When you think of Rosso Fiorentino speakers concepts like pricey, great sound and Italian artisanry come in mind. Now take the pricey part out of the equation but keep the artisan finish and melodic sound. Engineer Francesco Rubenni, founder of the Florence based speaker company, revealed a new model for the affordable line of speakers, the Classic series which now consists of three models; the moderate sized standmount named Giglio, the 2 and a ½ way, 88.5db sensitivity floorstander we had the chance of listening to in Munich that goes by the name of Elba and last but not least a central speaker for home theater passionate, the Pianosa.
The thing about high-end companies introducing affordable models is that usually they first introduce them in China. That is in order to keep prices low the design takes place in the headquarters but production is shifted where labor is cheap and one too many times quality and finish suffer. This was not the case with the Elba which was superbly finished in leather and wood and when factoring in the 2400 euro MSRP the package screams VFM.
The Munich set up consisted of Thrax Dionysos pre-amplifier, Orpheus phono stage and Teres hybrid power amplifier, North Star Design Supremo 32-384 DAC and Sapphire transport and the classic Bergmann Magne System turntable. Cabling was provided by Kubala-Sosna with their second from top Emotion series.
It appears as the rest of the system was a bit of an overkill for a pair of speakers costing less than $3K but listening to Muddy Waters singing Good Morning Little School Girl while playing his guitar convinced me otherwise. These are engaging little speakers that will make many audiophiles on a budget more than happy. Who said that High End Munich is only über expensive rooms?
