I Have Heard the Future of Home Audio. - And It's The Meadowlark Merlin!

[AudioFanKJ]

I tagged along with Erik on this trip and had the absolute pleasure of meeting Pat as well as getting a brief but mesmerizing listen to his system! First off a word about Pat, what a fascinating and fantastic gent, a giant among speaker designers/makers and yet so down to earth. Pat was most gracious inviting me right in and making me feel most welcome, and answering my plethora of questions, thank you for this Pat!!!
Now onto the shop…..clean and spacious, completely unlike my chaotic cluster poop… with a couple of projects on the go, all fascinating btw!!!
Now onto the fun fun fun…… listening!!!!!
Wow is all I could mutter for the first 10-15 minutes or so…… bass was felt in parts of me unfelt unless at live venues!!! Bass was tight, quick and real, shit I could feel it and see it as it shook my pant leg( think I actually giggled out loud when I saw that) and yet it was not overwhelming or hurtful to the ears!!!! For me tho, the real magic was in their presentation of instruments, the separation of each instrument and vocals for that matter was amazing!!!! I guess to sum it up I would say that what I heard was what I’ve heard when I’ve had centre seats ( only ones I’ll take now) at Massey Hall, live and quick and oh so very life like, we’ll done Pat, you’ve produced the quintessential live sound in these speakers, time to start saving my pennies……….

Absolutely! Thus my comment above about the new Meadowlark upper range speakers being "beguiling" to describe... as you simply stated:

"Wow is all I could mutter for the first 10-15 minutes or so…… bass was felt in parts of me unfelt unless at live venues!!! Bass was tight, quick and real, shit I could feel it and see it as it shook my pant leg( think I actually giggled out loud when I saw that) and yet it was not overwhelming or hurtful to the ears!!!! For me tho, the real magic was in their presentation of instruments, the separation of each instrument and vocals for that matter was amazing!!!!"

I had a few people stop by for a listen when the speakers were new and not fully broken in, still quite capable of glimpses of what they could do, but once the finesse coupled with the iron fist control completely gel... it is simply astounding.

Am currently enjoying a very nice cigar and bourbon with my father in law in his in-law-suite in our home and am contemplating why I don't just go listen to some tunes for a bit before bed... heh.

 

[prime minister]

Absolutely! Thus my comment above about the new Meadowlark upper range speakers being "beguiling" to describe... as you simply stated:

"Wow is all I could mutter for the first 10-15 minutes or so…… bass was felt in parts of me unfelt unless at live venues!!! Bass was tight, quick and real, shit I could feel it and see it as it shook my pant leg( think I actually giggled out loud when I saw that) and yet it was not overwhelming or hurtful to the ears!!!! For me tho, the real magic was in their presentation of instruments, the separation of each instrument and vocals for that matter was amazing!!!!"

I had a few people stop by for a listen when the speakers were new and not fully broken in, still quite capable of glimpses of what they could do, but once the finesse coupled with the iron fist control completely gel... it is simply astounding.

Am currently enjoying a very nice cigar and bourbon with my father in law in his in-law-suite in our home and am contemplating why I don't just go listen to some tunes for a bit before bed... heh.

To both your, and @Shelby1420 's points, these are not just a better loudspeaker. For the past 70 years, we have simply been improving on existing stereo technology. Constant tiny steps of improvement, making a "better" loudspeaker. Some would argue (cough Altec fans) that we actually have lost something fundamental with all these "improvements". That might very well be the case.

What @Pat McGinty has achieved, however, is not just a better speaker. Rather, he has taken us in a different direction. We have now come to the place where we can actually come closer to the sound, and feeling, of being at a live performance. From what I heard, it seemed like the recording now is holding us back.

 

[Pat McGinty]

Thank you kind sir.

