One of the things I like about Ohm (along with a recently auditioned pair of Duevel Planets, is they are great for playing music when I'm having a party! Few speakers fill rooms with good sound the way Ohm speakers do. Mirage has also tackled that concept with some success.
The Merlins are a "sit down and listen" type of speaker. Robbob, My experience exactly. Ohm rightly promotes one of its advantages as being a huge "sweet sweep;" sit (or stand) anywhere in the room and get the full stereo effect. But owning Ohms for about 18 months taught me that I am much more of a "sit down, close my eyes and listen 'into' the music" kind of guy. I want to be swept away, so to speak. I don't mind speakers with a more conventional "sweet spot," as long as I don't feel that I have to keep my head locked in a vise to get the full effect. Mapman has written elsewhere that some listeners will "dig" (my word) the unique Ohm spatial presentation, and some won't. Over time, I found that I got frustrated with how the Ohm's interacted with my room (I'm guessing that was the issue) and with what I'd sloppily call a kind of "vagueness" in their imaging, especially. The Merlins can throw an enormous soundstage, given the right source material. But they seem (thus far, and I'm sure I'm not yet getting the most I can out of them) to really excel at tone, texture, nuance, and the sense that the music is all of one piece. |
Some have indicated using a sub with the OHMs off of tube amps with excellent results.
Maybe Bobby's RC network could work on other speakers like the OHMs to make them more tube friendly? It would be an interesting experiment to try if someone has both. |
I agree tubes don't work well with the OHMS, but the Unison Research Unico hybrid did a nice job. I thought the Triangle Cometes performed much better with tubes. |
OHMs are not tube friendly, so if a tube amp is a must, you can get by perhaps, but are not likely to max out performance with any OHM Walshes I suspect.
500 w/ch IcePower is the bomb however with both my OHM Walshes, 5S3 and 100S3. The Dyns and Triangle work fine with the IcePower but the differences with those from prior amps (Carver m4.0t and Musical Fidelity A3CR) is not as significant.
I've also owned B&W P6s and Magnepan mg1c's, and original OHM Walsh 2s in recent years prior to my current setup. The B&Ws were nice in larger rooms but never imaged the way I liked. The Maggies were fantastic for years in the large basement room of my old town home but never clicked in my new house. The Triangle Titus' with sub was the best combo I had with these speaks in house at the time. That was a top notch combo running off a Tandberg tr2080 receiver in my second rig. The original OHM Walsh 2s were nice but not nearly as refined top to bottom as the newer designs (they were over 25 years old though). I traded those in towards the OHM F5s. OHm has a very nice trade-in policy where you can receive up to 40% off new speaker cost by trading in up to two pair of older OHMs that I took advantage of to obtain the F5s at a very favorable price compared to new Walsh 5S3s. |
I also used an Onkyo 9555,class D, with the Ohms and it was a very good match. As far as Merlin goes they only make two models,one monitor and one floorstander, which are both two way designs and have been continuously evolving over the years with great skill and devotion and as you say Bobby provides great guidance with the speaker positioning and associated components as well as just about any other audio question and the bottom line is customers are very happy with the results so word gets around and Merlin thrives. |
There are a lot of snafus one can encounter in trying to piece together a top performing rig alone.
Merlin seems like a practical fast track to high end performance for many. The design seems well thought out to work well for most user with most available equipment and Bobby provides teh guidance and expertise when needed. That is a very effective combo! |
Guppy,
Yes, power and also importantly current.
I've found high power, high current separate amps to be best matches to the OHM Walshes rather than integrateds because it is very expensive to build a high power and current power source into an integrated without having negative effects on the overall sound due to proximity of low level circuits in teh pre to EMI fields generated, etc.
IcePower and OHMs are a match made in heaven that several on this site have latched onto, including me.
Prior to Icepower, the amp requriements to max out OHMs may have made them less cost effective in teh end compared to easier to drive designs, as I suspect the MErlins are. Icepower breaks down those barriers though some better Icepower amps, like the BCs in my rig, are still not cheap. WYred 4 Sound is probably the best value in IcePower to drive OHMs, especially if one is using a tube pre-amp. |
Yes,
I worked part time in college at a Tech Hifi in Jersey and sold many speakers. The OHMs were my favorite and I sold many pair, more than any other line. I bought my Ls there back then and have never been able to part with them.
