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We and the Top Audio & Video
by
Igor Zamberlan
An introduction
which is not really one, as our beloved Editor exposes his
general considerations (who am I to disagree?) in his editorial;
what I would like to do here is tell you about our presence
and initiatives at the Show.
We were present
with a room and a stand; you can see our very own Vitangeli
and Aste at the Aquarium space stand.
At the secod floor was our room, equipped with a two channel
system but including an hi-rez digital source, in addition
to a low-rez one and a "quasi-vintage" analogue
system (a Thorens TD160, with its original tonearm and a Shure
cartridge).
The main course
of our room were, of course, the Minus Habens, the speakers
lacking something (the midwoofer chassis), which you can see
in this picture. Handmade cone, and no chassis to disturb/compress
the backwave, for a sound which our visitors seemed to like
a lot.
Giuliano Nicoletti, the mean designer of the speakers deserves
this portrait, police-room style: if you see him around, hide
your speakers, he might try and see if they sound better without
(chassis...)
Here is one of
the mono power amps which were driving Giuliano's Minus Habens
(which are really much, much better sounding than they look…),
an amplifier Roberto Amato built on a Nelson Pass design,
a single ended class A five watter (these must be the warmest
and fullest solid state five watts I have ever heard).
The preamp (another Nelson Pass design built by Roberto Amato)
is above the Philips 963SA, which is playing I Grieve, from
Peter Gabriel's Up.
We like vintage audio, so we featured a vintage corner in
our room, where a Leak Stereo 20 and a Thorens TD124/SME tonearm
were shown.
This is how the
"sounding side" of the room looked:
Leftovers
Some of the thing
which don't fit in the room-by-room reportage:
the painstakingly
built Kiom amplifiers:
the T+A turntable,
a beauty
and Clearaudio's
vinyl test record
Audio4
had a static exhibit of the products they distribute. To tell
the truth, a system was sounding, but, as it was this huge
and colorful jukebox, I guess it was there just for fun:
These
are the Reference Series speakers by Kef:
The
Quad 909, on a workbench (as were all of the other electronic
products… that fun factor, again - I guess):
The
Quad II-40 power amp, a reissue which isn't really one (I
think it's completely different from the original Quad II,
sharing only a vague resemblance to the legendary amp of the
Fifties):
And
here's a sample of the really huge number of Aeron (Italian
designed products which are made in China) products:
And
now, have a walk around the show with us. Have fun!
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