Avantgarde Acoustic UNO XD: Faultless Furnishing
- Thread starter joeinid
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A great review of the latest Uno speaker and surprising that it measures as well as is suggested - many horns sound wonderful but measure mediocre. Also great to see decent photos of this speaker - far better than you ever see in Stereophile or for that matter Avantgarde's own site. Thanks for posting.
I might have been tempted by that Uno but went for the Duo XD despite its cumbersome and rather dated "scaffold poles" that still support the mid horn. These have now gone from my own Duos, replaced by a cradle rather similar to that on the Mezzo. I'll post about my mods soon. Peter
I might have been tempted by that Uno but went for the Duo XD despite its cumbersome and rather dated "scaffold poles" that still support the mid horn. These have now gone from my own Duos, replaced by a cradle rather similar to that on the Mezzo. I'll post about my mods soon. Peter
Hi Joe - I know what you mean about the Duos being a little too big, but this appearance of "bigness" is rather related to its width in my view. Without the supporting poles and with the base frame rotated 90 degrees the Duo looks little "bigger" than its athletic sibling Uno. Here's a preview photo of my post-diet Duos!
Peter
Peter
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Wow! When looked at from that perspective, they look very close in size. Very interesting. Thank you.
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Looking great!
I'll post more of what I've done later but the base frame is simply rotated 90 degrees and the main enclosure now sits directly onto the frame, rather than straddling it and "hovering" above it. I had simple supports made by a local engineer that support the mid horn tubes. This is done in such a way as to minimise vibration between the main enclosure and the mid horn (unlike the way it's built by AG) achieved by using Sorbothane between the supports and subs and also between the supports and the tubes. No damage whatsover to the speakers and easily restored if required.
The trouble with current Duos is that they are just too tall for most listening seats if one follows AG's advice that the top of the sub enclosure should be just visible. I didn't want to tilt them so lowering the sub onto the frame saves a cm and a few more by using low footers rather than spikes. I did a similar job of "ditching the scafforlding" with my earlier Duo G2s. Peter
KeithR
New member
The Duos are *much* bigger than the Unos in person. I love the AG look now.
Until quite recently the Unos and Duos differed visually only by the larger diameter mid-horn. Both the horn and the enclosure were larger diameters but the sub was identical and the top horn was visually and dimentionally identical.
Since the introduction of the Duo Grosso with its twin 12" drivers, the bass enclosure has become wider to accommodate the larger drivers. Unfortunately since then, Duos have grown in height by over 5 inches - they've added the fancy base frame, have raised the speaker above this base and have changed the spikes for the magnificent ones on the current XD. All this has significantly raised the height which has resulted in the need to tilt forward for most installations. I think, when changing from twin 10" to 12" bass drivers they should not have reduced the depth as much as they did, so the enclosure could have been less tall for the same internal volume. The old Duos had an enclosure of 55 cm depth (excluding trim), the current one is just 41 cm deep. However the latest ones do sound better!
Since the introduction of the Duo Grosso with its twin 12" drivers, the bass enclosure has become wider to accommodate the larger drivers. Unfortunately since then, Duos have grown in height by over 5 inches - they've added the fancy base frame, have raised the speaker above this base and have changed the spikes for the magnificent ones on the current XD. All this has significantly raised the height which has resulted in the need to tilt forward for most installations. I think, when changing from twin 10" to 12" bass drivers they should not have reduced the depth as much as they did, so the enclosure could have been less tall for the same internal volume. The old Duos had an enclosure of 55 cm depth (excluding trim), the current one is just 41 cm deep. However the latest ones do sound better!
It is surprising how many folks are against the use of DSP to improve the sound of their systems, yet Avantgarde, and other speaker manufacturers, rely on DSP to get the best sound from their speakers.
I've not really got to grips with XD software yet, but as I understand it, it is not an extra processing stage, more a tone adjustment system and therefore shouldn't spoil the life and sparkle of Avantgardes. So, I plan to use Dirac to measure but XD to adjust. Certainly I prefer Dirac filters off.
puroagave
Active member
I think you're right. The UNO XD and UNO Fino XD (which I own) are probably perfect for the majority of domestic living spaces. The Duos, Duo Mezzos and the like need a large dedicated room to strut their stuff, IMHO.
I agree. I had Unos between 2002 and 2019 by which time I'd moved from a listening room of about 320 sq ft to one of 945 sq ft. I wanted to upgrade and thought that Martin Logan 13As would be good, although their location in the room was not to their liking, so I put them for sale and found a pair of 2006 vintage Duo that suit the bigger room rather better. Last year I further upgraded to Duo XDs. These would probably have been too big for my London flat but these (or even Mezzos) are happy in my new home.
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- #20
Analog, tubes and Avantgarde, a deadly combo.