I'm willing to concede that my experience with Merlin Music Systems is not typical, considering the very high regard others have for both the speakers and the service from Merlin.
But...I bought a used pair of Merlin TSM's and when they arrived I excitedly hooked them up to my Audio Refinement Complete amp. A puff of smoke from the amp later, the right channel was dead, a repair that cost as much as I had paid for the amp. Not believeng the speakers could have been the problem I put in a cheap Rotel amp I had hanging around as a backup, which had protection fuses in each channel, and the right channel fuse blew immediately. Obviously a problem in the right TSM speaker.
So, I contacted Merlin and they wanted me to send the TSM's to them for repair, strongly recommending BAX Global, an expensive but well respected courier.
I did that and the response, after a long, long while, was that they could fix the short and that they would recommend that I upgrade the speakers to the next generation, since I'd gone to the trouble to send them in.
I agreed to that and waited for months with no communication. When I pressed them for information I was told the cryo lab had lost the crossovers.
After a longer wait the crossovers were located and the upgrade was done but any information about that was only after I pressed them. I paid again for expensive shipping via BAX Global.
When I got them back it was obvious that there was a loud buzzing vibration from the woofer at certain low frequencies, something that should have been obvious if the speakers had been tested after the upgrade.
When I complained about the very obvious noise I was asked to send them back, again at my expense. By this time many months had gone by. I was so upset by the complete lack of communication and the pace of the process that I bought a used pair of DeVore Fidelity 8's.
As soon as I closed the deal on the DeVore's the repaired Merlins were finally shipped back to me, after more than eight months of haggling. The two pair of speakers arrived the same week so it was the perfect opportunity for an A/B comparison.
Trying to put aside my frustration with the poor service from Merlin, I spent the next couple of weeks doing as objective a comparison of the DeVore's and the Merlin's as I could. I really wanted to like the Merlin's.
It wasn't even close, The DeVore's were much, much more satifsying speakers, at least in my system, and my interaction with John Devore was pleasant and informative, completely different from my communications with Merlin.
