Italian Audio Junket Part 2: A Visit to Gold Note.

Welcome to the second installment of our Italian Audio Press Junket and Factory Visit Tour 2023! Once again, special thanks to Fidelity Imports for organizing this opportunity to explore these three Italian audio brands.

Having said our goodbyes to our new friends at Unison Research and Opera Loudspeakers, we made our way to the Treviso central train station. It was time for the next leg of our journey, and for that, we had to catch our next ride south to Florence.

Unlike our previous sojourn in from Germany, this new train was the Italian equivalent of a Japanese “bullet train.” Called the “Frecciarossa” (or Red Arrow in English) it was a modern, fast, super comfortable mode of wiling away the next couple of hours.

Once we disembarked in Florence, we hopped onto the local streetcar that took us to the stop where we were met by representatives of our next manufacturer, Gold Note. Ottavio Marino Cerrato, Tom Dolfi, and Alice Zoppi bid us all a hearty welcome and hustled our rag-tag group into 3 cars to get us to our hotel and (this being Italy) presumably to dinner!

Being on the outskirts of Florence, we were greeted by plenty of lovely rolling hills, cypress trees, and the sort of landscape that one associates with the Tuscany region of Italy. However, we soon left the autostrada and started finding ourselves, in these 3 little cars, scrambling up what looked to most reasonable people like single-lane dirt and gravel roads. Not so in Italy though. These are still two-lane traffic roads, laden with switchbacks, hairpin turns, and potholes that would ruin rally car suspensions in a heartbeat. To be fair, when these paths were originally hewn into the Tuscan hills, they certainly were suitable for two-lane traffic. Apparently, the fact that the main mode of transportation back then was donkeys and rickety farm carts makes no difference in modern civil engineering here.

But, no matter. The Gold Note trio took on these roads like proper champs, and after some bumps, lumps, and several lightning-fast prayers that ended with the words “Sweet Baby Jesus!” we arrived at our lodgings, the beautiful Le Fonti a San Giorgio Villa. Perched at the peak of this one large rolling hill, the villa itself looked like something out of an Italian movie or storybook. As our crew was checking in, I wandered around and took in some of the views. OMG! This was the stuff of Tuscan folklore. Any soiled trousers that resulted from the car ride up here were immediately forgotten. Insanely gorgeous rolling hills and slightly misty valleys with the sun just starting its descent into the horizon were laid out before my eyes. It was achingly beautiful!

For those that don’t know, Italy is composed of about twenty distinct regions and everything from the scenery, the food, and even the dialects vary. Being only a three-hour train ride away from Treviso, this already felt significantly different from where we started this morning. As such, I was very interested in seeing just how different (or not) Gold Note was going to be from Unison/Opera. The product design, the general philosophy, everything. But it was getting late, and I had to table that thought for the time being. I had just enough time to finish checking in and grab a quick shower before “Italian Standard Time” set in again and we met our hosts in the hotel restaurant for a delicious dinner of classic Tuscan fare.

The next morning, after a proper breakfast, some caffeinating, and spending a few moments taking in the spectacular morning views from our hilltop perch, we got into our designated cars and scrambled back down the goat paths (I mean roads) to make our way to the company headquarters. Immediately, upon arriving at Gold Note, I could feel that this was going to be somewhat of a different experience compared with what we have seen thus far.

Gold Note headquarters itself looks like a cross between a modern art compound and a Bond villain party pad. There is a swimming pool on the ground floor foyer flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows and modern artworks from local artists prominently featured on the walls.

Much concrete and glass but warmed up with Persian rugs and several Italian furnishing and stylistic touches. After looking around a bit, you get the sense that everything about this complex is highly designed and meant for ultimate creative efficiency. We had an introductory meeting with the company’s six key staff members to get a little primer on what Gold Note is all about. Maurizio Aterini, Gold Note’s CEO, and founder mentioned how the company first started out doing design consulting and offering integrated solutions for other larger companies like Luxman, Bryston, Oracle, etc.

Maurizio himself is an engineer who got his start working with General Electric designing accessories for tubes both for military and public use in the early 1990s. The company continued to grow and began shifting from doing OEM work to creating its own unique products and brand identity. The company’s name also went through a few iterations, starting with Blue Note, then Black Note, and Golden Note before finally settling on Gold Note. So, while the Gold Note brand is itself 10 years old, the company proper has been around for 25. Maurizio also has the distinction of having designed all of the company’s early turntables himself, having been a longtime vinyl fan already.

