How do the Merlin TSM compare to other speakers

Bobby, I think I speak for everyone when I say you are a true friend to us here, and we also mourn your loss.

For what it's worth, instead of always being here to offer your help, please, once in a while, accept ours. We're here for you, make use of it...
Joe

thank you all, lost my father in law who has been like a father to me for the last 20 years. my wife and i spent the last 6 1/2 months trying to get him strong again but he just wasn't able to make it through this time.
b

Sorry to hear about your loss, Bobby. Hope that your wife & you find the strength to cope with it.

I'm not a Merlin owner but I feel that I own a speaker that has a similar signature to the Merlin & possibly uses the same or similar tweeter.

With a high Q speaker, a high damping factor power amp is not needed - I can see this. However, why does it hurt to have a high damping factor power amp driving the Merlins? Electrically, the lower the o/p impedance of a voltage source (power amp) the better (as it tends towards ideal). The lower the sum of amp o/p impedance + speaker wire impedance, the better the bass response should be.

or so you'd think but i have found that multiples of output tubes while reducing the output impedance tends to damp the bass more so. i prefer the tonality and presentation of amps with fewer output tubes and higher output impedances. control and tonal balance are two very different things and on a speaker like the vsm you can hear the difference very easily.

bombaywalla, thank you and thanks to the rest of you too.
b

Bobby

Truely sorry about your father in law.

Can you please explain the above in terms of ss output amps.What would the optimal damping factor be from a ss amp as a match for Merlin ? Would that differ from the TSM and VSMs ? Would that also differ between the MM and MX models ?

Chris