Merlin Music Systems Published Reviews

[PUBLISHED REVIEWS]

LAS VEGAS SHOW REPORT WINTER CES 1995

POSITIVE FEEDBACK A Journal Of High-End Audio
Volume 5, Number 4
Page 16

QUOTE

The "Best Combination of Aliveness and Musicality" award goes hands-down to the Merlin/Joule Electra/Cardas system, ably demonstrated by Bobby Palkovic. The sound was simultaneously smooth and alive, and was involving as hell. Classic jazz LP's on this system just made me want to sit up and listen, listen, listen. This system really made Art Pepper jump, but it kept me seated in the 5000 wing of the Sahara much longer than planned. The Merlin VSM is probably the one speaker in the show I'd like to try out at home. Associated equipment was a VPI TNT, Joule Electra preamp, a pair of seductive looking Joule Electra Marquis 100 W Class A triode OTL amps, and Cardas wire and cables. Here's hoping to see this system pop out the back of a UPS truck in my driveway for an extended review of, oh, say, five years or so.

UNQUOTE

By Dave Glackin

QUOTE

Next was the Joule Electra Merlin/Cardas/Versalab room. We were standing in the display portion, reading the epic saga of Wood Blocks and Red Rollers, when we heard the siren song of some jazzy sounds coming from the music portion of their exhibit next door. The Acoustic Sounds 1809 Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section was spinning on a VPI TNT with a Purpleheart cartridge. Kathy and I had to go sit in front of the system for closer examination. I've rarely heard such a "realness" of certain instruments. The tapping of the horn keys, the soft thump of the piano hammers and the slight fartiness of the brass on the business end of the horn. Art was right there and, though he was kneeling, he was playing his heart out. So real, yet not obscuring the total musical package. Whoa! The other "I" wandered in, too, and just fell into the groove of that particular album, on that particular system, in that particular room. A mental note was made to pick up a copy of that LP, available as it was elsewhere at attractive show prices.

UNQUOTE

By Rick Rosen & Lonnie Brownell

VSM

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