My experience with Avantgarde-Acoustic Uno G2 horn speakers

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Submitted By: jtein

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Location: Malaysia

Joined: Dec 21 2009

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My experience with Avantgarde-Acoustic Uno G2 horn speakers

Posted: January 12, 2010 - 1:20am

Hi! Yesterday I dropped by a dealer and listened to a pair of Avantgarde-Acoustic Uno G2 horn speakers driven by Audionote Meishu integrated tube amp. The source used was Esoteric SA-60 CD/SACD player. The result? It made me want to bring my whole CD collection there and listen to them one by one.

Because the Uno has built-in active woofers and has a sensitivity of 104dB, the Audionote Meishu's 9 wpc of pure Class A signal was more than enough to drive them. The only thing I found was that the soundstage seemed rather narrow although it was 3D and holographic. I could hear the timbre/resonance/character of the particular piano played by T. Monk so clearly whereas on my own system, all I could hear was just a non-descript sound of a piano playing.

So has anyone heard the Uno G2's? I'd like to hear your views on them. They retail for $27,800.00. Should I take this route of getting a high sensitivity horn speakers thereby eliminating the need to get a powerful amp? Any pitfalls of getting horn speakers with active woofers?

Or should I get a speaker with low sensitivity like the Magico V2/V3 and get a powerful pre/power like the Parasound Halo JC2/JC1 monoblocks?

Submitted By: zeb

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Joined: Jan 2 2009

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Re: My experience with Avantgarde-Acoustic Uno G2 horn speakers

Posted: January 17, 2010 - 2:10pm

It's a pretty personal thing to be honest. I heard them at CES and found them dynamic but nasal. I could not live with those or most Avantgardes. I've only heard one model, a big one with 3 horns, that actually did not sound severely colored to me. Having lived with panels for 15 years, I may be over-sensitive to the horn.
For other listeners the dynamism of these speakers and the thrill of the presentation overrides everything else. Up to you really, but the Avantgardes and Magicos are extremely different in their presentation of music.