Avantgarde Acoustics ZERO TA XD
Those of you who know me are familiar with my love affair with Avantgarde loudspeakers. My wife, Ann, pointed them out to me at a CES Show in January, 1999, because they looked so sculpturally cool. “They don’t look like typical wooden boxes” was the way she described them. I understood the physical attraction, but I wasn’t that thrilled with their sound. Then the next year, my old friend Jim Smith of “Get Better Sound” fame re-introduced me to the company and its products after he had become the N. American distributor. Jim called me, and we discussed possibly carrying the line. He also told me my first impression was typical, but emphatically insisted I give them another try because he knew I’d love them if they were “properly” set up. So, he sent me a pair of Duo’s, and came up from Atlanta to show me how to “properly” set them up. As is usually the case with Jim, he was right on target - I loved them!
Over the next four to five years, Glenn Poor’s sold more Avantgarde systems than even Jim could believe. Then, for a number of reasons, all related to diminishing profits, freight costs, etc., Jim resigned the line. Without Jim to work with, my enthusiasm and interest slowly waned as there was no longer a solid marketing effort, and, truth be told, I missed working with Jim……….
Then, while attending the Munich High End Show in Germany in 2016, I visited Avantgarde’s enthusiastic founder, Holger Fromme. He took me over to the active demo of the forthcoming ZERO. Needless to say, I was blown away! The dynamics, frequency linearity and coherence were immediately obvious. I also was taken by the industrial design in either finish (charcoal or white). Another big plus was its size as a pair of Zero’s could easily be placed in modest sized rooms. The only negative I could think of was that a fully active (self amplified) speaker like the Zero I heard has always been a difficult pill to swallow for hardened audio enthusiasts who tend to prefer to choose their amplifiers. When I mentioned this to Holger, he said “not to worry, we’ll have a version that employs a dedicated subwoofer amp, while the critical midrange horn and tweeter horn can be driven by virtually any linear amp of choice. “
Aha – that’s the rub. Like the larger Avantgarde designs, the Zero “TA” is very efficient, and converts one watt of signal into 104 dB of output. Thus, amplification choice requires paying particular attention to low signal linearity. Since Glenn Poor’s sells a number of amplifiers that excel in being linear all the way to the noise floor, we have a number of models to choose from when auditioning a pair of ZERO TA’s. The BAT VK-80i is a particularly good choice, as is the Luxman L-550AXII. Additionally, the dynamic range is typically 8 times that of a conventional loudspeaker, with 90% less distortion and 10 times the detail! Like all Avantgarde speakers, the ZERO TA excels on reproducing all types of music – from large scale symphonies to intimate classical or jazz groups, from high energy rock to small-scale singer/songwriter recordings. The ZERO TA can simply do it all……..
To better understand the incredible qualities of the Avantgarde ZERO TA, please read the brochure here on our website. Then, stop by for an audition of what I think is one of the real achievements in loudspeaker design.
Cheers,
Geoff
