Between NJ, NY, Texas, LA, Florida, Utah, Seattle, Boston, etc...there are a lot of great systems...but within 5 mins centered in Malpensa, there is an Alexandria with Viva, a Grand Slamm X1 with Levinson, Bergmann with Lyra Atlas, Bergmann with Clearaudio GFS, a whole rack of CH precision and Montagna speakers.
You guys want to go Munich? CES? RMAF? Don't. Just do a tour of Milan.
A few minutes drive from these guys, I got to compare Metronome top of the line CD + dac (Kalista) vs Kronos Sparta and a 2k Shelter cartridge into a 7k tubed Luxman phono. I also got to compare the Metronome streamer with the CD8.
Got to listen to the TAD reference with the Pass XA 160.5 and the Boulder 2160+2110.
Got to compare Tenor OTL 75, Spectral 240, and Airtight 211 with Lansche Audio, and the first two with Magico Mini.
Oh did I leave out the 200k Basis Audio Work of Art? Feeding the Magico M5? And in his TV room the Soundlabs M1 with Spectral, and the JBL minivox? I did get to compare it with a Scarlatti and a Studer 810
Moreover, Gian60 was with me all along, and we were completely in agreement with what we were hearing. A friend of Gian's also joined us the first two days, and he was in sync too.
These guys also don't live far from Pietro, whom I visited last year and who has one of the top three rooms with the
Yamamura horns, and also has the Goldmund Apologue, Prologue, Vivid G1, Montagna, Grand Prix Monaco, Versa Dynamics, Shindo and Audio Tekne, etc, and next to whom lives a neighbor with big JBL horns.
I still need to do a couple of weekends back here to listen to a Western Electric set up, compare preamps from Boulder, Soluution and Spectral, and if possible listen to a Daniel Hertz system with multiple top cartridges. These guys should be selling tickets to the Milan hifi tour
Another interesting point was that the Kronos system belonged to what Gian and his friends said was the best analog and system set up guy in Italy, and that guy (Dmitri of Mad4Music, a distributor cum dealer and a friend of Gian's) told me that a client of his sold off the Clearaudio Statement for the
Schopper Thorens 124
Gian60 himself is a wiki of information - unfortunately he cannot communicate fluently in English, but do pay close attention to his recommendations even though they might not always be lucid. These are just some of the crazy systems he has set up over the years - he has been the first in Italy to own AR decades ago, then Soundlabs. Below you see a Soundlabs with bridged MLs biamping it (4 blocks). You see loads of Audio Tekne and CH Precision. These guys used to do constant shootouts to the nth detail - Jadis JA30 vs 80 vs 200 vs 500 - you name it. They would exchange Western Electric and/or Alexandria between themselves. All in the neighbourhood. These guys between themselves have loads of experience, and great ears.
Thinking of moving to Milan to join Unicredit or to work in a Trattoria.
Sorry can't write more but also did a Constellation with CLX and 2 Western Electrics, now doing a couple of days work and flying off to Mumbai for Xmas break, so will come back, settle back in, and probably start writing middle of Jan.
