AVANTGARDE ACOUSTIC
There are few products in the hi-fi world that are so unique that you are guaranteed never to forget them after a first fleeting encounter. However, the Avantgarde Acoustic Horn speakers clearly belong to this rare species.
Yet you don't even have to have heard these horn loudspeakers - or more correctly: spherical wave horns - to memorise them. Because already optically they are so unusual, so different, so impressive. Even a UNO or UNO FINO, the smallest models from Avantgarde Acoustic, draw the eye irresistibly. A horn loudspeaker can't be small, and doesn't want to be.
Holger Fromme, CEO and chief thinker of the hi-fi smithy located in the tranquil Odenwald, has one aspect of enormous importance: "Perhaps apart from the colours of the horns, there is nothing, but really nothing at all about the appearance of a horn loudspeaker from Avantgarde Acoustic Design as an end in itself. The size and shape of the spherical wave horn, the position and appearance of the other drivers, as well as the material and design of the add-on parts, everything is designed exclusively under functional criteria; simple, no frills and without alternatives. Whether UNO, DUO, TRIO or the stunningly simple ZERO 1: an Avantgarde Acoustic speaker looks exactly as it should look. Full stop.
Fromme and his team consciously accept that by concentrating on horn loudspeakers that are large in principle, they are closing their eyes to the mass market. More of the same, chasing a trend, that is simply not their thing. They are convinced that spherical wave horns are technically and sonically superior to all other loudspeakers, and that is why they build them. It is as simple as that.
And the result proves the Odenwalder right. Even the smallest classic horn loudspeaker from Avantgarde Acoustic, the UNO FINO, with an efficiency of 104 dB makes all conventional loudspeakers look really old. Efficiency means, roughly simplified, that very high volumes can be achieved with very little power. Therefore, in the days of weak tube amps, practically all loudspeakers were built according to the horn principle. Today, when even entry-level amplifiers deliver 100 watts per channel without problems and with load stability, a much more decisive advantage becomes apparent: Horn speakers from Avantgarde Acoustic are simply able to resolve the audio signal much more precisely than a conventional speaker. The finest details in the music, which in a dynamic loudspeaker are lost in the physical mixture of electrical power loss, mechanical inertia, and high membrane weight without sound, are placed in the room by an Avantgarde Acoustic horn loudspeaker absolutely unaltered. Unattached, immediate and enormously natural.
Efficiency, step response, impulse strength ... The technical advantages of spherical wave horns can be described and measured with numerous physical terms. However, it is much easier to experience these advantages first hand. And this is to be understood quite literally, because all horn loudspeakers from Avantgarde Acoustic are characterized by an almost physically perceptible directness, by an immediacy that no other loudspeaker masters. With Avantgarde Acoustic, you hear your music in a way you have never heard it before. That's a promise.
In addition to the classic horn loudspeakers of the UNO, DUO and TRIO series and the enormous bass horns, the ZERO 1, an especially compact horn system, has recently been added to the Avantgarde Acoustic program. A true loudspeaker monolith, optically "Reduced To The Max", technically equipped with the most modern digital electronics and sound-wise equipped with all the advantages of horn technology, the active ZERO 1 with its built-in high-quality D/A converter and the wireless radio connection between the two speakers offers a glimpse of what hi-fi will look like in the future. The difference is that with the Avantgarde Acoustic ZERO 1, you can experience this future today.
When your own ambition is to build the best loudspeakers in the world, you inevitably think about how they can best be brought to bear. For this reason, Avantgarde Acoustic also offers the matching amplifier electronics with the integrated amplifier XA-INT and the pre/power amplifier combination XA-PRE and XA-POWER. It goes without saying that these amplifiers were not created "just like that" either, but that Avantgarde Acoustic rather completely rethinks the topic. The results are products that are absolutely unique in terms of technology, workmanship, sound and design.
