There are those audio manufacturers who can't see their hi-end products walk out of the store with a pricetag that's any less than the first installment of a car. On the other hand, there are the few who wouldn't mind watching their hi-end products be taken home by even the non-avid music listener just because the price allowed them to. Mordaunt-Short falls into this latter category, and although their prices aren't exactly pocket-change, they are a far deal less than those guys in the former category. These large, floorstanding Mezzo 6s are their latest additions into the highly reputed collection they've managed to conjure over the years and they look like they have a story to tell.

Weighing a staggering 17.6 kgs, these Shorts are like looking at an oak tree and that's not just because of their dark walnut wood finish. They're built like one as well. However, everything happens for a reason. This cabinet comes packed with some heavy acoustic artillery such as the sound deadened driver baskets that remove unwanted resonance that may arise due to the inside of the cabinet. And even this has been minimised by the internal padding whose primary purpose is to eliminate internal standing waves. To further remove standing waves, Short has gone the B&W way by giving this cabinet a curvy design. As for its strength to hold all of this together, the Mezzo 6 comes with cabinet and driver bracing that looks
like it can take on a sledge hammer swing without an inch of movement to its insides.

Mordaunt-Short has implemented their soon-to-be-patented ATT (Aspirated Tweeter Technology) in the Mezzos that was first seen in their Performance series of speakers. 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 high-frequency colouration that usually accompanies closed-back designs, the driver has tactically positioned vents punched along its length likeit's 'breathing', exhaling the impurities caused by its enclosure. The 1-inch tweeter itself is an advanced aluminium dome tweeter that's taken a good 20 years to develop.

Its ultrathin diaphragm and compression moulded surround is mounted on a low resonance chassis, and it 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 lh-inch CPC (Continuous Profile Cone) mid/bass drivers are nestled in the aluminium front-baffle in which, also, a X-squared curved port flare peeks out for smooth air dispersion. The drivers' dustcap-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. The Mezzo 6 comes as part of a multichannel collection that includes a pair of bookshelves for the surrounds, a centre channel speaker and a subwoofer. Mordaunt Short has made sure that all of these brothers are given the same care and attention, and let's not forget, intelligence. So if you're going in to get yourself a pair of speakers, the Mezzo series looks like it's sure worth a shot. Give it a listen, I know we're going to.

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