Merlin vsm mme owners, Cardas cabling Question.

I cannot imagine not being happy with either the Cardas or the Audience. If Bobby recommends them, you know they are going to work well. The Cardas "warmth" works wonderfully well with my neutral sounding OTLs and Music Reference RM10s. Bobby has never led me astray, and the Master BAM is a real uograde, not just another product...:)

Masilu, we must choose what we like and all our preferences are different and we are entitled them - no doubt. But it seems to me that Bobby has received too many best in show, or ten best in show acknowledgments with the Cardas GR array to suggest that it "surely spoils the sound" - though it may for you. Not to say say the GRs will be "best" for everyone, but Bobby seems to think it does not ruin the sound of his speakers.

A lot of $$$$:)

Interesting, John Dunlavy would proabably have suggested that all cables basically sound the same, he proabably would have recommended large guage zipcord.

9rw, you are right the John Dunlavy knew ALOT about speaker design and some really love his speakers. He also basically said that those that can here differences between speaker cables are hallucinating (other than the impact of guage). That essay he wrote wasn't popular with cable manufacturers. Do you agree with him? You can Google his essay on "differences" between cable. quite interesting.

I, by the way, have heard improvement through Bobby's incremtal improvements. Perfecting the basic design over years is on reason the speaker is so well "sorted out" and for many owners, in some ways, the best speaker ever made. Which is not the same as saying it will be everyone's favourite speaker. But it is a speaker that needs to be taken seriously when looking for the best sound in the home.

The speakers have never sounded better with the MasterBAM and RCs in place - I can't imagine that every SuperBam owner would not think the upgrade well worth it; just one more step in the full realization of the VSM's evolution.

brittleness?

9rw, I have used CAT, Pass, Quicksilver, Lamm, ARC, Placette, and a few other pre/amp combos with the Merlins. The reason I have what I have is they work well with the Merlins, that being said OTLs will work incredibly well with any speaker that is tube friendly, which the Merlin is. With all the amps I have tried, nothing beast OTLs to me, and the reason Merlin is often recommended with Joule, is the fact that it happens to be an OTL, so it does not shock that Bobby would go that way, though he liked the CAT gear too. That amp/speaker interface is so important to get right, perhaps the most important part of getting a system right that I think you would have to be crazy to not take advice from a speaker designer that suggests what he thinks will work best. I think there is some truth to the perception that some may fear that gear not on "Bobby's Approved List" might not work well. That should be nipped in the bud, as the speakers certainly work well with any of the tube amps I have used, and the Pass XA30.5 as well. But there is a tendency to believe that if Bobby does not mention a particular amp or cable then it won't get the best from the speakers, that can get dangerous. Probably why most manufacturers will stay away from recommend to specically a particular amp, power cord, tube, etc for their speakers. For the most part Bobby has chosen well and I think most folks have been happy with his recommendations for accompanying products. If you don't want to experiment too much and possibly waste alot of money, Bobby's recommendations seem to be right on the money (for his speakers).

Masilu, did you actually hear Atma pre/amp combo with Merlin? The answer to that question ("who wants...") might be answered when having both in that setup; which of course does not mean that the Fila/Merlin combo is not fantastic, it is, but I doubt you would choose it over the Atma-sphere combo, I have had several audiophile visitors listening to that very comparison (Fila versus Atma), not one person had to think about it very long, other than the fact the Atma-combo was considerably more $$$. Don't know what to say about the Cardas GR, we all hear what we hear, so what argument can be made?

I think the Fila/Merlin combo is world-class and a no-brainer recommendation for a relatively low-cost SOTA system. Certainly a get-off-the-merry-go-round system. I miss the Fila, but as you can see, I have a bit too much equipment to have kept it.