New Hightower.
Please bear in mind I'm not racing and in the stages of recovery from neck surgery so it's not a 100% effort review in relation to velocity or big air time but here's what I've found so far.
In short, the Mezzer is still awesome. Best air fork I've tried. Period.
The Lyrik with the Avy damper...Mezzer still beat it (for my riding atm). The chassis stiffness of the Mezzer helps with tracking over rough stuff immensely and whilst the Lyrik is a stiff fork the Mezzer is a step above and gives more confidence in this regard.
The damping in the Avy seems firmer than the Mezzer in the car park test, almost too firm, but on the trail it eats the bumps extremely well. You can tell the Avy has been designed to go fast and the faster you go the more controlled it feels. At this point I would still take the Mezzer for my riding at this time...if I was racing I might lean towards the Avy for ultimate smashability.
The smashpot with the Avy in the Lyrik is as good as you would think. With other dampers I was running heavier spring rates to assist with compression but now I can lean on the damper for more control and am dropping to a 50lb spring (160mm travel) which will give more of that plushness coil is renowned for. I'll leave it there for now to get a couple of rides on the 50lb spring and then report back.
I'll be keeping the Lyrik/Avy/Smash and a Mezzer as my go to forks.....I now have a spare Mezzer which I'm thinking about selling