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Sydney Audio Club Meeting - Sunday 8th October 2017 - Avantgarde UNO XD, Lab12, Innuos, AMR


TomW

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For our October club meeting we’re very pleased to have Cameron Keating of MAXMEDIA present the Avantgarde Acoustic UNO XD.  Cameron has previously presented the Zero 1 XD active speakers.  He’s back to present lots of superb new products… the Avantgarde Acoustic UNO XD horn speakers, Lab 12 pre and power, the Innuos Zenith SE media Server and the AMR 777 SE DAC.  

 

The featured system on the day will be:  

 

Avantgarde Acoustic Uno XD.  From the MaxMedia website… “The UNO XD Series is a scaled–down version of the classical DUO system. By employing smaller 10 inch bass drivers and by integrating the horns as part of the speaker body, we managed to reduce the cabinet structure considerably. The objective was to accomplish the clarity and power of its “bigger“ brother in a significantly reduced enclosure.  The 500mm spherical midrange horn covers a wide bandwidth down to 300 hz. The active subwoofer SUB225 XD Series supplements the balance between spherical horn performance and low frequency reproduction. It is actuated by two 10 inch long– excursion drivers powered by a 1000 Watt amplifier.”
More info at:
http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/Uno_XD.html,
https://www.avantgarde-acoustic.de/en/products/uno-series/uno-xd.html,
https://stereo-magazine.com/archive/archiv/artikel/2016/7/017-floorstanding-speaker,
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/HIGH_END_2016/Avantarde_Acoustics/


Lab12 Suono Power Amp.  From the 6moons website (Url below)…  “…the Suono amp, simply means sound. And that's in Italian, not Greek. It's a stripped-back very essential meaning. On looks too it avoids the overbuilt template of thermionic temple worship. It's far more basic and simple. This continues with quite practical specs. It's a SET if those letters signify single-ended tube. Whilst it can be run in triode mode with the flick of a switch, its KT150 power tube really isn't a triode at all. It's a high-power kinkless tetrode in the KT88 family. Hence the option to run the Suono in native or ultralinear mode. Now it delivers a full 25wpc.”
More info at:
http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/LAB12.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/lab12/1.html


Lab12 Pre1 Preamplifier.  From the HiFi Pig website (Url below)… “Internally Lab 12 uses a matched pair of E88CC valves along with a solid state power supply with four separate regulation stages for each channel.  The pre1 is fully dual mono and uses the company’s trademarked “Fine Symmetry” in every part of the circuit. MKP audio grade capacitors and resistors are used and are selected to be accurate to 0.1%.“
More info at:
http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/LAB12.html
http://hifipig.com/lab-12-pre-1-valve-preamplifier/


Innuos Zenith SE Media Server.  From the Innuos website (Url below)… “The Zenith SE picks up the trademark PRaT (Pace, Rhythm and Timing) and neutrality of the Zenith and raises it to an entirely new level. To achieve this, we focused on 3 areas: Power Supply, Vibration and EMI Shielding...”
More info at:
http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/Innuos_ZENITH_SE.html
http://innuos.com/en/catalog/go/zenith-se-mk2-std


AMR 777 SE DAC.  From the 6moons website (Url below)… “…AMR's lucky number seven is a dual-mono single-ended affair with two separate DACs plus a valved output stage to seal the deal with a harmonically rich finish. Tubes make the unit flexible to some extent. Throw in selectable conversion methods. Physically, the DP-777SE is on the bigger side, measuring 45 x 37 x 12cm WxDxH and weighing 11.5kg. Frequency response is 20Hz–20kHz, A-weighted S/NR is >100 dB, THD+N is <0.3%. Dynamic range and channel separation are the same >90dB. Finish is black or silver and switchable 115/230V AC makes for one universal model. Power consumption in standby is below 1 watts and below 60 watts in operation. The build is tank-like to communicate seriousness of purpose.”
More info at:
http://www.maxmedia.com.au/www.maxmedia.com.au/AMR_777_SERIES.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/amr/1.html


Oppo BDP-105D Universal player.  Will be used as a transport into the AMR DAC – required for our BYO session.  
More info at:
http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/oppo-bdp-105-universal-blu-ray-player-and-dac/ and https://www.oppodigital.com/blu-ray-bdp-105/


The second half of the music sessions will be our popular BYO.   Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all.  So bring along your favourite music on CD or USB flash drives (sorry, no vinyl).  All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting.  We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played.  Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go. 

