Any body hear the new improved Merlins at CES?

Well, I guess it was our room but it certainly was not rude or extreme in any sense of the word. I had very friendly relations with other exhibitors around us and no one outside of the room or in the room made mention of this to anyone in our group. In a situation like this you can never win. You play it at 90 dB and those who like it at live levels walk out bored and you play it at 100 dB and those who like it at 80 dB walk. It is a show after all and this sort of thing is just part of the territory. You basically try to play your music at the recorded volume level. We were getting bombed by a subwoofer system somewhere in the building and I didn't run all over the place trying to find the culprit. You learn to just play things a little louder to drown out the others. If Srajan and his group were offended, they should have said something to us personally rather than writing that nonsense in his show report. I don't care how many years Srajan was in the business, he is being naive if he thinks that shows can be conducted in a fashion where everyone is happy.
I would like to thank him though, he dispelled the myth that Merlins can't play loud. The lack of dynamic compression was clearly evident. :-P
Regards,
Bobby@merlin

Bobby, ignore the criticism. As they say in the slang "spitballs at a battleship". I am curious to know whether you went with an audionote or a audio aero dac/player. I am trying to match the best dac that I can with your speakers and would love to know what you think is the best match at this time. thx, mike.

The presentation of the CAT and Joule are very different and because of the the DAC 3 sounded better in the system at the CES. In the past, I have always used the Capitole with the Joules and thought it hard to better. The DAC 3 may actually sound superior but it is not made any longer and the chip-set in it is impossible to find. I think the decision is pretty obvious. What electronics do you have?
Regards,
Bobby@merlin