Least power for Merlin VSM-SE's

First Soupcon, I took the speakers to Merlin and had Bobby do it. Read my review on audioreview.com for details. Yes you can buy the kit and do it yourself but you do need a soldering station, a hot melt glue gun, and most importantly a calibrated torque driver. One of the key modifications is the torque setting for the drivers. According to Bobby, if you tighten it too much, the sound deadens, if you do it too loosely, the sound gets sloppy. So instead of trying to do it myself and not get the job done right, I drove them to Hemlock on my way to Toronto from NJ for a busines trip, dropped the speakers on a Thursday and came back to pick them up Friday night. Bobby and his staff were extremely accommodating, down to Debbie, his assistant, meeting me at the factory at 9:00 PM Friday night so I can take delivery. Now that is service!!! As for the battery BAM, Bobby also said that it will make my jaw drop yet again, and I believe him. It is on my Christmas list. If you are not within driving distance of Merlin, shipping both ways would be costly so the kit may work if you are handy. In my case, I was glad I got it done by the master, since Bobby even re-serviced my woofers (he cleaned them out and sprayed some sort of dampening material, so they look and play like new). He even played it all day Friday to break them in. I don't yet have the Z-feet but he said they would make a difference too. Tubegroover, I also love my Transcendent OTL. I had played the Atma-sphere M-60 MkII with my Merlin and preferred the Transcendent. It is faster, has more bass, and puts out a fraction of the heat as the Atma-sphere. I know that the Joule-Electra is Bobby's personal choice but it is out of my league price-wise. I am quite happy with the Transcendent and highly recommend it. Vinh

Vtvu How do you like the Trancendent amp? By the way nice review! Too bad you don't have the Battery Bam. In AC mode it is a big improvement and the thinness in the bass fills out, in ac/battery mode there is a notable improvement in the other frequencies as well. The mid band frequencies flesh out more. In battery only mode your jaw will drop again! Most likely you'll be dumbfounded how a 6 1/2" driver can provide that type of low bass performance. These speakers with the BBam and the right ancilliaries are absolutely among the best speakers I have heard, bar none. I am finally getting there with the most recent addition of the Bel Canto, JPS digital power cord and Analysis Plus Oval 9 speaker cables. Get the Battery BAM! Soupcon I have talked to Bobby about the upgrade and plan on doing it myself. All that is involved according to him is replacing the wiring harness and 4 solder connections per speaker. If you can solder you can do it and save $200-300 in shipping. Then the cones are one single post instead of the 2 points meeting at the center as they do with the old wooden bulldog cones. It is quite amazing how something so simple can manifest itself in improved coupling of the speaker to the ground and improve all aspects of the speaker's sound. Well here I go talking about something I haven't even heard yet but from those I have talked to it is a great improvement over the SE's. I'll be finding out soon.

Thanks a lot for the info abt the upgrade; I was unaware of it. Will definitely get it asap. One question: did you have Merlin install the upgrade or did you do it yourself?

I am using the VSM-Millennium with the Trancendent Sound Stereo OTL at 25watts/channel, and they work well together. I have a smallish room (13x16) so the combination puts out plenty more power and dynamics than I need. Also, I highly recommend the upgrade to the Millennium series. They sound like a different speaker from the SE. Much better. See my review on audioreview.com

Soupcon I can't speak first hand but I can say that I have heard the Merlin's can be successfully driven with some SET amps and is suppose to work well with the Bel Canto which is 30 watts. Bobby recommends no less than 17 watts I believe. This speaker is a presents a very easy load for virtually any amp mimimum impedence is 6.5 ohms and a 8 ohm nominal sensitivity is 89 dB. If you haven't spoken with him yet give him a call at (716) 367-2390, he is quite accessible and always willing to help. An added benefit of owning these speakers in addition to the music they make. I highly recommend tubes in any case. The Joules OTL's are suppose to be a match made in heaven and on a lesser scale, the Trancendent OTL's at 25 watts are also recommended and quite a bit less expensive, around 2K. I am currently using 100 watts of tube power which is way more than required.