" Music played on the MS21 produced the best soundstage I’ve heard at my house or anywhere else. With this turntable, I was able to achieve both the organic whole soundstage I look for with the kind of width that extended sound way outside the speakers and way behind them as well. What amazed me and pleased me was the MS 21’s ability to do this without making the instrument or people sound like they were floating in space, but still be part of a real coherent soundstage like you hear with live music.
Because of the incredible silence of this table, combined with its ability to draw out inner detail and make those details easier to hear; you could easily hear the sides, the stage floor, and the top of the soundstage. With the MS21, the instruments within that soundstage possessed greater weight and more presence than I have ever heard from recorded music. Add how palpable those images are to the big picture, it begins to explain why this table gives one such a sensation of listening to live music."
"Midrange and Highs:
These are the areas that the MS21 has no peers. ....The MS21 has: A. the most detail, B. the best detail, C. the most lifelike detail, and D. the most relaxed sound all at the same time."
"If you are looking for the most bass with the biggest slam, then the top echelons of the mass loaded or idler drive turntables will give you that. If what you want is better slam and deeper bass than all but a few tables out there and at the same time you want the best, most lifelike bass you’ve ever
heard: then I suggest you give the MS21 a listen."
"The MS21 lets you hear inner detail in a more revealing way. You hear more nuances, and more layers of the music than you knew were there. An over-used phrase in audio equipment reviewing is “I heard things that I had never heard before.” Well, I don’t think I actually heard anything I never heard before; no I just heard it much easier, much more naturally, and with all the transparency one expects not from a high-end system, but from a musical performance. Plucked strings, fingering work, as well as bowed strings all came through gloriously. The MS21 never over-emphasized sibilants in voices, yet it always let you hear the nuances of the singer’s voice and the air of the hall."
"…the MS21 has the best silence I have ever heard, or “ever not heard”."
"Is the Merrill-Scillia MS21 the best turntable in the world? I don't know, but I know it's one of the very best. I also know it is without a doubt the best turntable I have ever heard in my own system. It is one of the two most musical turntables I have ever heard anywhere."
Jack Roberts, Dagogo.com, March 2008 |
