Merlin VSM & TSM speakers: RIP Bobby Palkovich, Ten Years Ago Today

Yes, Bobby is well remembered around here.  I still have his VSM-MXs and spoke and visited with him frequently.  Those speakers and BAM EQ have been much updated according to my own DIY lights. Not inconsistent with his own commitment to continuous improvement.      

I replaced my Merlin Black Magic single-ended BAM with a pair of JL Audio Fathom f110 v2 subwoofers and never looked back.  Was reluctant to go beyond 10" because of how fast & articulate the Merlins are and I think that was a good call.  Haven't messed with the crossovers . . . yet.

Bobby and I met around 1983/1984 range through the Kodak Audio Club in Rochester, NY when they were based out of Paul Heath Audio on Alexander Street. We hit it off immediately, and I liked what he was doing with the early Merlin 1s. He had a ton of energy and enthusiasm around his designs, and I was young naive audio buff who was like a magnet to iron filings when he’d show me his latest and explained what he’d done. Bobby took me under his wing and invited me to work part time for Merlin to help build, package, and ship out speakers. That led to me attending my first CES in Chicago where Merlin was showing with Ken Stevens of Convergent Audio Technology with his early SL-1 tube preamp. What a blast, and what a dose of audio overload for a week! I ended up attending several other CES shows with either Merlin or CAT, or both when they showed to together. At the time I was too young to realize how heavily that would influence my audio journey down the road, or just how good their gear was compared to the rest of the world, but it most certainly had a huge impact.  What better path could a 25 year old ask for early on in what would become a lifelong audio journey? RIP Bobby.  

I remembering his first speakers, cloth wrapped tall towers made from a MDF like material that was supposed to be made from corn husks as I recall. Boy did his design ideas change!