Trivia fact: John Strohbeen, current whizbang for OHM, was an owner of Tech Hifi and Tech Hifi and the OHM line were affiliated.
So technically I worked for John Stohbeen once but I did not know of him at the time and never met him.
John told me this in a phone conversation a couple years back when I was doing some upgrades to my OHM collection. |
I found the Ohms like power. My 85wpc Unison Research Unico sounded good, but my Thule IA252B 250wpc integrated sounded better. The Merlins like tubes and I prefer tubes, butI tried the TSM's with my Redgum RGI35 35wpc solid state amp and it sounded very good, but I still preferred my JWN 35 WPC EL34 push pull. |
Mapman you are right there is a big price difference, but the is also a big difference in performance. Of course they offer very different designs and sounds so as always personal preference is the key and I gave mine. The person I sold the Micro Talls to is using them for fronts in a home theater system with the Ohm 2000's and he said there is a strong family resemblance. John from Ohm is a real gentleman and makes a very fine product, I could walk to his factory in ten minutes from my workplace and I wish him success as I do Bobby from Merlin because they are both fine gentleman who give great customer support and produce great products. Ohm and Merlin are two great American companies that are easy to root for. |
Mapman,
I think there was a chain of stores, at least here in NY, called Tech Hi Fi that used to sell Ohm speakers. I was a teenager at the time, but I remember visiting a Tech Hi-Fi in Queens, NY and listening to Ohm speakers....and trying to convince dear old dad to replace his Fisher sudio 10's!
Rob |
I also have a pair of OHM L bookshelf speakers that I have owned for over 30 years. I custom upgraded these myself a couple years back with some very good Morel woofers and the OHM sub bass activator circuit (similar in goals to Merlin BAM). These are not teh smoothest of my smaller box speakers, but for pop/rock music, they may just be the most rewarding. Of course, I am not a speaker designer and would not claim my custom enhancements to be teh best. OHM sometimes offers these completely refurbished with new drivers and circuits for $599. They sold for $499 and were my favorite smaller bookshelf speaker back then in 1978, so you can get an idea of teh potential value factoring in inflation, etc. with these nowadays. I'd like to hear a pair of OHMs professionally upgraded Ls. or even larger C2s or Hs. |
I suspect also that Merlins are more amp friendly than OHMs and Dynaudio Contour 1.3mkii also for that matter.
Not that these sound bad with lesser amps, only that they sound increasingly better with more powerful good amps.
Same true regarding Totem also from what I have heard.
Triangle Titus are very amp friendly. I hear fewer differences from amp to amp. |
One of the things I like about Ohm (along with a recently auditioned pair of Duevel Planets, is they are great for playing music when I'm having a party! Few speakers fill rooms with good sound the way Ohm speakers do. Mirage has also tackled that concept with some success.
The Merlins are a "sit down and listen" type of speaker.
Rob |
One other difference I think I note between Bobby and John is that Bobby has an absolute vision of what it takes to get the best sound that he believes in and shares that openly with his customers.
John Strohbeen will provide guidance when asked but is more about giving the customer what they want rather than what he thinks is best. He will tweak his standard designs as neededif the customer asks, as long as he does not see any inherent problems.
Both approaches have merit depending on what the customer is looking for.
the downside of John's approach is I think sometimes the customer thinks they know what they want and John oblidges, then they may have second thoughts afterwards.
Intetesting too that generally John recommends NAD amps if someone asks which to use with the OHMs. Personally, I think you can do better if your goal is the "absolute sound", but NAD offers good value for most so I understand why he does that. |
I've said before that I think that Ohm and Merlin have at least one thing in common: the vision of a single designer who has continually refined a few basic concepts over a long period of time. And in both cases, calling the company number is likely to get you an extended conversation with the very helpful head honcho. :-) |
Guppy,
The OHM 2000 ($2800) or OHM 3000 ($4000) is probably a fairer comparison to the entry level Merlins ($3080) based on list price than the entry level Micro Walsh Talls ($1400) as best I can tell. |
OHm and Merlin have a lot in common as companies I think, mainly a very dedicated and long standing customer base.
Customer service seems to be paramount to both which is a key ingredient.
The biggest difference I think is that Merlin has more appeal to teh audio high end community in general due to its focus on absolute quality and associated costs that go with that in some cases, yet still ranks pretty well in the high end big picture, when you consider companies like Magico, etc.
