Tomryan.... Yes,I have heard the Merlin vsm [with bam option]on many ocassions and have seriously considered them to replace my reference 3a decapos.They are very special indeed! I honestly believe they are a world class speaker and must be considered top shelf by anyones standards. When driven with good vacuum tubed amplification and properly set up in an appropriate room .... they are magic with a capital M, and breathtaking in every regard.They are just so versatile with so much up side and so few liabilities. Can be optimized in both small rooms and large rooms due to their modest sized footprint. I had the pleasure of spending a week with them in my dedicated studio room. Driven by a pair of Atma-shere 2.2 OTL's and mated with the supratek syrah, they mesmerized each and every one that heard them. Even more impressive was the fact that my room is actually a little too large for the Merlin [32ft x 27ft x 12 1/2 ft ceiling]. They can kick out some very high spl's levels with out any sense of strain with an appropriate high powered amp. In my books.... their greatest asset is their ability to reproduce recorded music in the correct tonal balance and at very low levels to boot, then resolve this [both micro and macro] imformation in the proper dynamic scale. Impressive indeed...as not too many other speakers [in my experience anyway] possess this elusive quality other than the original quad 57 esl and perhaps the soundlab A-1. Regarding crossover mods on the proacs?.... Yes and no.... I played with the caps in original response 2 and settled with an auricap for the tweeter, however: one must always consider at least 30 hours of run in time on any given cap when evaluating these changes. Personally speaking here.... the biggest "bang for the buck" mod for the proac is to remove the stock crossover entirely from the cabinet. This does require additional wire,soldering,and removing the bass driver to get at the crossover inside the box. Not to mention the dexterity of a contortionst to get at it as well. Well worth the work though but be sure to use good hook wireup. I used cardas in my case. I can honestly say that this mod is not suttle, and improves the speaker in every way,especially micro imformation and nuance. And No, it does not alter that beautiful "proac voice" or the balancing act between tone and resolution that all the praocs seem to possess. RE: Proacs and amplifier power. In my humble opinion,this is one of proacs biggest strengths and one that should not be taken lightly for those considering lower powered amps or sets. For example: I found the Merlin extremely critical regarding the amplification in front of it,both power wise and quality wise. Not so with the proacs, It sounded wonderful with every amplifier I hooked to it, anything from an 18 watt single ended tube amp,on up to whatever power envelope you wanted to throw at it.
