Mosconi – The Epitome Of Aural Excellence
Italian car audio designer Mosconi was conceived towards the end of 2008, originating as a diversification of the esteemed MOS electronics company. Ivan Mosconi, driven by his love for electronics and passion for sound; brought together a team of designers and engineers with an accumulated wealth of experience in the professional audio sector. Not long after that, in the summer 2009; Mosconi released its first range of products. The rest is history, suffice to say that hitherto Mosconi has remained true to the simple philosophy of injecting all its talent and experience into providing products able to the improve everyday life of society through aural artistic expression. Mosconi engineers continue to strive towards this goal today, remaining faithfully dedicated to the constant pursuit of refining and improving technologies to produce world class products without compromise.

Zero Series - Remaining Pure And Faithful To The Source
With the amplifier world rapidly stampeding towards a state wherein class D switching is anecdotal to anything large, Mosconi engineers deliberately stipulated that the Zero range of amplifiers remain full class AB. For aside from providing enough grunt to power an apartment block, the Zero amplifiers are designed to produce sound that is pure, extremely linear and absolutely true to the source. They were also tasked with introducing minimal colouration and next to no artifacts, all with a distortion level well below the threshold of human hearing. Welcome to the Zero series, a range of amplifiers that truly amplify only the music and zero else.

Design Ideologies
Despite its comparatively diminutive size as a company Mosconi nonetheless boasts a sizable amplifier stable. The pinnacle of this stable are the mighty Zero range. Boasting a class AB topology rather than a class D despite their enormous size, the Zero units output a perfected sound that’s able to remain most pure and linear, with a total harmonic distortion well below human hearing.

Power Aplenty
The four channels or the ZERO 4 output just over 100 watts continuous into front channels A and B and 210 into rear channels C and D when presented with a four ohm load. Loading it down to two ohm will return you over 145 watts and 325 watts per pair respectively. Total harmonic distortion listed on the website complies with CEA2006 and simply states it as less than 1%. That might not sound too flash however digging a little further reveals that when outputting at 90% power levels this sucker is still running a total harmonic distortion of only 0.075% at four ohm and 0.08% at two ohm! Now that, ladies and gentlemen; is clean. You can actually run it at one ohm too however for the longevity of the amplifier I suggest you don’t. It’s not so much that it cannot do it, it’s just that you’ll start pushing into thermal territory you don’t want any amplifier to be in; well not if you want it to last for years instead of months. For red hot components have a nasty habit of hastily expiring. Of course the unit can also be bridged, with you receiving over double your power with still insanely low distortion levels. Mosconi don’t pay a lot of attention to bridges or maximum figures though and quite wisely too. You don’t spend much time running your engine at 8000rpm despite it being stable at that range; by the same token you shouldn’t really be running your amplifier to within an inch of its life continuously either. Domination over undesired cone movement and controlled deceleration is astonishing thanks to a damping factory of around 1050 and if you’re wondering if that’s impressive; it’s widely agreed that humans cannot tell much over 50. Reciprocal accuracy is maintained thanks to its incredible slew rate and its separation of 64dB thus ensures minimal channel bleed and this factor is something overlooked by many people. If you’re a serious audiophile spending thousands trying to get everything perfect including the staging and imaging then the last thing you need is an amplifier with bad separation. Signal to noise ratio is an impressive 99dB meaning it’s an extremely quiet amplifier that introduces very little artefacts into the sound stream during playback and lastly frequency response is an absurd 5Hz through to a stunning 85kHz meaning you can annoy anything from blue whales through to Labradors.

A Physique Most Comely
Physically speaking Mosconi amplifiers can be a little hit and miss; with some entry level units resembling metallic echidnas. However as you rise through the ranks the looks improve to the point where you arrive at the Zero design which are quite simply visually stunning. The outer case is constructed from cast aluminium and can be purchased with either a silver or white powder coated finish. The Mosconi logo is embossed into the top and located strategically around the top edge are various black panels. Despite looking similar these panels actually hide various forms of functionality, including everything from air intakes and exhaust ports along the middle sections through to the end two covering the power, speaker and RCA terminals and the aural controls at the other end. Control wise you’re offered the ability to either high-pass from 20Hz – 175Hz or low-pass from 50Hz – 300Hz and there’s also the option of band-passing the two together. Crossover slopes are second order 12dB with a Q logarithm of 0.7.

