Merlin Music Systems Published Reviews

[PUBLISHED REVIEWS]

CES SUMMER SHOW REPORT

By Wing Cheung
Reviewer for Audio-Technique Magazine, Hong Kong
Issue #8, September, 1994

Merlin was demonstrating the VSM, its smallest floor-standing loudspeaker. No matter how you look at it, the VSM shares no family resemblance to the rest of the Merlin product line. The speaker stands over 3 feet tall (with only an 8-5/8 inch front baffle). The satin black finish gave the speaker an unobtrusive appearance. The speaker's two-way design incorporates the very expensive DynAudio Esotar tweeter, and a 6-1/2 inch Scan-Speak carbon-fiber paper mid-woofer. According to Bobby, this is one of the more expensive 6-1/2 inch woofers on the market today. A pair of Edison Price Music Posts are provided for bi-wire connection on the back of the VSM.

Due to its diminutive appearance, the VSM did not immediately catch my attention. I was just planning to pay a brief visit to Bobby Palkovic before rushing to the next room. After a few seconds exposure to these little speakers in Merlin's room, I was shocked! This was indeed one of the very best sounds at the show, and I almost missed it. The bass was not the biggest I had heard, but can you expect thunder from a 6-1/2 inch woofer?

The VSM gave me the highest standards of a true-to-life performance, such as refinement, purity, transparency, a highly-resolved image, smoothness, etc. I found purity and smoothness to be the VSM's greatest virtues. The VSM is so refined! It can produce music with the total absence of color. The only color from the VSM is the music itself. This is no doubt the utmost in pure sound transducer technology.

At the show, the digital front-end was the Wadia 8 transport and Wadia 15 digital processor combination. Bobby chose not to use Wadia's direct driving capability to the amplifier. Instead, he connected the output of the Wadia 15 to the Joule LA-100 tube preamp. The power amp was a Canadian made SimAudio Celeste (70 watts x 2). Since the sonic performance in this room was so impressive, I also have a great interest in these two other products.

VSM

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