Merlin TSM comparisons

I used to own the Ohm Micro Talls and they are terrific little speakers with the added benefit of a very small footprint. That being said the Merlins are in another league in every area I can think of, but again I feel Ohm makes an excellent speaker and I don't want to knock this underrated company.

OHm and Merlin have a lot in common as companies I think, mainly a very dedicated and long standing customer base.

Customer service seems to be paramount to both which is a key ingredient.

The biggest difference I think is that Merlin has more appeal to teh audio high end community in general due to its focus on absolute quality and associated costs that go with that in some cases, yet still ranks pretty well in the high end big picture, when you consider companies like Magico, etc.

John Strohbeen, the guru behind OHM, is a unique breed, an MIT trained engineer with a seemingly more blue collar pedigree. Take a look at the OHM shop sometime. There are photos in one of the Six Moons reviews, I believe. VEry low overhead apparently otehr than residing in Brooklyn, NY. The OHm line has always focused on highest quality sound for the lowest prices for maximum appeal. That's the case with their older conventional bookshelve and floorstander designs as well as their more recent bread and butter Walsh designs.

Guppy,

The OHM 2000 ($2800) or OHM 3000 ($4000) is probably a fairer comparison to the entry level Merlins ($3080) based on list price than the entry level Micro Walsh Talls ($1400) as best I can tell.

I've said before that I think that Ohm and Merlin have at least one thing in common: the vision of a single designer who has continually refined a few basic concepts over a long period of time. And in both cases, calling the company number is likely to get you an extended conversation with the very helpful head honcho. :-)

One other difference I think I note between Bobby and John is that Bobby has an absolute vision of what it takes to get the best sound that he believes in and shares that openly with his customers.

John Strohbeen will provide guidance when asked but is more about giving the customer what they want rather than what he thinks is best. He will tweak his standard designs as neededif the customer asks, as long as he does not see any inherent problems.

Both approaches have merit depending on what the customer is looking for.

the downside of John's approach is I think sometimes the customer thinks they know what they want and John oblidges, then they may have second thoughts afterwards.

Intetesting too that generally John recommends NAD amps if someone asks which to use with the OHMs. Personally, I think you can do better if your goal is the "absolute sound", but NAD offers good value for most so I understand why he does that.