 

Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others.  Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the system, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.  

 

Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.

 

Venue:  Epping Creative Centre, Dence Park
Address:  26 Stanley Road, Epping 

When:  Sunday 8th October 2017

Doors open at 1pm
Meeting starts at 2pm

 

Best regards,
Tom Waters
President
Sydney Audio Club
W:  www.sydneyaudioclub.org.au
FB: https://www.facebook.com/sydneyaudioclub
E:   tomwaters@sydneyaudioclub.org.au

Edited by TomW
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  • 2 weeks later...

Our October club meeting was another educational, fun and well attended meeting.  Cameron Keating arrived from Melbourne on Sunday morning – ready to go.  He drove throughout the night only stopping for fuel, food and a bit of sleep.  His dedication to the industry and club is quite amazing, and fully recognized and appreciated by the club.

 

Cameron presented the very new Avantgarde Acoustic UNO XD speakers plus lots of great gear from Lab 12 in Greece.  The Lab 12 isn’t super expensive, but it is super impressive.  The pre and power were open and transparent with tonality that was very good.  The SQ was quite surprizing at the price point.  The tubed power amp was $3700 and the pre a bit less at $2430.  You could spend a lot more elsewhere and not get the same level of quality.   (And they look great to boot.)   The UNO XD speakers were quite new and not fully run-in, so they did exhibit a bit of hardness in the mids and tightness in the bass, and the highs didn’t have the “air” that they would normally exhibit.   They told you all about the poorly recorded music (think "Queen"!) – and there’s lots of that unfortunately.   With more hours they’d really open up more but you could already sense the potential.  And as the afternoon progressed, they sounded better and better.   They start at $35,000.

 

The Innuos music server and AMR DAC proved to be excellent as well.   Innuos was a new name to many on the day, but they walked away with another strong contender in mind when they go shopping for a new music server.  Price wise, it starts at $8900.  And AMR can’t seem to put a foot wrong - this is an superbly musical DAC at $8000.

 

Our Member Music Session was presented by Jim Faulkner.  Jim lives in Canberra, but manages to come up for most club meetings!  He presented 8 tracks of lute compared to guitar, and piano forte compared to a modern piano.  Music was by Bach and Satie.  Jim’s knowledge of the music and instruments was excellent, and he was very effective in explaining it all to the audience.   I mentioned to him afterwards that I’d really like to see him present again. 

 

After our break we had our usual BYO music session.  Once again, it was a love it or hate it affair (!).  Some people loved Classical, others loved the Rock/Pop whilst others the electronica.  There’s no pleasing everyone.   Nevertheless, the music scored pretty high overall so it seems it was all good in the end.

 

Here’s some feedback from the Feedback Forms…

 

“Speakers are excellent - they really showed up the good (and the bad) recordings.”

 

“One of the best speakers I've heard here.  Very fast and open.”

 

“Some harshness, not sure where it came from. “

 

“Excellent and interesting equipment.”

 

“Appreciated the opportunity to hear these horns with such fine ancillaries - found the speakers increasingly satisfying.”

 

“Quite good horn speakers.  Top quality sonically.”

 

“Loved it.  Perfect?… no, but musical, rhythmic and involving.”

 

“Equipment out of my price range.  But very interesting horns.”

 

“Horns lacked balance.  Insufficient bass, mids too strident, highs lacked air and extension.”

 

“Another great meeting.  Loved hearing the horns.  Equipment looked stunning."

 

“Excellent effort to bring in this system.  An eye opener indeed.  Affordable tube components from Greece.”

 

“Another enjoyable meeting.  Speakers were very clear and fast, beautiful looking.”

 

“It took a while to "warm to them" but I enjoyed the speakers a lot.”

 

“Spiffy looking speakers.  With only a few hours on them, they obviously needed more time to "run in" -- bass was a bit tight, mids were a bit hard at times, and the highs were a bit soft.  They didn't tolerate bad recordings well.  But once broken in, I bet they'd really be great!”

 

Thanks Cameron.  Photos to follow…

 

Edited by TomW
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And thank you David for the opportunity for the club to meet Tom, see Trinnov in action, and of course, to hear the mighty Meridian 8000 SE active speakers.  The John Mayer track "Gravity" had huge impact - very impressive!

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