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qusp said:

even just walking is enough to produce enough repetitive movement to over time cause damage, so unless you are standing still imo its an issue and i have seen the results first hand. if its doable, best way i have found to use right angle jacks when in a pocket, is to have the jack on the bottom of your pocket 'under' the dap or amp. this way there is almost no movement and the cable is not unduly stressed either. depends how much you need to adjust volume if the knob or button is on the same side

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Thanks for the info.

Seems to me like a really big issue concerning it's an IEM and advertised towards portable use. Are you quite sure you favour the Merlin to the Miracle? And is the quality of bass really better than on the Miracle?
 
Thanks for sharing all of this with us project86. You're in a bit of an awkward position between UM and the readers on this forum, and I think you're doing an admirable job.

 
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project86 said:

 
I suspect that this is the one limiting factor for the Merlin: it isn't at it's absolute best during portable use (because of the power issue but more importantly the isolation issue).

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b0ck3n said:

Seems to me like a really big issue concerning it's an IEM and advertised towards portable use. Are you quite sure you favour the Merlin to the Miracle? And is the quality of bass really better than on the Miracle?
 
Thanks for sharing all of this with us project86. You're in a bit of an awkward position between UM and the readers on this forum, and I think you're doing an admirable job.

 


 

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A big issue? Are you kidding me? He was testing them with an older player with it's output being of less SQ than a $20 sansa clip.  Don't be so quick to shoot it down because of such a statement like that.  Most of us here that can actually afford the Merlin are gonna at least have a $20 sansa clip to pair with it so it's not a big deal at all.     
 

It's still a 12 Ohm, hard-to-drive earphone that performs less than optimal without sufficient juice flowing through it. I'm sure lots of people are going to pair it with competent portable amps, but that in itself is also a factor that hurts portability. These things in mind, and adding the vented design, I think it's fair to say that it might not be ideal for people who are looking for an IEM that you can just grab and go with your Clip+, and enjoy both top end sound quality and superb noise reduction. I'm sure it won't change your mind about the Merlin, but it does for me.

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b0ck3n said:

It's still a 12 Ohm, hard-to-drive earphone that performs less than optimal without sufficient juice flowing through it. I'm sure lots of people are going to pair it with competent portable amps, but that in itself is also a factor that hurts portability. These things in mind, and adding the vented design, I think it's fair to say that it might not be ideal for people who are looking for an IEM that you can just grab and go with your Clip+, and enjoy both top end sound quality and superb noise reduction. I'm sure it won't change your mind about the Merlin, but it does for me.

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You have very good points but I really believe those are all things that people would notice before they buy this thing.  Not many iem's are at 12ohms so it's obvious that it'll need some juice and it's an open vented design so it obviously wont reduce noise as much as other customs.  I'm not sure if it was your intention but your statement kinda feels like someone going into a HD650 thread and posting about how it sounds like crap out of an onboard sound card and how it doesn't isolate enough. 
 
Apparently Merlin's magic isn't for you and since you use the re-zero's perhaps you need a Miracle in your life instead?  That would take care of your isolation problem, impedance problem, and would probably suit your more balanced musical taste too.
 
 

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b0ck3n said:

Seems to me like a really big issue concerning it's an IEM and advertised towards portable use. Are you quite sure you favour the Merlin to the Miracle? And is the quality of bass really better than on the Miracle?
 
Thanks for sharing all of this with us project86. You're in a bit of an awkward position between UM and the readers on this forum, and I think you're doing an admirable job.

 

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Thanks for the support. I don't feel awkward at all actually - just reporting my experiences, for better or worse. The last thing I want is for someone to spend their hard earned money on something that doesn't fit their needs, based partly on my opinions. But I know what you mean.
 
Frankly, I'm not positive that I necessarily like the Merlin MORE than the Miracle. Without having both here to A/B, it's hard to answer that question. What I can say is that I like the Merlin very much, even in its current form.... enough to where it might be my current favorite. Yes, that includes over the JH13. I like it enough not to want to part with it, unless the final version that I receive is even better. So for the $150 lower price than the Miracle, and the more generous bass presentation (which I tend to gravitate towards, all other things being equal), and the sheer convenience of not having to ship the Merlins back and then wait for another item (which might not fit as well, customs being what they are), I'm going Merlin.
 
Another factor is that I plan on upgrading my LiveWires Trips to 6 drivers. Rawrster had his upgraded and likes what he hears, and I haven't been using mine much so I might as well. The end result should be close to a Miracle sound, so it's kind of a cheaper way for me to achieve the best of both worlds. 
 
Once again though I have to remind everyone that mine are not the final product. The final version could have better isolation for all I know. And I never had a need for extreme isolation anyway - clip ons like KSC-75 and eadbuds like PK1 have always worked for me (from an isolation standpoint) and the Merlins block more sound than those.
 