As Tom Dolfi began taking us around the facility, we were enlightened to a few more company details. The company moved to its current location in 2019 and strategically most of its parts suppliers are located within a 50-mile radius with all assembly and testing being done here on-site. Again, “local” is the name of the game here. Reducing reliance on far-flung part suppliers is an active strategy and mindset that I’ve been seeing more and more of, and not just here.

Gold Note tests every single raw component that comes into the facility, that includes every single resistor and capacitor, to make sure that they meet specifications before being used. We made our way to the assembly area where some speakers, amps, and other equipment were diligently being put together by technicians.

We were getting to see the final assembly of a very pretty pair of A3 EVO II bookshelf speakers. The technician was assembling the speakers on a custom-made mobile workbench, with everything needed to complete his work easily available and at hand.

Boris Thurnher, the company’s Director of Operations explained how Gold Note has implemented a “Lean” product design model (Lean Sigma Six is the correct term). This approach allows projects to move in and out of the facility with a minimum of interruptions to the flow of goods and people’s activities. A digital production dashboard looms large in the room, graphically displaying each employee’s efficiency and productivity performance.

We also got a first-hand look at Gold Note’s in-house laser etcher, freshly branding an IS1000 MK II integrated amplifier face-plate.

Making our way to the R&D and testing areas we saw a beautiful Mediterraneo X turntable and a PH-1000 LITE phono stage on the benches for evaluation. Next to them was a B-7 Ceramic tonearm completely disassembled and splayed out in all its glory. The R&D area usually has 3 to 4 new products being developed and researched at any given time. The staff was all too happy to have us wander around, but they divulged no information on what new goodies they were working on. We did, however, get some insight into the lengths they went to develop existing products and they did spill some details on two special products that were just about ready for prime time.

Details like how they tested at least 60 types of Plexiglass and 5 different types of glass when they were designing the platter for the T-5 turntable. Interesting touches like including digital torque adjustments on the motors for higher-end tables like the Mediterraneo X.

The brand-new DS-1000 Streamer that was in its final development stages is interesting in that, unlike most streamers, it doesn’t have a computer like a Raspberry Pi at its core. It is completely hardwired with no software component. The MCU is programmed pin by pin in C++ computer language, all done in-house. Not having any sort of computer inside is seen as a big step in eliminating unwanted noise and distortion. The new streamer will be controlled via Gold Note’s custom app; it will be ROON Ready, and work with Tidal, Qobuz, and Spotify, among others.

The newly announced at Munich IS-10 streaming integrated amp is a half-size powerhouse that can have its internal stereo amp section bridged into mono. Add a second one and you have an extra potent two-box mini system. As you can tell, there is some very unique thinking going on within these walls.

After a lovely little lunch on the second-floor patio area and a dearly needed espresso booster, we all took part in an impromptu listening session with a full Gold Note setup in a smaller listening room. Tom informed us that this room was mainly used for testing the functionality and usability of various equipment as opposed to critical listening evaluations. So, while we were sitting in this little room and some of us were making what sonic assessments that we could based on the limitations of the room, I was taking a harder look at the design of what was on the rack in front of us. Gold Note’s aesthetic is very much more modern, not minimalist per se, but efficient and streamlined in appearance. There is a minimum of extraneous decoration in their speakers and their electronics, but what decoration exists is there for a reason and is well integrated into the whole.

The components themselves look like jewelry boxes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the half-size options show an understanding that power and performance can be had with an efficient use of space. The Mediterraneo X turntable has that organic shape to the walnut base that defrosts the cold impression that a lot of modern designs and art have. The Danish have a modern, streamlined aesthetic that is clearly identifiable as coming from Denmark. Gold Note has done the same thing, but it is clearly and unequivocally Italian in sensibility. Shades of the Renaissance at work here? Well, the original event happened just down the road from here so why not? It has made me all the more interested in getting some Gold Note review samples to evaluate more closely in my home environment.

We ended our tour of Gold Note with an understanding and appreciation that, in some ways, this was a radically different operation and approach to Italian audio than what we experienced just two days before. And yet in other ways, the warmth and hospitality of the people, the generosity to share what they are doing with us, and the care and passion that they convey in what they are doing is very much the same.

We reconvened over another excellent Tuscan dinner, soon deeply in the throes of “Italian Standard Time” once again. This core of six people that were our hosts really is the heart and very stylish soul of Gold Note. It’s very much another family operation bringing us the Florentine/Tuscan vibe to this little slice of Italian audio.

To Maurizio, Elena, Ottavio, Tom, Boris, Alessio, Alice, and everyone else at Gold Note I say thank you for the care, the hospitality, and for the look into your world. I very much hope to visit you again soon!