|
An Indian diamond dealer sashayed through London recently when he spotted a massive sculpture with colossal horns in the lobby of a hotel. Not a Brancusi, Moore or Picasso but a loudspeaker from Avantgarde Acoustic stopped him dead in his tracks. The diamond dealer ordered a pair, had it air-freighted to India, and, if he didn't expire in the meantime, continues to enjoy them even today.
Or so goes the story. Exotic perhaps but distinctly no fable. The morale? To acquire a horn system from Avantgarde Acoustic requires funds, requisite transportation, a lobby or, better yet, a palatial estate in India.
Which sadly leaves me out. Ditto for colleagues, competitors or neighbors. While Prince Charles' colonial holdings and his unique ear shape could be trusted, his reputation for audiophile ignorance advises against it. That limits the potential sphere of horn buyers yet further. To truly do this speaker justice demands great musical sensitivity since it invariably invites bathing in sounds. Better to know how to swim then. Alors:
The typical Avantgarde buyer's etablished, experienced and wealthy on account and cubic meters. "Not true", protesteth the maker - "not entirely". Granted, money's advantagaous considering the swell sum of 50,000 DM for the new TRIO. That's the tariff of a fancy new car, with the average annual net income of most of Europe distinctly below it.
Alas, Avantgarde's accountants are innocent. Had human history developed differently, modern-day acquisition of a horn speaker system would be less drastic. The victorious invasion of the ordinary dynamic loudspeaker diaphragm relegated the gramophone horn and its operating principle into a forgotten corner. Despite early successes by Paul Klipsch, the horn remains an exotic transducer whose specialized assemblies don't lend themselves to mass production. Cognoscenti of this culture claim that horn prices would deflate to half had history followed a different course.
Which of course it didn't, less so for technical but practical reasons. Even today horns devour living room space while enjoying pathetic little WAF, the legendary diamond dealer from India either a terminal bachelor or blessed with a devoted harem. However, if you can jump the half shadow of living space, other qualities emerge. Horns are picturesque, add character, turn eye catcher if the remaining decoration supports it. Any feasible finish is possible, and should trends shifts, the horns can be relacquered within a week.
But enough already with this stale discussion. The fact remains, money's a factor but the room less so. The decisive point's the horn sound. And here Avantgarde's top effort breaks new technical ground, including a true three-way network enabling discrete tri-wiring or -amping if required. This not only opens new doors but transforms the voicing. The small fluctuations of testbench frequency response deliberately submit to lengthy listening impressions since raw on-axis measurement reveal previous little about the actual, exemplary smooth transitions across the bandwidth.
The TRIO also parts conventional speaker company with its 107dB sensitivity rating, pure insanity compared to standard loudspeaker fossils. And again, unlike many disguised 2-ways with obligatory super tweeter, the TRIO is a bona fide three-way. The lower midrange driver L3 is deliberately restricted to 600Hz, with the M3 misrange operating from 500 to 4000Hz. The latter's the TRIO's piece-de-resitance and favored son of the designers, with a brutally oversized magnet, a long symmetrical gap and low compression ratio. The H3 tweeter with Kapton voice coil kicks in at 4kHz.
The compression chambers are preceeded by spherical ABS horns, molded from a white granular compound under 2500 tons of CAD-guided pressure to eventually gleam with perfect surfaces and extreme structural inertness. Avantgarde's preference for plastics over wood is due to the latter's propensity to expand and contract under temperature and moisture changes, thereby critically affecting the geometry and hence the sound.
A detail of extreme pride for Avantgarde is the horns' ultra-tight manufacturing tolerance of ± 0,05 millimeter, the actual shape the precise outcome of hard Physics and computer modeling. The greatest physical hurdle remains in the bass. Extension into the lowest octave requires gargantuan horn flares. Reaching to 100Hz while approaching one-meter diameter, the TRIO's lower midrange horn requires assistance down below in the form of twin subwoofers per channel.
Combined, four active SUB225 CRTL Pro represent enormous in-room displacement from 18 to 280Hz. This new model succeeds the previous SUB217 series, may be retrofitted for existing owners and, as expected from Avantgarde Acoustic, once again abandons convention. Already the 10-inch paper diaphragms are the result of an elaborate sieve-filtered air-drying process reminiscent of the lost art of luxury paper fabrication, to guarantee extreme stiffness and neutrality over its passband.
