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At the risk of sounding redundant, the best sound at this show was in the Merlin/Joule Electra/ Walker/JPS room. The truth is the truth no matter how many times it must be told, and truth be told, Bobby, Lloyd, Jud and Joe put on a show. Before going to Chicago, a reader called to ask what I knew about the Walker turntable. "Not much" I responded. Boys, now I know something about the walker table, and baby, it's something to behold. If you are a needle-disc addict, $17,000 couldn't be better spent. Show conditions aside, the Merlin[VSM-SE speaker system]/Joule/ Walker room created the most convincing illusion of a live event at the show. Most notably, I heard a definite propensity to lift the music up, over and above the mechanical and electrical medium used to reproduce it. Connected at every point by JPS Superconductor interconnect and speaker cables, this system threw a supremely solid center image. Leading edges cut through the air, all covered with tone and detail. A super system, and just think about it, they didn't need a Sony DSD machine to create the illusion.