What do audiophiles expect from Audio fairs ? Hard to say. It's a matter of fact that, though bitterly criticized, these shows represent a rare occasion of meeting and debate among audiophiles. And, for me, that's enough to attend them. Considered as dying (or, worse, already dead) at any season change, Audio Fairs are sure a playground for easy criticism but also an occasion for audiophiles to get in touch with those appliances that are, for most of them, only unreachable dreams. On Nov the 16th and 17th "Umbria Hi-Fi 2002 - Rassegna dell'alta fedeltà e dell'home video" ("HiFi and Home video show") took place, likely to be the smallest among these fairs for year 2002 under a dimensional point of view, but a highly interesting event for audiophiles from the central regions of Italy. For the first time organized by Audiovision (www.audiovisionsrl.com), after the maiden editions held at Plaza Hotel, Perugia and at the Albornoz Palace Hotel, Spoleto, this show moved to the gates of Perugia, at Park Hotel in Ponte San Giovanni. This year's edition was born with the declared target of restoring an event that had been important to all Central Italy audiophiles, an occasion to allow them to appreciate high quality Audio and Audio-video systems with an eye to the ultimate market trends (esp. to multi-channel devices). Promoters had scheduled events of sure interest for the audiophiles like audio demos, 2-channel vs. multi-channel comparisons, and little live concerts (to be noticed the praiseworthy performance by the Associazione Amici della Lirica di Perugia - Perugia's Opea Amateurs ). Video enthusiasts could rely on a dedicated listening room set up to allow comparisons among the most representative video systems currently available.

Avalon Opus Ceramic		Choice 2 Spinetta e Dulciana

WHAT AND HOW GOOD

That is, what was there and -more important by far - what it was like ? The equipment shown covered almost all the fields: audio (many 2-channel and few multi channel units), audio-video, video. As usual, and always rather in opposition to our present music market, a strong focus had been set on analog sources. Apart from top rank dealers (such as MPI - High Fidelity Italia - Audioplus - Audio Corner) and the main Press, I found the effort to give room and stage to small size Italian factories remarkable, as these are the future and the backbone of this market sector. The show was spread over four floors. In the basement floor, the Grifo (Griffon) Hall hosted Absolute Sound, distributor for Mr.Dieter Burmester's creations (worthy of being admired and intently listened to), and Audio Corner - dealer of Mr. Mark Levinson's Red Rose Music and of the turntables, tone arms and cartridges by Pluto Audio. The demos in this room took place in turns with those in the neighboring Centauro (Centaur) Hall where MPI Electronics showed a HT dream-system (McIntosh electronics and Klipsch speakers, as to say the "American Way" to Home Cinema). On demo in the Fauno (Faun) Hall a system assembled around the electronics by North Star, that means their two - chassis CD Player (flaunting their new brushed aluminum front panels "à la Jeff Rowland", which couldn't obviously improve their already outstanding sonic talents, but certainly improved their look compared to the old, black finish), preamplifier and mono block power amps showing the same outfit, Eclipse loudspeakers by Sigma Acoustics (with their very interesting AMT tweeter), and White Gold cables. The Omicron Stargate electronics tables deserved a hand on, a glory of solid block-carved metals of undoubted effectiveness. A row of Acustica Applicata DaaD acoustic traps was there to optimize room acoustics. On the ground floor, beside the main hall where stands showed the leading magazines and a noticeable quantity of LPs and CDs, I was well impressed by the Relco Audio room where, beside the well known hybrid loudspeakers (ribbon mid-tweeter and dynamic bass driver), Vincent and T.A.C. electronics were shown, a wide catalog including integrated amplifiers, pre + power amps, phono pre amps and headphones amps, relying on tube, hybrid and solid state circuits, characterized by their high-level build quality, sold at a definitely interesting price. At the upper floors the systems in demo were hosted in hotel rooms. Contrary to other Audio Shows - and exhibitors agree on this - rooms at Park Hotel have shown a remarkable ability to absorb sound waves. Ikarus Audio showed their now very well known curved horn, Lowther-equipped "Giotto" loudspeakers. Luciano Cavenaghi from Studio Progettazione Audio brought in Perugia his custom made equipment (speakers and tube amplifiers). Very interesting pieces of high efficiency tube driven speakers with Supravox units could also be found in the Mantra Sound room, hosting the here renowned in fringe circles Morsiani turntable. Emgi Audio - along with the already known and freshly restyled Choice 2 speakers with Convex Rear panel technology - showed to the public their new entry, the floorstanding Dulciana speakers and the standmounted Spinetta (Spinet) (both with labyrinth load and Sprinkler pipe, each driven by a dedicated mono block tube amp). I particularly appreciated the Norma room with its line-phono preamplifier SC-2 LNR with its external mains unit PS-3, mono power amplifiers 8.7 Mono regulated, plus V.Y.G.E.R. Indian turntable with high-pressure air-operated linear tracking tone arm and Avalon Plus Ceramic cartridge. As a whole, and in spite of a not very favorable listening room, this came out as one of the best sounds at the show.

Relco and Vincent & TAC			Burmester and Red Rose Music

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY…

Saying that everything was there and that everything was perfect would obviously be a conscious lie. Shows are not perfect, but - let's strongly remind it - our listening rooms aren't either. This fact should be kept well in mind by those audiophiles who are so critic towards systems and listening rooms which are set up in hotels and, it's true, constantly turn out to be, if not inadequate, at least more difficult to tune up than a typical home listening room, but which have very little serious alternatives as well. A little HiFi show like this hasn't the intention to present a complete view of the market, either. One can't imagine to find the CES (Las Vegas' Consumer Electronic Show) or the London Hi Fi Show there. This Fair held in Umbria has nevertheless had an important credit: the one of speaking with courage of Hi Fi, moreover in a region of Italy that is definitely not the center of the world for consumer electronics, in a moment when both economics and cultural attitude sure don't help. The ability of this kind of events to attract a public of young people or fresh lovers from neighboring fields of activity related to music (both live and recorded), has still to be demonstrated: but it's sure worthy a try. If, in the next editions of the Show, the Organization will manage to upgrade it to a wider happening, connected not only to consumer electronics market but also to cultural events involving those who produce, deal with and enjoy music (and this is exactly their target), well, in that case we'll see something really unusual and important to us all.

MPI room		Mantra Sound and Morsiani

Norma		Fauno room- North Star Sigma Omicron