Thread: Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 6 Speaker

Mordaunt-Short is one of the few high-end speaker manufacturers who've always offered quality. Their latest line up, the Mezzos. They're a set of bookshelves and towers that have been built for a multi-channel environment however, they sell as individual pairs as well. We had a go at their Mezzo 6, the towering dark monsters that seemed to disappear (only visually) into the darkness as soon as we hit the switches.

OUT OF THE BOX Its simplicity is its forte. Dressed like the thick stump of an oak tree due to its dark walnut wood finish, it weighs close to the same at 17.6kgs. To irrigate its 2'/2 way design are biwirable bullet terminals on the bottom of the rear panel that curves like the backside of a B&W speaker. This is of course used to eliminate standing waves within the cabinet. Oh, let's just get to what's inside
it. It'll make more sense then.

TECHNOLOGY The Mezzo cabinet is built to take on a nuclear explosion, what with all the sound deadened driver baskets and internal padding, both of which are being used to remove unwanted resonance that may arise due to the inside of the cabinet. As for holding all of this together, the Mezzo comes with rock-solid cabinet and driver bracing. Mordaunt-Short has implemented their ATT (Aspirated Tweeter Technology) tweeters in the Mezzos that bring to the table revolutionary high frequency performance.

With the help of high grade injection moulding and a rubber isolated mounting technique, the elongated tweeter floats freely in its discrete enclosure. To eliminate highfrequency colouration that usually accompanies closed-back designs, the driver has tactically positioned vents punched along its length like it's 'breathing', exhaling the impurities caused by its enclosure. The l-inch tweeter itself is an advanced aluminium dome tweeter with an ultra-thin diaphragm and compression moulded surround mounted on a low resonance chassis. The tweeter uses a high temperature voice coil that's liquid cooled to keep the high-frequency response unhindered due to heat after long hours of music playback.

As for the other drivers, two 6 '/2-inch CPC (Continuous Profile Cone) mid/bass drivers are nestled in the aluminium front-baffle. Below them a curved port flare peeks out for smooth air dispersion. The drivers' dust-cap-less design, makes the entire front look like one smooth piece of metal against its contrasting wood cabinet. Like mixing technology with nature. And with the intelligent cabinet design, Short has managed to internally partition the Mezzo 6 for a discrete 2 V2 design. This means that one driver is given the job of only dealing with the low frequency, while the other for just the mid-frequency and so on.

PERFORMANCE
We dropped in our first CD, 'The Perfume' soundtrack into the player and boy did they vibrate! With a soundstage second to only the live arrangement of the Berlin Symphonic Orchestra we were listening to, there was not a single instrument we couldn't hear. Everything had its place due to those internal partitions within the cabinet. The tubas and the basses emanated from the lowest driver while the strings and parts of the horn section came from the driver above that. The ATT handled the flute and the oboe with care and clarity, never allowing them to shrill their way into our ears. "The Perfume" track was as wholesome as we'd imagined it, trudging between our studio walls like a hard yet cushiony brownie. Hence the ATT performed just the way it was specified.



Next, we dropped in Venetian Snares 'My Downfall (Original Soundtrack)', a collection of eclectic drum-n-bass played upon modern classical arrangements. When we hit 'Play', we heard the Mezzos subconsciously convert themselves into massive 1000volt machines that belted out the entire range of the break-neck percussions. However, they also managed to quickly convert themselves into gentle audio creatures that methodically rendered the melancholic harp lines.