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Loudspeakers above £10,000
The Uno Fino is a more compact version of the Uno XD speaker system featured below. Rather than repeat all the information here I will cover the main differences. Firstly, the Uno Fino is shorter in height, making them more domestically acceptable and proportionally very attractive. The key changes revolve around the low frequency system, which is effectively half of the standard Unos, with one 10” paper coned woofer and a 500 watt DSP controlled power amplifier. The low frequency enclosure features a downward firing reflex port, and the cabinet features dense 30mm thick mdf walls, just like its bigger brother,
The speaker efficiency is, as you’d expect from Avantgarde, astonishingly high at 107dB and presents an exceptionally easy 18 Ohm load to the amplifier.
Dimensions: Height 126cm, Width 53cm, Depth 59cm.
Avantgarde Acoustic Uno Fino Edition speakers: £18,500
Optional upgrades:
Custom paint colour option for the horns: +£3,750.00
Speaker body in high gloss black or white: +£3,750.00
Tiger Rosewood or Zebrano real wood veneer: +£1,200.00
Custom real wood veneers: +£3,750.00
The Uno SD is from the next (the 3rd) generation of Avantgarde loudspeakers.
Due to enter production in 2023, this new design features various refinements including a new tweeter, bass amplifier/crossover and tweeter. Prices will start from around £29,550. More details will follow as they become available, but I will leave the details about the out going model below as naturally there are many similarities:
The Avantgarde Uno XD is a truly special, wide range, dynamic speaker system. It’s a three way design with horn loading covering the mid range and treble and a powered bass system covering lower frequencies. The result is a speaker with the remarkable benefits of horn loading but in a reasonably compact box, yet still offering a massive efficiency of 107dB and very wide bandwidth.
The key with any speaker is how it handles the mid range, and this is where the Avantgarde speakers are exceptional. On the Uno XD a large 500mm diameter horn loads a special non compression drive unit which features a paper domed surface. No crossover is used at all, the horn itself (and the chamber in front of it) effectively filter unwanted frequencies without the need for passive or active electronics. Above 3kHz a compression tweeter on a short horn is used, the crossover benefiting from Avantgardes CPC technology, which uses the audio signal to pre bias the capacitors meaning that they do not suffer from any dielectric ‘crossover distortion’.
Above Left: With the mid range horn removed you can see the domed surface of the driver
Above Middle: Substantial power amplifier board
Above Right: With fabric grille and Tweeter horn removed
Bass horns have to be massive to reproduce even relatively high bass frequencies, so here two ten inch bass units with stiff suspension and a sealed box help produce taught and fast low frequencies that are adept at keeping up with the lightning responses of the horn loaded parts of the speaker in a much smaller space. To drive these two 500 watt amplifiers feed them per channel (so yes, there’s a kilowatt per channel), and the low pass crossover is done with DSP which makes the speakers incredibly advanced, a small display on the rear enables the basics to be adjusted but things get really interesting when a computer is connected (via USB or Ethernet). Naturally not everyone will want to do this themselves, we are of course only too happy to install and setup the speakers. What the DSP brings to the party is not only the ability to fine tune the blend between low and mid frequencies (by changing crossover rate and frequency) to your satisfaction but also the ability to correct any low frequency room resonance's.
Enough of the boring technicalities, it’s the results that matter, and what Avantgarde have achieved here is seriously impressive. Across all frequencies the sound has incredible immediacy, dynamics and scale -
Unlike some of the breed, this isn’t a speaker that excels with a limited number of genres, it sounds believable with any good material, having the dynamic contrast, bandwidth and low distortion opens up recordings of all sorts as well as facilitating listening levels at both extremes and everything in between with an effortlessly clean sound. Colouration is pleasing low and the transparency great -
As one speaker that does it all, in a reasonably sized enclosure, this must be high up anyone's list of speakers to hear. What Avantgarde have achieved here is quite simply spectacularly good, offering a level of realism that really needs to be heard to be believed.
Finishes: A wide range of finishes are available for the cabinets and the horns, more details coming soon, but for the time being please visit the Avantgarde website
Dimensions: Height 137cm, Width 53cm, Depth 59cm.
Avantgarde Acoustic Uno XD speakers: £26,000
Optional upgrades:
Custom paint colour option for the horns: +£3,750.00
Speaker body in high gloss black or white: +£3,750.00
Tiger Rosewood or Zebrano real wood veneer: +£1,200.00
Custom real wood veneers: +£3,750.00
The Duo SD is from the next (the 3rd) generation of Avantgarde loudspeakers.
Due to enter production at the end of 2022, this new design features various refinements including a new tweeter, bass amplifier/crossover and tweeter. Prices will start from £41,550. More details will follow as they become available, but I will leave the details about the out going model below as naturally there are many similarities:
Avantgarde Duo XD
The Duo XD takes the principles shown in the Uno XD (featured above) to the next level. The primary aims are to cover even more of the frequency range with horn loading and have an even more substantial low frequency section. The former is achieved with a large 67cm diameter mid range horn which runs down to a low 170Hz (and does not feature an electrical crossover, relying on the horn itself to dictate the bandwidth that it reproduces). The magnet for the mid range driver is made from Alnico (pictured below), an expensive material that is rightly prized for its speed, tonal colour and lack of grain. Low frequencies are reproduced by a pair of 12” bass drivers and are combined with 1,000 watts of DSP controlled amplification.
