A decade ago, when I first began
attending CES, Bobby Palkovic's Merlin Music Systems room at the Alexis Park, the first
one at the top of the stairway in building 19, was an oasis, a place where I could retreat
and listen to a system that always created a connection to the music. Such consistent high
performance is unheard of; hotel rooms are oddly shaped and often not conducive to good
sound. However, the Merlin VSM speakers – many different versions – always
sounded terrific, even in the least-hospitable of spaces.
Here it is a decade later, and the
Merlin speakers are still sounding terrific at CES, though this time in a different venue
-- the Venetian. Also carried over from those earlier systems are Joule Electra
electronics and Cardas interconnects and speaker cables -- though newer versions of each.
It's the petite size of the Merlin speakers, especially
their narrow front baffle and their front port, that help them conquer tough spaces. This
year, the Merlin VSM-MXe ($11,500 per pair), a fully cryogenically treated version of the
speaker, sounded bigger and more authoritative than their stature would indicate,
resolving every bit of musical detail in an easygoing way.
I listened to a half-dozen cuts, caught up with Bobby, and
generally went back in my mind to those days at the Alexis Park, when listening to Merlin
speakers was a comfort, an aural massage for tired ears.
Thanks for the memories, Bobby, and for all those still to
come.
