Comparing: Merlin VSM Millenium and Ver

I heard the VSM Millennium at the New York Stereophile show and the Parsifals I heard about a year before. I don't have any experience with the Parsifal Encore, but I found the Parsifal to be a warm-sounding speaker whereas the Millennium is not. Although the bass is solid on the Millennium and is surprising for such a small speaker as the Millennium, the system is uptilted to spotlit the upper mids and highs. In my demo of the Millennium, I heard bass and I heard highs but the mids seemed to be missing. The Verity's were smooth but lacked sparkle and upper midrange liveliness in my audition. The Verity's didn't have much in the deep bass department and I wouldn't be surprised if the Millennium's also lack there, although subjectively with normal program material, the Millenniums didn't seem to lack bottom. Based on my audition experience, I can't think of two speakers which sound less alike than these two.

The Veritys are really excellent speakers and very easy on the eyes too. They are Canadian as am I, so they are not priced unreasonably. However, I own Milleniums. IMHO they are better still. Based on the description of Rayhall's experiences, I don't believe he has heard the VSMs under ideal circumstances. Perhaps not the Veritys either. The Merlins are as neutral a transducer as I 've heard (the same could not neccessarily be said of the prior versions of the VSM that I've also owned). If they are both in your "snack bracket" listen to them both and reach your own conclusions.

Happy Trails!
Vince@Freewheel

I haven't compared but would like to comment on Rayhall's remarks concerning the Merlins being voiced to accentuate the upper mids and highs. I really don't know what gear you listened on but even with a receiver I can't imagine that you would get that impression. Something must have been seriously amiss.

One of their strongest suits to my ears and by concensus is how they are so even keeled and balanced across the frequency spectrum. Look at the frequency response plot curve on this speaker. A peak in the upper frequencies would be easy to spot. The system was painstakingly designed to be flat. Furthermore the midrange naturalness of this speaker is among the best I've heard and is the most important aspect of sound reproduction to me. I got rid of my last speakers for just the reason you gave, a recessed midrange and accentuation in the upper mids and the brightness in the highs on some music (almnium dome) became irritating over time.