Andrea Bedetti's
System
Date of "Visit":
04 April 2004


speakers


electronics


Michell turntable


brass binding posts


  

e-mail to:
Andrea Bedetti


I had a "mission impossible" to do and, possibly, to work out. To find a Hi-End system able expressing itself in a good way, inside a rather small sitting room: an irregular room (six meters x four meters), with an exit, without a door, to the kitchen.

That meant to find a good sound power, avoiding to twist the same resonant emission. A suitable choice was to identify electronic components (pre amp & power amp) in pure A Class, so that to give back a good, detailed sound, even with a low volume.

Fortunately, I live in the north of Italy, in Varenna, on the Lake of Como (but I work in Milan as journalist and university professor (I teach Philosophy and Aesthetics of Music), not very far from Vigevano, where there is a small firm, AM Audio, specialized in very pure A Class components. There I have found what I needed, a very good coupling with A-6 pre amp and A-40 power amp. To balance at best the sound, I decided to join to the electronic components the speakers AM Audio RM-4 Improved, without active crossover.

The outcome has been a warm, full, and smooth sound but at the same time, a well definite sound, with deep basses and a bright top end. A perfect coupling to whom, like me, listens JUST classical music (about 7,000 CD's and 1,000 Lp's).

To these components, as far as the turntable concerns, I have joined the marvellous Michell Gyro Dec Mk V, provided with a SME Series II 3009 Improved arm and with the excellent Exact Rega, one of the best moving magnet cartridge, at present, on the market. The CD player is a "collector's piece", the Enlightened Audio Designs Series III Cd-1000 at 20 bit, now out of stock, especially suitable with A Class components.

A last thing. About possible WAF's problems. I am living alone and, during weekends, I am reached by my fiancée, a classic pianist that loves my Hi-End system sound. Probably, I am a lucky man.

Favorite Test Lp's:

  • Music for Virginal Colin Tilney (Original instruments) Archiv Produktion, Stereo 2533 379
  • Alban Berg Lulu Teresa Stratos, Yvonne Minton, Hanna Schwarz, Franz Mazura, Kenneth Riegel, Toni Blankenheim, Robert Tear, Helmut Pampuch, Orchestre de l'Opera de Paris, Pierre Boulez DGG Stereo 2740 213
  • Béla Bartók The String Quartets Julliard Quartet CBS D3 37857
  • Claudio Monteverdi L'Orfeo Nigel Rogers, Emilia Petrescu, Anna Reynolds, Ian Partridge, James Bowman, Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg, Camerata Accademica Hamburg, Hamburger Bläserkreis für alte Musik, Jürgen Jürgens Archiv Produktion 2723 018
  • Johann Sebastian Bach The twelve concertos for Harpsichord and Orchestra Huguette Dreyfus, Luciano Sgrizzi, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Yannick Le Gaillard Ensemble Baroque de Drottningholm Erato STU 71180
  • Paul Hindemith Sonatas for viola/piano and viola alone Kim Kashkashian Robert Levin ECM 1330-32
  • Giuseppe Tartini Four Sonatas for violin Roberto Michelucci, Marijke Smit Sibinga, Franz Walter Philips Stereo 9502 009
  • Franz Joseph Haydn Piano Concertos No. 11 & 4 Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Zurich Chamber Orchestra Edmond De Stoutz EMI Stereo 29 0855 1
  • Haydn - Hummel - L. Mozart Trumpet Concertos Wynton Marsalis National Philharmonic Orchestra Raymond Leppard CBS IM 37846
  • Thomas Morley The First Booke of Ayres Nigel Rogers, Nikolaus Harnouncourt, Eugen M. Dombois Telefunken Die Alte Werke SAWT 9568

Favorite Test CD's:

  • Baldassar Castiglione Il Libro del Cortigiano Doulce Mémoire Astrea E 8604
  • Thomas Simpson Taffel Consort Novus Brass Quartet Claves CD 50-9510
  • Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C Minor Jean Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D minor Concertgebouw Orchestra George Szell Philips 464 682-2
  • Antonín Dvorák Slavonic Dances opp. 46 & 72 Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Rafael Kubelik DGG 457 712-2
  • Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations Rosalyn Tureck DGG 289 459 599-2
  • Richard Wagner Der fliegende Holländer Theo Adam Anja Silja Martti Talvela Ernst Kobuz Annelies Burmeister Gerhard Unger Otto BBC Chorus New Philharmonia Orchestra Otto Klemperer EMI 7243 5 67408 2 2
  • Richard Wagner Parsifal Peter Hofmann Kurt Moll José van Dam Siegmund Nimsgern Victor von Halem Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin Berliner Philharmoniker Herbert von Karajan DGG413 347-2
  • Antonio Vivaldi Le Quattro Stagioni Sonatori de la gioiosa marca Giuliano Carmignola Divox Antiqua CDX 79404
  • Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition Scriabin Le Poème de l'extase Stravinsky Pastorale &endash; The Firebird New Philharmonia Orchestra Czech Philharmonic Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra Leopold Stokowski London 443 898-2
  • Gustav Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau London Symphony Orchestra George Szell EMI 7243 5 67236 2 7


    System's Components

    Turntable:

    J. A. Michell Gyro Dec MKV

    Arm:

    SME Series 3009 S2 Improved

    Cartridge:

    Rega Exact MM

    CD player:

    Enlightened Audio Designs CD-1000 Series III

    Line Preamp:

    AM Audio A - 6

    Phono Preamp:

    AM Audio MM - 20 Reference

    Power Amp:

    AM Audio A - 40 Reference

    Speakers:

    AM Audio RM - 4 Improved

    Interconnects:

    AM Audio AM - S5

    Speaker Cables:

    AM Audio AM - P5

    Andrea's comments about his system:

    AA: "Andrea, how would you describe your system's sound?"

    AB: "I would describe my system as very "musical". That means there is no listening fatigue at all, thanks to the pure A Class philosophy. I am used listening music for several hours per day and I need a warm sound. It is an emotion to listen the brass instruments, the polyphonic voices and the power of the organs, not to mention the lightness of the strings."

    AA: "Do you think there is room for improvement?"

    AB: "I think the improvement is the first audiophile rule. But, at the same time, it is impossible to achieve. It is always a work in progress, without an end and with just a master: our hearing."  

    AA: "Have you got plans for upgrading?"

    AB: "Yes, of course. It is my intention, in the next months, to buy the esoteric DV-50 universal player TEAC, a real, wonderful "monster", because I would like to listen SACD. Moreover, in the future I would like to complete the power amps with an integrated tube amplifier, like JoLida JD-502B or Antique Sound Lab AQ 1007. But now, first of all, I have to buy a headphone amp (I know, the "purists" will hate me), probably a Grado RA1 or a RudiStor RP3, for my Grado SR60. Anyway, when there is news, I will revisit the site."

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