Performance
The sound quality of the midrange delivered
by the TSM is equal to all but the very best speakers I have heard in the
$10,000 price range. It is smooth, full, relaxed and incredibly realistic. The
dynamic contrast is easily the best I have heard from any speaker under $5,000.
The highs are rendered with incredible realism and the bass is extraordinary
for a speaker with a 6.25 inch woofer. It’s not exactly subwoofer territory but
all the way down to 55 Hz, it is tight, controlled and tuneful. Yes, there are
plenty of speakers in the $3,000 price range that will deliver much deeper bass
than the TSM, but I would rather opt for a speaker that delivers bass down to
55 Hz accurately rather than one that goes much lower but without the control
and tunefulness of the TSM.
The TSM is also one of the most neutral
speakers I have heard in this price range. They are great at helping you gauge
the quality of your upstream components, cables and interconnects. They have
great synergy with Cardas cables. I tried out lesser quality cables and the
TSMs were quick to reveal the flaws in them. They truly deserve to be matched
with superior upstream components and cables, which will bring out the best in
them.
The TSM is also one of the best two-way
mini-monitors I have heard when it comes to getting the woofer and the tweeter
to dance well together. Bobby’s choice of driver units and crossovers has
resulted in a speaker system that has extraordinary continuousness across all audible
frequencies. The transition from the woofer to the tweeter is amazingly
seamless.
With my collection of around 72,000 tracks
across my vinyl, CD, Sooloos and iMac music collection, covering most genres
(except hip-hop and rap) I was able to try out a wide variety of tracks on the
TSM. It acquitted itself with flying colors with every genre but it did show a
penchant for jazz, classical and bluegrass.
The
TSM is also the top of its class when it comes to sheer musicality
The TSM is also the top of its class when
it comes to sheer musicality. I have heard countless speakers that get
everything right but are just not musical. There are speakers that may be a
technical tour de force but just don’t tug at your heartstrings when delivering
a romantic love song or seduce you when playing a husky voiced diva or make you
tear up when listening to a heartbreaking ballad. This is a quality that few
speakers below the $10,000 price range have and the TSM has it in spades,
delivering the emotional content of the music that really lets you connect with
the artiste.
When it comes to reproducing voices,
especially female, the TSM has few if any rivals in its price range. Most
comparably priced speakers tend to sound quite nasal, one-dimensional and flat
when delivering voices. In comparison the TSM makes it very easy to conjure up
a flesh and blood body as the source of the voice.
Imaging is one of the TSM’s fortes. If you
get the placement right and play a very well recorded track, the TSM pulls a
Houdini on you. The speakers sonically disappear while leaving behind a solid
and well defined sound stage that is tall, wide and deep. They are also one of
the most fatigue free speakers I have heard in this price category. During the
review I tried all night listening session with the TSMs and at the end of it,
it was lack of sleep rather than listening fatigue that prompted me to end the
session.
Does this mean that the TSM is
automatically the right speaker for you if your budget is around $3,000 to
$5,000? Not really. If you are a bass freak who expects to not just hear the
bass but feel its impact on your chest, the TSM is not for you. The TSM is also
not recommended for very large listening rooms (over 3,500 cubic feet). They
can play surprisingly loud for their size, but when you get to sound pressure
levels of over 95 dB you can detect compression and other forms of distortion.
The TSM is also not recommended if your
upstream components, cables and interconnects are not of high quality. These
transducers are straight talkers and do not mind telling on failings in the
upstream components and cables feeding them.
It did not matter whether I drove the TSMs
with solid state or tube upstream components. It was comfortable with either
but it was a smidgen more partial to tubes. One particular tube amplifier that
the TSMs seem to waltz beautifully with is the Ars Sonum Filarmonia. The
synergy of this pairing is very apparent.
Ars Sonum Filarmonia SE
Like most fields of consumer electronics,
speakers are subject to technology obsolescence in some of their parts or
circuits. This sometimes makes owners wish they had waited for a later model.
Bobby has countered this factor by offering reasonably priced upgrades that
bring older models amazingly close to the latest models in terms of
performance. I have found that Bobby offers these upgrades only when he is
confident that they will make a significant and meaningful difference to the
performance of the speaker.
Customer service at Merlin Music is as good
as it gets. Bobby is very accessible. Current and prospective customers can
call Bobby at his factory in Hemlock, New York. He has extraordinary patience
and will spend all the time you need, providing guidance and advice to help you
get the best out of his sonic works of art.
