Break with tradition

If you think that all Italian speakers have a certain look and sound, Rosso might make you think again reckons David Vivian

- David Vivian

I talianate. That's a word I haven't written in a long while. Back in my early days as a motoring journalist, when adjustable steering columns were the preserve of luxury cars, it was often used to categorise the kind of driving position, common among less costly Italian models, that demanded a quasi-racer, reclined posture best carried off, if you were a bloke, by wearing a flat cap and shades and a cigarette hanging languidly from your bottom lip.

I feel almost guilty bringing it up, but there's no way I'm going to get through this review of Rosso Fiorentino's Pienza 2 standmount without discussing the very particular way luxury Italian hi-fi loudspeakers look, feel and sound. The clue rests with the word 'luxury'. It's become something of a cliché, but it serves Italianate-ness well in this instance. It's the quality that binds Italian brands such as Sonus faber, Diapason, Chario and Opera together: the idea of the loudspeaker as an item of fine, hand-crafted Italian furniture honouring the timeless marriage of real wood and supple leather; a look that enhances the surrounding decor rather than challenging it; a sonic presentation that's elegant, smooth, warm and inviting with no brittleness, brightness or jagged edges. It's why, by and large and in the right system, we love Italian speakers.