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S: S.I. Audio for best sound of the show? To these ears and tastes, absolutely. What's more, this proved out in two different rooms running different speakers. The thing in common were S.I. tube electronics and classical music, the latter a nearly instant giveaway whether a system's got it or not.

Making heads or tails of the lineup will require a serious website visit however. There was so much kit in attendance, say a 6C33/60-i 60wpc OTL integrated; a 60wpc 3 x 845 per side Krypton 1000 model in 600 and 300 guises as well; and so many entries on the (shockingly affordable) price list that I instantly decided to pay attention only to the sound and let our readers take it from there.

S.I . Audio does understand tubes, no doubt.

From Marten Design to Usher speakers, these electronics clearly didn't seem to care. The sonic outcome was cut from the same cloth. Particularly the ceramic driver showing had me at hello. And as already stated, if you really want to know what an unfamiliar audio installation is up to, feed it some well-recorded classical music and things should fall apart very quickly. Or not. Kudos to the S.I. Audio presenter for spinning such programme material without being asked. For me, his rooms were a rerun of the Kiom exhibit, albeit without the latter's inbuilt rev limiter.

Sonus Faber too practiced the "check out my cheeks" toe-in formula but the most radical implementation thereof came by way of the room to the right. I failed to properly identify it safe to comment that I've never -- ever! -- seen such a setup before. Surprisingly, it worked. Really well, too. Just for giggles, I think I'll try it in my digs at least once.


The Sonus room also practiced the 'good feng shui' credo proposed earlier. Without excessive fuss, they managed to mock up more of a living-room vibe than hotel-room ambiance and I for one will attest that it does make a substantial difference to the experience.

Sutra had a 600 euro T-amp on display and a glass case containing all of its guts to plainly distinguish it from the Pacific Rim flood of equivalent efforts.

At every show, you hope to spot at least one component that's priced below one grand and seems to offer a ton so you bring home an easy recommendation. At Milan, the Sutra 1.3 was it. Below are the parts that go into it - 30,000uf of capacitance, a 60VA toroid, an Alps Blue pot, van den Hul hookup wiring - and all to put out 15wpc at 90% efficiency.

While still enthralled with the whole value proposition, Swans, like Usher, delivers the goods - and in this case, a large European distribution center eliminates the 'direct from China' concerns.

Systems & Magic from Rome would like to purify and amplify your AC power.

T.A.C. is the made-in-Germany house brand of Sintron Audio which imports Thorens, Vincent and Focal to Teutonia.

His and hers. If size matters, Tannoy will have the gents go for the floorstander while the ladies get the desk-top monitor.

Triangle Acoustique too practiced the black-out routine to challenge lesser photographers and were demonstrating the Magellan Cello, a bass-reflex 3-way with horn-loaded tweeter, 400 - 2800Hz midrange (12dB high-pass, 24dB low-pass) and two paralleled woofers in a beautiful gloss-veneer enclosure. Like Focal and Cabasse, Triangle designs and manufactures its own drivers to not rely on off-the-shelf parts.

Another new Italian discovery for your reporter was Ulix who were showing their Emiry Top 2 open-baffle speaker.

But more radical were the speakers on passive display - with tubes protruding from their noggins.

The Ampli Cleo model for example packs a 4-watt 2A3 single-ended amp into its chassis while the Cinzia stows away 7-watts class A and the Cleo three-way again 4 watts of 2A3 juice on top while 50-watt RMS mosfets handle the 200mm mid/woofer. Got that? Again, the aim of this report is link referrals. Follow up on what interests you directly with the firms.