SS amp for Merlin VSMs?

agreed paul, the room is most important especially to get it tuned to the way your speaker radiates energy. you must get it to the point where there is minimal reflected energy at the seating position, at least for my products. at shows you have seen drapes used to great advantage behind the speakers, room tunes for the early/primary reflection points and their corner tunes for damping mirrors and corners where the walls meet the ceiling.
it is like a traveling treatment show. i have used these for 15 years at all the shows hence, the usual look to my rooms. same goes for the work room at home.

best, b

I think it is one of the reasons your speakers do so consistently well at shows - the speaker has something to do with too:)

I forgot room treatment probably because I take it for granted in my system. There are long drapes covering a large double window behind my Merlins and long drapes covering a large double window on an adjacent wall. If I were to add any other room treatment it would be ART from Synergistic Research. I basically agree with your list, Bobby. I might make one change. For me the speakers are #1. Once the main components are in place then working with the cables and connections will have the biggest impact on the sound, IMHO, along with a couple of special tweaks -- Synergistic Research MIGS and EVS Ground Enhancers. In the end what matters is the synergy of all of the elements in the system. Oh, I forgot one other thing -- the Synergistic Research PowerCell power conditioner.

p, we try to take the effects of the room out of play to make the product refinements more easily understood.
it also makes for a great basis of judgement from year to year.
best, b

Not sure anyone is interested in total amp overkill, but a Class A Plinius amp managed to do ... ah ... something to the bass of my Merlins. Yeah. I had NO IDEA that 6" drivers could DO that. WOW.

BTW, GIK Acoustics is pretty good stuff. Affordable (by comparison), too.

As for audiophile cabling, yes, Bobby is a big proponent -- and I suppose anyone who's chatted with him knows his preferences for Cardas.

To be perfectly frank, I have had some experience with Merlin speakers and a whole loom of Golden Reference cabling, but was amazed by the difference between them and an all-Acoustic Zen loom. That is, I was amazed I couldn't tell them apart -- even when used with a Filarmonia (don't bother; I expect YMMV). I sold all my Cardas and bought a better DAC.

Stack ranking system system components:

1. Speakers: Merlins are *never* going to sound like Maggies.

2. Amp/Pre: want to maximize your speakers? Get an amp that is "better" (for your speakers).

3. Room Treatments: makes a difference, but whether that's a good change or not is debatable.

4. Source: you need to spend a lot to get very, very little.

5. Power: only relevant if yours is bad. Which it probably (statistically speaking) isn't.

6. Cabling: I firmly believe that this is a religious argument where neither side is grounded in either reality or actual science.

7. Tweaks (footers, racks, &c): Here Be Dragons.