Ever discover cheapo speakers actually sound...

You might just need a good but smaller, more compact speaker design in a room that size.

For Ohms, I'd try the Ohm Micro Walsh Talls in a room that size first, I think, particularly if you already have a sub that might be added. Ohm recommends these mainly for more near field listening in a variety of room sizes I believe.

The Ohms are bottom ported though which could work against your desire for isolation. Placing them on concrete slabs or something similar could help. Loosely plugging the ports can be an option as well in more lively rooms that are less isolated naturally.

Both my larger and smaller Ohm Walsh speaks are located in my basement currently on a concrete floor with thin carpeting and padding and this provides an extensive amount of natural acoustic isolation.

Sns, yes I do and prefer things that way.
But I still recognize when things are just awful or not good enough. I must have certain priorities that I don't fully understand.
I'm sure others agree when I say we all have different priorities. That probably is part of our preferences in flavor of sound.
But why do showrooms fall short if that is the case. I remember enjoying most setups untill I brought my system up and got to hear the mbl's, which I should probably revisit.

Pedrillo, I've always noticed your decoupling technique with the Merlins. I believe what you say about decoupling them as I hung a cd player with fish line from the ceiling some years ago, best isolation I ever acheived with a digital source.

Still, don't we voice our systems based on inherent isolation of certain components, ie. my speakers sit on a suspended floor, ie. resonate more than optimum. I then increase the focus on the rest of my equipment through various isolation schemes in order to balance out this greater than optimum resonance in the speakers. In the end I get optimum results from balancing resonances. On the other hand, perhaps not, perhaps you can only fully optimize your system by hanging all equipment in space, ie. optimizing each and every piece. I think I need an anti-gravity listening room :-)

Pedrillo,

Your reaction to hearing MBL reminds me of my own reaction 30 years ago when I first heard Magnepan compared to box designs.

Some designs are just so unique, for better or worse that they will always stand out in the crowd, either for better or for worse.

Perillo, I suspect you like the MBL's imaging capabilities, much different from our Merlins. When I first went to my Merlins from my previous Alons (2 different models over many years) I was somewhat disappointed, they sounded closed in compared to the Alons. The Alons open baffle on the mids and highs give them a really open sound, larger and less defined images than the Merlins. I took me a while to get used to the Merlins, but now I love the way they image. I suspect I could go back to the Alons and again be very impressed with their imaging.

As for the Merlins, sounds like you're thinking there's something you're missing. Be careful of what you wish for, I have yet to hear a more coherent speaker, this kind of resolution and coherence is very rare. One improvement you may want to try is Duelund VSF in the SBAM. Wow! Read my impressions in my virtual system. I even think I have Bobby convinced to try them.