I gotta say Shadorne if you haven't tried what Pedrillo is talking about and have added as much opinion to this thread as you have you look foolish. How can you presume that he must possibly have something wrong in his system? He did say that an A/B showed that the Merlins are leaps and bounds better. I don't mean to be critical either but I must say I disagree with almost everything you said.
Pedrillo, I know exactly what you are talking about. I've done the same thing before and been amazed at how good a 500.00 speaker can sound on great gear. That same speaker was a real snoozer hooked up to a sub 1000.00 system but when hooked up to my main rig, WOW! I've experienced this more than once as well. I've also tried to drive expensive speakers with cheap gear and there my findings were that it didn't sound good. If I had to choose long term ownership of say a Creek or NAD integrated driving 10K speakers or 10K of amps and preamp driving 500.00 speakers I'd choose the latter.
Oh and yes I do believe that speakers that were sitting around cold and uplayed could improve quite a bit after playing them for a while. I've heard the same thing myself, maybe not quite to the degree that you describe.
Pedrillo, I know exactly what you are talking about. I've done the same thing before and been amazed at how good a 500.00 speaker can sound on great gear. That same speaker was a real snoozer hooked up to a sub 1000.00 system but when hooked up to my main rig, WOW! I've experienced this more than once as well. I've also tried to drive expensive speakers with cheap gear and there my findings were that it didn't sound good. If I had to choose long term ownership of say a Creek or NAD integrated driving 10K speakers or 10K of amps and preamp driving 500.00 speakers I'd choose the latter.
Oh and yes I do believe that speakers that were sitting around cold and uplayed could improve quite a bit after playing them for a while. I've heard the same thing myself, maybe not quite to the degree that you describe.