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Product Information

  The Solo
  Avantgarde > Horn Speaker (Stand & wall mount)

  

Proudly taking its place in a legendary family of Hornspeakers - UNO, DUO and TRIO -, the SOLO is the first compact full range horn system from Avantgarde Acoustic. The SOLO - with its graceful futuristic design - is a full-blooded member of the Avantgarde family. The famous Avantgarde virtues - which have made Avantgarde Acoustic the most sought after and acclaimed loudspeakers - are all present and accounted for in the SOLO: precise reproduction, powerful drive, and involving dynamics. The SOLO is a fully active, coaxial 2-way horn system in a bass reflex enclosure. With its powerful integrated 250 Watt amplifier and its point-source dispersion characteristics it is simple to be set up and can be easily matched to different acoustical environments.

Especially the particular demands of a home theatre reveal the full potential of the homogenous point-source dispersion. As an ideal centre-speaker and an excellent full-range rear speaker the SOLO meets your highest requirements for an authentic cinema feeling at home. Please read more in the "hometheatre" section of this website.

The SOLO conveys that special Avantgarde feeling. How will you describe the SOLO: Thrilling? Passionate? Powerful? Full blooded? Yes, all of these, and more. As Ettore Bugatti would have said - "le Pur Sang des Hautes Parleurs". Yet the SOLO is as musically refined as a Stradivarius.

Drivers

The core of the SOLO concept is its powerfull 12C250 coaxial driver. Its outstanding technical parameters and the consequent optimisation for the coaxial horn concept attributes to the revealing character of the SOLO.

Usually, coaxial speakers use the membrane of the bass unit as the tweeter horn. In these designs the tweeter horn is vibrating with each bass impulse, thus causing severe colorations. The SOLO goes one step beyond. Its H1-tweeter is mounted concentrically on the backside of the 12C250 and radiates through the magnet pole into a fully extended 4 inch high frequency horn.

The tweeter horn at the same time serves as a phase plug for the 12C250 bass unit. As a result one gets a liquid and practical distortion-free response with no shifts in the tonal character of the system. Due to its coaxial concept the SOLO is phase coherent and very dynamic with an incredible resolution of fine details thus setting the reference benchmark for the most convincing and involving Home Theater sound systems.

The enormous 4" voice coil, the neutral cellulose membrane and its powerful magnet structure forces the 12C250 cone to instantly follow the input signal, doing it with power and authority. The results are impressive - fast and dynamic, with low frequency extension and precision par excellence. Its optimised suspension allows for an extremely long excursion of the voice coil in the symmetrical magnetic field.

H1 is a high-frequency tweeter providing an extremely wide frequency range reaching down to 1 kHz. Based upon the same design principle of the nearly "legendary" TRIO tweeter H3, the H1 offers very low distortion and excellent transient characteristics.

Active power amp

The beautifully integrated aluminium heat sink at the rear of the SOLO houses the electronics. The active module consists of a flexible input section with frequency control unit, an active frequency crossover and a optimised power amplifier - specially matched to the coaxial driver and bass reflex enclosure.

The 250 watt class A/B amplifier equalizes the system in the low frequencies and ensures extended full range speaker capabilities - covering the entire frequency range from 30 to 20.000 Hz - in a surprisingly small and compact enclosure. The power amp has a substantial 270 VA transformer. The 20,000 uF of the power capacitors provide the necessary high-energy reserves for critical passages. The amp has a high damping factor for precise control of the drivers.

A newly designed circuitry controls and aligns phase shifts and sensitivity of the drivers and passive crossover components. To avoid noise when switching the amp on, the PA201 is equipped with a Soft-Start automatic. This circuit gently powers the amp into operation, thereby avoiding the use of conventional relays with their reliability issues.

The SOLO can be driven via high power XLR speaker input terminals for direct connection to integrated amps (and power amplifiers or receivers) or alternatively via cinch or balanced inputs to preamplifiers. The active crossover allows the adjustment of a number of parameters. Variable input sensitivity and bass equalization, adjustable subsonic filters and switchable high frequency response ensuring a very easy and fast installation of the system even in acoustically critical situations or behind perforated screens in home theatre applications.

The SOLO can be remotely switched on/off using the 12V trigger signal of AV amps. A ground lift switch enables the user to lift the ground.

Mechanical Construction

The enclosure and the horns of the SOLO are made of specially developed Polyurethan material. Its extraordinary compact and homogenous molecular structure, providing maximum mechanical strength and resonance damping attributes. Our VMT-technique (varying material thickness) with additional structural supports in the inside and the round shape of the body makes the enclosure acoustically "dead", standing waves will not occur and the enclosure gets physically very solid and robust.

The self-stabilizing joint assembly of horn, body and amplifier module made it further possible to significantly reduce the size of the SOLO. An optional powder coated aluminium stand and mounting brackets (for wall or ceiling mount) are available.

Finishes

Avantgarde offers a free choice of colours for the horns, ranging from the classic black high gloss finish of the standard version to various, elegant, optional metallic lacquers. Finished in elegant black, the SOLO enclosure is coated in high quality NEXTEL finish, the amp module is powder coated in elegant grey.


SPECIFICATIONS
     
Frequency range   30 - 20,000 Hz
Power Handling   250 Watt
Sensitivity (1 Watt / 1m)   > 97 dB
Crossover Frequency   2,000 Hz
Crossover Slope   6 dB/Octave
Recommended Room Size   > 15 qm
     
HORN    
     
Horn Diameter Bass 460 mm
  Tweeter 100 mm
     
Horn Length Bass 60 mm
Tweeter 60 mm
     
HORN DRIVERS    
     
Bass Driver Nominal Diameter 300 mm
Rated Impedance 8 Ohm
Power Capacity 250 Watt
Sensitivity (1 Watt / 1m) 97 dB
Voice Coil Diameter 100 mm
Magnetic Assembly Weight 8.7 kg
B/L Factor 20.7 N/A
Moving Mass 39 g
Cone Material Paper
Basket Material Die Cast Aluminium
Voice Coil Edge Wound Copper
Net Weight 10.75 kg
     
Tweeter Throat Diameter 25 mm
Voice Coil Diameter 44.4 mm
Nominal Impedance 16 Ohms
Power Capacity 50 Watts
Sensitivity 102 dB
Frequency Range 800 - 20,000 hz
Magnetic Assembly Weight 3.1 kg
Flux Density 1.9 T
BL Factor 9.8 N/A
     
Diaphragm Aluminium
Voice Coil Former Kapton
  Voice Coil Edgewound Copper
Overall Diameter 144 mm
Depth 67 mm
  Net Weight 3.25 kg
     
AMPLIFIER    
     
250 Watt Amplifier   integrated
Active Crossover   integrated
Low Frequency Filter   var. from 20-120 Hz
Bass EQ   adjustable
Treble EQ   0/-2dB/+3dB
Ground Lift Switch   integrated
Speaker Level Input   integrated
Line Level Input   integrated
     
DIMENSIONS/WEIGHT    
     
Dimensions Width 460 mm
  Depth 455 mm
  Height 460 mm
     
Weight Speaker (p/piece) 30 kg

 

For more information about this product, please visit the manufacturer's website.

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