I love this little system. It hasn't been through many changes since I set it up about 3 years ago. A couple of Amps, a couple of CDPs, 3 or 4 speaker changes, and a trailer load of cables. Does that qualify as few? ...or many? Ahhh, who cares, its fun.
I removed the bulk of the room treatments. Especially the corner Bass traps. Now, I am using a Rel sub with great success. Crossover very low to avoid the pile up of room modes at 50hz.
The red wedge foam behind the speakers may be replaced with Skyline diffraction panels. As I understand it the Skylines dont absorb midbass/midrange like the 2" foam does.
It sounds great. The Merlins are awesome. Vocals to die for. Tight and superbly accurate bass. Definitely not bright, as some suggested would be the case with SS amplification.
A few minor tweaks upcoming. A better stand with/for isolation. A better Rel Speakon cable, and a few cable auditions to maximize performance and satisfy the incurable condition of audiophilia nervosa.
Comments welcome, opinions, and suggestions welcome.
Edit: 01-19-08
Red wedge foam - gone. Replaced with pyramid foam. Better looking and a little better sounding. These speakers dont need a ton of room tweaking like my last speakers did.
Update: 07-01-08 Adona 3 level rack with composite and granite shelving. Pretty nice piece. Easy assemble. Good sonics.
Rel B3 Sub - Great sub, room placement was a little tricky, but reward with plenty of superb low octave energy. This one here to stay.
Great amp. Plenty of heat in the winter! Virtual Dynamics Power One straight to Porter Port outlet.
Resolution Audio Opus 21
Fantastic CDP. Running direct to Amp with no regrets. Small two box chassis is neat but requires two shelves and twice the isolation devices. Top notch sound. Virtual Dynamics David Power Cord and Audience Au24 Balanced ICs direct to Amp.
Merlin Music Systems TSM-MXe
Sealed design 6" midwoofer with 3" voicecoil 1.125" Silk Dome tweeter On 24" Sound Anchors Concrete filled stands. Single wired with Audience Au24, Merlin Jumpers, and Zobels.
REL Acoustics B3
Very Nice. Have tried several Subs, I prefer this one hands down. Virtual Dynamics PC
Keep feeding the 6.2's and give them some moderate volume when you can. The bottom end will extend and become more refined after a few hundred hours. I want to say around 4-500 or so. I went through break in on these new and you will be suprised the amount of performance they will give, even in a small room. Hang in there and keep the music playing! I was driving the speakers with a Unison Research Unico integrated and they were one of those "synergistic" combinations. Keep us posted as they break in for you.
