Avantgarde UNO set-up tips needed


A local dealer let me try a pair of Avantgarde UNO speakers in my own system at home. I have an Accuphase system (A-45 amp, C-2410 pre and DP-600 sacd player). The dimension of my room are 4.7 x 3.6 x 2.4 meters, i.e. 15.4 x 11.8 x 7.9 feet (L x W x H) - just a bit larger than the minimum 16 square meters recommended by Avantgarde.

So far, I have obtained decent results with the speakers firing perpendicular on the long wall. The singers are dead center and most often I get a rather good 3D soundstage. The speakers are 3 meters, i.e. 10 feet, apart and 3.1 meters away from my listening chair. A scheme of the room layout can be seen here:

Room layout

However, very often the size of the instruments is much larger than in the real life. I also need to crack up a bit the UNOs to sound their best. Finally, I should mention that compare to my Focal Micro Utopia Be & REl Stentor 3 speaker set up, the sound of the UNOs, while faster and more detailed, is not always as well balanced.

The settings I currently use for the UNOs are:

SUB-S: 20 Hz
FREQ.: 9
RANGE: high
VOLUME: 5.5

I would like very much to keep the speakers as the prices is very very good. Consequently, any set-up tips to improve the performance of the UNOs will be greatly appreciated. (I still have a bit more than a week to decide whether or not I will keep the speakers.)

I thank you all in advance!
Paul
nvp
Good stuff there, Tubes 108! Makes sense too, since you are treating the sound of the woofer as part of the midrange, rather than a disconnected device. Paul will be rocking soon enough. The only thing he has to do is invite Jim to his house. Me, I'd come over too, since I love Amsterdam. :)

Tubes108, thanks for the very useful information. I am fully aware of what
you are saying. I use Norah Jones' "Cold cold hear" song (track 3 on the album
"Come away with me") when setting up speakers. First, I make a loop with my
CD player and play only the first measure of the double bass intro. While
having this loop going I move the speakers around the room looking for the
place where all notes sound equally loud. (I've moved the UNOs, my drum kit
and furniture, so the UNOS were firing agains each of the 4 walls.) After that, I
play the whole song and adjust further the crossover and level of the
subwoofer so I do not hear any sibilances in her voice. It is rather easy to
make Norah's voice thing and edgy. For the time being I am very happy with
the sound. I am sure I will tune further the crossover and sub level settings.
So, far I went only form click to click on the adjusting knobs. It is good to
know that I can go in smaller steps. I will report back as things progress.

Whart, I am rocking already! Yesterday morning I made the mistake to go into
my music room to listen a song or two before going to work, I ended up
taking the whole day off. :) Regarding Amsterdam, if any of you are heading
this way just pm me. I've be happy to have you for an audition.

Thanks again guys! I will keep you posted.
Paul
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Although I have watched this thread (since the first post) with interest, I have never heard from Nvp, which of course is perfectly fine.

Glad to hear that his system is coming around to him.

Best,

Jim Smith

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