The oldest settler building in North America, the Palace of Governors in Santa Fe, dates back to 1610. The oldest building in Italy, the Pantheon in Rome, dates back to about 125AD.
The nearest town where we live was founded in 1871 while the three places we visited in Italy—Treviso, Montespertoli, and Civitavecchia—were founded in 89BC, around 500BC, and the 7th – 6th century BC respectively.
I offer these facts as an introduction to an important hifi fact, one that can be easily ignored if all you care about is the gear—where things are made, what they are made from, how they are made, and who made them are essential ingredients in how the end result looks, feels, and sounds. Infinitely more so than the data represented in spec sheets and measured performance. Infinitely more so.
Over the next few days I’ll be sharing my impressions, in words and images, of the factories and surrounding environs of Unison Research/Opera Loudspeakers (Treviso), Gold Note (Montespertoli), and Audia Flight/Alare (Civitavecchia), all companies imported by our host for this mind-expanding journey, Fidelity Imports.
The cast of characters that made up our merry crew (plus our friends from Unison pictured here) was comprised of, from left front, Brian “Woody” Stout Fidelity’s Social Media Manager, Carlo Lo Raso Editor-In-Chief Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, Bartolomeo Nasta Unison Research Sales & Marketing, Tom Martin CEO The Absolute Sound, Jason The Audiophile Junkie, Derek Kolterman Fidelity’s Director of Finance & Operations, Jim Gendaszek Fidelity’s Sales Specialist, Randy Messman The Cheap Audio Man, our fearless leader Fidelity’s Co-Founder & Managing Director Steve Jain, Simone Mattiello Unison’s Service Manager, and…
…my old pal Ken Micallef Contributing Editor at Stereophile and host of the Jazz Vinyl Audiophile YouTube channel seen here contemplating another Roman chip.
I encourage you to explore the coverage from all of these fine folks as I’m sure they will offer differing views onto the same factories and landscapes, another lovely result of the personal lens we all see through.
Brian “Woody” Stout: woodys_soundup
Tom Martin: The Absolute Sound
Ken Micallef: Stereophile and the Jazz Vinyl Audiophile
Carlo Lo Raso: Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity
Randy Messman: cheapaudioman
Jason: The Audiophile Junkie