 

[prime minister]

Of course, the legacy audio world will never embrace what Pat is doing. His work is a shot across the bow of the entire industry. Any dealer who took on his line would immediately lose a ton of very profitable sales. You don't get to sell a very pretty luxury amp. You'd lose all those very high margin speaker cable sales. All of that tweaking that goes along with tuning a legacy system to make it sound right. The big guys won't seriously delve into this space, as it will wipe out most of their product lines, and their dealers and distributors. The magazines won't touch it, as they just can't afford to bite that hand that keeps them alive.
So we get Pat tinkering away in his lab in upstate New York, sharing with fans and customers where audio should be going, but sadly isn't. Those of us who have had the pleasure and privilege of experiencing what he has created can count ourselves amongst the lucky few.

 

[Pat McGinty]

Of course, the legacy audio world will never embrace what Pat is doing. His work is a shot across the bow of the entire industry. Any dealer who took on his line would immediately lose a ton of very profitable sales. You don't get to sell a very pretty luxury amp. You'd lose all those very high margin speaker cable sales. All of that tweaking that goes along with tuning a legacy system to make it sound right. The big guys won't seriously delve into this space, as it will wipe out most of their product lines, and their dealers and distributors. The magazines won't touch it, as they just can't afford to bite that hand that keeps them alive.
So we get Pat tinkering away in his lab in upstate New York, sharing with fans and customers where audio should be going, but sadly isn't. Those of us who have had the pleasure and privilege of experiencing what he has created can count ourselves amongst the lucky few.

There is, indeed, an uncomfortable stasis in the industry as regards Next Gen. You can be damn sure that every speaker maker has, a the very least, applied the technology to existing product. Of course that's only a dainty little first step into a tech that can do a whole lot more than just replace the passive filters. But it's certainly enough to ignite further development. It's not really difficult.

So what's going on?

I suppose that if I were, say, Bowers and Wilkins or PSB, for that matter, a supply pipeline and dealer inventory in the millions would present a problem, especially to your retailers, if you rolled out obviously superior product. It's a problem; I have no idea how you'd handle it.

But the impasse exists at other levels.

I have two old buddies, the sorts who sleep over at each other's homes, let their hair down and party.

One owns one of the more successful retail stores. He bangs it out at 100K+ per week, and enjoys a loyal customer base who see him first. He's among the very few who can hold the line on discounting and pull it off (!). On this side of industry that's really something to respect. When I showed him that I could destroy his mega-buck rig with my 50K thing he just blew it off - Pat, are you stupid? Why turn a 200K sale into a 50K sale? Duh. He walked me back into his warehouse and showed me a 1m inventory. It cannot be that everything he's correctly and carefully and professional espoused for 30 years is gonna come apart. I never brought it up again.

The other enjoys a comfortable life operating a very high traffic audio review site. When I peruse his roster of advertisers, every single one has something to lose as Next Gen overturns their applecarts. If he were to review my product and tell the truth about it - as he can be counted on to do - that wouldn't be so good for his business. Knowing the man, I'm sure he'd do just that. But - me - I can't ask him to. So I never bring it up.

So, yeah, while the inevitability of Next Gen hangs in the air - and it will out because it's obviously better AND cheaper AND smaller - an uneasy statis remains in place, and has for much longer than I expected it possibly could.

That's one of the reasons I have moved away from mid-market designs. That's a juicy war to be waged by younger men who have both the desire and the capital to make the commitment and see it through. If I were 40, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But I'm not - I figure I can do the most damage at the upper limit. Anyway: that's where the fun is.

 

[JohnVF]

There is, indeed, an uncomfortable stasis in the industry as regards Next Gen. You can be damn sure that every speaker maker has, a the very least, applied the technology to existing product. Of course that's only a dainty little first step into a tech that can do a whole lot more than just replace the passive filters. But it's certainly enough to ignite further development. It's not really difficult.

So what's going on?

I suppose that if I were, say, Bowers and Wilkins or PSB, for that matter, a supply pipeline and dealer inventory in the millions would present a problem, especially to your retailers, if you rolled out obviously superior product. It's a problem; I have no idea how you'd handle it.

But the impasse exists at other levels.

I have two old buddies, the sorts who sleep over at each other's homes, let their hair down and party.

