why no recent Merlin speaker reviews?

Marakanetz is probably correct but you need to hear them for yourself and not what you read in a mag. If you knew some of the reviewers, their systems and rooms, you probably would wonder why you are reading their reviews.

I want to know why I always see so many of them for sale (if they are so darned to die for imaging etc).

I heard Merlin speakers multiple times at the shows, and could never understand what all the fuss is all about.
They are clearly very light in the bass department and that disqualifies them as realistic sounding with majority of recordings, short of maybe very simple vocal material and such.
There are no miracles, you cannot get realistic bass from this size of a woofer, BAM, or no BAM.
Just my personal opinion

I laughed right out loud to read Testpilot's post. When I've looked at the Merlin site, it's always seemed so odd, so needlessly confusing -- is the Merlin TSM QWERTY the newer model, or is it the Merlin TSM ASDFG? It need not be this hard.
-- Howard

The few times I've seen them at shows I appreciated Bobby letting the speakers "speak" for themselves, and thought they sounded solid.

I don't base much on "no recent reviews." The review business is geared to selling new products with the bias that new is better then old, and everything matters. It serves consumerism and wordsmithed lust, which is a product I partake in and enjoy.