The Two Amigos Ride Again- A 15,000 mile vacation of a lifetime
- Thread starter Steve Williams
- Start date
Day 5 Off to our final destination in Soriso, a Michelin rated hotel and restaurant, Al Sorriso (with a special stop to visit gian60 and Marco and hear their systems)
The Epilog
Or as the late Paul Harvey used to say "and now you know the rest of the story"
Had it not been for the love of music Marty and I would never have met and therefore this trip would of course have been but a figment of my imagination. Suffice it to say Marty and I over the past 15 years have heard some truly great sound systems all over the USA and the world for that matter.
As the trip got closer to take off, Marty ad I would often ask if we knew of any WBF members who live in and around the area we would be visiting at the end of our trip which was Al Sorriso. I did in fact remember that we did in fact have an abundance of members from Italy but how great was this.......Gian60 turns out lives 20 minutes from our hotel in Stresa and not only offered to pick marty and I up at our hotel and take us to his house for a listening session but would also arrange for a brief visit to the home of Marco who lived 5 minutes away.We had a needle thin window of opportunity and that was for the day we were to check out of Hotel La Palma and travel to Soriso for our last night at Al Sorriso. Our dinner reservations were early due to an early departure the next morning for Malpensa Airport for our flights home. Essentially we had from noon to 5:00
We packed our bags, kissed our wives good bye and went down to the lobby where Gian quickly appeared and within a few minutes we were in his car on our way to his house which was no more than 20 minutes away
In our drive it became apparent to me that Gian was a very serious audiophile and preferably a vinylphile even though he had a substantial collection of silver disks. I also quickly figured out that Gian has owned some very significant electronics as well as speakers and this was confirmed at his house where we found our way all the way upstairs to Gian's listening room. There he showed us some pictures of some of his previous systems. Gian has been around the block. In fact he tells a story that the great Yammamura lived with him for 6 months as he was designing a new component for Gian
Gian's residence was essentially new and Gian apologized for any room discrepancies as a result of no room treatments. He has been considering hiring an acoustician to help him with the project
Gian's room was reasonably large although I don't know exact room dimensions. His room is top floor and therefore under the roof which creates an apical ceiling. His turntable is the Bergmann with a linear tracking tonearm. The table is air bearing and his air pump was nicely out of the way on the left side wall. His carttridge was the beautiful Airtight Opus. All other electronics were Ch Precision with the P1, L1 and A1 each with separate power supplies
Gian is a collector of cartridges and Marco confided in me that Gian has over 30. It is for this reason I am guessing that Gian has been looking for a turntable with multiple arms and therefore cartridges
Cabling was either MIT or Kuro (which are made by a friend of Gian. The cable is all solid core.
Gian sensed our listening favorites and very quickly was cueing up one record after another. TBH there wasn't a bad song or track that he played
His speakers stood out in a very bright Ferrari red. They were a brand I had never heard of
Here is their web site
www.hiend.it
and here is a link to Gian60's system
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...talian-speaker&p=454026&viewfull=1#post454026
I was fascinated by these speakers. Every part is OEM and the network was 6 db and involving hundreds of small capacitors in series rather than a large Mundorf
Here is Gian's brief description
Montagna Italian speaker
Dear All,
i want to show my speaker, produced in Italy by a very small company,Montagna.
Its a 3 way,98 db efficiency,with cabinet in Ergal and carbon fiber,all 100% made in Montagna company.
The driver have the magnet in Maxalco,that is alnico V with oriented crystal.
The network is 6db and made with 430 very small capacitors for mid and 220 for tweeter instead the big Mundford for exemple,
so the sound is more fast.
The best speaker i had in the past were,Acoustat 2+2,all Quad,Martin Logan ESL,Apogee Diva,Timpany IV,Andra,Soundlab A1+B1,
Audiotekne monovia CB,Audiotekne horn 3 way,Electro Voice Sentry III,Yamamura 3 way special speaker,Klipsch,Rogers,ecc,ecc.
