Once you’ve refined rake angle and offset angle, you are finally ready to dial in the bass and relative levels, adjust azimuth and make minute tweaks to toe-in to really lock in the sense of musical presence and projected energy, the things that makes the Unos so special. Just be careful to keep any such physical adjustments small. At this stage, even tiny shifts can have a pretty dramatic impact on the sense of musical focus, clarity and coherence. This is one situation in which close enough simply isn’t good enough! The steps I’ve described could be executed in a couple of hours. But just because you could, it doesn’t mean that you should. All told, really optimising the Unos took me the best part of three days, constantly revisiting and refining each part of the process (and its onward implications). I achieved really enjoyable and engaging musical results – but I also know that there’s more in there to be got out, given the time and opportunity. Each and every time that I refined the geometrical accuracy of the set up, I was rewarded with clear improvements in musical performance. Fail to do so and you’ll be selling the speakers and your investment in them, seriously short.
Are there any other considerations when it comes to set up? There certainly are. The speakers are supplied with small but robust casters, which makes moving their not inconsiderable weight considerably easier. However, they can be a double-edged sword. Quite tall, they fit into the bottom of the same threaded carrier that accepts the much shorter spikes. That means that they are useful (even essential) for initial positioning, but no more than that. In particular, if anybody EVER tries to demonstrate the speakers with the wheels fitted, ask to have them removed. Otherwise you’ll have no chance of hearing what the Unos can do…
Choose your friends…
Secondly, ancillaries matter. That means that cable quality (power cables and interconnects) is clearly audible and that you need to run the same cables from the preamp to each speaker, between their active sections and supplying AC. With plenty of cable length available and aesthetics a secondary consideration, I chose to feed the iTron section direct and daisy chain to the bass amp. This delivers a little more midrange immediacy, presence and snap, at the expense of visually untidy trailing cables. I ran identical power cords (both type and length) to all four powered modules and grounded each cabinet to its own QKore 1. I also used large, HRS damping plates on the top surface of each cabinet, which introduced a welcome increase in clarity and separation as well as a worthwhile reduction in grain. You are also going to need a serious line-stage. It will have to be quiet and capable of running long XLRs. I used the CH Precision L1 (dispensing with an X1 on this occasion, in deference to the price of the Unos).
With all that taken care of, it’s finally time to sit back and face the music. Fortunately, it’s well worth the wait.
