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Sound II: The Thiel, Ascendo and Audiodata are all rightly called neutral full-range designs whilst the Avancé is simply the most full-range of them due to her described bass lead. The Audiodata midrange is even and balanced without real identifiers if perhaps a small preference for rendering the presence region somewhat softer when in doubt. The latter became notable relative to the System F which can clearly needle more and for many tastes probably too much so. Whilst comparing the two they also diverged in the uppermost range. The Ascendo was somewhat more energetic particularly with its rear-firing magnetostatic tweeter active. How did I qualify this observation?
Smashing Pumpkins’ fourth studio production Adore opens with "To Sheila" and a southern summer night, i.e. mellow ocean surf and cicada chirps in the back, a few guitar plucks upfront and finally Billy Corgan’s quite lit-up and somewhat nasal vocals. On voice and guitar the Audiodata played things a tad fuller than usual. Corgan didn’t turn basso and remained lightweight but with a bit more chest volume than the Ascendo. The guitar was equally taut with each speaker. The Audiodata simply included the wooden carcass into the equation. The Ascendo moved closer to the strings to have me hear noticeably less resonant enclosure. With this somewhat forward-recorded CD Audiodata’s take had my preference. This shouldn’t matter if your preference mirrored my girlfriend’s who opined that "the black ones are colder but clearer".


Never argue taste! The upshot is that despite fundamental neutrality the Avancé handles the mids with body.  On brutally hard whips 'n' chain stuff—for me and at room levels track 4 of the same album is nearly unstomachable over the Ascendo—the Audiodata won't pour salt on the wound. She handles the presence region with more civility.

Relative to a hard-to-define but existential sensation of greater width and dome-type summer night (remember the surf and cicada), the Ascendo enjoyed a small edge presumably due to greater HF air and sheen which can assist such spatial halos. With the Avancé I faced a pitch black background, insect there, surf yonder, here guitar, there voice, all with absolute precision and point focus... but without the enveloping night.


Perhaps it’d be actually more correct to say that the Audiodata showed no background at all but simply stretched out an empty field upon which sounds arose. With the Ascendo said field became audible as space. Oy, this approaches high-end drool of the worst kind. I’d so have avoided even going there hadn’t it been for my lady who—as self-professed diehard ignoramus about all that shit (translated: hifi)—commented on "more expansive space". Much to my surprise I sensed a very reluctant golden ear near hatching season. Veh!


That said, stating that the Avancé cast an enormous panorama would be equally true. It depended on source material. One highlight was Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile/Ritual Groove Music. It’s a disc with many very subliminal infrasonics. The Avancé presented these perfectly differentiated from the remainder to suggest truly cavernous expanse. She proved equally in her element whenever dynamic fare demanded voluminous scale. It was simply awesome how after the seemingly endless 2.5 minutes of "Modul 11" with its deliberately monotonous repetition of the same three piano notes and sparsely thrown-in overly breathy sax flickers suddenly… Wham!…the drum decays lit up the venue. I love when dynamics don’t simply mean loudness differential but scale up space like a giant inhale. This requires full-range speakers. And the Avancé made that argument with extreme conviction. To remain on ball, I’ll add that given the sticker, this ought to be expected.


I already mentioned—and this too should be expected—that spatial localization occurred with pinpoint accuracy. Often bigger speakers stand in their own way whilst monitors disappear completely to leave in their wake only the music on the virtual stage. Here Audiodata’s tower acts like a standmount, this likely a function of both coax and time coherence but these ‘compacts’ also manage to dynamically scale up space to oceanic dimensions whenever called for.


Conclusion: No doubt one reaches deeply into the wallet to procure a part-active Avancé. This does however secure such a complete speaker as is rare to come across. This model surprises with sheer wealth of acoustic virtues rather than isolated peak values that come at the cost of other aspects. This is no specialist but do-everything champ that performs at the highest level. I have to confess—nearly with regret—that I couldn’t find anything of merit to critique. Due to the active bass system Audiodata’s Avancé affords more flexibility to fit into a given listening space than any equivalent passive speaker would. This advantage shouldn’t be underestimated. Even so sufficient space ought be at anyone's disposal who wishes to exploit the very achievable lower 20Hz limit. A small space will simply overload.


Psych profile:
  • This speaker is fundamentally neutral and truly full range. The latter means complete extension at full amplitude rather than as mere indication. At this size and price many speakers do offer true bass but the Audiodata still stands out from that crowd.
  • The bass really is the secret weapon not only for its extreme extension but also the massive pressurization potential under full control and resolution and—perhaps best of all—being nearly perfectly integrated with the upper bands. Nothing here is ever late.
  • The mid band is tonally well balanced and when in doubt on the fuller side of the fence, i.e. never forward in the presence region and with that exceptionally resolved and transparent. Ditto the treble which is seamlessly connected, free of artefacts and finely feathered out. Ultrasonic auras for extreme dimensionality as are the providence of certain efforts endowed with ribbon tweeters are beyond it however.
  • The Audiodata is SPL stable and macrodynamic voltage swings are tracked with bravura.
  • The soundstage is broad and deep as expected in this class but as such not groundbreaking. Sounds properly decorrelate from the boxes however and focus with extreme precision against a deep blackground very matter of fact and without any nervousness or flickering.
  • Time coherence is obvious in the rhythmic drive, the instrumental timbre differentiation and the highly focused staging. This seems intrinsic to the design in fact but remains surprising for extending into the very lowest octave.

Facts:

  • Concept: Sealed semi-active three-way floorstander
  • Dimensions and weight: circa 125 x 28 x 39.5cm (HxWxD), circa 54kg/ea.
  • Sensitivity: 89dB/W/m for the passive mid/treble
  • Nominal impedance: 4Ω
  • Power consumption: 25 watts at idle
  • Other: Active bass servo with 2 x 180-watt electronics per channel (each woofer has its own amp); bass adjustments for hi/low pass, ±5dB amplitude control, always on/signal sensing option, XLR and/or speaker level inputs
  • Warranty: 5 years (3 for the electronics)

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