Merlin owners who have modified x-over?

The Duelund copper VSF are amazing caps. I just put one on the tweeters of my speakers and it has completely transformed my speakers. Never have I heard cymbals sound so real and palpable. Thanks to Dgarrettson, SNS and other Merlin owner's experimentation with Duelunds in their speakers, their excitement, I believe, has carried over to convince Bobby in trying them out. I'm not a Merlin owner, by the way. My mini-monitors are the Reference 3a Dulcet. Duelund copper VSF caps are the real deal. The Cast models are supposedly better but for a much greater price. Parts Connexion probably have the best price going now, especially with their monthly discount sale.

David P., Actually I use only Claritycap MR and Duelund resistors in xover. Elsewhere in system I have used Mundorf Silver/Gold, V-Cap, and NOS Russian teflon caps-- all excellent and significant improvements compared to stock caps found in even very high-priced components.

The stock inductors in Merlin VSM are heroically large, custom-wound affairs that I don't plan to replace. My only experience with aftermarket inductors is with Alphacore aircore foil types that I use as 95kHz noise filters in analog domain of my modded CDP. I have a switch on that player that allows alternating between filter vs. straight through-- so I can hear what those inductors are doing. They are very transparent, detailed and smooth.

As great an effect as piece parts can have on a system, I have been reluctant so far to accept the significant upcharge for Duelund capacitors. The marketing that accompanies these caps seems to position signal caps (and particularly xover caps) much like standalone audiophile components-- with commensurately exhorbitant prices. My experience modifying every component in my system does not wholely reject this idea, but in the end it seems to me more likely that the psychology at work resembles the marketing of very expensive cables. With cables I know that relatively inexpensive DIY designs can get very close to uber-priced commercial cables. The marginal return (for the DIYer at least)may be is greater putting the expenditure into some other improvement. Of course if cost is no object then anything goes.

david p, once again, pedrillo is a merlin owner and we know each other. most of those posting in this string are merlin owners as well. there was no need to mention my identity, even you knew who i was. if i remember to, i will try to post as bobby@merlin like i do when i think people do not know who i am. i am very sensitive to this. you are preaching to the choir.
*replacing the hovland inductors in the vsms will get you into a lot of trouble because they work in conjunction with the q circuit to provide the needed resistance to negate electrical resonace in the hf. these are very sohisticated pieces, hand made for me by bob hovland. for this application you will not find better regardless of the make or cost. any attempt to change them will surely degrade the sound unless you completely understand the circuit's opperation. dave garretson, i am sure does but he has elected to keep them in the circuit, as well he should.
sherod, i spoke to frederik of duelund about the cast version. i know what they are are and how they are made. they are too large to even put into the vsm's crossover chamber so it was an easy call for me. the benefits of their use "may not" even apply here because my networks are q circuited and shock mounted.
happy 4th to you all!
bobby@merlin

Dgarretson,
Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful response. You are so correct in the pricing of the Duelunds. At their cost it is helpful to the community to have detailed user reports about which crossover networks do or do not benefit.
Unlike many cable options, there are no 30 day trials with these aftermarket components.
Did you do your modifications in multiple steps or as a total one step change?
The Clarity MR cap appears to be a particularly good value in the world of expensive caps.
David Pritchard

Claritycap MR and Duelund resistors were broken in and evaluated separately in each section of the crossover. The MRs sound great across FR and are claimed by design to have internal resonance control characteristics similar to Duelund. Duelund graphite resistors (once broken in) have an exceptionally clear, detailed, and musical HF and represent excellent value-- even in view of relatively high price for a resistor.