MGD’s note: I generally don’t allow reviewers to "review’ their own equipment. If a guy has bought something prior to the review, what do you think he’s going to say about it? "I bought the gear, and man was I stupid, This stuff stinks. Oh, by the way, would you like to buy it?" I don’t think so. Once an investment has been made, it can be difficult to be negative about it or even keep one’s critical faculties on an even keel. What compels me to publish the experiences that RR has had with the VSMs is twofold. First is the recognition that I’ve already reviewed the standard model, and found it a fine speaker, so the general quality level of the product has been established by someone other than the reviewer. Second is that I know a substantial number of BFS readers (only Bobby knows how many) have bought the VSMs on our recommendation, and they are interested in the upgrades that RR has gone through - the readers get to live vicariously through RR. And if you’ve been reading RR’s reviews, you know he is a real hands on, no bologna type of person that says what he feels even if it may be a little unpopular. I therefore trust in his ability to put pride of ownership away when it comes to tellin’ us straight about the BAM.

If you thought I liked the changes brought about when Bobby Palkovic upgraded my VSM Gen. IIIs to the Standard, that was nothing compared to the good stuff wrangled out of the speaker by installing the Merlin BAM (Bass Alignment Module). And align the bass it certainly did.

But what exactly is a BAM? The whole planet Earth will shudder, cringe and throw stones, so I’ll whisper it Softly "the BAM is an equalizer." Yes!, the scourge of all high-end audio. But now you’re worried huh? Let’s get real folks. Recording studios use equalization, even the RIAA circuit in your phono preamp is an equalizer. And don’t you know that the inductance, resistance and capacitance in all cables act to manipulate the frequency response of your system? Changing out your cables is an act of subtle EQ’ing. The big rag on equalizers came when designers realized that they could save a few bucks on parts if they eliminated the tone control section and then claimed that fewer parts in the signal path improved sound quality. True in a lot of cases, but ever since, people have been complaining about the lack of tone controls. Doesn’t Mark Levinson’s Cello preamplifier have a lot of extra knobs on the front panel for nothing other than fine tuned equalization? Another bad rap (but a well deserved one) on equalization came about in the 70’s and early 80’s when mass marketers such as Pacific Stereo, Playback, CMC, Tech Hi-Fi, and others, flooded consumer’s homes with EQ gadgets that had more lights and switches than a NASA control room. Behind the lights and LED’s were cheap sliders and high feedback IC op amps doin’ all kinds of nasty things to the sound. However, if thought out carefully, with all parameters considered, equalization can be your friend.

All Equalization is Not Equal. The ever soft spoken Bobby Palkovic can explain how and why the BAM works better than I ever could, but I’ll give it a try anyway. Merlin designed the BAM with the aid of Super Joe at JPS, the same guy who makes the Golden Flute bass assist device. But don’t be deceived, the BAM is not just another Golden Flute. The most obvious difference is that the Golden Flute is a passive device whereas the BAM is active. You plug the BAM in, you leave it turned on, and it will turn you on. Electronically, this is what the BAM does. The VSM is down 5 dB @ 37 cps, and 10 dB @ 32 cps. BAMed, the VSM is down 0 dB @ 37 cps, and down only 4.5 dB @ 30 cps. Unity gain amplification is used implementing a corresponding electrical gain where the speaker naturally rolls off in the bass (down to a point). The reasoning is that amplitude is followed by phase. If the resulting frequency response of the speaker is flat, the phase is flat. It’s a matter of physics, and it’s done right! This is not voodoo audio by any means

But if you go and electrically increase the bass to counteract the natural bass roll off characteristics of the driver and cabinet, won’t you overdrive the woofer? Not with this box, Pandora. The free air resonance of the Scanspeak woofer is 27 cps. Just above 27 cps (Have you remembered what "cps" stands for?) is an incredibly steep cut off filter. Ain’t much energy gettin’ to the woofer below that frequency. Not having to worry about anything at or below the resonance frequency, the woofer/midrange driver can do the higher frequencies even better. By not having to deal with near sub-sonic signals, the driver is subjected to far fewer Doppler effects. Less Doppler means lower IM distortion specs, which, in terms of sound reproduction, means a deeper, darker and blacker background; the sound is allowed to bloom in Technicolor. The steep filter is a plus for plastic spinners, it acts as a rumble filter. Super subwoofer fans can consider it a high pass!!

After gettin’ a crowbar and prying open the lid, I saw nothing but the best - the best. Being able to look at and touch the best parts made is akin to laying in a big, hot, sudsy tub - very soothin. But the BAM is so small you can only soak your foot. There’s Hovland caps, Caddock Micronox resistors and Analog Devices output gain devices. The printed circuit board was designed by JPS Joe, and what little wire one sees inside is Cardas running from the PC to the rhodium connector jacks.

For those interested in specs, here they are:

Input Impedance: 40k ohms

Output Impedance: 100 ohms

Distortion: < .0005%

Max Output: 9.5Vrms

There are a few different ways one can hook-up the BAM. At first I had it connected between my DAC and the preamp with no problems at all. This is probably the best way of utilizing the BAM for the best sound.

For no special reason other than it wasn’t getting any use, my trusty old Onkyo T-4090 tuner was reinstalled. Eighteen years ago it was the successor of the famous T-9, a tuner that The Absolute Sound raved about. Way back then, the T-4090 retailed for $450. No small change for a tuner, then or now. And it still works great. So anyway, back to the real story... Checking all kinds of local stations, for some reason my mind began working, and I began to wonder why the tuner sounded so much worse than the digital? Ah! The T-4090 wasn’t running through the BAM on the way to the preamp. What a difference. So, if I were to want both inputs to run through the BAM, since the BAM is a line level device, I can hook it up between the amp and preamp. Lastly, if your preamp has a tape loop you can insert there, and then switch it in and out at your pleasure. Though once in, I can’t imagine switching it out. The BAM retails for $850 and for $1,700 a balanced version is available. Everybody knows I’m unbalanced so...