One owns one of the more successful retail stores. He bangs it out at 100K+ per week, and enjoys a loyal customer base who see him first. He's among the very few who can hold the line on discounting and pull it off (!). On this side of industry that's really something to respect. When I showed him that I could destroy his mega-buck rig with my 50K thing he just blew it off - Pat, are you stupid? Why turn a 200K sale into a 50K sale? Duh. He walked me back into his warehouse and showed me a 1m inventory. It cannot be that everything he's correctly and carefully and professional espoused for 30 years is gonna come apart. I never brought it up again.

The other enjoys a comfortable life operating a very high traffic audio review site. When I peruse his roster of advertisers, every single one has something to lose as Next Gen overturns their applecarts. If he were to review my product and tell the truth about it - as he can be counted on to do - that wouldn't be so good for his business. Knowing the man, I'm sure he'd do just that. But - me - I can't ask him to. So I never bring it up.

So, yeah, while the inevitability of Next Gen hangs in the air - and it will out because it's obviously better AND cheaper AND smaller - an uneasy statis remains in place, and has for much longer than I expected it possibly could.

That's one of the reasons I have moved away from mid-market designs. That's a juicy war to be waged by younger men who have both the desire and the capital to make the commitment and see it through. If I were 40, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But I'm not - I figure I can do the most damage at the upper limit. Anyway: that's where the fun is.

As somebody who has spent their lifetime in marketing and advertising, sometimes to the very wealthy (other times not), I have to say I think that you're definitely doing the right thing in concentrating on the high-end. I just wonder if its stereotypical high-end audio folks or those who never go to shows, those who decide one day they want the best sound and go and ask a dealer for advice. As in maybe the audio folks are too entrenched in how things are. I know that my friends in the uber-high-end seem to have a lot of customers who call them up and say "just pick out what's best for me, I want the best but don't have time to figure it out". I'm sure you know more about that end of the pool than I do, but it's never a bad idea to tell wealthy people that the way things are is bunk and that there's a better, cheaper, way with better results. They're not stupid and most of them don't just throw money around to throw it around, unlike the common assumption. It's just...how and where to reach them if they're not the typical audio dude (and I really think they're not... the standard audio model of shows, reviews, high-end salons, is a big turnoff to a LOT of people).

 

[Rudy]

Per an industry veteran friend of mine who wrote for TAS and has been in public relations for a long time, the high end has shifted from a "cost of manufacturing, plus markup" basis to "whatever the market will bear." Back in the 80s when I still had disposable income, things in high end were still expensive, but not "the cost of a small house in my neighborhood" expensive. It's gotten out of hand.

 

[Pat McGinty]

As somebody who has spent their lifetime in marketing and advertising, sometimes to the very wealthy (other times not), I have to say I think that you're definitely doing the right thing in concentrating on the high-end. I just wonder if its stereotypical high-end audio folks or those who never go to shows, those who decide one day they want the best sound and go and ask a dealer for advice. As in maybe the audio folks are too entrenched in how things are. I know that my friends in the uber-high-end seem to have a lot of customers who call them up and say "just pick out what's best for me, I want the best but don't have time to figure it out". I'm sure you know more about that end of the pool than I do, but it's never a bad idea to tell wealthy people that the way things are is bunk and that there's a better, cheaper, way with better results. They're not stupid and most of them don't just throw money around to throw it around, unlike the common assumption. It's just...how and where to reach them if they're not the typical audio dude (and I really think they're not... the standard audio model of shows, reviews, high-end salons, is a big turnoff to a LOT of people).

Yes. Starting in my early 30s, in interior design, there were customers who hire the right guy and just cut him loose. All of their attention goes into choosing that guy. Same for his architect, builder and boatwright. That's a very different customer from the one who feels the need to be involved in all of the nuts and bolts.

In interior design, you can spot the difference between the results at a glance. You can even see where there was tension between spouses. That's not to say that the endgame satisfaction is any different between the two types.

The smart money just knows better and saves his life-force for better things.

The same happens in audio. For a while, I worked alongside a non-engineer front-of-house guy who had to be involved in every nut and every bolt. He invariably made the end result less than it could have been. Sometimes much less. That was it for me, life's too short.

