Avantgarde Uno 2.0, 2.1


Hello All,

Just an FYI for the Avantgarde Uno owners out there. I did an impulse response on my speakers with the tact equipment and found out that the horns are operating in negative polarity and the sub is positive. That is the main reason why a lot of owners are noticing a discontinuity of the bass with the mains. To correct this, you would have to reverse the positive and negative leads on the HORNS not on the sub.
bmwmcab
Guess what??? I tried the polarity reversal on my horns and it definitely was NOT the better solution for me. However, while futzing around behind the speaker I noticed that my subs were NOT hooked up in reverse polarity (an oversight, probably, from the last time they had to be moved to accomodate hurricane repairs on the living room roof). So I made the swicheroo and BOOM (or is that BAM), better bass definition and spatiality and increased intelligibility from top to bottom. So, whether they were wired in reverse polarity during assembly or, as Larryi pointed, simply integrate better in my particular room with polarity inversion, believe me...whatever the reason, one way is audibly superior to the other and I would encourage all Duo and Uno owners to experiment.
Acresverde,

Ok. Now try just reversing the positive and negative leads on the speaker wires from the amp. Let me know how that is.
The problem with bass integration has to do with time delay. the subs starts around 2 ms behind the horns. Look at the last stereophile review of the uno nano (in particular the step response).
Only way to fix it (besides removing the subs from the frame and moving them closer to the listening position) is to bi-amp them and put a digital delay on the horns. that's what I'm doing on my omega duos
Locational time delay might be a factor in integration, but, having experimented with horn systems, it is usually a minor consideration. You can move the bass driver much closer to the listener and if the bass driver is not well suited to the task, it will still sound slow or lumpy or whatever. The particular signature of horn drivers is quite hard to integrate with woofers, particularly where an emphasis has been placed on getting really deep bass from the woofer. Most decently integrated horn system have woofers in bass alignments that don't really allow for deep bass--e.g., horn loading or onken bass reflex--unless truly giant cabinets are used.

Like all systems,Avantgarde speakers reflect a particular set of tradeoffs, the best one can do is optimize performance--particularly placement of the speaker.
I was charmed with the horns but disappointed with the poor bass of my UNO G2, and I was not aware of reverse polarity trick, but I have simply replaced the internal amplifiers with cheap ClassD Hypex modules... and they now ROCK !