Напольная акустика — Wilson Benesch A.C.T. 3zero

The A.C.T. 3zero is a 2.5-way tower speaker made in Sheffield, England, by Wilson Benesch, and it is built around a monocoque enclosure of biocomposite material. Its name refers to Advanced Composite Technology, the composite work on which the Wilson Benesch brand was founded. The maker explains that this material comes from renewable, sustainable sources rather than petrochemical feedstock, and the monocoque itself carries the structural load of the cabinet.

Key specs that matter

A 25 mm Fibonacci hybrid silk-carbon tweeter is joined by a 170 mm Tactic 3.0 midrange, a 170 mm Tactic 3.0 low bass unit and an isobaric drive system with two further 170 mm Tactic drivers in clamshell formation. Wilson Benesch quotes 34 Hz to 30 kHz, a sensitivity of 89 dB at 1 m on axis with 2.83 V input, and an impedance of 6 ohm nominal that falls to 4 ohm at its minimum. Height is 1132 mm, the baffle is 194 mm wide with 276 mm at the widest point of the foot, and depth is 376 mm. Each speaker weighs 48 kg.

Engineering and use context

The crossover is kept minimal. The midrange driver is wired straight to the amplifier terminals without filter parts, an approach Wilson Benesch uses to reduce phase distortion, and the company calls the overall crossover philosophy reductive. A second-order network crosses the tweeter in above 5 kHz, a first-order network serves the low bass driver, while the isobaric pair is rolled off above 500 Hz by a first-order low-pass filter. Enclosure loading differs by section - the midrange works into a reflex port tuned with its own laminar flow guide, whereas the low bass and isobaric sections each sit in an infinite baffle sealed enclosure. The tweeter backplate is sealed with a labyrinth element. The poly-alloy hybrid construction uses visco-elastic interfaces throughout, and 13 mm thick steel rods brace the cabinet vertically.

Pairing

Speaker cables connect to a bi-wirable terminal set placed at ground level on the loudspeaker foot, so single or bi-wire cable runs both suit it. Given the minimum impedance, the chosen amplifier has to drive low loads without strain. Wilson Benesch lists the enclosure within its Fibonacci Series of loudspeakers. Four M14 spike threads with 1.5 pitch are provided per channel.

Alternatives

The Wilson Benesch Eminence is a larger floorstanding model with ten drive units per channel, a 24 Hz lower limit and 145 kg weight per channel.