John Strohbeen, the guru behind OHM, is a unique breed, an MIT trained engineer with a seemingly more blue collar pedigree. Take a look at the OHM shop sometime. There are photos in one of the Six Moons reviews, I believe. VEry low overhead apparently otehr than residing in Brooklyn, NY. The OHm line has always focused on highest quality sound for the lowest prices for maximum appeal. That's the case with their older conventional bookshelve and floorstander designs as well as their more recent bread and butter Walsh designs. |
I used to own the Ohm Micro Talls and they are terrific little speakers with the added benefit of a very small footprint. That being said the Merlins are in another league in every area I can think of, but again I feel Ohm makes an excellent speaker and I don't want to knock this underrated company. |
I partly agree regarding associated gear. I have a pair of SVS speakers which cost about 100 bucks each. They sound fair at best. I connected them to the new Manley II amp and put them on the Skylan stands. Augmented by my MJ Acoustics sub they sounded far better than they had a right to!
But at the other end of the spectrum they sound thin and hooty when connected to a Denon receiver. As I've been impressed with the Merlins, I'm also thrilled with the Manley amp, which I should mention is the first tube amp I've owned. I previously stuck with SS and occasional tube preamps.
The Ohm speakers are a unique and fun design. I've thought of buying a small pair for our livingroom.
Rob |
The Magico's I heard sounded very good but then again I would expect most any good speaker matched to the system I heard them on to sound very good also. The electronics and wires alone probably pushed or broker 6 figures. At those prices, there is room for preferences but not for poor performance the way I look at things.
I would not trade my OHMs for Magicos. I'd have to a/b compare on my system to know how my monitors compare. They both might at low volumes and the Dyns maybe at higher volumes. No way to know for sure without comparing on your own system.
Its also typcila that different speaker designs shine best with different electronics feeding them, so comparisons on a single system do not tell the whole story, no matter how good the system is. |
Yes, I did hear them, but really can't say that I had a fair chance to really evaluate them. My friend bought and sold them at a good profit. He did not think they were worth anything near what they cost. In fact he preferred his little Totems, which cost a fraction of the Magico price. He has since adopted the Merlin TSM-MMe has his top monitor. We did not like the top end of the Totems.
That said I'm not going to suggest that the Merlins are better because one or two owners felt that way. I will say, and I hope he doesn't mind, that Bobby believes he has the superior design. Before I got the Merlins Bobby also told me the TSM's would be better than my previous speakers, the Magnepan 1.6 QR's with Mye stands.
I will honestly say now that I did not believe him. The Maggies did a lot of things very well. But the Merlins do exceed the performance of the Maggies substantially, even in soundstage/image, which is the Maggie's home turf.
I guess the bottom line, echoed by other owners, is that I'm very impressed with these speakers! The system is warming up right now....going to check out Cyndi Lauper's new blues CD!
Rob |
Robbob,
Yes, I would like to put several much less expensive monitors including MErlins up against those.
Have you heard Magico minis? |
I would LOVE to put the TSM's up against the Magico Minis!
Rob
|
Mapman, I think they bested the Cometes, a speaker that I feel is an excellent high value monitor, very clearly in just about every area. They are much more transparent, have much greater tonal accuracy, a bigger and more natural sound stage and better imaging, much better bass and I am not talking about quantity here, but the Merlins have tighter and better detailed and much more satisfying bass. I felt the bottom end was not as natural with the Cometes with a little void in that area, but I have that feeling in most monitors with them either having a sluggish midbass emphasis or just a not sufficient bottom end. The Merlins are much more balanced than the Triangles having superior performance from top to bottom without emphasis on any particular area, the music just flows and they disappear much more than the Cometes or just about any monitor I am familar with. That is just off the top of my head. |
Guppy, can you elaborate on how the Merlins bested the Cometes?
Thanks! |
Bobby,
My gear is all listed in my system.
Current amp is Bel Canto ref1000m mono blocks.
