But there’s more to the Duo GT’s performance than iTron. The active amplification has imposed its own demands on the rest of the system, demands that have led to improvements in the drive-units (especially their motors) and the geometry of the high-frequency horn. However, the biggest evolution has occurred in the bass cabinet. The Uno was the first model to extend the bass enclosure up to the tweeter, with subsequent designs going further still, enveloping the tweeter entirely and visually extending up to the lower arc of the top-mounted midrange driver. The Duo GT takes that approach to its logical extreme, with a cabinet that’s fully 110cm tall and 45cm deep (43″ x 18″). The horn drivers take advantage of this revised structure to assume a coplanar arrangement, while I also suspect that the advanced location of the main baffle helps overcome any latency in the low-frequency DSP. The active electronics are contained in a separate, shallow ‘tray’ in the rear of the cabinet, but that still leaves a considerable volume available to load the twin 12″ bass drivers, which with their massive voice-coils and motors, downward firing reflex port and 500 Watts of Class D amplifier per driver makes for a potentially potent bottom end. Of course, you can have too much of a good thing and with actively equalised bass output quality is always more of an issue than quantity.
The main cabinet is now finished in a high-gloss lacquer that contrasts nicely with the trumpets. The midrange horn is supported on a pair of substantial blades that rise up each side of the cabinet, echoing the bladed support for the Trio G3’s ‘flying’ tweeter. It’s a neat, stylish and less ‘industrial’ arrangement than the space-frame that have graced previous Duos. The trumpets, so much an Avantgarde trademark, are still available in a host of standard colours, or even any specified RAL shade to special order. The standard palette now includes fewer of the bold, bright shades that most of us will remember from shows and reviews, with more of the muted earth tones so beloved of interior designers, including matte finishes.
In the past I’ve always struggled with previous versions of the Duo, ultimately finding the system integration too flawed for their obvious strengths to overcome my frustration with the low-end’s constant struggle to keep up with the rest of the range. This is actually the first Duo that I’ve ever reviewed. In a developmental path that echoes my relationship with the Wilson Watt/Puppy series, it’s also the first Duo I’ve wanted to review. The Wilson reached its tenth iteration before I reviewed it, the eleventh before I bought it. The Duo has got there quicker in terms of model evolution but not that much quicker in terms of elapsed time! The breakthrough isn’t just down to the iTron. What has really transformed this speaker from an impressive but frustratingly uneven performer into a balanced and exceptionally capable system is the successful integration of the bass. Without that, the Duo GT could so easily have been all mouth and no trousers. As it is, the bass is more tuneable, higher quality and more easy to work with than ever before, finally allowing it to keep pace with not just the horns but the current amplification driving them.
