One of the things I like about Ohm (along with a recently auditioned pair of Duevel Planets, is they are great for playing music when I'm having a party! Few speakers fill rooms with good sound the way Ohm speakers do. Mirage has also tackled that concept with some success.
The Merlins are a "sit down and listen" type of speaker.
Robbob,
My experience exactly.
Ohm rightly promotes one of its advantages as being a huge "sweet sweep;" sit (or stand) anywhere in the room and get the full stereo effect. But owning Ohms for about 18 months taught me that I am much more of a "sit down, close my eyes and listen 'into' the music" kind of guy. I want to be swept away, so to speak. I don't mind speakers with a more conventional "sweet spot," as long as I don't feel that I have to keep my head locked in a vise to get the full effect.
Mapman has written elsewhere that some listeners will "dig" (my word) the unique Ohm spatial presentation, and some won't. Over time, I found that I got frustrated with how the Ohm's interacted with my room (I'm guessing that was the issue) and with what I'd sloppily call a kind of "vagueness" in their imaging, especially.
The Merlins can throw an enormous soundstage, given the right source material. But they seem (thus far, and I'm sure I'm not yet getting the most I can out of them) to really excel at tone, texture, nuance, and the sense that the music is all of one piece.
