HZ unveil their ZR5 PA

HZ, one of the smaller UK PA speaker manufacturers (though with a growing following) have a new moulded box out this month — but it's one with a difference.

The HZ ZR5 is a 500W, three-way, full-range enclosure using a pair of ribbon tweeters, in place of the ubiquitous bullet tweeters favoured by most speaker manufacturers.

Like all HZ enclosures, the ZR5 seems as technically adept on the inside as it is stylish on the outside. It features a 300W, neodymium sub, a six-inch mid/high driver and the aforementioned ribbon tweeters handling HF duties. Internally there is a specially designed crossover network so no extra outboard processing is required. According to HZ, the rotationally moulded cabinet is "extremely tough and lightweight", and is fitted with a tilting top hat that allows the user to better direct the sound towards the audience.

Explaining the move away from a bullet HF device, HZ say: "Ribbons have the advantage over the more common compression driver or piezo tweeter in that the entire ribbon is immersed in the magnetic field, as opposed to only the voice coil in a tweeter or compression driver, so the ribbon follows the input signal more honestly. This means that the sound is not distorted or coloured by the device, and this in turn makes the sound they produce far more natural and neutral, without compression when driven hard, so they sound the same at all volumes.

"They are also far more directional than other HF devices, with a very wide horizontal dispersion for better coverage giving a wider sweet spot with no dropout. They also have tight vertical dispersion so the sound goes where you want it to go. This also increases the throw of the cabinet."

The barebone specs promise a frequency response of 40Hz to 20kHz, two Speakon connectors, 100 x 90-degree dispersion characteristics, sensitivity of 101dB (1W @ 1m), power handling of 500W RMS and a peak SPL of 128dB.

A pair of the new HZ boxes will set you back £1099.

HZ +44 (0)1749 840102

www.hzsoundsystems.com