As I have posted earlier, I am madly in love with the sound of my Merlins - I will attempt to elaborate a bit on that statement here. This will be my first "review" here on Head-fi and English is not my first language, so go easy on me
I listen to all (literally, maybe excluding jpop) kinds of music and I use in-ears for at least 6 hours a day. Yesterday I hit the 9-hour mark in one sitting so I need an IEM that goes well with a lot of different music AND is perfectly comfortable for long sessions. I like my music to have energy and nerve, a sense of presense rather than a clinical presentation of the sound so I guess I was looking for something "musical" rather than analytical. I had the Future Sonics Atrio a while ago and I loved their kick and energy but detail retrieval left a lot to be desired. Awesome bass tho, when I turned up the EQ on my J3 I could literally SEE the bass because my eyeballs were vibrating. After scouring the net and especially Head-Fi for The Perfect CIEM I came acrosse the Merlin. 4 BA drivers for treble and midrange - I wanted that. I was using the W3 as my daily headphone and I really liked midrange and treble those two BA drivers produced so double that should sound pretty nice I figured. While the W3 is the "fun" Westone, the bass still had me wanting more, the Atrios had spoiled me I guess. The Merlin had a dynamic driver like the Atrio, but just for the bass. Oh man, W3 treble and midrange with Atrio bass? Stuff was sold and I ordered the Merlins.
When they turned up 8 weeks later I was beyond excited to finally listen to what on paper looked like my perfect headphone. The fit was very good, so they just slipped right into my ears and stayed there. The sound, however, was not as I had expected. It was MUCH better! I was expecting that deep, powerful bass that only a dynamic driver can deliver and I sure got what I wished for - and then some! On Rammsteins track "Ich Tu Dir Weh" the bass drum has amazing weight and depth to its sound, but manages to maintain the crisp, dry punch as well. Cymbals stood out crystal clear and just floated effortlessly and immensly detailed above the soundscape. I can tell that it's brass getting hit with a drumstick, not just random noise in the treble region. Even with (at times) fast paced and complex, somewhat "noisy" music like Rammstein I can easily pick apart the individual instruments. Only after getting the Merlin have I been able to tell the two (synchronously playing) guitars from eachother. The most amazing part is that all of this is done without the Merlins ever getting analytical or dry like the HD800. I can't help bopping my head and tapping my feet when listening to the Merlins. All those details and nuances are clear cut but somehow presented as a whole. No other headphone I have ever hear has managed to do that - except the Stax SR-009, but that's a bit out of this league (and lacks bass).
The Merlin is a fun, enjoyable headphone but it's fun and enjoyable no matter what music you listen to. It has me rocking out and playing the air-drums to Rammstein and Metallica at work but is equally capable of portraying every single fine nuance of Allison Krauss' voice when I feel like listening to her music. Bon Iver is downright amazing on the Merlin as well, as is my old favorite crazy-bitch-rockers Skunk Anansie. Their lead singer Skin has the hands down greatest voice I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy live (Don't believe me?
Check this out) and all the finely grained detail and emotion in her voice is flawlessly reproduced by the Merlins while the guitar, drum and bass from the band lays down the almost punk-ish rocking foundation their music is built on.
To sum up the sound of the Merlins in one word, I would describe their sound as
effortless. No matter what I trow at them, be it classical, speed metal, rock, pop, choir, female vocals or acoustic performances, they just deliver beautifully detailed and rich sound without ever breaking a sweat. Off course, that huge dynamic driver (see the pics I posted earlier) means that electronic music really shines with superb treble clarity on top of a bass that you can literally feel in your throat and chest - but unlike other heavy hitters in the bass section, it never bleeds into the midrange or in any way disturbs the sound.
