“When I was young, I spent some years at the University of Pisa working with Prof. Moruzzi: in our labs there was quite a mystic mood. Also then, the money for research was not enough, but that is nothing new. We worked like horses, in the belief that we would never make money like surgeons or doctors à la mode, but, on the other hand, we did what we liked. And what we liked was useful for the society. What more could you strive for?”
Giacomo Rizzolatti
Neuroscientist, Director of the Department of Neurosciences at the University of Parma, discoverer of the mirror neurons, interview issued on la Repubblica on the 14 February 2012 (Italian only).
Creative Director and Commercial Director. Teacher at IED (International Higher Educational Network in Design, Fashion, Visual Communication and Management of creative industries) and tutor to advertising agencies and companies. What counts here, however, is the fact that I have been an audiophile since always, thanks to the “traditional” system that my father had bought with enormous sacrifices and as much love for good music. Dual, Saba, Philips: considering times and resources a grand beginning. Thanks, dad.
Former contributor of Suono magazine and collaborator of Hi-Fi Center, I owe to these two brief experiences a wider vision of the market. As editor and owner of ReMusic.it, I owe everything to the co-editor and brother Roberto Rocchi. I remember one evening, at the end of 2010, when he asked me if “we could do anything in the hi-fi journalism”. That was just what I was waiting for.
Professionally, besides the editing, I chiefly deal with the site management and the advertising sales.
A clarification is due here. As a reviewer, I am against the property of the devices not only because I cannot afford them, I mean the ones I am interested in, but because there are better and more valid reasons. Psychological and scientific reasons. Property is theft. Also of objectivity. The purchase of an asset entails its overvaluation. You will always take a “special care” for its performances. In order to overconfirm your own choices. And the detachment, the objectivity and the intellectual honesty are one of the patrimonies of the information. The other one is the curiosity.
For this reason, I dare any manufacturer or distributor of top devices to provide me – and to provide us – with their best apparatus. We reserve the right to refuse them admittance, so that no one will be subjected to a negative review. They will be used for honest and pondered comparisons. They will be carried in the palm of our hands for that splinter of stupendous madness that the authentic high-end lets enter in our homes.
The world is full of good devices in many respects.
These are the devices I want to test.
Music: 1,700 CDs and 2,600 albums CD standard or High-Res
Digital sources: Apple Mac mini computer, Wadia WT 3200 CD transport
DACs: DiDiT DAC212, preamp and headphones amp too
Preamplifier: Tektron TK6J5S Dual Ref, Tektron Ultimate line preamp, Tektron Ultimate Line Preamp, Muriano Research Anarchico FR, Tisbury Audio Mini Passive Preamplifier II
Power amp: ItaliAcoustic HS-1, 300B Western Electric 91A replica with updated layout by Anzaï Zaïka, Maison de l’Audiophile Hiraga Classe A, M2Tech Crosby and threee Trends Audio TA-10.2P, very useful for the bi-and-triamping tests
Loudspeakers: Mantra Sound Daiko (click here for measurements), which I thank the friend and manufacturer Guido Chiostri for; Cerwin Vega V-152; TakeT BatPure and BatPro2 supertweeters
Headphones amp: Icon Audio HP8 MKII
Headphones: KingSound KS-H3 with KingSound M-20 OTL headphones amp, Sony MDR-XB700
Cables: Apogee Electronics Wyde Eye, Audio Alchemy DST, Audio Consulting, Audiosophia, Monster Cable, Omega Audio Concepts, Thender, Vermouth Audio Black Pearl and Red Velvet , DIY (with and without insulator and shielding)
Accessories: AP Design Osmo, Acoustic Revive RR-777 and equipment stands in pietra serena stone
Power supply: Omega Audio Concepts Power Plant, AP Design Desma power plant and insulating transformer with 3.300 VA
Listening room: partially isolated, with reduced noise pollution and electromagnetic interferences, about 40 square meters in total, with medium-high reflections, regular backside walls, irregular sidewalls, non-equidistant from the loudspeakers.
Main photo and Photoshop editing by Sara Pelle and Francesco Croce
for the project Nella Capitale delle Meraviglie
