July 2013
If there is a premier icon in the annals of fantasy fiction, arguably it is Edgar Rice Burroughs, who in the course of a 38-year literary career wrote some 70 novels, not least of which were 25 Tarzan adventures and the inimitable John Carter of Mars series. Last year, on the 100th anniversary of the publication of the first Carter story, The Princess of Mars, Disney Studios released John Carter, a megabudget flopperoo of curious non sequiturs and wooden dialogue. I love it. First of all, Carter of Mars is Burroughs at his very best, even if the movie’s story deviates wildly from the original. Second, not even a director who can’t make up his mind between reinventing pulp or crafting a blockbuster epic can mess up Burroughs. Finally, it’s a lovely test for a home-theater speaker system.
The gear
Audio Pro is a Swedish company founded in 1978. The speakers are designed in Sweden, but made in China. The Avanto 5.0 HTS home-theater speaker system ($1499 USD) consists of two FS-20 full-range front-channel towers, a C-20 center-channel, and two S-20 bookshelf surround speakers, each a bass-reflex design with a rear port. The FS-20 tower is a three-way with a 1” dome tweeter, two 5.25” midrange drivers, and a side-firing 8” woofer. It weighs 45 pounds and measures 40”H x 7.5”W x 14”D, its canted plinth sloping it down to 38” at the rear. The S-20 surround is a two-way with a 1” dome tweeter and a 4.5” midrange-woofer cone, weighing 7 pounds and measuring 10.5”H x 6”W x 7”D. The C-20 center-channel, also a two-way, has a 1” dome tweeter with a 4.5” midrange-woofer driver to either side, weighs 10.3 pounds, and measures 16”W x 5.75”H x 7”D.