Living With the BAM. I had been possessed by electrostatics and subwoofers for many years, and it was time for a dynamic speaker once again. While I was still in the industry, I visited Marty D. on what turned out to be my last road trip. Sitting in his house were the Jovian Pillars from Amrita. That was it, I forgot electrostats and bought a pair of Pillars a few weeks later. I was very happy with the Pillars, but when Marty D. asked if I would like to try writing reviews, Amrita was having financial problems (as was reported in BFS), so I didn’t feel quite right about owning them when others couldn’t buy them.

After selling the Pillars, I was very close to going back to electrostats when Bobby Palkovic snuck into my audio life. Matter of fact, about 3 a.m. one morning I could have sworn I saw him duckin’ down behind my rack of electronics. Hmmm… must have been my medications, or a flashback. So I took my Pillar proceeds, and bought the VSMs. The VSM’s had always seemed like the reviewer’s tool - truth tellers, as some critics have called them. They seemed to have everything, except… As time went by I started missing the extra bit of bottom end that I used to have with the Pillars. So, when it was that I would mention a little more bass with the VSMs to Bobby; his response was BAM; BAM this, BAM that, I needed the BAM - I had to get BAMed. At Las Vegas, I listened as he switched it in and out, and the improvements were instantly obvious. He didn’t need to shake the walls with volume to make his point, the insertion of the BAM resulted in better sound no matter how it played. I finally got BAMed last February. Having lived with the VSMs for some time, throwing the BAM into the system was dramatic

And Now We Listen. The first disc spun was Joni Mitchell’s "Turbulent Indigo". I couldn’t believe it was the same speaker. The piano had weight to it. Timpani on cut four that were wimpy had become Herculean. By freeing up the mid/woof to do only the work that it was originally designed to do, a whole ‘nother two feet of depth appeared.

For your listening pleasure, try out Dianne Schure’s "Blues for Schure". The bass player strokes his notes real sweet-like. Sometime she plays at such a low volume that without the BAM in the reproduction chain, a person might miss entirely his work without turning things way up. Same goes for the keyboardist when he’s playing "the B3". With the BAM in, you’ll hear the richness in the lower fundamentals, even when the system’s not cranking. And yet, none of the speed for which the VSMs are famous for was lost. The bottom end was there without smearing notes or losing definition. Still, no boom, or bloom, creeping around the bass mucking up everything up above. So much more of the bass is audible now, pulled by the bootstraps if you will, re-integrated into the rest of the music. It’s amazing what a difference there is between getting 30 Hz, when you’ve gotten used to only 45. It’s not just a bass thing for some reason, it goes well beyond that, and much higher than that. Which was evident on Patricia Barber’s "Cafe Blue". Inchworm and Ode To Billy Joe are songs that prove my point, and at the same time are entertaining to crank up.

Are the Blues still rolling around in your humble carcass? Mighty Sam McClain will let you "Give it Up to Love". Bass is thumping, and the "The B3" is mighty soulful. Going to "Harbor Lights" by Bruce Hornesby, synth notes are thick and rich, while other instruments and vocals have a cleanliness like fresh hung laundry.

"So that equalizer box must screw up the midrange, right?" Not so, bar rag breath! It’s better, much better. As I said, with the BAM chopping off everything under 27 Hz, the Scanspeak woofer can do its thing even more correctly. Mids and upper mids are still tonally correct, however, they are clearer, have less distortion, and less mesh noise as our Editor likes to put it.

One of the first things to hit you is that with the BAM there is at least another two feet of additional depth. Secondly, you’re hit with left and right images that are even farther out there. "Spooky like" are the instruments sifting in space surrounded by clean air. I still can’t figure out why there’s more height to images with the BAM, but I ain’t complainin’ either.

If you really want to get the tear ducts leaking, listen to "Testament" on Reference Recordings, The music and performance are recorded in such a fashion that the chorus breathes life. Vocals shift through the air ever so gently from one group of the choir to another group, yet the choir and the orchestra are able to exert power and dynamics.

"OK, but that black box equal-thing has to mess up the treble." It don’t, it cain’t, ‘cause it ain’t even working near those frequencies. If there is any possible interference, I’d swear that the highs are a tad smoother. How and why, I can’t tell you, ask Mr. Palkovic. I will admit when I first unboxed my old Gen. III’s, the unbroken-in tweeter sounded like a tin roof being ripped off a house. The Dyn tweeters need tons and tons of hours on them before they settle down. After that, refinement kicks in. It seems that the BAM may take that refinement a smidge farther.

One reason I’m late with this review (other than my lumbago) is that I read somewhere that a reviewer used a low power single ended triode with the speaker and didn’t think that the BAM added a whole lot. Well, I didn’t have one of those wimpy "new age" single digit output amps, but I did have the chance to run the speaker with the Rogue 88, which can be run as a 30 wpc triode. At that setting, the BAM did not seem to be as pronounced as it did when in the 70 wpc Ultralinear setting. In the triode setting, the bass seemed to be a tiny bit fuzzy and had less control, less of a sense of foundation. The presentation was more laid back. Highs didn’t quite have that ol’ sparkle. The VSM with BAM still likes a little power. And as near as my ears could tell, no weird phase thingys were happening while using the BAM.

THE END. Basically, the VSM’s are made more musical by the BAM. I’ve heard feedback from some that my comments regarding some of the really great gear I’ve gotten to listen to have been a bit "laid back." Very possible. But if I’m a laid back kind of guy, then my enthusiasm for the VSM with BAM should be all the more impressive to the regular BFS reader.