Напольная акустика — Zellaton PLURAL EVO

The PLURAL EVO belongs to the EVO series and is a three-way tower from Zellaton, a German maker whose history goes back to a 1930 driver patent granted to Dr. Emil Podszus, one of the early dynamic designs in an era of horn speakers. According to the company, that patent is still the basis for its present driver construction. Its American retail figure was USD 69,750 per pair.

Key specs that matter

Per side Zellaton fits four drivers - a 30 mm soft dome tweeter, a 180 mm full-cone mid woofer and two 280 mm full-cone woofers. Zellaton rates the response at 23 Hz to 34 kHz, sensitivity at 92 dB at 1 W and 1 m, and nominal impedance at 4 ohm. The speaker is 127 cm high, 34 cm wide and 54 cm deep and weighs about 95 kg.

Engineering and use context

The full-cone units use the brand's three-layer sandwich diaphragm, described as a 0.3 mm polypropylene film over a hardened foam membrane over a special paper. The foam is around 80 percent air, which keeps the cone light while stiff. The EVO hard foam membrane was developed over five years and has a multi-layer build with a structured surface. The tweeter is made in Norway and assembled and tuned in-house. The mid woofer works as a wideband unit from about 90 Hz to 7,500 Hz. Rather than using the crossover to linearise response, Zellaton tunes the drivers themselves, and the network uses Duelund CAST capacitors and Duelund copper coils for the mid and bass drivers, with all internal connections hardwired in Duelund wire since 2019, when it replaced van den Hul, and the Duelund CAST capacitors themselves replaced earlier VSF CAST parts. The enclosure is a three-layer wood sandwich of MDF, armoured wood and vibration insulation, with asymmetrical internal bracing and metal plate reinforcement. The midrange section is open at the back, and the woofer section vents at the bottom on the inward-facing side, with foam pieces supplied for tuning. The piano finish is European polyester lacquer in up to 20 coats with no visible joints or screws, and rounded feet with energy-draining discs replace spikes. Mundorf M-Connect silver-plated copper binding posts take the speaker cables.

Pairing

The high efficiency gives freedom in amplifier choice, from moderately powered transistor designs to capable valve amplifiers that hold up into a low impedance load.

Alternatives

Above it Zellaton builds the Statement, a larger three-way floorstander with a 40 mm full-cone tweeter, two mid woofers and two woofers, rated to 20 Hz and 40 kHz.