Avantgarde Uno XD Review (97/100)
- Thread starter Mike
- Start date
Good choice Atvinyl.
I had 2002 vintage Unos until last year. Bought following their choice by Stereophile as their Joint Speaker of the Year. Unos have been upgraded a number of times since then so the latest version should be amazing. I think they are probably the best value speaker in the AG range.
I’m eagerly awaiting delivery of my new Duo XDs to replace the 2006 ones I bought last year and am currently enjoying. I nearly went for the Kalahari Desert but decided on another colour in the end – probably to be regretted, but I hope not!
I’m also concerned that the DSP offered by AG seems pretty poorly thought out. As far as I can see, all adjustments are made with only ones ears as judge to whether you’ve got it right. A few people may be able to do that, but I’m sure I can’t.
I’d have preferred to be offered a system similar to Martin Logan and others who include a kit comprising a calibrated microphone, tripod, cables and software so one can use a PC to actually see on your screen the response curve before and after running the DSP. Then one could be reasonably sure that the listener is hearing a flat curve and not one that has peaks and dips resulting from room acoustics and positioning. But I’ll reserve judgement until the Duos arrive and I’ve run them in and played around with the adjustment settings.
Have others here with XD Avantgardes found difficulty in making these adjustments and how much faith do you have in believing them to be as accurate as they could be? Thanks
Peter
Hi Peter,
I don't really know much about the needed adjustments. However, understanding/advise was to let the speakers "run-in" for a period of time before doing the adjustments. I guess this will need to be done by the dealer as for sure, I don't really know how to do so. Meanwhile, all settings are at null except for the bass at "7". So far, so good in my little room. Meanwhile, I cant fault anything at all and am running in/enjoying the music. Having own a G2 Mezzo, I can safely say Avantgarde are great speakers to enjoy.
Cheers!
you set your subwoofer at 7 DB only? wow that's really low. I guess I like a more solid body of the bass. I tend to listen from 9 DB all the way to 15 DB, with 12-13 DB feeling like the most common for recordings. I tend to listen to audiophile reissues of jazz like the Blue Note 80 or Tone Poet series, or MMJ, and I think the bass response tends to be weak. Pop albums on the other hand can be overwhelming with bass and then I will dial it down a lot.
My old Duos (and before that Unos) thankfully have only 2 adjustments - crossover frequency and bass level. Oh yes, there's also a very low cut off filter switch 20, 25 or 30Hz.
The crossover setting that's recommended in the User Guide is usually too high so there seems conflict between mid and bass. Others who have adjusted down have also found a cleaner sound.
The prospect of multi adjustments doesn’t fill me with joy! With “DSP” advertised by AG, I’m expecting to be disappointed if it’s still down to my ears as to how to make sensible adjustments. It’s like offering tone controls or “graphic equaliser” in a preamp – all too haphazard and not DSP as I understand it. I’ll be looking for a response curve on a PC screen to confirm that I’m on the right track.
I’m interested to learn that you adjust the bass amp settings to suit the music – or at least recording. Fortunately I can do much of this sort of tuning with the IR remote for my amplifier. Also I can cut the deep bass late at night when my neighbours may be disturbed within its settings.
I’m pleased to hear that you’re enjoying your Unos. As you say, Avantgarde seems to have it right if you want excitement and realism in your music. So many systems seem to be obsessed with “accuracy” at the cost of enjoyment. Peter
Hi Peter,
I did not make the adjustment ... it came preset that way - out of the box. However, like the dealer says, they will come over in mid to end August ti help make the adjustment that befits my small room. So far, so good as there music does not seem to lack anything. Hope this clarifies.
Cheers
stargazerang
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Hi, did anyone upgrade the jumper cable to another brand? What plugs do you use on the jumpers' ends?
- Thread Author
- #49
I did. I used Shunyata Sigma jumpers. I went spade to spade because my speaker cables were bananas.
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stargazerang
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Hi I presume your speaker cables are the Shunyata Sigma as well?
- Thread Author
- #51
Yes - my 2002 Unos came with internal wiring and jumpers in silver (an optional extra at the time) but I still changed the rather poor jumper links. I bought Cabledyne Reference Silver speaker cables and links of the same. They are now on my 2006 Duos following the sale of my earlier Unos.
I'm considering a change (with my Duo XDs) to Duelund cables and I'm about to post asking for opinions on this forum. Watch for replies! Peter
stargazerang
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My current jumpers are banana to spades
Can you advise what is the length of the spade to spade jumpers? I am looking to terminate a pair with my current speaker cables, the Albedo monolith
Can you advise what is the length of the spade to spade jumpers? I am looking to terminate a pair with my current speaker cables, the Albedo monolith
The early Unos (with separate mid and top horn tubes) were supplied with bare wire for the links and you threaded these through the holes in the stems of the binding posts. I replaced my single strand silver links with cable the same as my main speaker cables - the logical solution - with bananas at one end and spades at the other. If you have the speakers, it's easy to measure the lengths required. Since I changed the 3 upright support poles with a rear mounted bracket (that required the tubes to be rotated 90 degrees) I need longer links and can hide them totally from view by routing them behind the new frame.
Incidentally remember that if using bare wire through binding post stems, it's difficult to fit spades as well to the same post, but easy to add bananas. Spades plus bananas also OK but 2 bananas very tricky!
stargazerang
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Hi, has anyone experiment with connecting the subwoofer of the UNO XD with XLR cable to the pre out of the preamp? Is it a good alternative over jumper cables?
It has always been Avantgarde's view that the subs sound best wired to the speaker output rather than the XLR or phono line level one.
I've tried with the older Duos (2006) and frankly I thought the sound was much the same. My amp offers sub and main cut off frequencies, so I set the AG's sub to maximum and used the amp's crossover to see which cut-off sounded best. It's certainly worth experimenting with the sub's polarity, although the latest model doesn't allow this - you can put the mid out of phase but not the sub unless you change the internal wiring. Older Unos and Duos (with separate mid and top tubes) are easy to switch polarity. I hope that makes sense. Peter
stargazerang
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Given that that the UNO XD is 18 ohms, I am connecting Them using the 16 ohm tap of my 300b SE power amp
Can anyone share their experience when using 4 or 8 ohms taps of their power amps to drive the UNO XD?
Can anyone share their experience when using 4 or 8 ohms taps of their power amps to drive the UNO XD?
puroagave
Active member
Last year I had Uno Fino XD's (identical horns with Uno). Also used was an Allnic 300b with 16Ω taps and as expected, it had no problem driving the speaker with plenty of reserves. The last amp tried was the Linear Tube Audio ZOTL10 OTL and the match up was sublime. I purchased two ZOT10s thinking of bridging them for more juice and just one was plenty.