The following are excerpts from the SoundStage! Standout Room Report
as part of the Hi-Fi '97 Show Report - Published July 1997

Standout Rooms
(and maybe some other great stuff)

Doug Schneider :

I have had a change of heart regarding picking purely a Best Sound at the Show. Sure it's fun to declare some sort of winner - but why? One simply has to attend a single show to know that picking Best Sound is incredibly subjective and completely unreliable. In the end, what does it really mean? To myself and many others...absolutely nothing. Room sizes differ as much as musical selections. Pop in at the wrong minute and they may be playing something you can't stand, so you leave. If you would have stuck around moments longer you may have heard something that would make you think otherwise. As well, depending on the time of day you attend a room it may have switched completely (in terms of setup location) as the exhibitors try to find the ideal location for their systems. Furthermore, some manufacturers were saddled with pathetic rooms in terms of size and layout while others had wonderfully spacious locations. This also goes hand-in-hand with how much money a company can afford to pay to display at this show.

Instead, I have asked each of the [six] SoundStagers! [reviewers] to pick their three Standout Rooms of the show. Standout, here, is also a purely subjective evaluation, but instead, it allows each of our reviewers a chance to pick their most memorable room visits without being confined to picking just the best sound. Perhaps it was because of fantastic musical selections, perhaps it was because of some nifty technology, or perhaps it was the best sound that they heard. Whatever the reason, here they are:

Dave Duvall

• I spent 40 minutes (way too much time when there's so much to cover) listening to Bobby Palkovic's Merlin Music Systems VSM Special Edition/ BAM (Bass Augmentation Module) speakers in conjunction with Gilbert Yeung's Blue Circle Audio BC6 25 wpc hybrid, Class A amp and BC3 dual mono preamp. This system gave a smooth, yet detailed sound that grabbed my attention to the fact that we were getting this kind of quality sound, in such a small room. This was another diagonal room placement (a configuration that seemed to be more prevalent this year). My mistress (qualified as imaginary, if my wife is reading along), Margo Timmins sounded exquisite!
  
  . . .

Doug Schneider

• The Blue Circle Audio/Merlin Music Systems room was among the best at this show. It is surprising how Bobby Palkovic has continued to refine the VSM loudspeaker. The $5,950 SE version is a fair jump up from the standard $4,500 model, but with it has comes more bass extension and the ability slam air around that I know some people will want (myself, I would still opt for the standard version since it represents outstanding value and has more than enough bass extension for me). Although rated at only 25wpc, Gilbert Yeung's Blue Circle BC-6 amp seemed like a perfect mate as it drove the VSMs to high levels with ease while showing great finesse and exquisite detail
  
  . . .

Todd Warnke

I have got to confess a bias. I don't like best sound of show awards. The variables are too many to fully account for. Rooms of dramatically different sizes and dimensions, unfamiliar program material, previously unheard components, and perhaps the worst evil of all, show fatigue, all mitigate against definite statements . . .

That out of my system, let's get to the picks . . .

• And my number 1 room is Blue Circle/Merlin. When I first walked in Bobby Palkovic of Merlin asked what I wanted to hear. I handed him my SRV disk and asked for track 6. As he put in he said, "Hope that's 'Roughest Place In Town". It is, and what followed was the most real performance of that song I've ever heard at a show. Next, John Upton gave him a Chris Isaak disk, and asked him to hit play. Bobby muttered, "Hope it's 'Baby did a Bad Thing", which it was. With each successive disk Bobby always chose the most musical, and most difficult track to play. This guy loves music, and it shows in his speakers. - After about 20 minutes or so Gilbert Yeung of Blue Circle asked me to guess the wattage of his BC-6 amp. Having just been treated to a deep, wide and accurate stage, powerful and musical bass, mid-range of exquisite purity and emotion, and highs as clear as a Sierra stream I responded, "125 or so". Gilbert's broad smile, smirk in fact, told me I had guessed wrong. "25!", he gleefully replied, and I was shocked. The BC-6, a hybrid, single-ended, pure class A amp is a stunner, and Gilbert knows it.
  
  . . .

John M. Upton

• I spent quite a bit to time agonizing over my "standout" exhibits. Literally a dozen rooms offered particularly entertaining displays, and I found it nearly impossible to narrow the list to just three. Though I greatly enjoyed the Gershman/SimAudio, Cary/Alon, Graaf/Platinum, Mission/Krell, and Pass/Vandersteen rooms, I'm going to jump on the SoundStage! bandwagon and select the Merlin/Blue Circle offering with my final pick.
  
  If forced to use just one word to describe the sound produced by this system it would be "full". Fortunately, however, Doug has not limited the number of words we can use to describe our selections, so I can expound a bit on the choice of this term. The Merlin/Blue Circle combo produced a lush, rich, vibrant sound that did not seem to be meaningfully challenged at either frequency extreme. What really set this system apart for me was its ability to convey this type of presentation without sacrificing rhythm and pace in the process, a feat, a least to my ears, seldom achieved by products even at this not inconsiderable price level.
  
  In addition to the excellent sound, the Merlin/Blue Circle room was a relaxing, entertaining, (almost) "anything goes" environment. I heard music from a diverse cast of artists during each of my visits, and, refreshingly, it was not the usual assortment of polite, purist, audiophile-crap recordings. Morphine, Chris Isaak, Space, and Stevie Ray Vaughn all took spins on the transport, and each sounded just about as good as I've ever heard them, despite the smallish room (a limitation ameliorated nicely by the choice of a corner setup). All in all, a great room with products well worth seeking out.
  
  . . .