Напольная акустика — Avantgarde Acoustic MEZZO

The MEZZO G3 is a floorstanding horn speaker built by the German firm Avantgarde Acoustic. It uses the large midrange spherical horn of the DUO series with the XT3 super tweeter horn of the TRIO, above a horn-loaded bass reflex section with its own amplifier. It is offered as a semi-active version, used with an external amplifier for the horns, or as an iTRON version with amplification for the horns built in as well.

Key specs that matter

The horn section covers 170 Hz to 28 kHz, while the powered bass section is specified from 18 Hz to 350 Hz. Sensitivity is above 107 dB at 1 W and 1 m, and the nominal impedance is 18 ohm. Avantgarde recommends an amplifier of more than 10 W and gives a power handling figure of 100 W. Crossover points sit at 170 Hz and 3,500 Hz. The spherical horns have a 180 degree aperture, 670 mm across for the midrange and 200 mm for the tweeter, loaded by a 170 mm midrange driver and a 25 mm tweeter. Each unit is 670 mm wide, 720 mm deep and 1,714 mm high, and weighs 135.5 kg. The maker suggests a room of more than 20 m2.

Engineering and use context

The bass section relies on two 12 inch XB12 drivers with 153 mm voice coils and paper and carbon fibre composite cones, powered by a G3-1000 amplifier of 1,000 W RMS. That amplifier has a DSP crossover, an 8 band equaliser and inputs on speaker level or a balanced transformer-coupled XLR. Two 120 mm reflex tubes fire downward, and the pair of 12 inch drivers replaces the single 15 inch driver used in earlier designs. The tweeter position can be turned with a rotary knob to align its phase with the listening seat. Drivers are aligned on a coplanar plane, and the design uses OmegaDrive, AirGate filtering and NatureCapPlus copper super capacitors with PolarizationPlus circuitry. The optional iTRON module adds 2 x 100 W of zero feedback current drive amplification, and electronics plug in on multi-pin connectors so they can be replaced or upgraded. Finishes include veneers, lacquers, structured matte black or white and silver anodised or metallic gloss.

Pairing

In the semi-active version, the high efficiency and high impedance mean low powered valve amplifiers, including single-ended triode designs, can drive the horns. The bass amplifier can then take a speaker level feed from the same amplifier, or a balanced line signal from the preamplifier.

Alternatives

The Avantgarde TRIO G3 is a larger three-way horn floorstander rated above 109 dB with a 950 mm bass-midrange horn.