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It's becoming cooler and cooler these days after we were struck by an earthquake and typhoons this summer. And finally it's the audio season. This week I would like to introduce MERLIN/Excalibur2 perfect for "A Hundred And Ten In The Shade", one of the famous song of Swamp rock by John Fogerty who used to be a vocalist for C.C.R.(Credence Clearwater Revival) of American rock in 70's. By Kimiya Miura
MERLIN/Excalibur2 Merlin Music Systems established by two guys, Bobby A. Palkovic who was a studio musician and Bill Hooper who was a craft art designer in 1982 is an American manufacturer and produces high-quality speaker systems. Although the products of Merlin Music Systems are not available in Japan currently, those including VSM are highly valued by high-end users in US.
	Excalibur2 seems a built-to-order model and looks really reliable with the dignified appearance. As for the appearance feature, it looks like the VANDERSTEEN speaker that was raved by one of the US audio magazines.
Sound density feeling which is more than enough and the exact localization of sound can be comparable with VANDERSTEEN speakers. While listening, I could easily tell the difference of the tone between Fender/Stratocaster and Telecaster and the vocal harmony was too real.
	The speaker terminal supports biwiring. The height of the speaker is about the same as my height. But the position of the tweeter is just right at my height when I sit on a chair, so I recommend you to set the listening point by all means at this position. You can experience the overwhelming feeling of sound density.
Marantz/CD-15 Released in 1992. This is a great equipment with the PHILIPS pick-up mechanism equipped with CDM-4MD and bit stream method DAC-7. It has the design and sound which are different from the PHILIPS brands. The sound is clear, steady, and properly localized without individual musical instruments sounding unclear even for the large-scaled orchestral works. However, it doesn't mean it produces stiff sounds, but instead, it expresses music vividly.
	You should be glad to see the two system of balanced and unbalanced outputs for analog output. You can have a broader choice in setting since you can use them depending on your preference if there is a balanced output on the amp side. The main unit chassis is well built so you can enjoy listening to music by putting this on the well-built rack.
SUMO/ELECTRA This is a control amp released in around mid 1980's by SUMO established by the prodigy, Bongiorno, who is the designer of the Ampzilla. The outside seems to be colored with silver and black. As you can notice from the rack-mountable design, it seems to have been also used in the studio at that time.
	It is really nice that we can connect PHONO with the MM/MC2 system. It also has two system for output. The compatibility with STASIS-2 is also good and it expresses music vividly.
THRESHOLD/STASIS-2 The great thing about this amp is its eternal attraction even though it was released in 1980. 800A by Nelson Pass, the genius engineer, became a good amp example and many amp makers followed his method so as in Japan. This equipment loaded with a stasis circuit, which is called THRESHOLD second-generation circuit, is also a power amp excellent in bringing out the most of the speaker's potentials.
	It drives without any trouble with a usual speaker system because the execution output is 200W+200W(8Ω) of a stereo power amp. Unlike usual large-sized American power amps, it releases heat by the natural convection method with the large heat sink instead of the cooling fan. The power indicator on the front is displayed by LED and you can monitor up to +3dB.
JOHN FOGERTY/Blue Moon Swamp I wonder which 70s American rock lover doesn't know JOHN FOGERTY as a vocalist of C.C.R. (Creedence Clearwater revival). This album is the original one released in 1997 as a new work after an interval of 11 years, which got Country rock/Swamp rock lovers into frenzy at that time. These days everybody talks about the visit of Rolling Stones and Queen to Japan, but I would rather hope for his visit to Japan. I still remember that I got into the straight sound just like old times peculiarly enough when it came to market.

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