ProAc or Merlin

Manual

May I just add something to your impressions. I also believe that an ultra resolving speaker can sound "hi-fi" if all issues with set-up and ancilliaries are not properly dealt with. Sometimes people purchase such a product and don't pay enough attention to these details to the extent they should. This includes room treatments as well. The VSM is a very sophisticated and refined design that requires such attention to the utmost as do all speakers that aspire to such a degree of accuracy and resolution.

To me real 'hi-fi is settling for A music system that sounds very pleasing and very reproduced, it ALWAYS misses the illusion. On the other hand I can see where some folks wouldn't want the degree of liveness and immediacy presented by the VSM.

Happy Tunes with what ever brings them on.

Bobby and Tubegroover, VSM were very musical and impressive (don't think you know the guy "Christophe Debon" in France ?), and the rest of gear was high level (transport : Audiomeca mephisto then Accustic arts, conv. : Adda, amp.: Air tight then Transcendant's OTL, can't remember wires but in the same ballpark). That said, in the long run it appears to hifi for me. it's difficult to explain but I've heard very few of systems that reach a high level of transparency without being fleshless. A real transparency gives a lot of flesh, but it's a very hard way to reach it (neutralityland).

manuel

Hi Manuel

I wouldn’t dispute for a minute what you heard in that system, I hear what you're saying but I still believe something(s) in the set-up was not matching. I am quite familiar with the Transcendent OTL amp with the VSM and owned that combo for a while. The problem doesn’t lay there, maybe the wiring, a system synergy problem not identified?

The issue about the sound not being fleshed out is what is baffling to me in your description. This is precisely the balancing act that these speakers do so well, extreme resolution near perfect tonal balance with a fully fleshed out presentation providing all is set-up correctly. I know there are some people that perceive the immediacy to a certain forwardness of the presentation which is certainly a taste issue in that some like a further back perspective but what you are describing still seems a system issue more than a characteristic of the VSM, at least the one’s I’m listening to.

Tube (or Groover ?),

You are probably right. The Merlin have more potential than proac but their qualities need to pay MUCH attention to synergy with rest of system... to reach the goal.

manuel

Hi Manuel,
It is as I thought, I do know Christophe Debon and he did have the VSM SE which did have the lighter tonal balance than the VSM M. So, we are all right. You did indeed hear a lighter sound than what the VSM M and some of the mods can generate. As I said, I did send him the mod kit for the M series but later stopped doing that because it seemed that no one could get the work done correctly. I had a number of these consumer modified speakers come back to plant and they were all far from right. We stopped offering the kit as a result.
I really think that you would enjoy the Millennium version of the speaker to a much greater degree knowing what we know now. And the VSM M with the Magic Mod or the VSM MX to an even greater degree because the improvements deal with the areas of sound that you seem most sensitive to.
It is a small world isn't it?
Bobby@merlin