Gauss greatness comes courtesy of the long-gone Gauss Speaker Company, a well-respected — albeit short-lived — division of Cetex Gauss based out of Sun Valley, California that rose to prominence in the early Seventies with a high-powered line of loudspeakers that found their way into PA systems, studio monitors, and instrument amplifiers — even guitar giant Fender offered Gauss speakers as a high-end upgrade for select amplifiers!
Although Gauss was well known amongst the very best brands for the extreme engineering, high-quality manufacturing, and tons of power applied to its products, the close of the Eighties sadly sped up the company’s closure as the rapid rise of digital equipment put paid to its tape duplication equipment business. But Gauss remains an ageless classic and Avantone Pro now decided to bring the name back with its Gauss 7 active (Bi-Amped Class D) full-range, two-way reference monitor.
The custom, patented-design 2.5” (65mm) GAU-AMT tweeter lies at the heart of the Gauss 7 monitors by providing all details and delivering improved stereo imaging while maintaining a small vertical throw. This reduces unwanted acoustic reflections in a room, helping to minimize phase issues in an acoustic environment. According to the company, the impressive transient response of the GAU-AMT tweeter comes courtesy of its 65mm PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) film-folded membrane. Duly chosen as it is the lowest resonant frequency film, PET film also hosts the lowest crossover point — and all while still providing exceptional high-range frequency extension. The tweeter’s coil is aluminum-etched PET film, folded. Furthermore, the assembly is mounted in its own enclosure to prevent backwave pressure from the woofer.
Woofer-wise, the Gauss 7 monitors are inspired by the Avantone Pro’s AV10-MLF ‘white cone’ construction, yet still engineered from the ground up in a 7” (178mm) Ferrite Motor GAU-7MLF low-frequency driver. Ultimately, the woofer cone itself is a pressed design, fabricated from the same proprietary blend of wood pulp and glass fiber found in the company’s CLA-10 series’ AV10-MLF woofer, with majorly increased materials to provide the hard snap and fast transient response of the CLA-10 series but benefitting from majorly increased low end. A rear-firing bass port gives Gauss 7 a controlled yet punchy low end with a tight response — without exhibiting the typical ‘over-hyped’ low end found in other monitors in its price range.
In other words, the Gauss 7 monitors combine improved midrange performance and a low-end reference reaching right down to 30Hz. The woofer’s motor structure is made of low-carbon 1008 steel, in order to enable the highest amount of magnetic flux density between the pole pipe and the top plate, while the SBR surround ensures that the excursion of the woofer is optimized.
With an high-end frequency response reaching up to 22kHz, the Gauss 7’s are ready for handling a wide range of sound and musical materials as demanded of reference monitors, built to work for hours on end. Rounding out its impressive specifications, the monitors are powered by a 120W low-frequency amplifier channel with 60W for high-frequencies, generating 103dB (Peak) SPL with 0.5% THD.
The enclosure features balanced XLR and 1/4” TRS inputs in the back panel, which also provides easy- to-use controls for fine-tuning the system to work well within whatever room it is installed, such as a three-position Acoustic Placement switch (allowing anyone to optimize Gauss 7 to boundary spaces within that room), an adjacent three-position High Trim switch (helping to refine additional room issues), and a Gain control (for proper system calibration).
The Gauss 7 monitors will be shipping globally in early June 2021, available at Avantone Pro’s US Dealers with a price of $799.00 USD per pair (MAP). (European suggested selling price is €799.00 EUR, excluding VAT, with worldwide Distributors listed by country here).
www.avantonepro.com
