(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…
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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…
Michael Fremer wrote about the Merlin VSM-MX in January 2007 (Vol.30 No.1):
When I favorably reviewed the Merlin Music Systems VSM Millennium loudspeaker in September 2001 (Vol.24 No.9), I noted that Merlin's Bobby Palkovic had been tweaking and upgrading the two-way floorstander since 1994. Back then, seven years seemed a long time to stick with a product, given the competitive speaker market, though there are precedents: for example, Wilson Audio Specialties' WATT/Puppy series (since 1986) and Vandersteen's 2 (since, I believe, 1977).
Now five more years have passed, and while…
Lord Acton said, famously, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. If there ever were an amplifier to test that maxim's applicability to audiophiles, it is surely the Chord SPM 14000 Ultimate Monoblock. Priced no less than $75,000/pair, the SPM 14000 is rated to produce power as do very few other amplifiers on the planet: it is very conservatively rated at 1kW into an 8 ohm load, 2kW into 4 ohms, and "will easily exceed" 2800W (give or take a few watts) into 2 ohms.
Everything about the big Chord proclaims it a bespoke product. Normally, the SPM 14000 is built…
The Chord's dynamic capabilities derived at least in part from its almost unnatural background silence. The SPM 14000 let music show itself against a background of unconditional quiet. Nothing about this background was "black," which suggests an absorptive quality that was completely absent. With the Chord, there was simple silence. Consequently, its resolution floor was exceedingly low, its microdynamic resolution marvelous. Keith Johnson's recordings of Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man and Appalachian Spring (CD, Reference RR-93CD) capture the fullest measure of the shape of…