Top Audio & Video 2002 Milan, Italy

Friday

 

  In one of the conference rooms were various setups to help demonstrate their point. Components include the Clearaudio Master Reference and VYGER Indian turntable (see review here), FM Acoustics Resolution Series pre-amplifier and Classic Series amplifier. Loudspeakers were both the impressively large Zingali Home Monitor 215 hornspeaker and white U-Vola watermelon-shaped loudspeaker.

 

Those looking for clarity within their music reproduction system may desire a different take on things... Made of colorless glass, French-made Waterfall Victoria loudspeakers (£1,999) get my vote as the show's most transparent loudspeaker. A Triangle titanium dome tweeter is mated with two 13cm paper-coated drivers for midrange and woofer duties.

 

Red Records is a wonderful Italy-based jazz label that features many great musical artists. While most of their releases are strictly on CD, a select few are also available on vinyl. Great music well worth seeking out.

 

The Marantz booth was fairly sparse in equipment, yet had a wonderful sound with a pair of the Mordaunt-Short MS912 monitors. As first reported by Enjoy the Music.com™ in our 2002 Frankfurt High End Society show report, Marantz and MS have joined forces. Since Marantz distributes the Mordant-Short line in various parts of the world, none other than golden-eared designer Ken Ishiwata has assisted in voicing various Mordaunt-Short designs.

 

Audio Note's AN-E/SEC Silver loudspeakers (£15,000), loosely based on Snell loudspeakers from days gone by, are completely silver wired including the crossovers and voice-coils. Exotic finishes include Indian Rosewood (as seen here) while many others are possible.

 

Unison Research's new Unico CD player (€1,700) offers both RCA and balanced output via XLR. Alas, no digital out for those who desire using external digital to analog converter.

 

(Start the Superhero music) Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's GALACTRON savior of.... Eh hem. The Galactron line is unique in that it is quite high yet very narrow in depth. (Said in good humor) Word on the street is that Galactron is about to battle Mothra. Stay tuned!

 

 

Click here to see our previous year's show report.