Behind those cones are 19-centimer, 15 lbs magnets powered by 200-watt amplifier modules from which conventional relays were banned to avoid in-rush current pops. Rather, a soft-start circuit controls ramp-up, and active feedback is said to operate instanteously without time delays.
A simple real-time calculation for this loop eschews sensors, wire harnesses and DSP processors and instead uses a hi-speed analog circuit that compares and compensates for output voltage and current versus the individually archived system parameters.
The element of real time is enormously critical with a timing machine like horns. Not a few colleagues dropped their jaws in the Stereoplay auditorium when the TRIO's first sounds emerged into the room. It instantly suggested a new, unfamiliar sonic world, a fascinating new dimension of in-room control. Despite being situated at a 5-meter distance, one felt drawn into the very center of the acoustical action. This was a far cry from typical box speaker prowess. Choral vocals manifested in tangible intimacy while positioned minimally four meters behind the horn rims.
Which raises an inverse quality concern. The TRIO illuminates farther depths of the recording than the mastering engineers and mixers could have dared imagine on their studio monitors. For example, Decca swears by B&W, comparably expensive and professional while conventional dynamic designs. When Sir George Solti pushed the Vienna Philharmonic into Wagner's funeral march on "The Death of Siegfried" [Decca 410 137-2], the initially tender strings and woodwinds revealed each and every secondary mechanical noise, presenting essentially a second, previously unfamiliar layer of the disc never even hinted at by other loudspeakers. The gents clear their throats, dramatically flip scores, fidget on their seats. The conductor perceptibly sighs in anticipation or dread just ahead of a massive bass and brass attack.
Did all this really make it onto CD? Repeated for dramatic effect: Were the microphones, mixing console and wizened CD medium truly up to this task? For comparison's sake in these transparency stakes, Stereoplay called Thiel's luxurious, 35,000 DM-heavy CS 7.2 onto the stage. The first A/B acted as reality check, foremost indicating the need to crank up the preamp to compensate for the dramatic output differential of speaker efficiencies. Indeed, these secondary details could be intuited with the Thiels, although they cleary took a few backwards step in the overall context. This revealed a fundamentally different vocal distribution. What developed along the front/back axis with the TRIOs turned left/right panorama with the Thiels.
Depth versus widht - who spoke the truth? And what is truth with a sterephonic recording? At best, one minimizes potential irritants. One digs into the audiophile treasure chest and confronts the speakers with minimally miked recordings; rather than complex orchestral bombast, the litmus test is the Jazz cellar or chamber music hall, small ensembles with bass, strings, vocals and percussion. Again the TRIO delivered breathtaking precision. Sheer vocal presence -- the connection of vocal chords with a chest cavity -- is something precious few top speakers manage. The Thiels kept up but couldn't really compete with the TRIO's astonishing palpability factor.
Horn critics claim coloration. The horn's audible, vocals honk like ancient grammophones. Nothing of the sort with the TRIO. The developers sidestepped all such presumptions by cleverly restricting their three-way elements to avoid critical danger zones..
The only limiting factor is subwoofer integration. While the Thiel placed a descending bass run solidly into the far corner, the TRIO lost the continuousness between musical phase and placement. Strange. Time to check the crossover setting, to optimize output for seamless transition with the lower midrange horn. Toe-in as well controls critical spatial characteristics.
The delivering dealer always assists during this final placement and fine-tuning phase, but even thereafter, the TRIO remains anything but a common loudspeaker box suffocating in the mass of sameness. It reveals details no other speaker does. To sit it rapt attention before the TRIO equals exposure to an adrenaline-stoked racecar. It requires premium octane. While allwowing for casual consumption, the TRIOs presentation is unparalleled, its dynamic headroom immense. The counterweight of 50,000DM is considerable. How wonderful to conclude a salon audition by pointing through the window at a cabriolet racer to request "in that color, please". No snob appeal, just pure passion. The legendary diamond dealer is said to have picked Bentley mother-of-pearl..
But any other imaginable automovie lacquer is game: Ferrari red, Mercedes silver, British racing green or -- as in our case -- BMW's latest fashion statement: Yellow Light. Why race on the road when you can race listening?
Total score
Sound: Absolute top class, 61 points
The great depth charger: No other speaker on the global market delves deeper into the stage. Fascinating vocal presence with utmost detail retrieval. Statement finish with sculptural appeal..
Stereoplay score: Very good.
|
|
|
