EPOS speakers, Creek electronics, Music Hall turntable
 

I found this system to be a very communicative system. It is not that it sounded great, though there seemed to be good separation and tonality at least on par with the Merlin system. It was certainly in no respect 'real' sounding. It was just that one was able to understand what the musicians were doing and enjoy the interplay between them as the music unfolded, and in a manner that few other systems at the show were able to communicate, at least to this listener.

Maybe I just had a little nostalgia for the days of a less expensive system - or, as mentioned in the official report, the inrush of oxygen from the open window was causing hallucinations of a rather pleasant type.

But if I were allowed to speculate (and unfortunately I see no one raising their hand to prevent this more than quite likely fruitless endeavor), I would say that this system is directly on the path that lies between perfect silence and the 'real thing'. As such it did nothing wrong, or rather everything wrong in exactly the same proportions. So nothing it did do wrong stood out in a glaring fashion, nothing was shouting "listen to me!" in an obnoxious and irritating manner drawing one's ears and attention to it rather than the music.