Olimpia Audio Polidoro
Olimpia Audio Polidoro
Silvano Sivieri is a craftsman from Milan: he's a craftsman in the purest sense. He's dedicated to tailoring, he wants to have a customized product to ensure a certain result to the final user. He's always trying to upscale his projects and to improve also all the components sold. Sivieri and his Olimpia Audio are famous also for the implementation on digital sources that has had many reviews on online and paper magazines. Angelo Jasparro has reviewed the DAC Ramiro for AudioReview and I have written about the small power amplifier Alfonso and about the pre amp Guglielmo II. My story with Guglielmo II is very peculiar. I was interested in the small pre amplifier for my personal use. I tested it and the review came as a natural result. The component was very interesting both for its characteristics and its price. The same happened with Polidoro, I listened to it just to give my impressions to some friends. After three days I decided that I wanted to write about it, because this component is extremely valuable. If we consider the competition and the final result, all in all we can say that its cost - 4.000 euros - is fair and maybe even cheap.
Sivieri is a music lover. He loves Mozart but he listens to everything. His components have all names inspired by Mozart. Polidoro, for an instance, is one of the characters of "La finta semplice" (The Pretended Simpleton), one of the least popular among Mozart's works. I do not know why but it seems to me that his love for music is mirrored in the Olimpia Audio equipments. People get to like these components especially after a careful listening. I think that the knowledge of music and of the way the instruments play live in the different playing positions can help in the evaluating listening sessions of the components to be put on the market. Polidoro has a nice aspect: it looks like a small temple with 4 columns on the corners. It is apparent the will to give to it a better appearance than the lower level production and it' s a successful try. The device has a serious industrial look even if it's a hand made product. On the front panel there are: on the left side the knob of the inputs selector that controls the relay for this function. Under the knob there is the led that indicates the selected input, the big knot of the volume is in the centre and on the right there is the on/off switch button. On the back side all the unbalanced inputs and outputs and just one balanced input and output, the IEC plug for the power supply. On the top there is a big Polidoro writing made with holes in the panel itself that allows also the heat dissipation. I quote from the Olimpia Audio website the characteristics of Polidoro's design: line stage with E80CC triodes in balanced configuration, no negative feedback, transformer analog output stage. Output transformers are Sowter and are produced on Olimpia's specific request. The pre amp is remote controlled. I've been asked expressly not to photograph the inside because the boards that are presently inside are not those that will be put in the final product. (This component is a pre series that audiophiles had the chance to listen to during the last Milan Hi End together with the JBL loudspeakers). 
Olimpia Audio Polidoro
Polidoro has been connected in the following system:
Bauer Audio DPS turntable, Mørch DP6 tonearm, Denon DL-S1 e Transfiguration Aria (guest the Ikeda 9 TT) cartridges, American Hybrid Technology phono preamplifier, Revox RB 795 turntable with Ortofon Vivo Blue cartridge and Lehmann Black Cube phono peamplifier, Spectral DMC12 e Olimpia Audio Guglielmo II preamplifiers, Spectral DMA50 e Wyred 4 Music ST250 power amps, Magneplanar MG 1.6 loudspeakers, cablesi YBA, Systems and Magic, AS D and more ... Let's talk about the sound of this Polidoro. It does not have a sound of its own and this is a big compliment, I say it only for those components that seem not to modify the final sound by giving to it peculiar characteristics. Polidoro suits very well my system that is set to highlight the recording and its quality, it does not change the sound and this is also the goal of this amplifier. This is the path that Hi End should follow in my opinion. This has nothing to do with that coldness that makes the listening uneasy, it only means that there is all that is necessary and nothing is evidenced in an unsuitable way. Listening to Petrouchka directed by Stravinsky himself (Vinyl CBS) it's evident that the recording has been modified in order to have a clearer sound due to the richness of timbral colour put in the highest side of the audio range, the lowest and deepest part, when present, has been given the right evidence. The beats on the bass drum are present, less evident are the kettledrums and sometimes the strings sound a little bit muffled. Listening to the same opera directed by Abbado (Vinyl DGG) the timbric balance on the higher part is in evidence, strings are light, the kettledrum is credible and the bass drum is a bit muffled: I'm talking about the recordings and not of Polidoro that reproduces accurately the sound and does not hide the differences. As for the timbre Polidoro is accurate and the listenings of the compositions for lute by Bach in the executions of Lindberg (BIS) and of Smith (Astrée) demonstrate it. Differences in the take between the two recordings and the different characteristics of the instruments are highlighted in the right way; in Astrée the sound has a bigger ambience and in BIS the sound is more precise and close. The instruments are reproduced as they are recorded but this characteristics is not pushy in any way. There are no problems with the dynamics; Carmina Burana on Telarc are reproduced with the right strength in "Ego sum Abbas" or in "In Taberna" and have the correct sweetness in the highest lyric moments of the composition. Il Viaggio a Reims (The Journey to Reims) by Rossini (Abbado on Fonit Cetra) sounds perfect and when there is the explosion of "Oh qual Colpo Inaspettato" there is no delay in the raise speed. I made a similar test with a piano version of Petrouchka with Pollini (DGG) and Pontinen (BIS) on Vynil; Pontinen piano is in a big and echoing setting that gently evidences the two last octave. Pollini's piano is a bit older and sounds less high but is physical since it has been recorded inside and without much ambience. It's very important to listen to different recordings because in this way you can choose the one that is more similar to a live recording experience. I have not mentioned the soundstage on purpose because I think this is a overvalued parameter, in fact many times the soundstage is fixed by the sound engineer that records it. I just want to say that the position of the instruments is different each time just like the deepness and the focusing. 
Olimpia Audio Polidoro
All in all is a nice device that can be listened to for hours without weariness. Defined but not hyper defined. Personally I have liked it a lot; all those things that have the capacity to take me back to a concert hall have for me that little something that makes me like it more.
I think that Sivieri, born in Tokyo and not in Milan, would have had a different destiny. Domenico Pizzamiglio Translation: Francesca Rubino Manufactured by: Olimpia Audio |