I went in Munich last 2 years and i listen everything,even if to give one real judgment you need test at home,
I have friend with Wilson Alexandria,Gryphon trident,Wilson X1,Daniel Hertz M1,Dynadio Consequence,Tad R1,ecc,ecc
but i love this speaker and its a pity in Usa and Asia is not possible to listen.
Is not perfect because there is nothing perfect,but i love them a lot.
Or as the late Paul Harvey used to say "and now you know the rest of the story"
Had it not been for the love of music Marty and I would never have met and therefore this trip would of course have been but a figment of my imagination. Suffice it to say Marty and I over the past 15 years have heard some truly great sound systems all over the USA and the world for that matter.
As the trip got closer to take off, Marty ad I would often ask if we knew of any WBF members who live in and around the area we would be visiting at the end of our trip which was Al Sorriso. I did in fact remember that we did in fact have an abundance of members from Italy but how great was this.......Gian60 turns out lives 20 minutes from our hotel in Stresa and not only offered to pick marty and I up at our hotel and take us to his house for a listening session but would also arrange for a brief visit to the home of Marco who lived 5 minutes away.We had a needle thin window of opportunity and that was for the day we were to check out of Hotel La Palma and travel to Soriso for our last night at Al Sorriso. Our dinner reservations were early due to an early departure the next morning for Malpensa Airport for our flights home. Essentially we had from noon to 5:00
We packed our bags, kissed our wives good bye and went down to the lobby where Gian quickly appeared and within a few minutes we were in his car on our way to his house which was no more than 20 minutes away
In our drive it became apparent to me that Gian was a very serious audiophile and preferably a vinylphile even though he had a substantial collection of silver disks. I also quickly figured out that Gian has owned some very significant electronics as well as speakers and this was confirmed at his house where we found our way all the way upstairs to Gian's listening room. There he showed us some pictures of some of his previous systems. Gian has been around the block. In fact he tells a story that the great Yammamura lived with him for 6 months as he was designing a new component for Gian
Gian's residence was essentially new and Gian apologized for any room discrepancies as a result of no room treatments. He has been considering hiring an acoustician to help him with the project
Gian's room was reasonably large although I don't know exact room dimensions. His room is top floor and therefore under the roof which creates an apical ceiling. His turntable is the Bergmann with a linear tracking tonearm. The table is air bearing and his air pump was nicely out of the way on the left side wall. His carttridge was the beautiful Airtight Opus. All other electronics were Ch Precision with the P1, L1 and A1 each with separate power supplies
Gian is a collector of cartridges and Marco confided in me that Gian has over 30. It is for this reason I am guessing that Gian has been looking for a turntable with multiple arms and therefore cartridges
Cabling was either MIT or Kuro (which are made by a friend of Gian. The cable is all solid core.
Gian sensed our listening favorites and very quickly was cueing up one record after another. TBH there wasn't a bad song or track that he played
His speakers stood out in a very bright Ferrari red. They were a brand I had never heard of
Here is their web site
www.hiend.it
and here is a link to Gian60's system
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showt...talian-speaker&p=454026&viewfull=1#post454026
I was fascinated by these speakers. Every part is OEM and the network was 6 db and involving hundreds of small capacitors in series rather than a large Mundorf
Here is Gian's brief description
Montagna Italian speaker
Dear All,
i want to show my speaker, produced in Italy by a very small company,Montagna.
Its a 3 way,98 db efficiency,with cabinet in Ergal and carbon fiber,all 100% made in Montagna company.
The driver have the magnet in Maxalco,that is alnico V with oriented crystal.
The network is 6db and made with 430 very small capacitors for mid and 220 for tweeter instead the big Mundford for exemple,
so the sound is more fast.
The best speaker i had in the past were,Acoustat 2+2,all Quad,Martin Logan ESL,Apogee Diva,Timpany IV,Andra,Soundlab A1+B1,
Audiotekne monovia CB,Audiotekne horn 3 way,Electro Voice Sentry III,Yamamura 3 way special speaker,Klipsch,Rogers,ecc,ecc.
