Merlin TSM comparisons

Mapman you are right there is a big price difference, but the is also a big difference in performance. Of course they offer very different designs and sounds so as always personal preference is the key and I gave mine. The person I sold the Micro Talls to is using them for fronts in a home theater system with the Ohm 2000's and he said there is a strong family resemblance. John from Ohm is a real gentleman and makes a very fine product, I could walk to his factory in ten minutes from my workplace and I wish him success as I do Bobby from Merlin because they are both fine gentleman who give great customer support and produce great products. Ohm and Merlin are two great American companies that are easy to root for.

I found the Ohms like power. My 85wpc Unison Research Unico sounded good, but my Thule IA252B 250wpc integrated sounded better. The Merlins like tubes and I prefer tubes, butI tried the TSM's with my Redgum RGI35 35wpc solid state amp and it sounded very good, but I still preferred my JWN 35 WPC EL34 push pull.

Guppy,

Yes, power and also importantly current.

I've found high power, high current separate amps to be best matches to the OHM Walshes rather than integrateds because it is very expensive to build a high power and current power source into an integrated without having negative effects on the overall sound due to proximity of low level circuits in teh pre to EMI fields generated, etc.

IcePower and OHMs are a match made in heaven that several on this site have latched onto, including me.

Prior to Icepower, the amp requriements to max out OHMs may have made them less cost effective in teh end compared to easier to drive designs, as I suspect the MErlins are. Icepower breaks down those barriers though some better Icepower amps, like the BCs in my rig, are still not cheap. WYred 4 Sound is probably the best value in IcePower to drive OHMs, especially if one is using a tube pre-amp.

There are a lot of snafus one can encounter in trying to piece together a top performing rig alone.

Merlin seems like a practical fast track to high end performance for many. The design seems well thought out to work well for most user with most available equipment and Bobby provides teh guidance and expertise when needed. That is a very effective combo!

I also used an Onkyo 9555,class D, with the Ohms and it was a very good match. As far as Merlin goes they only make two models,one monitor and one floorstander, which are both two way designs and have been continuously evolving over the years with great skill and devotion and as you say Bobby provides great guidance with the speaker positioning and associated components as well as just about any other audio question and the bottom line is customers are very happy with the results so word gets around and Merlin thrives.