 
 

I was speaking out of slight dissappointment as I was curious about the Merlin as a fun, impactful alternative to my other earphones. I've been following the Merlin since project86 first mentioned it in the Miracle thread, and had hoped it would serve well in noisy environments where ambient noise and vibrations have a tendency to drown out a more balanced bass response.

Regardless, project86 has done well in enlightening us about these things and he might've just saved me close to $800, for which I'm thankful.

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b0ck3n said:

I was speaking out of slight dissappointment as I was curious about the Merlin as a fun, impactful alternative to my other earphones. I've been following the Merlin since project86 first mentioned it in the Miracle thread, and had hoped it would serve well in noisy environments where ambient noise and vibrations have a tendency to drown out a more balanced bass response.

Regardless, project86 has done well in enlightening us about these things and he might've just saved me close to $800, for which I'm thankful.

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Not a problem! I'm sure even UM doesn't want to sell you something that isn't ideal for your situation. The negative word of mouth could easily counteract the single sale they got.
 
Sounds like maybe a full silicone custom would be a good fit for you?
 

I've got an ES5 coming to me in the next few weeks which is said to isolate really well, and perhaps that'll be the end of my IEM journey - though I very much doubt it

Can someone, educate me? How difficult is it for them to change the resistance from 12Ohm to say 20Ohm. Would change in resistance change sound of iem? What potential difficulties do they need to overcome to do so? I know is has high sensitivity, so volume would not be a problem however the impression I get is that quality of the bass will be effected due to low resistance from reading posts. After all you are purchasing Merlin for it's quality in bass, and I do not own an amp, let alone potable amp.

 
 
well i'm not going to get into too much detail here, but really you cant do it properly without changing the drivers and crossover network. however you can use an adapter that puts a resistor inline with the signal and increases the apparent impedance of the device attached, but you cannot do this without effecting the driver response in some way. to do this will interact with the passive crossover network in the monitors, which contains resistors and capacitors to combine with the driver impedance/response, to only send the portion of the signal appropriate to each driver.
 
its possible to do this fairly transparently and you only need to pad it with a small value resistor, like maybe adding another 16 ohms, but without knowing the exact crossover schematic its hard for me to say with any accuracy the exact effect on the frequency response. pretty easy to try, it may not noticeably harm the signal in any way. its not an uncommon thing to do, i have made such things for use with jh13 and ue11 with good results, i have done it before primarily for using sensitive iems with home gear, that can sometimes hiss with very sensitive monitors. but the same thing wold work here.

 
 
 
 


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poetik said:

A big issue? Are you kidding me? He was testing them with an older player with it's output being of less SQ than a $20 sansa clip.  Don't be so quick to shoot it down because of such a statement like that.  Most of us here that can actually afford the Merlin are gonna at least have a $20 sansa clip to pair with it so it's not a big deal at all.     
 

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it really has very little to do with the cost of the dap, this is an uncommonly low load impedance, there will be the same effect with some expensive gear too, as this will not generrally be part of the scope for designing a dap. 12 ohms is not unusual for speakers, they will often be less, like 8 or 4 ohms, but speaker amps too need considerably more power/current to drive low z speakers properly
 
i always try to get/build amps and gear with very high damping factor (low output impedance) like much less than 1 ohm, but some designs, even very competent design topologies necessarily do not have high damping factor, like most tube amps and some discrete solid state power amps. i think the hifiman will struggle for example
 

 
all of the above being said, many daps do indeed have low enough outputz to drive them properly, idevices have always been very good in this regard, so Project86's report does not surprise me, nor does good performance with the clip, but to equate it to a monetary value thing, or 'quality' thing, would be misguided. it just means that this is a factor that must be considered in your research before choosing it, not a reason to forget about getting them, same with the isolation, having a dynamic driver needs some air movement, so isolation will usually be effected in some way, though it seems to be quite well handled with the merlin.
 
basically, make the decision with your eyes open and you'll be fine.

Thanks alot qusp, very informative and helpful insights.

I'll add that when balanced armatures are concerned, an output impedance of 2 Ohm or more will affect frequency response in audible ways, especially on the low end of the frequency range. As to how it would affect the dynamic bass driver of the Merlin I don't know.

The impedance may or may not be an issue. It depends on what frequency it was taken at and what it looks llike at the lower registers. If it's 30 ohms below 100hz and 12 at 1khz, this is not a big deal. Considering that it's moderate effeciency is probably being determined by the bass driver, the above scenario is unlikely and it is low impedance in the bass but it's impossible to know without an impedance curve. Adding a resistor is a bandaid even with single driver IEMs unless the lowered damping factor etc was part of the design. Never a good idea with multi way designs if you think the company had a clue when designing the x-over.