The 2001 Home Entertainment Expo
Show Report
By Mark Yun

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Back to stuff I like: Bobby at Merlin Music Systems was making great sounds as always. (Does this guy ever have a bad show?) He had side-by-side rooms, one with his own personal and proven Joule Electra tube gear and an Audio Aero CD player; another with some sharp looking Simaudio solid state gear, both driving the latest VSM-M speakers using the "T" (tube) wiring harnesses. Wire was JPS Labs with the Joule tubes, Cardas Audio Golden Reference with the Simaudio transistors. Being the owner of a pair of TSM's myself, I will admit I'm somewhat partial to Bobby and his work, but I don't think I was the only one who cam by his rooms and felt that they were consistently among them most musical set-ups at the show. And  of course, Bobby himself was as friendly and gracious as ever, allowing the many people milling in and out of his room to enjoy lots of great tunes. Psst - don't tell Bobby (I know he loves tubes and Jud barber's Joule Electra equipment is among the best), but the Simaudio room also sounded extremely, extremely good - smooth, crystal-clear, rhythmic, and superbly musical. The presentation had a more relaxed quality, forgoing big tube vividness in favor of a slightly more distant and even-handed perspective on the music. it may have been just a hair cleaner-sounding to m ears than the tube room, but I must profess that could just be personal preference kicking in. Regardless, the Simaudio Moon equipment sounded and looked very fine and was among my favorite electronics at the show.

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