Above: Side and rear views of Duo XD, on the right is the mid range driver with Alnico magnet
The Duo XD is quite simply an astonishing speaker. It builds on the already remarkable performance of the Uno XD (featured above) and excels to an even greater degree in the mid range -
Finishes: A wide range of finishes are available for the cabinets and the horns, more details coming soon, but for the time being please visit the Avantgarde website
Dimensions: Height 169cm, Width 67cm, Depth 60cm.
Avantgarde Acoustic Duo XD speakers: £34,000
Optional upgrades:
Front panels with Zebrano or Tiger-
Front panels with customer specific wooden veneer: £2,050.00
Speaker body in high gloss black or white piano finish: £3,750.00
Custom paint colour option for the horns: £3,750.00
Avantgarde Duo GT
The Duo GT is from the next (the 3rd) generation of Avantgarde loudspeakers.
Due to enter production at the end of 2022, this new design features various refinements including a new tweeter, bass amplifier/crossover and tweeter. Prices will start from circa £53,650. More details will follow as they become available, but I will leave the details about the out going model below as naturally there are many similarities:
Avantgarde Duo Mezzo XD
The Mezzo version of the Duo features a bass system that utilises a short horn, to load the upper end of the response of the two 12” paper coned drive units. The aim is to improve projection and dynamic consistency with the mid range horn whilst doing so in a relatively compact package.
Finishes: A wide range of finishes are available for the cabinets and the horns, more details coming soon, but for the time being please visit the Avantgarde website
Dimensions: Height 170cm, Width 67cm, Depth 60cm.
Avantgarde Acoustic Duo XD speakers: £49,000/pr
Optional upgrades:
Speaker body with custom real wood veneer: £5,400.00
Speaker body with high gloss black or white piano finish: £5,400.00
Speaker body with bass horn flare in high gloss chrome or gold-
Custom paint colour option for the mid and HF horns: £3,750.00
Vitavox CN191
The CN191 is a substantial corner horn which has its roots in 1949 when it was first designed, yet it can still offer a musical performance that is practically unmatched for speed, scale and resolution.
These speakers are two way horns, using massively built Alnico mid range compression drivers coupled to wooden mid range horns. Frequencies below 500Hz are dealt with by a 15 inch driver in a corner bass horn enclosure that uses the rooms walls to extend the bass response. The sensitivity of the system is an immense 105dB meaning amplifiers with just a watt or twos output will suffice in most circumstances, which results in ultra low distortion, maximum energy retrieval and practically complete dynamic contrast.
As standard they are finished in Walnut veneer, other finishes are available but may be subject to a premium
Vitavox CN-
Vitavox CN-
AxHorn is a family run firm based in Wales, which has been developing speaker systems for both hi end domestic and sound reinforcement duties for many years. The AxJet has been in development for several years, and has evolved into a seriously sorted design.
In my experience finessing horn designs takes a great deal of skill and experimentation. Horns by their very nature will cover a relatively small portion of the frequency range, which is why 3 or 4 way horn speakers are most common. In most designs multiple drive units are used with electrical crossovers in place to direct the frequencies to the appropriate drivers. Designing the crossover takes a lot of time to get just right, but is a relatively easy job to do if you have the patience, ear and plenty of inductors, resistors and capacitors to experiment with.
I would suggest that what has been achieved with the AxHorn is actually far more difficult. This is effectively a 3 way fully horn loaded design, but there is only one full range drive unit in use (a very high efficiency AER paper drive unit with Alnico magnet). The low frequencies are supplied by the rear of the drive unit, loaded by the smoothly flowing folded horn whose mouth exits in the lower portion of the speaker. The midrange, from circa 200Hz and upwards comes from the silver spun aluminium horn, and in the centre is the AfterBurner, which is a machined clear polycarbonate high frequency horn that effectively floats in front of the driver, collecting energy off the edge of the voice coil and whizzer cone.
Above Left: After Burner view head on. Above Right: from an angle, showing how it sits within the mid horn
The complexity of this sort of design is astonishing, the work to ensure that these horns work as acoustical crossovers ensuring a seamless transition throughout the ranges is almost mind boggling, with each change basically requiring a physical redesign, until eventually the sweet spot is found.
The cabinets are made from fibreglass that is reinforced and damped at various points with foam and glass fibre reinforced concrete. Their curvaceous cabinets are finished in an aerospace Supergloss ceramic lacquer that can be painted in any RAL colour desired.
As you’d expect of a horn loaded design these are very efficient speakers, with excellent sound being comfortably produced from a 3.5watt 2A3 valve amplifier.