So, yeah, our best work happens when the customer draws the basic outlines and leaves filling in the picture to us. I think that's a big part of why we can deliver the highest value in those situations. We make an appropriately detailed proposal and it generally flies with minimal fuss.

But, yeah, mainstream audio is not like that. I mean, that customer really enjoys the whole process as much as the end results. We enjoy that work, too. Nobody's gonna call on me, then drag along a lifetime's worth of preconceptions. I've made some very fine friends along that path.

 

[JohnVF]

Yes. Starting in my early 30s, in interior design, there were customers who hire the right guy and just cut him loose. All of their attention goes into choosing that guy. Same for his architect, builder and boatwright. That's a very different customer from the one who feels the need to be involved in all of the nuts and bolts.

In interior design, you can spot the difference between the results at a glance. You can even see where there was tension between spouses. That's not to say that the endgame satisfaction is any different between the two types.

The smart money just knows better and saves his life-force for better things.

The same happens in audio. For a while, I worked alongside a non-engineer front-of-house guy who had to be involved in every nut and every bolt. He invariably made the end result less than it could have been. Sometimes much less. That was it for me, life's too short.

So, yeah, our best work happens when the customer draws the basic outlines and leaves filling in the picture to us. I think that's a big part of why we can deliver the highest value in those situations. We make an appropriately detailed proposal and it generally flies with minimal fuss.

But, yeah, mainstream audio is not like that. I mean, that customer really enjoys the whole process as much as the end results. We enjoy that work, too. Nobody's gonna call on me, then drag along a lifetime's worth of preconceptions. I've made some very fine friends along that path.

For somebody who has never been in audio sales, I think a lot about it...because I have a lot of issues with the audio industry. I feel its taken something with mass appeal and made it limited, and niche. As it becomes something more appealing towards a certain type of person, its become something that's repulsive to others, many others. To the point where the word 'audiophile' garners snickers from the average person, even the average music fanatic. And I think your speakers, without having heard them (but in my mind maybe they're the home version of something similar in sound to what I've heard in big studio playback rooms, the large full scale active tri-amped monitors)... could be the antidote to all of that. Something that both sounds better, and also takes into account the fact that many people DON'T want all the gear. That livability is as essential to enjoyment as the sonic merit of it all.

Especially coming from an interior design perspective, it would make a lot of sense. Bringing a new-standard of audio excellence into homes in a way that doesn't take over the living space. That doesn't detract from anything else. I myself have been working on the interior design of my home for the last two years and this weekend I had to get two 50' leads of wire from the back wall to the speakers in front and I hated every minute of it. I did an excellent job of making it unobtrusive but the whole time I was basically resenting my hobby, and, well ...the audiophile I've become. And I'm somebody who loves this stuff. I can imagine how something different would appeal to somebody like me who hasn't spent 30 years becoming accustomed to what a pain this all is.
I'm just kind of rambling but I do think there's a space, a big space, in some market for what you're doing. But I think it's an untapped space outside of, but adjacent, to what's normally thought of as the high end. And I don't think it goes through "Axpona" or the like. That world is so antiquated in its approach to audio, anyway. Honestly I think the only person relatively well-known in traditional audio circles who gets the current world is John Darko, though he's more interested in the entry/mid level. I wonder who the upper tier version of that is? What's the way in?

The story unfolding here is very interesting, however it unfolds. And I think it would be compelling to a lot of people with money to spend who don't want what the industry is selling.

 

[Pat McGinty]

For somebody who has never been in audio sales, I think a lot about it...because I have a lot of issues with the audio industry. I feel its taken something with mass appeal and made it limited, and niche. As it becomes something more appealing towards a certain type of person, its become something that's repulsive to others, many others. To the point where the word 'audiophile' garners snickers from the average person, even the average music fanatic. And I think your speakers, without having heard them (but in my mind maybe they're the home version of something similar in sound to what I've heard in big studio playback rooms, the large full scale active tri-amped monitors)... could be the antidote to all of that. Something that both sounds better, and also takes into account the fact that many people DON'T want all the gear. That livability is as essential to enjoyment as the sonic merit of it all.

