Loudspeakers

'Avantgarde Acoustic stands for purity and performance, that's our philosophy', says founder Holger Fromme. 'By purity, I mean the absence of impurity in a substance. So we try to make our speakers as simple as we can. At the same time we want incredible performance. We do this by using a horn, the most sophisticated form of any speaker, because it means [the driver] has minimal mass and motion, giving maximum power with increased fidelity and reduced distortion.'

Holger says the size of his speakers is determined by the physics of the horn, and the size of the horn governed by the frequency. 'The lower the frequency, the bigger the horn. So it is not possible to make a miniature horn speaker.'

So what sort of person buys an Avantgarde product? 'Well, actually there are no typical customers. There are rich people and there are normal people, young and older people who buy our systems. But always they like music very much! Music is bringing people together.'

As with all Holger's creations, the UNO XD's design priorities were, he says, 'form following function, which I believe it has its origin in the Bauhaus school'.

For him, horn loading epitomises this. 'Horns are based on the physics of mother nature. They embrace the same principles that govern the functions of the human ear. The funnel shaped opening of the horn amplifies even the smallest deviations in sound pressure – it is the most natural and powerful way to amplify sound waves.'