After we completed our 2nd day tour of Gold Note, we boarded two vans headed south from Tuscany to our final factory tour located in the seaside and port city of Civitavecchia, home to Audia Flight and Alare Labs.
Located about 60 kilometres west-north-west of Rome, Civitavecchia has been an active port since about the 7th – 6th century BC and serves as “The Port of Rome” and the beginning and end for cruise ships setting sail on the Mediterranean Sea. The 16th Century fort that guards the entrance is known as Fort Michaelangelo because Michelangelo Buonarroti designed its highest tower.
Our lodgings for the stay were located up a short but step drive from the city center, perched on the side of a hill overlooking the port and sea while also benefitting from the natural air conditioning offered by deep waters and wind. The hotel’s restaurant had a dreamy patio that quickly became our meeting and breakfast place with open views to the sea and many indigenous friends. We arrived in time for dinner and a relatively early night to rest up for the next day’s tour.
Audia Flight and sister company Alare Labs occupy two large spaces spread over two floors of an industrial/office building in an industrial area not far from downtown Civitavecchia. The first floor serves as offices and assembly area for Audia Flight and for a number reasons, some still a bit of mystery, I hit that assembly floor with renewed vigor, lighting up with the sights of the massive transformers that go into every Audia Flight amp and the quiet hustle and bustle of production.
Audia Flight was founded in 1996 by Massimiliano Marzi and Andrea Nardini who worked for two years of R&D time before launching the company and their first product, the Flight 100 power amplifier, in 1997 soon followed by the Flight Pre and Flight 50 power amplifiers that employ Audia Flight’s now-standard current feedback design.
You may recall my glowing reviews Audia Flight’s current top of the line integrated amplifier the FLS 10 (review) and entry integrated the FL Three S (review), with both finding a very comfortable home on my Favorite Amplifiers list for their lovely mix of brute force and dancing delicacy.
From my review of the FLS 10 where I began and ended with:
The Audia Flight FLS 10 is among the most engaging integrated amplifiers to have graced the Barn. Its performance is in some ways remarkable while being wholly engaging in every way.
The Audia Flight product line is comprised of four series; the top of the line Strumento, FLS, FL Three, and Classic where you’ll find a nice mix of preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and SACD/CD players.
In terms of power, the entry FL Three S has 100 Watts on tap into 8 Ohms and 160 W into 4, while the massive Strumento N°8 Monoblocks (275lbs a piece) pack a whopping 500 Watts of power into 8 Ohms and doubles down into 4 and 2 Ohms for 1000 and 2000 Watts of music-driving juju.
You could say Alare Lab’s first speaker was designed over 10 years ago to test Audia Flight gear but this initial practical pursuit led to the creation of sister company Alare in 2021, founded by Audia Flight and designer Massimo Costa. The company has two models, the Remiga 1 and Remiga 2, with both offered in two versions—BE and DIA—which refer to the Beryllium or Diamond used in the tweeters. The Remiga are transmission line designs and the drivers used are a mix of custom woofers from Audio Technology (200mm and 250mm carbon fibre sandwich drivers), pure ceramic Accuton midrange drivers, and the aforementioned Accuton Beryllium or Diamond tweeters.
The speakers are assembled in-house and employ constrained layer damping constructed from layers of different woods and special damping glue over a “steel bar cage” to minimize internal vibration. The crossovers are all point-to-point wired using silver plated solid core copper wire.
Audia Flight and Alare source many of their components locally including the lovely manufactured wood veneers that are pressed into action in the Alare floor of the factory. Prices range from $49,999 for the Remiga 1 BE on up to $79,999 for the Remiga 2 DIA.
As you might expect, the Audia Flight/Alare facility had the most ‘accomplished’ listening room and this system, comprised of the Remiga 1 BE, Strumento N°8 Monoblocks, Strumento N°1 evo Stereo Preamplifier, and FLS20 SACD Player communicated a healthy helping of the force, drive, and superb delicacy I’ve come to associate with both brands.
This visit was also conducted at a relaxed pace, with a trip to downtown Civitavecchia for a welcome lunch break at Pizzeria Del Ghetto, first established in 1954 and serving some of the best pizza I’ve had the great pleasure to ingest. My personal favorite was their Marinara, a cheese-less square pie that has hints of garlic and anchovy blended into the red sauce, we call it sauce not gravy, that hit my tastebuds hard with a subtle sting of delightful richness. Paired with some Sardinian-made Ichnusa beer, I was in pure epicurean nirvana but I‘d be happy to re-live this experience over and over (and over).
Our day at the Audia Flight and Alare factory wound down with presentations from Massimiliano Marzi on Audia Flight and Massimo Costa on his speakers for Alare. Here’s a very nice interview with Massimo by Fidelity Imports:
“I think after all of this experience we find a good result is always the sum of many, many, many small details.”
To my eyes, the gear from both companies look the part and every pair of Remiga speakers I’ve seen at shows and now here where they’re made are simply stunning works of art and craft. My ears are hungry for more.
Our last dinner in Civitavecchia was a multi-course meal of mostly seafood delights that had my head spinning, or was it all that fine wine?, with pure pleasure. The night was filled with the uninterrupted flow of common interests and laughter shared over course after course of a true feast from the sea. While Civitavecchia was not the loveliest of the places we visited, it was in many ways the loveliest of places.
