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
Distortion - Have you tried moving things to a diagonal position ? Put your listening position in one corner and the speakers coming out of the opposite corner . I have tried this and find that the problems , that most often occur with a 'straight' set up , are not prevalent . My room is about the same size as yours . My speakers are the same distance apart as they are from my listening position , @ 6ft. They are only @ 1 ft. from the nerarest wall , to the rear , but because it is at an angle it is not problematic . This set up was used by a well known amp designer/buider to solve problems with his new square listening room . After setting things up in this manner he found that he did not need all of the treatments that he was using with the old set up plan . This 'diagonal' set up was reccomended to me by a well known speaker designer/builder as well . Just a thought .