Rooms where I commonly use monitors to best effect are 12X12. One has typical 7-8 foot high drywall ceiling and the other (sun room) where I use monitors most often has Cathedral ceiling, windows on three sides and tile floors with large heavy oriental rug. The Dynaudio monitors are pictures there currently in my system though I have used both Triangle and Dynaudio in there to good effect. |
m, room volume/size, wires and electronics?
then i will recommend one.
one is better suited to all out tube systems and the other to ss and leaner tubes.
the mmi to leaner tubes/ss and the mx-r to all out tube systems. both are available with the master rc's as an option.
best,
b |
I sold my Triangle Cometes around six months ago and I thought they were fine speakers, especially for the money, and did well at low volume levels, but the Merlins clearly best the Cometes in every area I can think of including low volume listening which is important to me because I live in an apartment building. I auditioned the Triangle Titus at In Living Stereo in NYC a few years ago, but I actually preferred the Cometes of course I only spent about an hour with them so it is not a really thorough evaluation. I think the electronics used were the Quicksilver amp and preamp. |
"Most speakers have some level of beaming, however subtle, that shatters the illusion."
No doubt, which makes some like my Dyns harder to setup.
The Triangles are top notch in this regard.
Bobby, can you be more specific? Not sure what you are asking. |
Mapman,
I can honestly say that I owned a lot of speakers that sounded "boxless", but the Merlin' vanishing act is even more absolute.
Most speakers have some level of beaming, however subtle, that shatters the illusion. Again, I'd like to point out that the Contours are splendid and a lot of fun to listen to, but they sound less refined to my ears overall.
I don't know where you can hear the Merlins, but if you ever get near Mahopac a bit upstate in NY, you can come hear mine.
Rob |
Robbob,
I find the Triangle Titus to achieve a "boxless quality" more readily than the Dyn Contour 1.3mkiis, however I have found that both can achieve similar levels in this regard with proper setup and suitable amplification. The Triangles exceeded my prior Maggies in this regard off of decent but less than high end perhaps Carver gear. The Dynaudios required different and more costly amplification to achieve similar results.
The Triangles are perhaps one of the most clear and resolving speakers I have heard at low to moderate volume, competitive even with Magico in this regard.
At higher volumes, the Dyns tend to clearly outperform them in terms of top to bottom tonal balance.
I'd love to do some a/b comparing between what I have and good small Merlins. The nice thing about small monitors is that they are easy to ttransport to facilitate this kind of thing.
Any Merlin dealers in Baltimore/DC metro area? |
mapman, what of the room volume and ancillaries?
bobby |
Mapman, two of the speakers I considered early on were the Revel M22 (I had previously enjoyed the M20) and the Dynaudio Contour s1.4.
I generally don't like racing speakers and all three were heard in different rooms with different gear. My preference, by a large margin obviously went to the Merlins. They achieve a boxless quality that remains unmatched in my experience. I haven't heard Triangle Titus, so I can't comment on those.
Rob |
Also I am interested specifically in opinions regarding which TSM configurations might offer improvement over the monitors in my system in that the cost of TSMs appear to fall nicely between the cost of what I own and the cost of one of there reference monitors I have heard, the Magico Mini.
The monitors in my system currently are Triangle Titus XS that retailed for $500 new when I bought them in the mid 90's and the Dynaudio Contour 1.3mkii's that retailed for about $2500 I believe about ten years ago. |
What is the price range for the latest and greatest small Merlins?
Also I'm wondering if experienced MErlin users have opinions regarding which configuration in this range offers the greatest value?
I'm assuming the top of the price range offers the best and most refined sound in all cases. Is that an accurate assumption? |
Very thoughtful and enlightening review!!! |
Robbob,
Very, very nice review! And that red finish is very sharp! Enjoy! |
My review of the Merlins is posted at....
http://carew.synthasite.com/
I think it's too long for Audiogon, but I will try in the review section!
Rob |
Guppy, that's all good gear. With the Manley Stingray II I find the Merlin's amazing, but it's hardly inexpensive for an integrated amp. I usually leave it in triode mode which is barely pushing 20 watts and the Merlins sing, even at fairly loud volumes.
As I'll explain in more detail in my review, I also connected the Merlins to a Denon home theater amp! I won't say that the match was made in heaven, but I will say that the speakers still sounded fantastic....just less so than with the Manley.
I'm mostly at a loss when it comes to CD players for this system, at least for now.
