Dumbeat,
I bought a pair of Merlin VSM speakers from Bobby in 1999-ish... I'd have to check the receipt to remember for sure. He upgraded them once and they had better bass as a result. In 2001, I bought a Joule VZN-80 amp. Why? Well, my wife and I went to the CES show that January and I'd heard the Joule stuff with the Merlins. Hear that, like that, get that... It wasn't a hard decision when you've heard the solution. Pay The Man.
I am not an expert... but I do know the Merlins are a "damped" speaker design. They don't need help from an amplifier with a high damping factor and tons of feedback to control the low end. If you match an amp that is more inclined to low end control (high damping factor) it may sound "lean". "My Merlins" are not "lean".
My Joule VZN-80 has a dial to adjust feedback. There is a reason why it's never been on anything but "all the way to the left"... ZERO FEEDBACK.
If your amp is trying to bully your VSMs with too much damping, it will hide the magic. By the way... that BAM module makes the midrange you seek even better since it filters frequencies that driver can't produce anyway. The BAM doesn't just help the low end... it also helps make the speakers more accurate by not asking them to do things it can't do.
That's one thing I do remember Bobby telling me...
I bought a pair of Merlin VSM speakers from Bobby in 1999-ish... I'd have to check the receipt to remember for sure. He upgraded them once and they had better bass as a result. In 2001, I bought a Joule VZN-80 amp. Why? Well, my wife and I went to the CES show that January and I'd heard the Joule stuff with the Merlins. Hear that, like that, get that... It wasn't a hard decision when you've heard the solution. Pay The Man.
I am not an expert... but I do know the Merlins are a "damped" speaker design. They don't need help from an amplifier with a high damping factor and tons of feedback to control the low end. If you match an amp that is more inclined to low end control (high damping factor) it may sound "lean". "My Merlins" are not "lean".
My Joule VZN-80 has a dial to adjust feedback. There is a reason why it's never been on anything but "all the way to the left"... ZERO FEEDBACK.
If your amp is trying to bully your VSMs with too much damping, it will hide the magic. By the way... that BAM module makes the midrange you seek even better since it filters frequencies that driver can't produce anyway. The BAM doesn't just help the low end... it also helps make the speakers more accurate by not asking them to do things it can't do.
That's one thing I do remember Bobby telling me...