India is
a hostile environment for electronics. Especially, of the local
variety. Ever since the Panasonic 2-in-l 's started becoming
a mandatory part of the baggage on every passenger returning
from Dubai or Singapore, Indian consumers have never really
showed confidence in their local brethren when it comes to designing
quality audio equipment. It's a matter of pride and joy then,
that there a handful of audio engineering firms in India that
still thrive on minimal profits just for the passion of it.
Sonodyne may not be one of those "small", non profit-making
outfits but it certainly is passionate about audio and their
new line of products signifies the epitome of their passion.
The Avant is not only Sonodyne's flagship product but it is
also their most research intensive project till date. Anindya
Mukherjee, the driving force behind this mega-project is a tired
and exhausted man but looked as positive and upbeat as ever
when he came to our studio with his entourage of men and speakers.
This was the first time I had seen a 'Made in India' audio product
come in more than seven different boxes and the sight was indeed,
pride inducing. After all, we're not talking about a mini-system
here but a full-fledged 6 . 1 home - theatre with a preamp/
processor and power amplifier unit!
TECHNOLOGY
AND FEATURES
From the concept stage, the brief that Sonodyne engineers had
was simple; to create the best looking, best built and the best
sounding home-theatre speaker system that our country has produced.
When the different parts of the system were being unpacked one
after the other, I sensed the magnitude of this project since
every tiny bolt and nut that was being retrieved from the cardboard
boxes was machined and finished to a very high standard. The
entire system is a sizeable amalgamation of 2 floorstanding
speakers (Avant 345), dedicated centre channel, 3 satellite
surround speakers, 1 active subwoofer, preamp and power amplifier.
Setting up this system will require a couple of technicians
from Sonodyne since there is a lot of wiring that will run around
your listening area. Sonodyne is generous enough to include
thick gauge wire for the front L/R speakers but for the rest,
you're on your own. Having been around for so long, Sonodyne
knows a thing or two about machining and tooling. The highly
successful Genie Satellite speakers gave us a glimpse into the
world of aluminium speaker enclosures but the Avant has taken
it forward by incorporating a "resonance damping"
paint on the insides of the aluminium enclosure. This, along
with the 8mm aircraft-grade extruded aluminum cabinets and die-cast
top and bottom plates make for an inert and dead cabinet. Try
rapping the sides of one of these speakers and it feels almost
like granite, there is absolutely no ringing. For the Avant
345, Sonodyne has used a 3-way design with a fourth order crossover
with a 1" silk dome tweeter, glass fibre midrange and two
woofers sitting below the tweeter. This is unlike the common
D'Appolito array chose by a lot of floorstanding speakers but
Anindya claims that the speaker's height played a major role
in the voicing and thus the array is just right. Although the
fabric-mesh grille is not removable, with a bit of twiddling
around, you can perform the striptease act but again, the speaker
has been voiced with the grilles on. Around the back, two pairs
of WBT-type connectors enable you to bi-wire with banana, spade
or stripped wire. Design detailing is incredible and the Avant
345 gets its own glass plinth that sits on spikes, which also
have protective discs under them, which prevent the spikes from
making holes into your carpet. You might even struggle to find
the Sonodyne logo on the speaker but look closely and you will
find it etched on the top plate of each speaker. Understated
but very classy. With the satellites, a simpler, 2-way design
is incorporated, minus the woofers but they get their own stands
and these stands again come with the same glass plinth/spike
combination as the floorstanding speakers. Sonodyne has spent
a lot of time in getting everything about this system just right
and so, finally, we have a subwoofer with a remote control!
Nonchalant looking, this active subwoofer has an aluminium fascia
and a MDF cabinet along with a LED display that shows the mode,
level and phase. The 12" driver is driven by a hefty 250-watt
amplifier that makes mincemeat out of any bass frequency that
comes its way.
Moving on to the electronics, both the processor and power amplifier
were designed from ground up and suffered from a long gestation
period but the final product is coherent and reeks of performance.
Right from the amplifier chassis design to the touch panel controls
on the processor, the Avant electronics, look and feel expensive.
I'm not too sure whether I like the 6 LEDs blinking on the power
amplifier to signify signal level, but the good news is that
it can be switched off via a tiny button on the top panel of
the amp. The processor here can decode Dolby Digital EX but
not DTS-ES, at least as of now. Sonodyne does provide a 6.1
channel pre-out to counter this deficiency but I really wonder
how many users will buy a standalone processor just for the
DTS-ES. The DSP modes on offer are theatre, hall, room and of
course Dolby Prologic II and DTS-Neo, which again, is surprising
since the omission of DTS-ES is unaccounted for. The front panels
for both the units are minimalist and have nothing more than
a power button and the philosophy is carried on the back panel
too.
The processor doesn't offer video processing or even component
video switching like all the new "imported" AV receivers
but Sonodyne hasn't skimped where it counts; on power. A large
toroidal transformer in the power amplifier and another one
in the processor are testimony to the Sonodyne's claims of international
quality sound at Indian prices. They might have missed a few
features, but they haven't missed the point here. The stage
was set for a home-theatre listening experience of a truly world-class
caliber and we couldn't wait. But hey, what's with so many remote
controllers?
REMOTE CONTROL
Any home-theatre system worth its salt needs to have
a programmable remote control or one that has a "learning"
ability. For the Avant, Sonodyne has taken help from a Taiwan-based
remote control specialist called Remotec. This touch panel-based
unit can learn commands in addition to the list of commands
that are pre-programmed. With only five real buttons and the
rest as a virtual panel, the button count is significantly reduced
and even the response time, which is usually slow in the case
of touch panels, is not a concern with this unit. Any new commands
can either be taught to this unit via infrared transmission
and can be juggled around on the PC. For those who still prefer
pressing keys, the credit card sized unit is complete with all
the functions that you may
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want to access
and in fact proves to be quicker that the touch panel remote.
