Italian Audio Press Junket, Part 3: Audia Flight and Alare Loudspeaker.

If you haven’t yet read Parts 1 and 2 of my audio adventure in Italy, please feel free to do so before reading this third and final installment. Again, I’d like to express my deepest appreciation to Steve Jain and his team at Fidelity Imports for this opportunity to visit these three very different and very impressive Italian audio manufacturers. It’s one thing to experience a piece of equipment under review in the abstract. It’s quite another to visit the manufacturer and get to experience the place and the people behind the product. It puts everything in a whole different perspective.

Trains. Unless you are driving and taking the autostrada, the way to get around Italy with some sort of efficiency is by train. After bidding farewell to our new friends at Gold Note, we proceeded to the bustling Florence central train station to grab the Flecciarossa (Red Arrow) fast train, south to our next stop, Civitavecchia.

So far, the first two factory visits we have been a part of have been jam-packed with information and activities. We have been literally on the go for days now and while it’s been an awesome experience overall, we were all starting to show some signs of exhaustion. Thankfully a couple of smooth traveling hours on the train gave some of us a chance to chill to some music or catch up on our beauty rest.

Civitavecchia is a beautiful port city that services Rome, just to its south. It is also one of the largest cruise ship ports in the Mediterranean. So, it is not uncommon to see reasonable facsimiles of Captain Stubing and the crew of the Love Boat unloading passengers for excursions into the local town and further down into Rome. Fun fact, there is indeed an old Love Boat TV movie special where the ship and crew do actually stop in Civitavecchia.

This historic seaside town is home to Audia Flight and Alare Loudspeakers, the final stop on our press junket sponsored by Fidelity Imports. Audia Flight specializes in producing the finest solid-state audio electronics and has been in operation for 25 years. Sister company Alare, while only 3 years old, manufactures equally statement-level loudspeakers. Audia Flight is owned by Massimiliano Marzi and Andrea Nardini while Alare’s chief loudspeaker designer is Massimo Costa.

When our train of semi-weary travelers arrived at Civitavecchia station, we were met and heartily greeted by Massimiliano, Andrea, and Massimo. They helped get us all to our hotels, which overlooked the seaside, and it gave us a couple of hours to relax before we would all meet up again for, you guessed it, dinner! Thank you, “IST” (Italian Standard Time)! And as you might expect from an Italian seaside town, the seafood was outstanding, bettered only by the company.

The next morning, after sleeping off another food coma and charging the batteries with cappuccinos, we were picked up and carted off to Audia Flight and Alare HQ. Located in a nondescript 3-story building in an otherwise unremarkable gated industrial park, there were no external hints to the general public of the kind of remarkable work being done inside.

As we walk in Massimiliano and Andrea guide us towards the assembly area, we are greeted by several tidy and well-stocked workstation areas, each with a product at some stage of assembly. My attention is instantly taken by a massive Audia Flight Strumento No.8 Monaural power amplifier that appears mostly assembled and is going through checks. It is a glorious-looking solid-state sculpture with neatly arranged banks of capacitors and a huge transformer that is floating and isolated within the chassis. These massive transformers, along with almost all the components used are sourced in Italy.

Just down the line is a station with solely the transformers used in the Strumento No. 4 and No. 8 amplifiers, looking almost like automotive batteries given their size. Inside these steel boxes are massive iron core transformers that are immersed in epoxy before being sealed in the casings. All this is done to eliminate any chance of vibrations.

Nearby are stacks of huge toroidal transformers that are meant for the FLS line of components. Next to these is a station with a beautiful Strumento No. 1 preamp. The name “Strumento” is Italian for “Instrument”, and it seems more than appropriate upon examination of each of these exquisitely assembled pieces of gear.

Further on there are tables of neatly assembled balanced amplifier sections sprouting copious banks of blue capacitors. All were sitting like bejeweled puzzle pieces, waiting to be assembled inside a hand-polished, cast aluminum Strumento amplifier chassis.

There are about a dozen people that work at Audia Flight and the care they take as they work on and test every piece of gear is obvious.

We next moved into a larger room where Massimo Costa began to tell us a little bit more about Alare speakers. Massimo is an expert in transmission line designs and Alare has two transmission line tower speakers in its portfolio, the slightly smaller and narrower Remiga 1, and the full-size Remiga 2. Both are very similar in shape and design, the Remiga 1 is about 20 kg (per speaker) lighter and uses both 6” and 8” bass drivers and a 5” midrange driver while the larger Remiga 2 uses a 6” midrange and an 8” and a 10” bass drivers.

With both the Remiga 1 and 2, customers have a choice of either a Diamond or Beryllium tweeter. Both the tweeters and the midrange drivers are sourced from Accuton, while all the woofers are sourced from AudioTechnology. Both speaker models are available with 6 standard finishes to choose from. Massimo was pointing out these various details to us as we were walking around and admiring a rather stunning pair of Remiga 2 speakers in an almost bleached-wood style finish.

As the discussion turned to the physical and electrical characteristics of the speakers, Massimo turned our attention towards a raw cabinet mule of a Remiga 1 so we could appreciate the finer details. The cabinets themselves are constructed for Alare at a specialist cabinet facility in the Veneto region. The front baffle is made up of multiple layers of thinner bonded MDF.

The sides, tops, and bottoms are made of the same bonded MDF layers sandwiched around a middle layer of Baltic Birch plywood. The black-colored spine of the speaker is made from layers of a special grade of HDF sourced from Spain. Internal bracing is extensive with 4 additional steel bars running through the Remiga 1 cabinet (the Remiga 2 has 6 steel bars). Needless to say, this Remiga 1 cabinet was very inert. Rapping knuckles against it was akin to hitting a lead brick. Regarding the crossover design, Massimo stated that they are using 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley acoustic slopes between the tweeter, midrange, and bass drivers with both the bass drivers operating in parallel.

