Mordaunt-Short Performance Series

Early in today's event coverage we stopped by the Marantz/Mordaunt-Short booth to visit with Kevin Zarow and give him the Product of the Year Award for the Avante Premier Plus system we reviewed earlier this year. We felt the system had an exceptional performacne to price ratio and look forward to seeing some of the new products Mordaunt-Short has for 2005.

One of the newest products includes their new Performance surround sound loudspeaker series. Originally introduced at CEDIA last year, the Performance Series has now added a subwoofer, center channel and surrounds - a new announcement revealed at the show. The floorstanding main speakers are available now, while the subwoofer and center channel are scheduled for a May release - with the surrounds following sometime after.

This world debut follows the introduction of a stunning new twin driver subwoofer and elegant dedicated center channel. The Performance 9 sub incorporates two sizeable 10" long-throw drivers, powered by a phenomenal 1000W of power (2 x 500W).

The drivers embrace Mordaunt-Short's proprietary Continuous Profile Cone technology. This uninterrupted aluminum cone surface offers excellent rigidity and therefore minimal distortion, even with the design's very long excursion capabilities.

The two drivers are mounted within an ultra rigid, cast steel chassis assembly which is coupled directly to the floor and completely isolated from the enclosure. The cabinet is suspended around the transducer assembly, acting as a solid containment to the air volume. The substantial 1" thick MDF cabinet incorporates a double flare port (which is a solid design to effectively reduce the two-way port noise) to reach the very lowest frequencies.

Each 10" driver is powered by its own 500W IcePower module. Maximum theoretical efficiency is roughly 50%, but in reality at average signal levels it tends to be more like 3 or 4%. The rest is lost as heat. This means amplifiers are often large, bulky affairs with massive heat sinks. By switching the electrical supply on and off 400,000 times a second, IcePower modules dramatically reduce heat loss and therefore increase efficiency. This allows the Performance 9 to deliver its 1000W power output.

In the subwoofer, you'll also find second generation ARC technology. Active Room Control (ARC) was developed by Mordaunt-Short to help deliver better subwoofer performance by eliminating the most troublesome room resonance (mode) using the supplied test CD and a Sound Pressure Level (SPL) meter.

Performance 9 takes ARC forward by not only letting you adjust the frequency cut off point and depth of the cut, but also letting you vary the width (Q) across the frequency range. Moreover, Mordaunt-Short has gone so far as to develop a proprietary computer program (found on the test CD) to make sure you get the perfect ARC settings. You simply feed in your test disc results and the application displays the correct notch filter settings.

Meanwhile, the Performance 5 center channel embraces the same proprietary polymer resin cabinet construction found in all Performance loudspeakers whose density can be varied to within less than one hundredth of a gram. So, while the outside of the Performance enclosure is rock hard, the inner section of this unique material is far less dense, delivering high acoustic damping and low stored energy.

Housed in this center cabinet is an equally impressive array of drivers, taking in the ATT (Aspirated Tweeter Technology) tweeter. This elongated metal diffuser floats freely in a discrete enclosure. Along its length are strategically positioned vents eliminating the coloration which sometimes plagues traditional closed-back designs.

Sitting either side of the tweeter are two of the latest generation 5" anodized aluminum CPC drivers. They are mounted to the rear of the cabinet. This not only connects to the most rigid part of the enclosure, but also isolates drivers from any front baffle distortion. Finally, the cabinet comes with an adjustable tilt function for the perfect angle of delivery, along with an optional wall mountable bracket.

MSRP for the Performance 6 loudspeakers is $6000/pair. The center channel, subwoofer and surround speaker pricing has yet to be finalized. For more information, please visit www.mordauntshort.com .