Important functions like channel delay, tone controls, DSP modes
etc are all a single keystroke away, making it very easy to
use and set-up. As most of us know and have experienced, the
most difficult thing to achieve in a home-theatre system is
good bass and you can never ever get it right by sitting on
the subwoofer and adjusting its level. So Sonodyne needs to
be applauded for finally paving the way for other Indian brands
by being the first one to offer a full remote-controlled subwoofer!
The remote is equipped with a level control, power on/off and
selecting the two different settings for music and movies.
PERFORMANCE
High-end systems tend to rate high on complexity but
the Sonodyne Avant was more like a tripped out racer instead
of a luxurious grand tourer. It concentrated on performance
more than frills and so it eliminated any form of confusion
while setting-up. It did require considerable amount of time
to assemble the different parts of the bookshelf speakers and
center channel but once in place, the whole system looked very
European and very chic. The glass plinths especially lent a
decidedly "lifestyle" look to the speakers while the
spikes hinted at the audiophile aspirations. It might not be
an overstatement to say that this is the finest looking speaker
system that I have ever seen wearing an Indian badge and it
definitely feels good to say so. There wasn't a single component
in this system that you felt like hiding behind the houseplants.
After we had the speakers and electronics in place, we started
shifting the subwoofer around to find the best possible location
and the remote control made this process much quicker than crawling
on the floor listening for an even response.
We started our listening sessions with the speakers firing straight
out into the room and the surround speakers about 2 feet behind
the couch. The power amplifier produced plenty of juice to bring
the 6.1 system to life and playing a trailer of 'Spiderman-2'
really loosened the false ceiling mounts in our studio! The
pre/power amp duo looks unassuming but there is no doubting
their synergy and willingness to work in tandem. We found a
perfectly neutral spot for the subwoofer unit, which gave us
the best blend of deep extension and speed but what really made
my job easier was the subwoofer remote control and its only
after using this did I realise that how much better a song can
sound just by reducing the bass level by a notch or two. With
conventional AV receivers or subwoofers, we don't get into changing
the levels for every track due to the manual process involved
but once you have the subwoofer level control at your fingertips,
it was remarkable to hear the difference small changes could
make. The two different settings called 'movie' and 'music'
basically altered the way the subwoofer signal rolled off below
80HZ and made a subtle but perceivable difference to the overall
sound. Similarly, the processor unit had two reset modes labelled
'config 1' and 'config 2' and these either applied a global
bass-management to all channels or ran them full range. For
the review, we used the crossover as this yielded in a much
smoother balance in our room. On movies, the timbre matching
of all the channels was immaculate and panning sounds were almost
heard in unison while they were being shifted from the front
speakers to the surround channels. The power amplifier, with
its extra large transformer handled every challenge by converting
it into exciting 6-channel sound that drenches you in a realistic
and believable ambience. Of course, the subwoofer plays a major
role here by relieving the other speakers of low- end duty and
was able to keep pace with the quick responses of the satellites.
The inherently high damping factor of the amp helped in keeping
transients in check and tightening up the soundstage to make
the whole performance feel visceral and real.
Moving on to 2-channel music and with the subwoofer on music
mode, I was glad to hear that the balance had not shifted dramatically
and although it still was a bit forward for my taste, the rhythmic
balance was maintained and the blend between the subwoofer and
the Avant 345s was commendable. Another limitation I experienced
while extended listening sessions with the Avant 345 in stereo
mode, was that the speaker suffered from a lack in height perception
and most of the instruments sounded like they were bunched up
in the top part of the speaker instead of extending through
the entire height of the speaker. This is a difficult thing
to do for any speaker but most of the speakers which have really
inert enclosures can do it really well so I was hoping that
the Avant 345 could pull it off. Of course, after all said and
done this is supposed to be a lifestyle system and not a hardcore
studio monitoring-type loudspeaker so the level of performance
displayed by the Avant system was indeed very high. Operating
the electronics was a breeze since honestly, there wasn't much
to operate. Even though it comes equipped with everything except
DTS-ES, the format of the processor is almost plug and play.
Selecting the correct input, digital connector and adjusting
channel levels is easier than any other menu-driven systems
of the Japanese AV receivers. But with no on-screen support,
I would have loved to see a bigger display window on the processor
that would display more information at all times. Channel separation
was good but the gain in the center channel is audibly higher
than the rest of the channels or this could also be the result
of the centre channel speaker being more sensitive than the
rest of the gang. Whatever the case may be, it is rectified
easily by reducing the center channel level to about -4dB. As
for the power amp, the single button operation means nothing
can go wrong.
Listening to the whole system in either two-channel or multichannel
mode reveals the high degree of engineering that has gone into
it and the amplifier is great at reproducing movie soundtracks
without ever breaking a sweat and even lets the speakers bask
in its glory.
CONCLUSION
At close to Rs. 2,00,000, the Sonodyne Avant might not be in
everyone's reach but it does make for a very strong argument
against spending considerably more on international brands.
With its fantastic styling and attention to detail, not to mention
years of research behind their speaker and amplifier technology,
the Avant can bring a smile to your face every time you switch
it on. If you intend to invest in a high-end, plasma-based home-theatre
system, just adding a DVD player to this set-up will give you
an experience that would otherwise take twice as much to achieve.
NISHANT
PADHIAR
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