I prefer a controlled DIY, hi-tech approach – i.e. I build myself, with a machinist friend and a welder friend ALL I can: audio tables, stands for horns, slanted large, hinged plywood baffles, the newly made Rolling-Pods, bronze arm bases, wooden/plywood/leaded plinths for Garrard, signal and speaker cables, I punch myself the Hammond aluminium boxes, having them painted with vintage hammer-tone paints, which I use for my several MC-transformers – one of my "obsessions" (mo’ later...)

This manual approach is salt and pepper to my audio and music passion... also with my acoustic and classical guitars... having my personal care on my fine instruments give to me a closer knowledge of the sounds obtainable from – say a Brazilian Rosewood Lowden, a ’65 Guild F-312 or a Martin Adirondack/Brazilian Rosewood from 1917... learning, from a luthier friend, "how" to use French polish varnish on prized, vintage instruments... I love more and respect my old, trusty instruments! 

I consider the most tricky aspects of this fantastic hobby – better, a love for life – always being VERY curious about any music, from discs, from local music students, from radio, from concerts, from readings, from the Web... the "Holistic approach" I recently quoted consists in building with love, passion, humble search for a 360 degree knowledge in music, including playing (at least) an instrument, chatting with more informed people worldwide, avidly going to all the concerts you can and – most important – not being fooled by friends or magazines. The music experience as a whole consists of the listener, the gears, the room, the ideal sound, where a violin is a violin... so, no jokes... a cable is as important as the couch you’re seated in and ALL gears aren’t more important than your old trusty badged fridge, down in the kitchen. You are the Music, not yr. system.

This means that, holistically, the music prevails on hardware... I had more enjoyment from a cheap radio, than from my system – at some moment in the setting up and tuning process, not always successful – and an USD 2000 old, battered stereo may be more music friendly than a big bucks system.

Is it not a case many hardcore music and audio lovers use mike, tape recorder - analog or digital - to record first-hand music... this way the relationship The Musician - The Magician - and The Music - The Mystery - get closer and closer than ever to The Listener - The Adept/The Scholar.

For me, who recorded, since I used my little Geloso open-reel recorder, my grandmother's tales, I was 12 or 13 years old, 'til now, with my several prized Neumann's, AKG's and Beyer's mikes and Studer and Nagra and Stellavox'... everytime I play an instrument at home - alone or with friends - my trusty Neumann USM-69 stereo mike in Blumlein pattern is well ready and tape spinning on Nagra or G36 to capture the sessions... this is Living Music. Not a selfish act, but  an antenna-like mode, always looking for a perfect tune or improvisation.

The several, hundreds recording - myself, friends, concerts - classical, jazz, ethnic - I made in the last 20 years are - (again) holistically - another important aspect of my love for Music.

Mikes, guitars, oud, lute, tape recorders... they are always a means to express myself through music... it's important to add that listening or playing music - it doesn't matter... it's always a personal expression of taste, soul, mood, heart and mind. On a desert island... I'd probably build myself a bamboo flute or would sing...

... Goto horns, triodes amps, multi arms turntables, Western Electric huge horns... these picture are still giving to me an inspiration after decades, because only NOW I’m really understanding what these people were doing in their music rooms... it’s like looking at a fractal, Zen-like for a life, meditating on the infinite pixels to see the "essence" of audio... it’s not a sports car, it’s not a Victorian mansion... it’s a very personal matter: for me it is a medium for a pure, beautiful world... the soundtrack of my life. 

When someone asks to me "why" I choose horns and vintage speakers, my reply is that the soul contained on vinyl records (and CDs) "is there" in a musically involving fashion I seldom hear in systems using a more commercial approach.

component list:

GARRARD 301 GREY (EX) GREASE BEARING WITH SHINDO LAB EXTRA HEAVY PLATTER, GIANT SPINDLE AND 800 GRAMS BLUE, LEADED-CLOTH MAT, WITH A CUSTOM BIRCH PLYWOOD SANDWITCH 30 KILOS PLINTH AND TWO SEPARATE CUSTOM 25 KILOS BRONZE ARM BASES: ONE WITH THOMAS SCHICK 12" HAND-MADE ARM AND LUMIERE/NEUMANN DST REPLICA MC-CARTRIDGE IN AN RS-3 ROTARY HEADSHELL OR IKEDA HEADSHELL OR WITH DL 103 SPECIAL CERAMIC BODY, LOW IMPEDANCE 80TH ANNIVERSARY, WITH AN FR S3 (OLD STYLE - BIG SCREW HEADSHELLS) OR WITH LUMIERE/NEUMANN DST REPLICA INTEGRATED SHELL, ALWAYS W/CONICAL TIP AND THE SECOND WITH EMT 997 (BANANA) 12" ARM WITH EMT TSD 15 CONICAL TIP OR HASEGAWA CUSTOM, HAND-MADE 12" ROTARY/PIVOTING ARM WITH LUMIERE/NEUMANN DST MC-CARTRIDGE.

ALSO "IN HOUSE", CURRENTLY IN A CLOSET: A FIDELITY RESEARCH FR64-S WITH B-60 VTA ARMBASE AND A COMPLETE FIDELITY RESEARCH FR 66-S 12" ARM, A FIDELITY RESEARCH FR 7 CARTRIDGE AND A SHURE V15-II MOVING MAGNET CARTRIDGE.

MC TRANSFORMERS ARE: PEERLESS 4685, PEERLESS 4722, WESTERN ELECTRIC 618-B, PEERLESS 4611, BEYER TR/BV 351015006, HARMAN-KARDON XT-3 and EMT STX-21.