Especially coming from an interior design perspective, it would make a lot of sense. Bringing a new-standard of audio excellence into homes in a way that doesn't take over the living space. That doesn't detract from anything else. I myself have been working on the interior design of my home for the last two years and this weekend I had to get two 50' leads of wire from the back wall to the speakers in front and I hated every minute of it. I did an excellent job of making it unobtrusive but the whole time I was basically resenting my hobby, and, well ...the audiophile I've become. And I'm somebody who loves this stuff. I can imagine how something different would appeal to somebody like me who hasn't spent 30 years becoming accustomed to what a pain this all is.
I'm just kind of rambling but I do think there's a space, a big space, in some market for what you're doing. But I think it's an untapped space outside of, but adjacent, to what's normally thought of as the high end. And I don't think it goes through "Axpona" or the like. That world is so antiquated in its approach to audio, anyway. Honestly I think the only person relatively well-known in traditional audio circles who gets the current world is John Darko, though he's more interested in the entry/mid level. I wonder who the upper tier version of that is? What's the way in?

The story unfolding here is very interesting, however it unfolds. And I think it would be compelling to a lot of people with money to spend who don't want what the industry is selling.

I'll say. I've taken an informal poll of the young professionals in my family. All sub 30, a doc, a nuc engineer, a top tier executive programmer at Spotify and a few other young achievers. (they put me to shame for making hay early in their careers. No dopes). Not one had the slightest interest in conventional component audio. You're right, they're repulsed by it. Visit a high end retailer, and if you can get past basics - which does seem idiotically broken down into a hodge-podge funny-named boxes - by the time the purveying of interconnects and cable and power cords starts - THAT will send them running for the hills.

Me: you buy one thing, download an app, and press Play. That's what's expected in a modern playback system. In all of our existing installations, the lady of the house has been tickled happy about the total absence of the old gear stack, and to simply use the device of her choice. She's attracted to use the system more and enjoy music more. Guys? Pay attention!

I'm sharing some of your misgivings about the industry. I went thru a period in the early 2000s when the retailer pretty much tried to transfer the selling function to the manufacturer but NOT the margin that ought go with that work. I was pissed. Today, the "sound of crickets" on the coming advent of Next Gen has me feeling that maybe they're breaking trust with their customers. What's with you guys? No nads?

Slap my own face for going negative. This is about the beauty joy that springs from the human heart in the form of music. I like to think that the whole idea is to transcend the technology. It's not about the woofers and the amplifiers. It's about the emotion.

Fair warning, if you visit here: bring a hankie.

 

[Jcris]

Damn,
You guys are so very lucky. These systems you describe are so far beyond anything I could possibly afford it just leaves me in wonder. A system that takes your breath away is a very rare thing, perhaps one day I will have a chance to just sit and listen to one. It’s really great though reading about what surely is the cutting edge and realizing the passion it must take to create it.
Thanks so much for sharing this glimpse of inspiration.
My best to this wonderful group,
Jcris

 

[Pat McGinty]

Damn,
You guys are so very lucky. These systems you describe are so far beyond anything I could possibly afford it just leaves me in wonder. A system that takes your breath away is a very rare thing, perhaps one day I will have a chance to just sit and listen to one. It’s really great though reading about what surely is the cutting edge and realizing the passion it must take to create it.
Thanks so much for sharing this glimpse of inspiration.
My best to this wonderful group,
Jcris

I don't know if I'd call it "luck"; more like dogged persistence and the liberal squandering of funds.

As always: Havenites are welcome to come and give the Merlins a spin, and to avail themselves of the pleasantly stocked whisky bar and beer 'fridge.

 

[Jcris]

Haha,
Music and adult libations, great combination.
Now just exactly where do you live?
Jcris

 

[Pat McGinty]

There's the rub. 100 mi. N of Syracuse, in the sticks.

 

[Jcris]

I’m in Northern California so it might be a minute before I can make it there