Would you buy speakers with out first listening ?

based on experience: never again.

bought merlin VSM-Ms and soundlab U2s w/o hearing them first. never warmed up to either, despite their reputations and proponents.

heard my current WP6s years before i bought them. buying them was the best purchase i've made (tied w/ a kenwood KT8300 tuner for $60 and a Wavac SET for $2k)

Bought Spendor S5e's without listening. Match perfectly to my Naim system as everyone had indicated they would. Couldn't be happier.

Yes I have numerous times and finally stopped with the Merlin VSM-MX. As there are no dealers in Ontario, Canada I really had no place to audition them.

Pdreher

Thanks for the heads-up...not in the market at this time though.

Dave

Having owned 5 speakers just this year,alone I felt this as a learning process. I think one speaker sets you up for the next. My downfall started when I bought the Lowther single driver system. It made me aware of how bad the mid/upper mid in my Montana EPS was. One of these set of speakers was David_'s Merlin MM's. The "Where's the beef" comes to mind. It's strange how the stats can claim such and such;i.e.--goes down to such and such.In my room with a fair amount of quality driving which-ever speakers the Wilson Sophia gives up the low mid bass I was missing--(in spades).---I also got this from my Montana speakers but they don't image and the mid/upper mid isn't as good as any speaker I've had since. The Merlins image as well as anything I've heard in my home but the low information doesn't compare to Montana or Wilsons.(its lack thereof)---I guess grafting a Wilson lower to the Merlin MM sounds like that might make it for me. --After all cabinet volume and driver size is a good part of why Merlin is at such a disadvantage. This is just my opinion. In hindsight I see the MM as a large 2 way bookshelf that leaves out MUCH musical information