I played through about half of my usual pre-test discs on the Heschl before launching into my actual test disc. I pushed play just as I remembered that I had a full washing machine so I missed most of song 1 as I emptied the machine and threw its contents onto the clothes air-er, but that’s alright I reasoned. I’ll just play song 1 again as song 13, it’s all good, only minimal confusion to be found here.
So I listed to song 2, and started scribbling down the details of the amp, wattage, power supply size, etc as I usually do and then I sat there and listened. After song 3 I put down the clipboard and just listened for fun. About song 9 I realised that I didn’t have a drink beside me, had to remedy that, then back into the serious business. Song 11 was good, but not good enough so it had to be repeated at drastically increased volume, yep, far better (song 11 is my electric guitar test track, I’m sure everyone understands) then into the drum test track. Loved every minute of it I did. 
This Heschl is pretty damn good guys.
Then I picked up my clipboard and started scribbling notes, after a few minutes of this I hit the play button again, might as well listen again while wrestling with the old vocab. And then, as track 1 spun up I noticed my very first gripe. The treble was a bit recessed, not a great deal since I hadn’t been able to notice it beforehand but those trumpets and triangles don’t lie . I didn’t expect this as I’ve heard the Heschl in two other systems and on 3 other sets of speakers and this just didn’t add up. I pondered the situation for a while, about 2 songs worth I think, but I didn’t really come up with anything. I’d heard something on a test track that I hadn’t imagined I might hear, it has happened a few times now so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. I do know that Terry’s pair of Vienna Accoustics have a more active top end than my S2Rs so maybe that’s why I hadn’t noticed this behaviour earlier.
Anyway, this step was done, time for some more weight bearing exercise. Out went the S2Rs and in went the ML2 Limited’s with their great big outboard crossovers. Those heat sinks on the back of the Heschl don’t really make for an easy connection when you’re using only semi-flexible ribbon cables but I’ve done this many times before so it’s only a minor issue. So I’m all set up and I figure I can just put on some background music for a bit and come back to have a serious listen several hours later, right?
Wrong!
Dead wrong!
I hit play and 2 seconds later the speakers faded into invisibility and the most gorgeous, fluid music filled the room. There are no speakers, there is no back or side walls (there was some outside noise but that’s OK, there was also a volume control and it was used to make the bad noise from outside go away) they appear to be just figments of my visual imagination, there is only the music…
Oh… my… wordy… lordy…
My ability to reason did, eventually, return and I deduced that, since Rod had been using Mikes ML2 and ML5 speakers as his test speakers while developing the Heschl it makes perfect sense that they would synergize well, I just wan’t prepared for how well. I suppose the S2Rs are close but only 80% of the way there, because as good as they are and as much as I like them, they certainly aren’t a patch on the ML2 Ltds.
More listening is required I think, much, much more listening.
More observations and details to follow, no promises on the time frame however (deadlines are the worst, even self imposed ones).
https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/83357-integrated-amps-an-addicts-guide-part-the-third/page/22/?tab=comments#comment-4494006