Crossover wiring is all done point-to-point with special silver-plated copper wire that we saw on tidy little spools in the assembly area.

Now things started to get interesting! We next got to experience what happens when all these glorious components are put together. In a good-sized listening room, we were treated to sounds of the Alare Remiga 1 loudspeakers (in a lovely Rosewood colored finish and with Beryllium tweeters) powered by a pair of Audia Flight Strumento No. 8 Monoblock amps, controlled by a Strumento No. 1 preamp, and sourced by the new FLS20 SACD player.

We mostly got to sample classical pieces and a few other interesting CDs we could find in the room as streaming was not available at that moment. Regardless though, the sound coming out of that system was astonishing. The image depth and width that the Remiga 1 loudspeakers put forth with those classical works were huge. The separation of the instrument details and their overall transparency was outrageously good. Bass impact and control were exceptional. One choral piece just had an immense scale and power to its delivery. This Audia Flight/Alare combination had the ability to make the music we sampled, palpable. It was legitimately one of the better-sounding and most cohesive systems that I have heard in a long time. The Audia Flight components are designed and built like monuments. Clean, powerful, and with a sense of permanence about them that borders on indestructible. The Alare loudspeakers are organic in design and sound, almost coming across as a living, breathing thing. The quality, maturity, and performance of these products cannot be denied. The fact that all this goodness comes from a team of a dozen people alone is astonishing. Vision, dedication, and passion. Yup. That about sums it up.

Lunch calls. We get into cars and head back out towards the water. After we park, we start walking for a bit towards an, as of yet, unknown destination. As I’m taking in all the sights and sounds of Civitavecchia, I spy this beautiful high-tech yacht, moored right next to a massive age-old fort. I’m told it’s Fort Michelangelo. Yeah, Renaissance Sistine Chapel dude. THAT Michelangelo!

Apparently, he designed this fort, and it was built in the 16th century to defend the port from pirates. It’s a massive and impressive piece of architecture.

We continue to pass through old parts of the city on our walk. Through porticos in ancient walls, amid scenic town squares, the city’s character and charm are undeniable. Even the local graffiti is exceptionally and artistically done.

We eventually arrive at our lunch destination, Pizzeria del Ghetto. A classic wood-fired pizzeria located in the old Jewish quarter of the town. But as with so much else that is unique about Civitavecchia, Pizzeria del Ghetto only makes two kinds of pizzas. Cheese and cheese-less. The cheese-less pizza has an exquisitely “jacked-up” sauce using tomatoes, anchovies, garlic, and parsley.

With square-cut slices and without the outer crust we associate with Neapolitan-style pizza, it was simple, pure, and incredibly flavorful. On a hot day, with an ice-cold Italian beer it left one hell of an indelible impression, like so much else here.

With bellies full, we arrived back at Audia Flight and Alare, and we did a little more listening and exploration. One thing that caught my attention as I was examining some more of the assembly areas, was the modular nature of Audia Flight components. Additional DAC, balanced analog, and phono input boards allow easy configuration of a component to a user’s present or future needs. Very smart and slick.

As our time at Audia Flight and Alare drew to a close, Massimiliano, Andrea, and Massimo had one more special parting gift to share with us. A guided visit to the National Etruscan Museum of Tarquinia.

A museum with 3 floors devoted to Etruscan history, artifacts, and relics. There are loads of ancient pottery, statuary, jewelry, sarcophagi, and the like on display here. As a matter of fact, I recognized a relief statue and a piece of pottery from a high-school art history textbook from years gone by!

As a lover of museums, and history in general, it was impressive to see the threads of Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Phoenician cultures all woven together in the various artifacts on display. I appreciate the desire of the Audia Flight and Alare crew to share some of the history and soul of this area with us and it was a truly meaningful way to wrap up the official part of our visit to their little corner of the audio world.

I could now regale you with a story of our final, and very spectacular meal on this last visit of our Italian Audio press junket, but I think I’ll spare you this time. This is Italy and the food is outrageously good, and our gracious hosts are simply the best company, you’ve already figured that part out well enough. Walking back to our hotel after said dinner that final evening, I couldn’t help but stop and stare at Fort Michelangelo again. At night she is all lit up with spotlights, elegantly but still firmly standing watch over this port city.

As I stand here admiring old “Mikey’s” design handiwork, I reflect on this past week’s adventures. It’s plain to see that while Unison/Opera, Gold Note, and Audia Flight/Alare all have the goal of making the best Italian audio products possible, the design, execution, frankly the very soul of each maker’s approach is so intrinsically tied to the particular region (and its history) of this country that they all call home.

Unison/Opera being a stone’s throw from Venice has products that almost look and feel like musical instruments and their focus on tube gear draws parallels to the region’s history with artisanal glass making in Murano. Gold Note, being in Florence has a complete lock on the whole Renaissance vibe with an unconventional and re-imagined design language and production process. With Audia Flight, I see Fort Michelangelo in their electronics. Elegant, intelligent, and powerful design that will stand the test of time. With Alare, I see the organic design language of the ocean that is such an integral part of Civitavecchia. It’s power, the flow of the currents, and the bounty that it provides.

As I head back to my hotel for the night, I have a tough time deciding what has been more impressive on this excursion. Is it the gear itself or the very special people behind it all? Regardless, I call it a night feeling quite certain that I have been made all the better for being here this week. With all the craziness in this world today, there is so much about this hobby that is good and that can bring us more together. This past week has been the absolute best example of that.

Thank you.