The AxJet is a speaker that gets under your skin, a degree of acclimatisation is required as at first they do sound very different from most conventional speakers, but what they do well very few speakers can get close to. For a start the imaging is very impressive, being effectively point source in nature over the majority of the frequency range that matters. The treble quality is the best I’ve heard from a full range driver, the character remains consistent as you go up through the registers and it does extend remarkably well -
The Afterburner clearly extends these high frequencies very usefully, it does also reduce the beaminess normally experienced from a full range driver, but still you do want to be seated within a reasonably tightly defined listening area as moving away from this does add some shifting of the tonal balance.
They are particularly striking with simple quality recordings, those that are heavily compressed are revealed for what they are, but as a tool for hearing what is going on in the mix, they are well up with the best. You can swear you can tell when reverb is natural or electronically created, in fact all sorts of engineering tricks are revealed, not in a hyper analytical way, but there’s simply so little masking inherent in this design that you can listen to any aspect you want to or take the whole recording for what it is.
Being a well sorted horn design it goes without saying that dynamics and speed are beyond comparison to almost anything else out there. Low frequencies are not hugely extended but within their range the punch is very impressive (the next generation of AxHorn, effectively the mk3, which is undergoing final development has apparently resolved this issue with the bass extending much deeper). They can also let their hair down, stupendous volume levels are of course just a twist of the volume control away, and there’s no sign of strain as the levels rise.
Dimensions: H 132cm, W 93cm, D 71cm
Weight: 60Kg each (120kg each in supplied flight cases)
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The Third Generation of the Trio is being launched in 2022. More details will follow shortly, but for the time being I will leave information about the previous generation below:
The Trio XD is Avantgarde’s state of the art statement. speaker system. A multi way horn speaker with exceptional bandwidth, efficiency (109dB!) and an effortlessness that makes most other speakers sound strained and compressed in comparison. The speakers feature three horns which cover the majority of the audio range, the tweeter horn is 18cm diameter and crosses over at 4kHz to a 57cm diameter upper mid range horn which then crosses over to a massive 95cm diameter horn at 600Hz. This runs down to 100 Hz.
To support these horns there are two frames available, the standard one is a straight vertical arrangement that is very space efficient (as pictured above). An optional upgrade is the Classico frame, which positions the horns around a gloriously sweeping ark but at the expense of adding some extra width (130cm instead of 95cm). Sonically they are considered to offer the same results.
The horns are available in a wide range of colours, with custom colours available for a premium.
There are various options for dealing with the lower frequencies within the Trio range, the model you chose depending upon budget and spaceconstraints. The bass systems are available separately, so you could upgrade as and when required, please contact us for details.
The most compact bass option is the Sub231 XD pictured below, effectively the same bass system as found in the Duo XD -
Above: Trio XD in Ruby Brilliant Red with Sub231XD with Ruby Brilliant Red panels
Next up is the SHORT BASS HORN XD pictured below, which improves coupling of the air to the driver membrane and further improving the presence and dynamics available whilst simultaneously not being too much larger. Like any of these bass systems multiples can be used to get an even more effortless, dynamic and room filling sound. Dimensions are: Height 74cm, Width: 60cm, Depth 60cm, weight 90kg each. As standard the cabinets are finished in Ebony-
Above: Trio XD Classico in Sapphire Burma Blue with SHORT BASSHORN XD in Ebony Wenge veneer.
Then ultimately we have the BASS HORN XD pictured below, and these can be stacked in either x2, x4 or x6 (the only limitation being your ceiling height!). The more added the lower the horn loading frequency, making the bass even more effortless and dynamic. Each bass horn houses two 12” drivers which play through a 140cm/55” expo-
The dimensions are: Height 74cm, Width 102cm, Depth 107cm, weight 100kg. As standard the cabinets are finished in Ebony-
Above: Trio XD in Shiny Citrine Orange with BASS HORN XD in Cherry veneer (custom finishes).
Below Left: Alternative BASS HORN XD positioning (Trio in Light Topaz Blue with custom Cherry veneer bass cabinets)
Below Right: Alternative positioning of BASS HORN XD when using a single pair (Trio Classico in Light Amber Bronze with custom Cherry veneer bass cabinets)
Avantgarde Trio systems with Subwoofers:
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Options for above system only:
+£1,200 for Zebrano or Tiger Rosewood fronts on sub or £2,050 for custom veneer. +£3,750 for high gloss painted black or white bass system
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Options: Customer specific veneer or high gloss black or white paint finish to bass horn cabinets +£5,400. Basshorn flare in high gloss chrome or gold-
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Options: customer specific veneer to sub cabinets +£5,400. Bass horn flares in high gloss Chrome or Gold-
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Options: customer specific veneer to sub cabinets +£10,800. Bass horn flares in high gloss Chrome or Gold-
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Options: customer specific veneer to sub cabinets +£16,200. Bass horn flares in high gloss Chrome or Gold-
Optional upgrades that apply to all Trio systems above:
Classico curved frame horn supports: +£2,750.00
Special customer chosen paint colours for the mid and high frequency horns: £5,400.00
The system can be purchased in pieces if customers are upgrading an existing Trio setup, the prices for ‘basic’ finishes are as follows:
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