Horn Porn weekend

Had a fun audiophile weekend. Saturday morning I went to a town 1 hour from Milan, to meet a gentleman who is the on the forum as Pepe1. Pietro is not very active on the forum, but has been an active audiophile for the past 50 years.

For example, he once owned an Apogee full range with 2 Krells for the bass, a 4-box Jadis JA 500 for the mids, and a 4-box Jadis Ja 200 for the top, with Levinson crossovers.


Since then, his system has changed, and he has set up the prefect system - which is multiple system each with a different presentation suited to different types of music.

His 5th system is Vivid Giya G1 with Halcro, which I was unable to get a listen to as it's on his lakehouse.


His top system, which he has set up more for Jazz and small ensemble classical, is a GPA Monaco 1.0 with Graham Phantom II and Zyx Diamond G, FMA 122 phono, going into Yamamura electronics and cables with Yamamura horns

There are better pics here
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?13477-My-systems-1&p=245259&viewfull=1#post245259

His second system more for rock and big symphony, is comprised of the Goldmund Apologue driven by 25w Kondo Gakuon 845s and Versa dynamics TT with a Kondo cart. The TT is amazing...tap it while it's playing and no jumps, such is the suspension.





oops that's a really bad pic


I also loved the turntable in his lounge, which was a custom Italian speaker driven by the Goldmund amps, Shindo pre with phono, and a Thorens acrylic TT with Da Vinci Grand Grandezza Reference, and top of the line Jan Allaerts cart. Great TT.





I also learned a lot from chatting with Pietro...he believes in having a TT that is well suspended and spins correct, and spends more on the arm and the cart. The Thorens, for example, is not expensive compared to the arm and the cart on it.

He also had a TEAC tape player on the Goldmund system, and we managed to briefly listen to Solti's Valkyrie.

My demo tracks on digital are usually Bach cantatas (which include chorals and baritone + soprano), Mussorgsky Pictures, Scheherazade, Mahler 2 (Channel Classics, Ivan Fischer). ON LPs, I have the David Oistrakh Bruch Scottish Fantasia, Analog Productions Pictures at an exhibition (Reiner Chicago Symphony), Scheherazade Living Stereo (Reiner Chicago Symphony), Argenta Espana, and Schubert Winterreise.

This is the Yamamura - Monaco 1.0 - Graham II - Zyx Diamond G - FMA 122 system

We then went over to his neighbour, who has the JBL Pro 4520 with Project Sphinx hybrid amp (the same that I heard on Apogee full range and Acoustat 2 + 2)


Unfortunately while we heard the digital, his Basis TT with Air tangent arm and Clearaudio Reference was not working, nor was his tape player...oh well, next time. Pepe1 has a friend a few miles on who owns the Western Electric 15A, so worth a revisit at some point.

Pepe1 also has an Audio Tekne amp, and Shindo 300b with Western Electric valves from the 1970s...unfortunately, I did not get to hear those.

A friend of his has a 6 way horn system, each driver a horn, with a dac in front of each driver, and each driver powered by monoblocks...that's 6 dacs with 12 monos...awesome.

Some of the recommendatiosn picked up. The STeinway one was cut directly from disc, excellent quality

Anyway, that night I returned to Milan, had the best Tiramisu and Gelato ever, flew back early morning to London, went to the gym, picked up a bag load of Shun Mooks to further enhance the tone, density and separation of my muscles, and went to Oxford to meet a guy named Frank, who has been a recording engineer, made TTs, and was then the chief engineer when Schumacher won his first race.

He has the Goldmund Reference TT with an Ortofon A90 being run through Devialet monos into the Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilogue, and Devialet Phantoms

Both Pepe57 and Frank are heavily into classical, the latter purely classical.

At Frank's I picked up some of these - the Schubert is fantastic - have to catch it live



Love this Brahms, have to catch it live as well

Mods, a few days after this thread lives (or dies), please append it to Pepe57's thread http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?13477-My-systems-1&p=245259&viewfull=1#post245259

That's a pic of the JBL 4520...anyway am off to sleep

BruceD said:

Maybe some detail in order

Click to expand...

Hi Bruce, it would be mentioned in the text above the pic in my main post...those are Goldmund Apolog, 100 db, built like a tank, chassis made to kill vibrations...the amp is kondo gakuon 845. Versa dynamics TT, which doesn't skip even if you tap it while it's playing, such is the air suspension. It had a kondo cartridge. TEAC tape player


Interestingly the guy I visited in Oxford with the Tune audio anima had the Goldmund Epilogue, smaller version of the Apologue, and said that the other TT he considered before buying his Goldmund reference was the versa dynamics