A great audio friend has passed

I received this email from Harry Zweben of twobaldguysaudio.com this morning.

Greetings-
I am writing with no small degree of sadness to share the news of Dave Merrill’s passing. Dave died last Wednesday after a long battle with heart disease. “Battle” is hardly the right word, as Dave knew that his time was limited over the past year or so. Despite news that he would not qualify for a heart transplant, he remained the epitomy of grace, equanimity and good humor– as I imagine that he was throughout his entire life. He was a fellow traveller to the end; the last time we spoke, a week or two before his passing, he told me of plans for a new cabinet design for his DCA 4 drivers as an alternative to the Zigmahornets, and he was still spending as much time in his shop as possible to finalize the prototype.

Kent and I attended Dave’s funeral service on Tuesday, which was a fitting tribute to our friend. The eulogy was memorable and the priest was both eloquent and funny; Dave would have enjoyed being ribbed as “the only sinner in Canby” since he would attend confession on Saturday afternoons and was often the only parishioner to be seen or heard.

Dave left a wonderful legacy and contribution to the audio arts with his miraculous little DCA 4 and DCA 5.5 speaker drivers, and music lovers world wide will miss him. And for those of us who knew him, albiet briefly, we are better off for the privilege.

Best-

Harry

It was Gabriel who introduced the Merrill DCA4 then DCA5.5 drivers to me. I was really shocked to hear how good these drivers are! The performance for price value of the Merrill drivers is simply way way way off the charts. Never have I come across such nice drivers. If you don’t even consider the very affordable price, it already beat all models of Fostex I have heard before.

So it’s really sad to hear of Dave’s passing. Attach is I believe the most extreme horn design built for the DCA4, built by Gabriel and we exhibited this at the 2008 KLIAV Show.

Rest in peace Dave!