EMT 930st WITH 155st RIAA-EQ PREAMP, ORTOFON/EMT RMA229 10" ARM AND TSD 15 CONICAL TIP ON CUSTOM HEAVY MODULAR TABLE.

JUST QUALITY - CHINA MADE DVD/CD PLAYER AND PLAYSTATION PS-1, WITH REMOTE-CONTROL DISK-PLAYERS

STUDER B 67 HIGH SPEED (30 ips) OPEN REEL

REVOX G 36 HIGH SPEED OPEN REEL TUBE RECORDER

NAKAMICHI 600 MkII CASSETTE

MARANTZ 10B TUBE TUNER

MARANTZ 7C TUBE PREAMP WITH TELEFUNKEN DIAMOND "SMOOTH PLATE" ECC83 TUBES

MY WIFE’S SYSTEM: RADFORD HD250 SOLID-STATE INTEGRATED-AMP, USED WITH OLD ‘50s SIEMENS

KLANGFILM KL-L405 OR KL-L306 BASED WIDEBAND SPEAKERS AND AN OLD STUDER A-730 CD-PLAYER

FOR HOME BACKGROUND MUSIC (TRIODES ARE EXPENSIVE ITEMS, YOU KNOW... THE COMBO ALSO SOUNDs NICE WITH MY WIFE’S i-POD;-))

FOUR-AMPED SPEAKERS SYSTEM USING (PER SIDE): OLD, N.O.S. WESTREX 2080 OR ALTEC 803 OR ALTEC 416A WOOFERS -ALL 16 OHM - IN A VOIGT BASS HORN 2,5 METRES LONG OR IN A LARGE CM 130 X 100 PLYWOOD-BAFFLES, WESTREX 2090-B 16 OHMS MID DRIVERS ON KH-75 JABO LABS. HORNS FROM GERMANY OR RCA MI-9448 ON GOTO UNIT S-150 ROUND ALUMINIUM/BITUMEN HORNS, GOTO UNIT SG-37-FRP 16 OHMS MID-HIGH DRIVERS WITH S-400 ROUND (BITUMEN AND ALUMINIUM) HORNS AND GOTO UNIT SG-17-SA 16 OHM HIGH HORNS. MID, MID-HIGH AND HIGH ARE SEATING ON 80 KILOS GRANITE.

POWER-AMPS: HIRAGA LE CLASSE A 20 W ON BASS, WE 300B/WE274B/WE311-B TRANSFORMERS-COUPLED HOMEBREWED MONOBLOCKS ON MID, WE 300B AND PARTRIDGE'S TRANNIES, PAPER IN OIL, VITAMIN-Q, ALLEN BRADLEY'S HOMEBREWED AMPS ON MID-HIGH, AND WE 421A AND PARTRIDGE'S TRANNIES ETC. ETC. ON HIGH.

PIONEER D23 AND GOTO UNIT CF-1 ACTIVE 4-WAY ACTIVE ELECTRONIC CROSSOVERS AND MASSIVE HOMEBREWED 4-WAYS PASSIVE CROSSOVERS MADE IN GERMANY WITH CUSTOM-MADE 16 OHM AUTOFORMERS VOLUME CONTROLS.

CABLES ARE: XLO SIGNATURE PHONO ON SHINDO 301, ISODA PHONO CABLE, SUPRA PLY 2.0,

TARA LABS "SPACE & TIME", DIY "JOHANNET STYLE" SPACED OLD TELEPHONE AND VINTAGE SIEMENS KLANGFILM SPEAKERS CABLES

FOR SPEAKERS MULTIAMPING, HAND-MADE BE YAMAMAURA-CHURCHILL’S CABLE ON DIGITAL, NEUMANN AND GOTHAM CABLES FROM SWITZERLAND BETWEEN PRE-AMPS, AMPS, CROSSOVERS, RECORDERS AND TUNER. MAINS CABLES ARE ALL CUSTOM-MADE SUPRA LO-RAD WITH CERAMIC, HOSPITAL GRADE RHODIUM-OVER-BRASS MAINS PLUGS BY PALAZZOLI, WHILE STUDER A-730 USES ACTINOTE AC-150 MAINS-CABLE, GIVING AUDIBLY BETTER SONIC RESULTS.

EARPHONES ARE: STAX SRX ELECTROSTATICS AND 2 X BEYER DT-48 - ONE MOSTLY USED AS A MONITOR TOOL AND A VINTAGE ONE (50 YEARS OLD) TO BE EXCLUSIVELY USED WITH EMT 930st.

PORTABLE STUDIO/RECORDING GEARS: STELLAVOX AMI48 MIXER, NAGRA IV-S OPEN REEL, SONY WMD6-C CASSETTE RECORDER AND "SOME" AKG, BEYER AND NEUMANN'S MIKES, AND P.S.U., MIKE-CABLES, MIKE-BOOMS, MIKE-ELASTIC SUSPENSIONS, ETC. TO ALMOST NEED A FULL ROOM FOR STORING IT ALL: RECORDING IS SUCH A JOY!!!

... AND, OF COURSE, THOUSANDS RECORDS, MANY TAPES AND CDs AND GUITARS, OUD, PIANO, VIOLIN, DOUBLE-BASS AND PERCUSSIONS, ALL TO FEED THE ABOVE MENTIONED BEHEMOTH AND MYSELF, BOTH SOOO FOND’N’HUNGRY OF MUSIC;-)))