Thread: Avantgarde Duo GT Review

One of the first reviews of the new active Duo GT:

Take Two… - Gy8

When Gregory describes in unflattering terms "previous generation Duos", he seems to be talking about ones built long ago that have separate mid and top horn enclosures, in fact probably pre-Omega. For the last 2 versions, the Duo has the top driver built into the main enclosure and the latest XD version has DSP to allow room correction for the bass. He claims that these earlier versions lack integration between the bass and the horn section. I think he's well out of touch because every other reviewer seems to think that problem was long since fixed by Avantgarde. The XD version has incredibly versatile settings to allow a seamless transfer, even by offering numerous different crossover technologies (Butterworth, Bessel, Linkwitz-Riley) and comprehensive frequency response adjustment possibilities.

Having said that, I find the XD software particularly difficult to use. The software doesn't offer an "auto-adjust" in the way Dirac, RoomPerfect, etc do. Perhaps the manual method is better in the hands of a professional, but it's beyond me to the extent I'm likely to make matters worse than leaving everything as Default – which is what I do with no concerns regarding sound quality!

The review makes no mention of this speaker's potential to accommodate a streamer module, making it a truly great choice for anyone using digital only and not wanting to clutter up their home with a pile of single-use boxes. However this review seems to be more of a preview, after which Gregory is hoping to get a pair of GTs into his own audition rooms, hopefully for a more in depth review. Hopefully Stereophile will be reviewing them soon too.

Reading the GT's Manual (downloadable from the AG site), it seems that its bass DSP is somewhat simpler than the complex XD software. Probably no bad thing. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing it in the flesh. It's a lot of dosh, but could be very good value in its fully-fledged active version, including DAC, DSP on bass, amps and streamer module. If they get a good control app (hopefully they'll get a BluOS license) and it's Roon compatible, then perhaps excellent value.