Tenor Hybrid v. VTL MB-450 Sig.

traditional sub hookups are problematic, i admit. i had a custom passive x-over designed to roll off the merlins at 100hz at 6db/octave and let the subs come in there. coherence was not lost---i certainly couldn't hear the extra x-over, but i could hear lots more venue info per the subs...

with a sub, the merlins can play Big. but ask them to play loud and, as fremer noted in his stereophile review, their tonal balance skews towards edginess and some brightness. ---its not merlin's fault, every 2-way compresses when driven too loud. merlins do it less than most, but they compress at higher SPLs.

rhyno

Being familiar with rcrump's and rhyno's systems, I'll throw out a couple of thoughts, biased as they may be.

The Merlins excel at what they do, portraying a detailed, musical image, revealing much of the character of the associated equipment. They are most commonly suited to smaller rooms, as their capabilities for moving a lot of air are limited. They work well with music associated with smaller ensembles, such as small jazz and folk groups, as large symphonic works can reveal their limitations. That said, they are still very good speakers. I admire Bobby P's dedication and persistence in refining his products over the years.

The requirements of hefty amplifiers for Sound Labs are about to go away, as Sound Lab demonstrated a pair of Ultimate-1s at CES implementing some new technology realizing significant gains in efficiency and dynamics. Driven by some 100 watt solid state monoblocks, they had no trouble reaching adequate levels despite the lack of a preamp which was held up in customs...they had to make do with a CD player putting out only 0.7 V into the amps which require 1.3 V for full output. With the right preamp driving the amps the sound would have been much fuller and more dynamic. Anyone wanting further information on this can contact me offline.

Brian Walsh

I haven't listened to Merlins, Rockports, Avantgardes, or MBL's, or the big SoundLabs and JMLabs, but I have always taken it as a given that no speaker can fully capture the dynamics of live music or adequately present the scale of a large venue (acknowledging that these limitations are also shared functions of the recording end of things). Some here apparently think I'm wrong in this assumption?...

The large presentation is fairly easy to achieve as normally just need flat response to the low 30s is all........Dynamics are much much tougher to achieve as have both driver distortion problems and amps going into class B with higher order distortions to deal with... Now if you like focus and imaging all at the same time as everything else it gets even harder..... Have a friend with horns that get the dynamics right and not much else.....Best leading edge I ever heard, but no depth, size or focus.... Tough to get everything right is my point and don't think anyone has achieved a facsimile of live versus memorex.......Once in a great while the sound will raise the hair on my arms and think that is all we can hope for in the here and now......

Yes indeed, it is all about the goosebump factor and that is all we can hope for. Audiophiles always remind me of greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit or Cubs and Boston fans, what would they do with themselves if they won the Series?