I love Italy, and I am very keen on Milan in particular. And that is not only because the Autodromo Nazionale at Monza is only a few minutes’ drive away. Regardless, I was hardly likely to refuse the invitation to the Top Audio Show in Milano. If nothing else, the climate was especially encouraging: I left a cold, miserable London and two hours later the plane touched down into glorious sunlight, with the temperature in the low 30’s. The only down side of this weather was that I was immediately set upon by mosquitoes – even so the collection of bites I amassed was a small price to pay for this visit to Milano, its show, and its coffee bars and restaurants. The only other aspect that was disappointing was the local taxis, a great many of which were the awful, leaden, Toyota Prius, which does not really lend itself to the eyes-shut, hell for leather driving style of most Milanese natives.

The Top Audio show took place at the Atahotel Quark on the Via Lampdusa in the Ripamonti Corvetto area. This is a pleasant enough, modern hotel with a selection of conference rooms, traditional hotel bedrooms, and public areas spread over five floors to accommodate a large number of exhibitors with a variety of requirements and budgets. That last point seemed to be highly relevant because it appeared to me to be that those in the obviously more costly areas devoted more time, care and attention to setting up their exhibits while, typically, those in the first and second-floor bedrooms appeared to have dumped a pair of loudspeakers on the floor and placed some electronics between them... and often wired them together with the thickest mains and speaker cable in the known universe thinking that that would suffice.

I thought prior to visiting this event that the Germans had a monopoly on, shall we say, outrageous looking hi-fi, especially loudspeakers. They do not. The Italians run them a close second, in particular when it comes to amplifiers. I doubt that many of those highly distinctive models I saw would sail through too many of today’s Health and Safety checks. Many of them certainly failed the most basic performance tests, sounding ponderously slow and tuneless. Their shockingly amateurish set-ups did not help, with cable-dressing clearly being an art that no-one has yet discovered in many rooms. Spoiling the ship for a halfpenny’ worth of tar seemed to be a prevalent malaise.

There was a goodly mix of front-ends in use, including air-bearing turntables, valve CD players, music servers and laptops. I saw the odd “Viynl rules” sign, which, in this day and age, excludes any interest in what that company is selling from virtually anyone other than old chaps like me. There is, after all, a generation of potential audiophiles out there who have no idea of what a record shop was. What is more, how many people nowadays want a very ordinary sounding turntable that comes complete with air cylinders attached, for example? That home-brewed looking approach might have worked in the 1970s but it sure won’t impress too many buyers in the era of the iPod. Equally so, the music used for demonstrations sucked donkeys through a straw, to quote a computer journalist friend. What relevance does “Hotel California” or anything by Genesis or Dire Straits have for today’s audience? Bugger all, unless you are a 70-year-old hi-fi geek who stopped buying music in 1990. Companies really need to employ people who can keep them in touch with what is happening in music today so that their demonstrations can appeal to the generation of buyers they wish to attract. For example, at the start of this year, Anna Calvi released a brilliant and great-sounding debut album that is a perfect demo choice. Did I hear anyone playing it, even once? Of course not, but I did hear Hotel California playing over... and over ... and over...and over.

The show was not all disappointment, though. Naim Audio revealed its new, inexpensive, slim-line network audio player to the world, the ND5 XS, in a very decent sounding room/set-up. The player had all the characteristics and outstanding finesse of the rest of the components in the XS series: it delivered a composed but exciting presentation at a performance level well above what you would expect for its (relatively) modest price. Indeed, I even managed to sit through and appreciate opera playing through it without wincing once. Also worthy of note was that it is the first Naim network player to offer 24-bit/192 kHz native resolution playback. Note to NDX owners: Naim has not forgotten you, and the company told me that an update for your machines to enable 24/192 playback should be available in October/November 2011.

It was also fascinating to spend time chatting with Naim MD, Paul Stephenson, and Focal MD, Gerard Chretien about the recent merger of their two operations into Focal & Co. We are planning an interview with Paul Stephenson soon, and you will be able to read all about what the plans are for both companies in that piece rather than rely upon forum conjecture and guesswork for your information.

NEAT Acoustics was also in a revelatory mood, demonstrating the eagerly awaited – by me at least – Ultimatum XL10. This development of the outstanding flagship MF9 model is set to be available in November 2011 and I am extremely keen to play with this eight-driver, £15,000 monster, which stands 1.5m tall and weighs 60kg. The primary improvements over the MF9 include: refinements to the cabinet; bracing and acoustic damping; a new HF unit; and substantial revisions and improvements to the crossover network. It was remarkable how superb the XL10 sounded in a not especially spacious room being driven by rather languid-sounding electronics and sources. I presume these were selected by NEAT’s distributor to show off his other product lines and not because they extracted the best musical performance from the speaker. That is a consideration of which one needs to be aware in any distributor’s room at any show. Regardless, the XL10s got their message across successfuly, no matter what music was played. I eagerly await their arrival chez moi where there is a pair of Naim NAP 250s waiting to bi-amp them and give them the sort of musical impetus they will appreciate.

Gerard Chretien, MD of Focal-JMlab, alerted me to another practice of demonstrators of which I had been aware but that simply had not crossed my mind on this occasion: selecting music that they thought the most applicable for a particular event, culture or nationality. Focal had chosen a selection of, to me, rather curious tracks that clearly demonstrated the technical and hi-fi potential of their mighty Grand Utopia loudspeakers but failed to convey their emotive capabilities because, he told me, this was the sort of music that was expected and liked by enthusiasts at this particular event. Focal had also opted to use Moon electronics, which appeared to me, unfortunately, to major on the presentational rather than the emotional aspects of performances. That is fine if you want your favourite musicians to sound like a school band revealed in all its scrupulous splendour, but I do not. I would rather hear it playing like all the musicians were enjoying themselves and playing in total accord with each other. I have heard the Grand Utopias sounding far, far better at the Focal factory, so I know that they can perform quite magnificently given the opportunity.

One of the few small bedroom exhibits that was producing acceptable sounds was the one housing ProAc loudspeakers. The company was celebrating an anniversary of the famous Tablette loudspeaker and the little boxes seemed to be having a great time and singing for all they were worth. Nevertheless, one of the best sounds I heard at the show was coming from a stand selling previously-owned vintage equipment. The stallholder had set-up a pair of ancient AR speakers playing off 1940s’ Quad PA amplifiers: this sounded rather engaging despite the pensionable age of the system.

Shows always offer journalists the opportunity to catch up with colleagues that they do not normally get the chance to see. So it was a real pleasure to run into Marco Manunta of M2Tech and discover that not only had he become a father since we last met but that the Palmer power supply for the Young DAC would soon be on its way to me. I look forward to hearing this superb DAC taken to an even higher level of performance, which I hope and I trust the Palmer will help it deliver.

It was rewarding to see computerised audio burgeoning at this show and interesting to note the growth of interest in room treatment devices. I spotted a sign for RPG Diffusor Systems. The company supplies a range of “spatial, imaging, combination, bass management, and software tools” to counter acoustic aberrations in a room and not, as its name might suggest, Rocket Propelled Grenades. These offer another way of dealing room problematic rooms, and one I felt tempted to deploy on several occasions: Goodbye Hotel California!