Avantgarde UNO set-up tips needed

Paul: I saw this because you posted to A-Ball's system page, asking for set -up tips, and I'll defer to him on the G2 Uno. I have had the older Duo for quite a while and can give you a few ideas in the meantime.
First, the speakers do require some burn-in.
Second, they are hyper-sensitive to everthing else in the system chain, not just noise, but character of associated electronics. I use mine with SET amps and they are a marvel. Of course, there are any variety of amps that will mate with Avantgardes, and you don't have to use tubes, but the combination for me has been quite magical.
Here are a few thoughts on positioning:
given that the woofer is integral to the horn, you are somewhat limited by where you can position for best bass vs. imaging of the mid-highs. I'm wondering whether you could work from the corners, rather than a conventional long wall vs short wall set up.
You may need to get them out into the room a bit more, and maybe try to take advantage of corner loading for the bass. It requires some experimentation, a helper and perhaps some basic 'testing' for bass modes.
The rule of thumb for the Duos was to position the toe-in so you could see the knobs that hold the horns- this is described in some of the Duo set-up threads here on the 'Gon. Look for posts by Jim Smith, the former US distributor, and a user named Triode (and me, too). Get it right, and they just 'lock.' Unfortunately, I do not know if these parameters are the same for the G2 Uno.
You may have to fool around with the angle of the horn and height relative to ears. Again, I don't know if that's the same on the Uno as my older Duo.
Also, I use footers on mine- Grand Prix Audio, but I'm not suggesting you have to buy those. They do sound better than the spikes or regular feet that came with the speaker.
You really have to experiment with crossover setting and gain on the woofer to get the best integration. Some room treatment, which you have, helps, but adding bass traps to my room improved things. Also, as I have continued to improve upstream electronics, most recently my line stage, the bass integration is better and better.
Finally, I think I read that you don't believe in power cords. I don't necessarily want to provoke a debate about that, because I know there are strong views on both sides, but I did hear noticeable differences using different power cords on the powered woofer. The speaker cable will also make a difference. I don't know how the Uno is set up for wiring- do you hook directly to the mid driver and then use a jumper to the woofer? That's how my Duos work and having a custom cable made improved things enormously over the stock jumper, and then again, when I changed from one well-regarded brand of cable to another that just seemed to sound better- richer, more nuance.
The Avantgardes are great speakers if set up right, with good associated electronics. I know several people who have heard my system who said that when heard at shows, the speaker was too bright, or didn't have the warmth or naturalness they heard in my set-up. I attribute that to all the other stuff in the chain, as well as good set up.

The master at this is Jim Smith. He is no longer the Avantgarde 'guy' here in the States, but offers consultation services. I don't know if he'd be willing to do a phone consult, given that you probably don't want to pay him to travel to the Netherlands, but he is a great guy and a wonderful resource for these speakers.
Hope you wind up getting them set up to your satisfaction.
Oh, one other thing, if you can get the stuff moved away from between the speakers, they will probably sound better, and you won't have to move them out into the room as much, given that you have some constraints on the the distance from front to back wall.

You can also buy Jim Smith's book and DVD and do a very thorough job yourself... Excellent references for a lifetime!

www.GetBetterSound.com

As a long time omega duo owner I would like to comment re the speaker need to be cranked up to sound good. Most likely your amp is the culprit. I guess it is a medium powered ss amp which is NOT made to drive high efficient horns. I heard trios with 300 WAC tenor amps. Sounded good at extreme high levels. At moderate levels sounded like a cheap system. In case you decide to keep the UNOs you may want to try to good quality set tube amp!

Paul,

Which uno's do u have? Nano, 2.1, 3.1...?

Hi Paul

Ok, first thing is that these speakers take FOREVER to fully break-in. If they don't have at least 500 hours on them, imaging will not be perfect. These types of drivers essentially don't move at all. I thought mine were great until I had them a year and suddenly one night, I experienced teleportation. It’s been that way ever since. The midrange's excursion is minuscule so it takes tons of play time for it to properly loosen up. I bet most AG dealers have no idea how good they can sound because they don't use them enough before selling them. You basically have to live with them for months to discover their true capabilities.

Now having said that, the main problems you are hearing are not due to lack of break-in. Whart and Duomike are exactly right: you are hearing your electronics. And you don't like them as much as you thought! Hopefully you won't take it personally but your brain will constantly try to trick you in believing this is not true. It has happened to me many times. These speakers are capable of extreme resolution and dynamic range - levels that go beyond the design considerations for most amplifiers/preamps/sources. When this is the case, the flaws in the amps' designs will become apparent for the first time. Once you have tried several combinations of electronics with the Nanos, you will hear how significant the differences are even when you're only changing one component. People who think all amps sound alike have never experienced properly-setup Avantgardes.

Which leads me to my final point, and Whart mentioned this too: You need to experiment with your sub settings. Freq of 9 is definitely too high for your room and it will cause an imbalance, especially with the speakers that close to the back wall. My room is a similar size and I generally use Volume 5.5 and Freq 5. Even one little tiny click will be an audible change. I recommend you turn Freq down to 3 and then very gradually raise it back up until it sounds right and stop there. The sub settings can accommodate a lot of rooms/positions when they are set right – that’s one of the beauties of having adjustable bass, so take full advantage of it. The electronics play a role in the optimal settings, but it is minor compared to the room’s impact.

Contrary to popular belief, tubes are not a requirement with AGs. In fact, one of my favorite amps on my Nanos is a 450W solid-state amplifier. If you do go with tubes and can find an amp that uses the EL84 power tubes, you should definitely give it a try. Lovely tube. Kora of France made a lot of magnificent amps that used it, Manley Labs does too, some older VTL, and of course Tom Evans. The Nanos will tell you very quickly which amps have “magic” and which don’t. There is no other way to predict it. This does not mean they have to be expensive – they simply need to be designed by people who truly know what they are doing.

Keep us posted on the evolution!
Arthur