2004 Joint Products of the Year
Aerial Acoustics Model 20T loudspeaker
Focal-JMlab Nova Utopia Be loudspeaker
Linn Unidisk 1.1 universal disc player
Runners-Up (in alphabetical order):
Halcro dm38 power amplifier
Lamm ML2.1 monoblock power amplifier
MBL Radialstrahler 101E loudspeaker
Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista kW power amplifier
Sony SCD-XA9000ES multichannel SACD player
Velodyne Digital Drive DD-18 subwoofer
VTL MB450 monoblock power amplifier (review) ($10,000/pair; reviewed by Paul Bolin, Vol.27 No.4, April 2004)
Wilson Benesch A.C.T.…
search
Sidebar: Previous Awards:
Stereophile's Products of 2003
Product of the Year: Quad ESL-989 loudspeaker (review)
Budget Component: Apple iPod (review)
Loudspeaker: Quad ESL-989 (review)
Joint Amplification Components:
Linn Klimax Twin power amplifier (review)
Parasound Halo JC 1 monoblock power amplifier (review)
VTL TL-7.5 Reference preamplifier (review)
Digital Source: dCS Verdi-Purcell-Elgar Plus SACD/CD playback system (review)
Analog Source: SME 30/2 turntable (review)
Joint Accessories:
Echo Busters Decorative Room Treatments (review)
Rives…
"Viagra couldn't cure our voltage droop!"
"We've got a midbass hump so big, it's X-rated!"
"We need another day of break-in—come back tomorrow!"
"The room's flexing like a Slinky!"
Knock on doors at a Consumer Electronics Show and that's the kind of stuff you hear as manufacturers make excuses for bad sound.
More often than not, the complaints are justified. Getting music from a hi-fi at a Show is tough under the best of circumstances. Cramped hotel rooms, polluted electrical lines, sadistic freight handlers, and dozens of other problems create a nightmare…
(Non Emeril) BAM!
Getting deep bass from a 6.5" vented woofer is problematic no matter how you play with the port tuning or the crossover. According to Palkovic, the speaker's basic alignment is -1dB at 60Hz, -2dB at 42Hz, -7dB at 35Hz, and -10dB at 32Hz. The outboard BAM bass equalizer, powerable by battery or AC and via a tape loop or in series with the preamp and amplifier, applies a carefully contoured boost of 5.2dB at 35Hz. With the BAM, Merlin claims the VSM's response is flat at 60Hz and 42Hz, -2dB at 35Hz, and -4.5dB at 30Hz. A high-pass filter operating below 28Hz prevents…
Getting deep bass from a 6.5" vented woofer is problematic no matter how you play with the port tuning or the crossover. According to Palkovic, the speaker's basic alignment is -1dB at 60Hz, -2dB at 42Hz, -7dB at 35Hz, and -10dB at 32Hz. The outboard BAM bass equalizer, powerable by battery or AC and via a tape loop or in series with the preamp and amplifier, applies a carefully contoured boost of 5.2dB at 35Hz. With the BAM, Merlin claims the VSM's response is flat at 60Hz and 42Hz, -2dB at 35Hz, and -4.5dB at 30Hz. A high-pass filter operating below 28Hz prevents…
The VSM excelled at expressing music's tactile and textural qualities. It got right to the sensual heart of fingered or picked guitar strings, of bongos and congas, drum brushwork, and bowed instruments. It communicated the metallic yet round and warm sound of brass instruments to perfection.
Well-recorded voices, such as Netania Davrath's on Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne (Vanguard VSD 2090/Analogue Productions APC002), were rendered with an eerie naturalness free of boxy hangover—or, on the other side, thinness and sibilance.
The speaker's combination of delicacy, speed,…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Merlin VSM Millennium loudspeaker: Two-way, floorstanding, loudspeaker with battery-powered, line-level low-frequency equalizer. Drive-units: 1" soft-dome tweeter, 6½" carbon-fiber-cone woofer. Crossover frequency & slopes: 2.25kHz, second-order. Frequency response: 33Hz-22kHz, ±2dB, 1m on-axis. 4dB down at 30Hz with BAM, Impedance: 8 ohms nominal, 6.5 ohms minimum, 15.6 ohms at crossover point. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m. Power handling: 200W (music program). Maximum output: 111dB (music program). Suggested power requirements: 17W minimum (tube), 25W minimum…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Simon Yorke and Acoustic Signature Final Tool turntables; Graham 2.0, Immedia RPM2, Rega RB300 (Incognito-rewired), and SME 309 tonearms; Lyra Helikon, Helikon mono, Clearaudio Insider, Transfiguration Temper Supreme, and Sumiko Celebration cartridges.
Digital source: Marantz SA-1 SACD player.
Preamplification: Hovland HP-100 preamplifier, Audio Research Reference phono section.
Power amplifier: Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 300.
Loudspeakers: Sonus Faber Amati Homage, Audio Physic Avanti III.
Cables: Phono: Hovland Music Groove…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
As the Merlin VSM Millennium uses an active low-frequency equalizer to achieve its target bass performance, I first examined the Bass Augmentation Module (BAM) on the test bench. All tests were performed with the BAM powered from its internal battery.
The equalizer has unity gain at 1kHz, but applies a moderate 5dB boost at 32Hz (fig.1) to extend the VSM Millennium's low-frequency response. Its input impedance is a fairly high 39.5k ohms at 1kHz, while its output impedance is a low 100 ohms across the band, both of which optimize the unit for use in a…
The saddle at 37Hz in the fig.5 magnitude plot indicates the tuning of the 2"-diameter port, and there are slight wrinkles in the traces at 250Hz, 400Hz, and 750Hz that might suggest the presence of cabinet resonances of some kind. When I supported the speaker on the supplied carpet-piercing spikes—very sharp—and examined the cabinet vibrational behavior with a simple plastic-tape accelerometer, I was surprised to find nothing untoward at those frequencies. However, I did find resonant modes at 301Hz and 367Hz; these were strongest on the VSM's front baffle, beneath the port (fig.6). I do…
In the vertical plane (fig.11), you can again see that the presence-region depression on the tweeter axis fills in on the optimal axis (third trace from bottom). But sit higher than the top of the enclosure and a large suckout centered on 2.4kHz develops in the crossover region. As always, don't listen to this speaker while standing.
Fig.11 Merlin VSM Millennium, vertical response family at 50", from back to front: differences in response 15 degrees-5 degrees above tweeter axis, reference response, differences in response 5 degrees-15 degrees below tweeter axis.
In the…