There is bit of a gap in the range of English loudspeaker maker, Mordaunt Short. At $2199 this model is a price leader in this pack, but the next set of MS speakers start at well over $5K so we went with this one. Yet looking at the Mezzo 6 loudspeakers, the last thing you’d think is that they are out of place in this grouping.
Standing a good one metre tall (and weighing a hefty 20 kilograms each), each packs three drivers: a 25mm aluminium dome tweeter and two ‘continuous profile cone’ bass/midrange drivers. The CPC moniker describes the shape of the cone, which is like a seamless bowl rather than the more common truncated, well, cone. The shape is maintained under acceleration by the strength of the aluminium material used.
The tweeter employs the company’s ‘Aspirated Tweeter Technology’, in which (hidden inside the cabinet) the rear of the tweeter has nine tube-like vents which, it says, eliminate colouration. Mordaunt Short says that these loudspeakers are good for 38 to 22,000 hertz (but doesn’t specify decibel limits), and puts their sensitivity at 89dB.
Try as we might to resist resorting to stereotypes, sometimes they are unavoidable. The Mordaunt Short Mezzo 6 stereo loudspeakers have that characteristic of British loudspeaker sound called ‘mellow’. This was marked by a restrained, somewhat airy, and smooth sound. By comparison, many high quality speakers sound a touch brash.
Yet despite this almost gentle approach to the music, there remained plenty of detail. The sound stage was not quite as deep as that from what we’ve heard in Tannoy speakers, but the acoustic representations of the instruments were nicely rounded.
There was a touch of dynamic compression on big orchestral crescendos and bass drums were not quite as solidly underpinned as with some of the other speakers, nonetheless at this price the speakers were great value for money.
