System goals: dynamic speed without being hard or thin, detail without being cold or etched, musical (sounds like real instruments/voices nothing added or taken away, revealing but not at the expense of musicality, a believable soundstage. Overall, a full, rounded, balanced sound.
Music preferences: female vocals, classic pop/rock, jazz, opera
Love the REL. I have the trio with 230 subs and when i replaced the subs with the REL carbon special, wow the difference is shocking. Also i upgraded my amps from tom evensa to audiopax and nw to ayon, and again the image and transient is just even more amazing than ever. Congrats.
Did you ever integrate audio research reference 6 into your home theater system?
Was curious to know how this might be working out end if there's a Lotta wear on the tubes. do you hear the influence of the tubes on the home theater sound? Not sure how much home theater youd be watching Home theater.
Beautiful setup! Those horns are begging for some single ended tubes. Check out the Triode TRX-845's! Consistent with all your goals and then some. Looks fantastic though as it is.
Magnificent: I am also much enamored of the Uno s2 (mine are 3 yrs. older than yours). I am curious about the process of selection of the PAD cables. I have a (high capacitance) cable which sounds great w/ my BAT 56 but not so much w/ my Pass XA-30.5. Hadn’t considered PAD…it would, of course, make sense to simply stick with the amp and cable which sound best but that sort of rationality seems to elude all of us.
A visual audio system nirvana! FYI I used to have my dual subs placed in a stereo mode like you since it is widely recommended, but, at the recommendation of some of the more knowledgeable folks on here, I moved them on different walls at different distances. One is now behind my right speaker 3 ft from corner, the other half way down the left sidewall. The difference is huge. Better precision,no more booming at any listening level. Way superior to the stereo placement. You can see it on my system. Just my input.
Thanks. I have owned the Avantgarde speakers since 2004 (I guess they would be rather cheap used). I do like their dynamic speed and ability to present detail in a way that is not harsh or etched. Over the last year I put a lot of effort into “upgrading” these speakers. I gave myself a budget of $25,000. I looked at so many different speaker brands. Some did this or that better but in sum total no speaker I looked at outperformed. I did find speakers at double my budget that were much better but nothing inside the budget that was a clear win. Perhaps over the years I have become brainwashed to the sound of the Avantgarde. I am not willing to double my speaker budget so I will stay (happy) where I am. In recognition of this savings, I plan to buy two more REL 812/s.
The room really has very little echo. This has to do with the construction, furnishings and acoustic treatment … the ceiling is teak wood (with parallel beams supporting the floor above), two walls are teak wood, the floors (tile on cement) have ample carpeting, there are two sofas plus other stuff along the walls, bass traps in corners and diffuser/absorber between the speakers (corners and between speakers was the main problem area in the room). The drapes help a bit but they are too sheer to make much of a difference.
