Avantgarde Acoustic 25th Anniversary Factory Tour, Part 4
Article by WL Low
From the speaker production area, we head to the first floor of the Avantgarde Acoustic factory, where the plate amps for sub woofers of all the speakers and XA series amps are made.
This is office area of the amplifier section, looks like a lounge or rest area, doesn’t it?
The miniature Avantgarde Horn speakers are cute as toys.
And then we enter in to the dedicated work space for the XA series amps
This section is where all the various types of wire harness are sorted and stored
Pre QC-ed board modules ready for use
A closer look at those wire harness
Finished plate amps awaiting final testing
And here we go in to a second section of the amplifier production area
Seen here are some completed power supply modules undergoing testing
An audio module undergoing testing!
Seen here tested for signal integrity, using signal generator and osiloscope
More testing stations
An XA pre amp inner chassis with input board(right) with power supply/regulation board assembled
An XA amplifier face plate control board as seen in the foreground, note volume indicator points(round semi circle on the right)
More power supply sections being built
Here are some XA power amp & mono block inner chassis undergoing assembly
The volume pot control module being assembled here. All hand made in house of course!
Now aren’t these babes pretty? Completed units of XA pre amp & power amp awaiting final testing
Seen here is an XA series integrated amp coming together on all four sides
Various models of XA series amps in various stages of build
This is where the amps undergo final test and burn in. Every amp is burn in for 100 hours here before they go in to packaging. Seen here is the prototype test mule of the Avantgarde Zero 1
A plate amp undergoing testing
Armin shows off the beautifully finished remote wand of the XA series amps. very ergonomically correct design with tactile feel when in your hands too
And finally, to end this chapter of our Avantgarde Acoustic 25th Anniversary factory tour, we take a look at the concept and philosophies behind the XA series amplifier design, courtesy of Avantgarde Acoustic. Next, we move on the corporate demo room.
Eugene Ngoh, the veteran who has worked for numerous dealers including Asia Sound and Swedish Statement, has opened his own showroom in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya.
By Lam Seng Fatt
After the Kojo Technology Crystal Ep virtual grounding plugs improved the sound when fixed to the black terminals of my ATC speakers, I tried the third plug with RCA cap on my preamp. I couldn't find any unused RCA input in my streamer/transport, DAC or power amp, so I had to use the tube Lamm LL2 Deluxe preamp for the test.
By Lam Seng Fatt
Kenix Chua of Begins Acoustic gave me the opportunity to try grounding speakers when she handed me three Kojo Technology Crystal Ep virtual grounding plugs on the last day of the Kuala Lumpur International AV Show last weekend. Two of them had spades while the third had an RCA plug. I was told to plug them into the black terminals of the speakers or an unused black RCA jack of the preamp, DAC or streamer.