Internal Wizardry
Removing the top plate for a peak at the hardware; the design topology is exquisite. It’s clean, smartly laid-out and well; very orange! Packed with quality hardware, the story starts with a small bank of capacitors to stiffen and smoothen the incoming voltage before its shunted into large air-core transformers in order to be stepped up to the final voltage. From here the power is then stored in high voltage capacitors ready to be distributed to one very large array of quality output transistors, with them literally lined all the way along the back edge of the heat sink and across the middle of the front edge. They’re clamped to heat sinks which are lined up beneath the aforementioned air vents on the outer case. Demonstrating common sense if nothing else; all sound processing circuitry is kept at the opposite end well away from these seriously sized current handling devices with the entire layout designed to achieve the maximum thermal coefficient whilst remaining as electrically transparent as possible.

It’s All In The Auditioning
Given the number of Zero units we’re tested and installed over the years here at Fhrx Studios; we’re well able to report on their setup and operation. Setting the gains is easy enough because put simply; they stayed on zero. We didn’t need to even turn it up before having the ability to bottom out the speakers; such is the enormous power this unit can output. Manipulating the gains a little though in order to test noise levels results in one extremely quiet amplifier with literally no hiss until it’s right at full tilt; and even then it’s insignificant. When playing actual sinusoidal music the amplifier is downright scary, not only volumetrically but also pertaining to its ability to consummate the aural experience. Reproducing anything low, subbass through to midbass and midrange; the amplifier drives the speakers with incredible force and precision, thus allowing you to hear every single drum beat with a clarity that is dreamy. The high frequencies remain crystal clear too, staying superbly clear from the outset and remaining that way right up until the point of ear bleed. Linearity wise the ZERO3 adds very deviation and overall the tonal control and atmosphere it creates is magnificent. Last but not least we tested it bridged with multiple subwoofers. Naturally given its ability to handle everything else you expect subsonic performance to be superb and it doesn’t disappoint; with the combination of power and damping factor making for some of the most accurate and impressive cone movement this side of Willie Nelson.

Design Features
– Class AB topology.
– 1 Ohm stable.
– Damping factor exceeds 1000.
– High signal to noise ratio for noiseless operation.
– Extremely low distortion or all forms.
– Regulated power supply.
– Automatic remote functionality.
– Cross over with separate high pass, low pass and band pass filters.
– Remote volume control RTC_MOS (optional) ready.
– Soft touch side panels with red LED illumination.

Electrical Specifications
– Nominal configuration: four channel class AB amplifier
– Continuous power @ 4 Ohms: 2 x 100 + 2 x 210 Watts
– Continuous power @ 2 Ohms: 2 x 145 + 2 x 325 Watts
– Continuous bridged power @ 4 Ohms: 1 x 290 + 1 x 650 Watts
– Frequency response: 5 Hz – 85000 Hz
– Total harmonic distortion: 0.075 %
– Damping factor: 1050
– Signal-to-noise ratio: 99 dB

Physical Specifications
– Length: 450 mm
– Width: 250 mm
– Height: 50 mm
– Weight: 5.1 kg

Documentation
– Specifications sheet
– User manual

Important Disclaimers
Given the dynamic nature of electronics industries these days; below are listed some very important specifics you need to be aware of.

Brand Authorization And Stock Sourcing
We are a fully authorised Australian dealer of this brand and all stock is sourced through legitimate channels. It therefore enjoys full Australian warranty, backing and support.

Pricing Structure
Whilst we endeavor to offer the best price possible, we ask that if you do find a better price elsewhere from an authorised dealer; please contact us. Also be aware that we regularly conduct group buys and sales, therefore pricing can sometimes be subject to change without notice.

Stock Structure
Being a dynamic store is conducive to our inventory constantly changing. We list only a small portion of our stable online, usually products most popular. Aside from these we also stock numerous other variants and configurations of these products, hence if you don’t see what you’re after please contact us.

Shipping
All our products are shipped with registered and insured postage. Upon ordering you’ll be issued with a receipt, a consignment note via which you can track your order, and we’ll also SMS you photos of the package for identification purposes.

Technical support
This last one we cannot emphasise enough! Please contact us if you require any further information or assistance with the setup and use of this product, especially pertaining to aspects more technical. As we want you to get the very best from this product.