Rob |
This is why my next upgrade will be not be to better electronics, but to the current model Merlins TSM's. |
Hello Robbob. I am using a Thule Space DVA250B CD/DVDA player and a TRL modded Sony 900 CD/SACD player. Both players sound excellent. I have Skylan 2 post stands and JWN EL34 push pull 35wpc amp and a Jolida JD50A passive. The JWN amp is excellent for the money, $750., and a few reviews are listed under in tube amp section of The Audio Asylum reviews and the JD50A passive is a nice unit for $250. especially since it has a remote, but I will buy better electonics when the funds allow. Despite these relatively modest electronics the Merlins sound fantastic with all types of music. |
Pubul,
I agree 100%. My friend with the MMe's is quite certain my new MXr's are quite a bit better than his already excellent versions. It is my understanding that Bobby has improved his line of speakers on every level, from cabinets to crossovers. Evolution appears to be what Merlin is all about. Bobby says the TSM and VSM are his life's work. They are unlike any speaker I've owned before; more of a musical instrument themselves. I did feel that way about my old handmade Royd speakers many years ago!
Now....the search for the right CD player!
Rob |
Robbob, I took the cult idea as intended. The hardest thing to believe is that (and it is the VSM with which I am most familiar) a small two-way speaker would be able to compete with the mega$$$$, large, multi-driver speakers with a claim to being among the best. The truth this "humble" speaker is state-of-the-art for what it is, and in most real world rooms it should be at least considered, no matter how much you can, or are willing, to spend for speakers. They are not for everyone, but for many they are the core around which they can build a long-term system. The fact that they work especially well with tube amps, and that 30-60 watts is more than enough to drive them is all the better.
I once saw a thread question the evolution of the VSM and questioning the cost increases over the years, it was clear this fella did not actually listen to the VSMs over time. I for one have always appreciated that Bobby continued to find ways to improve what had already been a very good speaker right from the start. |
Guppy...what CD player are you using with the TSM's?
My associated gear:
Manley Stingray II, Cardas SE9 speaker wire, Skylan 4 post stands, MJ Acoustics 150 MKII sub. CD player is a 4 year old Oppo with a few mods. I tried the Rega Apollo, but did not find it a big upgrade.
Rob |
mapman, imo, the amplifier termination issue is something that almost 98% of the amps need so it did not seem incorrect to combine it with the hf filtering poetential.
speakers that are very linear with gobs of resolution can reveal things in the way of complication/confusion to the sound. we filter both ends of the bandwidth in the bam and by using the ers paper on chip sets in the system. how intense must these fields be? strong enough to be heard i suppose. i am not the only one that can hear them.
best, bobby |
I guess if you read all of the positive comments by owners of Merlins without having heard them, you could feel it is sort of like a cult because many owners are very passionate about their speakers, but because the speakers are so good once you spend some time with them you realize it is not a cult, but a valid appreciation of an outstanding product. Before I owned my TSM's I had only heard Merlins at a few Stereophile shows and I never got a real good listen because the room was always so crowded and even with a very bad listening spot they still sounded very nice, but until I owned them I didn't fully appreciate how good they are and understood the passion people had for them. |
I used the term "cult" in good humor regarding the Merlins!
The reputation for Merlin is among the highest I've ever witnessed in high end audio.
Rob |
The interesting thing is that I came from a set of Magenpan 1.6, fed by a Odyssey/Rogue combo. The Maggies were a lot of fun, but the size was an issue. A friend suggested that I "upgrade" to the little Merlins. "UPGRADE?!" I said, "Are you kidding? The Magnepans are not about to be bested by some small monitor, even if it is highly regarded. But he had a set of Totem The One which had been demoted in favor of TSM-MMe and he felt the Merlins were a top design. I still doubted that they would be better than my Maggies.
Boy, was I wrong!
A side note: like most high end speakers, you need a good amount of time with the Merlins to really appreciate what they do so well. It doesn't hurt that they are beautiful to look at if you pop for the special finish.
Rob |
"it is an hf filter at 1.6 mghz for filtering rfi and emi. imo a must in a city environment"
Bobby, I have heard differences in sound resulting from shielding low level signals like that in an MC phono stage from EMI produced by nearby amps, transformers, etc.
Can you explain why this is a relevant feature for a speaker? How intense must these fields be to have an audible effect on teh speaker circuitry?
Also, why is this filtering bundled into the same add on circuitry as the circuitry in the option for better performance with some amps? These would seem to be two different problems that might not always occur together. |
