Напольная акустика — Zellaton STAGE

The Stage is a three-way tower made by Zellaton GmbH, the Munich company whose cone technology dates back to a patent filed in 1930 by Dr. Emil Podszus. It is part of the Klassik series, placed above the Legacy and below the Reference Mk II and the Statement, and it was priced at USD 89,975 per pair.

Key specs that matter

It uses three hand-made full-cone drivers - a 40 mm tweeter, a 180 mm mid woofer and a 220 mm woofer. Zellaton specifies a frequency range of 24 Hz to 40 kHz, a sensitivity of 88 dB/1W/m and a nominal impedance of 4 ohm. The cabinet measures 118 cm in height, 45 cm in width and 64 cm in depth, and the weight is approximately 100 kg. The company specifies its full-cone tweeter type for operation far into the ultrasonic range with almost no partial vibration.

Engineering and use context

Every one of these units uses a lightweight, torsionally stiff rigid-foam diaphragm made of a multiple composite foam placed behind an extremely thin aluminium film. In the tweeter this film is only 0.006 mm thick, and the complete diaphragm weighs 0.18 g. Manuel Podszus, grandson of the inventor, still makes these parts by hand, and the rejection rate in production is high because of the demanding tolerances. The enclosure is multi-layered and matrix-braced, with wall thickness reaching 68 mm, and it follows a semi-open baffle layout with an open back rather than a closed box. The crossover was revised for this model and uses Duelund Coherent components, and internal wiring also comes from Duelund Coherent. Oversized Mundorf binding posts of silver-coated copper take the speaker cables. Before shipping, each unit goes through a final week of fine tuning and stress testing. With only one woofer and one mid woofer, the Stage offers a smaller driver array than the larger Klassik models while keeping the same tweeter and mid woofer sizes.

Pairing

A load of this kind calls for a transistor amplifier with a healthy power rating and stable current into low impedances, although the three-way layout does not require extreme wattage. Because the rear of the cabinet is open, the speakers need clear space behind them, which is easier to provide in a room of 20 m2 or more.

Alternatives

The Zellaton Stage Ultra keeps the same cabinet and woofer sizes but switches to the Ultra diaphragm with a smaller 33 mm tweeter.