushed or broker 6 figures. At those prices, there is room for preferences but not for poor performance the way I look at things.

I would not trade my OHMs for Magicos. I'd have to a/b compare on my system to know how my monitors compare. They both might at low volumes and the Dyns maybe at higher volumes. No way to know for sure without comparing on your own system.

Its also typcila that different speaker designs shine best with different electronics feeding them, so comparisons on a single system do not tell the whole story, no matter how good the system is.