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Unfamiliar French Advance Acoustic gear in a passive Mpi Electronic display looked quite serious.

Ah Tjoeb showed guts in a booth by The Sound Of The Valve.


Airtight from Japan.

Annsi Hyvönen of Amphion brought his flagship speaker sporting a range of on-the-fly adjustments to tweak the speaker/room interface. This Finnish speaker brand gets to Italy through the punningly named Audio Graffiti.

A previous industry feature set the stage for the launch of Angelis Labor. Little preparation that proved for actually encountering the massive Gabriel deck from its Spiritual Series in the flesh. Wow!
In fact, Gabriel deserves a Sidebar pictorial all its own to revel in its gorgeous combination of beauty and functionality.

Angelis Labor also showed pre-production samples of its Metamorphosis Series -- see phono stage to right of analogue deck -- but for those well-heeled and desirous of exclusivity, the spiritual mates to the Gabriel will prove the most alluring. I was shown a pre-production power supply for the forthcoming Sophia preamplifier. Like the Gabriel turntable, it will be handcrafted in Angelis Labor's Bologna facility and benefit from some of the city's Ferrari subcontractors.

The 6H30-based Sophia will be a true dual-mono purist design with a single input whose external power supply feeds each channel via its own massive multi-pin umbilical. Like the Gabriel and forthcoming matching 300B monos, each component in the Spiritual Series sports a serial number plaque with the owner's name engraved - and a lifetime warranty except for the tubes. The machined recess in the power supply's upper back panel will receive a name plate just like the super-imposed sample and the lid will most likely sport opaque acrylic with a removable metal cover for protection.

The Gabriel table eternalizes its owner in the same fashion, shown below with the remote control for the Metamorphosis components. Inspecting these luxury goods up close, I couldn't fail to remember that Placido Pappalardo and Salvatore Giardina also import Zanden Audio through their Audio Point Italia venture with Suono e Comunicazione. "That's why the Spiritual Series of Angelus Labor won't be available in Italy for at least two years. We don't wish to subtract from our commitment to Yamada-San by one iota." I take that to mean that the only way for Italian music lovers to acquire these goods earlier will be to establish a second bona fide residence in a country with Angelus Labor distribution. As the earlier referenced industry feature details, Dino and Salvo mean to conduct business in extremely honorable fashion. This cuts out grey market issues and insists on proper pre- and post-sale support through upscale dealerships.

Meeting these gentlemen, I was impressed by their commitment and vision. Considering the market and overall economics, it takes real gumption to enter the fray now. Unlike the expensive Lamm amplifiers I spotted elsewhere, Angelis Labor also looks the part. At least in my book, that's a huge point in their favor. Whoever can afford to shop in these leagues deserves everything to culminate in pride of ownership - exclusivity; cosmetics; finish; support; and peak performance. While show conditions are impossible to measure the latter, Angelis Labor appears to have all the other ingredients neatly lined up. If all is on schedule, CES 2009 in Las Vegas should see the Gabriel's mates in all their earthly splendor on display.