The Avantgarde Uno SD is a truly special, wide range speaker system. It’s a three way design with horn loading covering the mid range and treble ranges along with a powered bass system covering lower frequencies. The result is a speaker with the remarkable benefits of horn loading but in a reasonably compact box, yet it's one that still offers a massive efficiency of 107dB and very wide bandwidth.
The SD range is available with built in full range amplification for the ultimate lifestyle choice, but as we prefer to use our own preferred amplification we are featuring the passive one here only (if you are interested in the fully powered version, please contact us for pricing etc).
The beauty of the Uno is that is allows the use of the finest (invariably low powered) amplifiers to be used without issue. A single ended 2A3 triode amplifier is really all most people would need to generate very substantial volume levels in the average room, and this speaker can really show what these amplifiers can do to produce an astonishingly life like musical performance.
What's more such simple amplifiers needn't cost a fortune, so it's eminently possible to get stunning results with an amplifier that costs a fraction compared to what would normally be required of a speaker at this quality level.
Horn speakers have the most astonishing speed, almost lack of mass, as the tiny vibrations from the drive unit are efficiently converted by the horns to better match the air in the room, this reduces distortion and results in an effortless and immediate sound.
The key with any speaker is how it handles the mid range, and this is where the Avantgarde speakers are exceptional. On the Uno SD a large 500mm diameter horn loads a special non compression drive unit which features a paper domed surface. No crossover is used at all, the horn itself (and the chamber in front of it) effectively filter unwanted frequencies without the need for passive or active electronics. Above 2.8kHz a compression tweeter on a short but wide horn is used, with its crossover benefiting from their biassed capacitor technology, which uses the audio signal to pre bias the capacitors meaning that they do not suffer from dielectric ‘crossover distortion’.
Bass horns have to be massive to reproduce even relatively high bass frequencies, so instead here a long throw ten inch bass unit is used in a substantial reflex (floor ported) enclosure and is driven by a dedicated low frequency DSP controlled amplifier. This helps give the best of both worlds, there's exceptional bass extension and drive that integrates well with the midrange horn. The low pass crossover is done with DSP which makes the speakers incredibly advanced, a small display on the rear enables the basics to be adjusted but things get really interesting when a computer is connected (via Ethernet). Naturally not everyone will want to do this themselves, we are of course only too happy to install and setup the speakers that we supply. What the DSP brings to the party is not only the ability to fine tune the blend between low and mid frequencies (by changing crossover rate and frequency) to your satisfaction but also the ability to correct any low frequency room resonance's too. This allows the speakers to be used in almost any room, no matter how large or small (although I'd recommend a minimum of about 3m between the speakers and the listening position to allow the drivers to integrate fully).
Enough of the boring technicalities, it’s the results that matter, and what Avantgarde have achieved here is seriously impressive. Across all frequencies the sound has incredible immediacy, dynamics and scale - the elements that help make sound life like and life sized too, and these speakers, like all good horn speakers, get you several steps closer to feeling that the musicians are in the room than any other technology I can think of.
Unlike some of the breed, this isn’t a speaker that excels with a limited number of genres, it sounds believable with any good material. The dynamic contrast, scale, directness, speed, bandwidth and low distortion opens up recordings of all sorts as well as facilitating listening levels at both extremes from soft to loud and everything in between. Colouration is pleasing low and the transparency great - you really can hear every change made to a system with excellent clarity.
If you chose, they can shock, scare and seduce you in the way that all of the best live music can, yet they can also do intimate and beautiful too. Simply put they just sound more alive, like the musicians are standing in front of you than is common. If what you want is the rendition of a performance and not of a recording then you will undoubtedly get what these speakers are all about - and if you're honest about what we're trying to achieve with hi-fi then it should be this.
As one speaker that does it all, in a reasonably sized enclosure, this must be high up anyone's list of speakers to hear. What Avantgarde have achieved here is quite simply spectacularly good, offering a level of realism that really needs to be heard to be believed.
