Follow-up on Merlin TSM

By Martin DeWulf

Follow-up on Merlin TSM. Not often is one able to compare the past with the present. But, in this caseI can. When I did mu original review of the Merlin TSM in April of 1996, I purchased the review pair from Merlin. An you may have noticed that when I sold much of the wire and equipment that had accumulated over the years here, the TSM was not on the list. They may be ten years old, but they still sound good and I use them. About four months ago Bobby at Merlin contacted me regarding an audition of his newest TSM. It seems that he had read in these pages something about me not being able to compare his speaker to one of our latest review samples from another company because my purchased pair were getting along in years. Having read that, Bobby wanted to make sure that the situation was remedied and I was fully up to speed on the latest from Merlin.

From the outside the new speakers look exactly like the old ones. The changes have taken place internally, and some pretty substantial changes they are. Having said that, the old TSM, in spite of a graying hairline, still sounds contemporary and musical. Put in a position of having to use the old TSM exclusively in the Big Rig, I could do it and not complain. Progress moves on, however, and the old TSM is now the TSM mme.

The drivers are the same in both speakers. But how could that be, the old Morel tweeter used in the original TSM has been discontinued? Not entirely. The old MDT 30 tweeter, with a few upgrades, is now being made for Bobby by Renais­sance Audio, and is reportedly better than ever (see below). The woofer has also seen some small but significant upgrades (also see below). The crossover is still second order, and now incorporates an impedance correct "Q" circuit, which in effect acts to lower noise. Caps are cryo'd Hovelands, and all resistors are non-inductive types by Caddock. Crossfield Litz wire by Cardas is used inside, and the solder is a low lead, copper/tin combination. Lastly, the cabinet is now made of a new kind of MDF, a material that uses much less solvent based adhesives as part of the mixture and a lot more fiber.

This speaker is the first example of the "Lead Free" products now made by Merlin in compliance with European lead standards recently instituted. Okay, there looks to be a smidge of lead in the solder, but by the newly incorporated standards, it's okay. One change in the drivers not mentioned above are the new production techniques used to create lead free drivers -woofers and tweeters. Throughout the speaker, wherever possible, lead content has been eliminated, or, substantially reduced.

The result of all these changes is an uncommonly coherent loudspeaker, one that is utterly seamless from top to bottom. More so than with my original TSM, the mme is critical of speaker placement. Not so much of placement in the room, but toe-in. Yes, toe-in. Bobby now describes the speaker in terms of its “Power Axis Mode". My old TSMs came with a wooden placement guide designed to assist the toe-in setting. I used it before, and the results were positive, though not dramatic. It's dramatic now, and 50% of the speakers imaging qualities will be lost if the toe-in guide isn't used as directed. Once set-up pursuant to Bobby's instructions, the speaker end of your listening room will come alive. It's pretty crazy actually. Depth and dimension become much more present, just short of becoming exaggerated. Don't tell Bobby, but at first I thought the soundstage was too wide, too dimensional and too deep ... exaggerated. It didn't image like the speakers that I'm acquainted with, including the old TSM. Now that I've completed my audition of the mme, I think it one superb imager, and here's why. I've heard a number of speakers that through phase shifting throw an image that at first blush seemed too good to be true. I emphasize, at first blush, because the imaging impact of those speakers is at first astounding. It's only after an extended audition (sometimes lasting weeks) that the rotting head of the design begins to stink the place up. What stinks? Image density. Those big and dimen­sional images projected by phased screwed up speak­ers are, for the most part, transparent and ghostly. In other words, they seriously lack density. And the larger and more spaced out those images are, the less dense they are.

So, when I first heard the panoramic soundfield thrown by the mme, I just knew that the images had to lack density. Bobby, you surprised me. Not only did the soundstage have a real tactile quality about it, I wasn't listening through the lead singer's head to the back of the listening room. There was focus and mass, not blur. All of which lead to the "uncommonly coherent" designation placed on the speakers in my listening notes. Note: If, in my listening position I pointed the speakers directly at me, there seemed to be an extremely small increase in punch and contrast, though space recognition fell off as images fell forward to the front of the stage. Getting the toe-in as recommended, restored the presentation though some dynamic edge was lost.

The mme uses a sealed box of modest dimen­sions. With a 6.5" woofer, the bass goes decently low; and because the box is sealed and properly tuned, it will go perceptively deeper in the bass than an equally sized vented box. The result is a fuller sound considering the size of the enclosure, its the old acoustic suspension physics. On the other hand, efficiency is lowered with a sealed enclosure, and the "slam factor" for rock record­ings is somewhat lessened. The mme still has consid­erable action down in the bass, but this speaker conveys a feeling of controlled excesses before it will lose control.

Which in this case benefits the midrange. Not only does this speaker do "space" the way it should be done, it has a tonal palette that subtly mixes warmth with detail, musicality with precision. And importantly, the lower midrange is a part of the upper bass, and vice versa. It is music cut from the same cloth. As a result there is a coherence that even single diver designs should envy.

The new mme outshines my old TSM in a number of ways, though in some ways they are very much alike. The "lead free" mme makes the older unit sound heavier and a little less responsive to an active transient. Overall slam with both speakers is about the same, though 0-60 times with the mme are quicker. The relationships between direct and reflected sounds are a little clearer with the new mme. It's a little easier to pick out just exactly what's going on at the back of the stage with the mme, though I wouldn't say it was all that difficult with my old TSMs. Bass is about the same with both, though I would say that true black is a little blacker with the mme.

The Merlin TSM was a great speaker, and the TSM mme is an even better speaker now. Considering that the standard black finish speaker costs $2,800/pr, it's an obvious value too. If you are into heavy metal and head banging there are better choices. However, for jazz, blues, classical and standard rock this is a wonderful speaker that is capable of bringing out the finer, rather than the more raucous aspects of a record­ing And it works great with solid state as well as tube amplifiers.