I went in Munich last 2 years and i listen everything,even if to give one real judgment you need test at home,
I have friend with Wilson Alexandria,Gryphon trident,Wilson X1,Daniel Hertz M1,Dynadio Consequence,Tad R1,ecc,ecc
but i love this speaker and its a pity in Usa and Asia is not possible to listen.
Is not perfect because there is nothing perfect,but i love them a lot.
The music Gian played was terrific and I will include photos of every album he played
The sound was terrific. The mid range and tweeter was lush and the bass was fast and always solid.
Marty and I played musical chairs for the listening position. We both agreed that the arm and cartridge was terrific. We also agreed about there superb midrange and treble along with authoritative bass.
Neither of us felt the apical roof configuration was a negative for the room. The room does need some form of room treatment as it was a bit bright. Overall I know that Gian will come up with a solution to his room taming and I am hoping for an invite back when that happens. These speakers are wonderful. They just don't exist in the USA. All Italian made by a good friend of Gian. Not inexpensive either with an MSRP of $140 K.
I was fascinated by the use of over 400 capacitors per speaker
The sound was terrific. The mid range and tweeter was lush and the bass was fast and always solid.
Marty and I played musical chairs for the listening position. We both agreed that the arm and cartridge was terrific. We also agreed about there superb midrange and treble along with authoritative bass.
Neither of us felt the apical roof configuration was a negative for the room. The room does need some form of room treatment as it was a bit bright. Overall I know that Gian will come up with a solution to his room taming and I am hoping for an invite back when that happens. These speakers are wonderful. They just don't exist in the USA. All Italian made by a good friend of Gian. Not inexpensive either with an MSRP of $140 K.
I was fascinated by the use of over 400 capacitors per speaker
With all but a half hour left in our afternoon Gian quickly drove us to Marco's house . =Marco is an oral surgeon who speaks little English but reads WBF every day.
He Has Wilson X2 Series l with the same Bergmann turntable as Gian. He has a DCS player/dac and the amp which with tubes added some warmth to the system. He had the same Ch Preciision P1 and L1 as Gian
The room also sat right under the roof which created the same apical ceiling. Room treatments were minimal but very effective with a band of black absorption material running along the side walls at ear level creating precious absorption all the way along the wall at ear level
What I found interesting is that Marco's speakers had absolutely no toe in as recommended in virtually every Wilson manual I hac=ve seen for the past 25 years. Yet Marco swore to us that the sound was better in his room with the speakers set up in their fashion.
I thought the treble imaged slightly high for me but then again these speakers were set up for Marco who is a lot taller than me. Nonetheless I wondered if Marco and his friends should have a look again at the midrange modules as well as the tweeter set up because as god as the sound was I am betting with some retweaking of those upper modules as well as a gentle toe in of the inner speaker side walls there will be huge gains.
Our time there was all too short so overall my impressions were made based on being a Wilson owner for 25 years
He Has Wilson X2 Series l with the same Bergmann turntable as Gian. He has a DCS player/dac and the amp which with tubes added some warmth to the system. He had the same Ch Preciision P1 and L1 as Gian
The room also sat right under the roof which created the same apical ceiling. Room treatments were minimal but very effective with a band of black absorption material running along the side walls at ear level creating precious absorption all the way along the wall at ear level
What I found interesting is that Marco's speakers had absolutely no toe in as recommended in virtually every Wilson manual I hac=ve seen for the past 25 years. Yet Marco swore to us that the sound was better in his room with the speakers set up in their fashion.
I thought the treble imaged slightly high for me but then again these speakers were set up for Marco who is a lot taller than me. Nonetheless I wondered if Marco and his friends should have a look again at the midrange modules as well as the tweeter set up because as god as the sound was I am betting with some retweaking of those upper modules as well as a gentle toe in of the inner speaker side walls there will be huge gains.
Our time there was all too short so overall my impressions were made based on being a Wilson owner for 25 years
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