lattiboy
Well-Known Member
I had just watched this old review from Thomas & Stereo where he gushed uncharacteristically about their sound quality. I find him to be the most reasonable YouTube reviewer, rarely going into hyperbole about every new piece of equipment he gets and always reminding people of the context of HiFi equipment and how "best" is usually relative and usually applies only to the price range being discussed. Also, he makes me fall asleep if I'm suffering from insomnia.
I then proceeded down the google rabbit hole and found So. Many. Reviews. saying they were very special kit.
Not a week later my "local pickup only" speaker search from eBay picked up something new: a rosewood pair of Monitor Audio RS6 about 10 miles away. After picking them up in the city I quickly swapped out my excellent Sony SS-TL5s and sat down with a drink to do some legit listening. I was underwhelmed. They sounded fine... I guess? They bested the Sony's in soundstage and detail, but the mids and bass were kind of... meh. Booo! Time and money wasted! Better get these up on Barter Town.....
As it turned out, during the 7,384,682 buttons and menus I had pressed during the transition of speakers and inputs, I managed to absolutely ruin everything:
- I had left the Audiseey XT32 EQ profile for the Sony's on for the MAs
- I had somehow disabled my dual 12" Infinity SUB R12s
- I had the polarity wrong on the right speaker (was I drunk???)
Ashamed of myself, I finally just disabled all EQ by enabling "pure direct" mode, re-enabled the subs and, well, Holy $hit! Mind-bending detail, highs right at the edge of too much but never going over, a shocking amount of low-end (I toggled the power to subs to test this), and they look sexy as all hell!
I will say these tend heavily toward detail on the "detail v. 'smoothness'" scale we all tend to use.
"Blue Eyes Cryin' In the Rain" sounded good and not harsh at all, but compared to the Sony's and other vintage speakers it didn't feel quite as "right". It felt like Willie was literally in front of me, not slightly around the corner crying into a beer as I believe that song should sound.
For pretty much every other type of music, these MAs were unstoppable.
"6 Summers" by Anderson Paak is one of my favorite songs in the last few years. It's well mastered and has so much going on it can be dizzying the first listen through on a good system. A driving baseline that kicks almost randomly, seemingly every auxiliary percussion instrument in existence, and a complete tone shift halfway through to a R&B jam.
"No Excuses" from the Alice and Chains MTV Unplugged album was where these speakers really became special. The opening 30 seconds or so is the true torture test of a system IMO. The MAs just slaughtered it. I won't even waste words here, suffice it to say I found a new personal benchmark for speakers. At current used prices ($400-600) these are an absurd value. Absurd!
Note: These were tested in pure direct mode, with no EQ. I will be re-running the Audissey mic calibration with these, as the bass management on it is amazing. I'll update this review when I get time to do that.
Test system:
Tidal Hifi (and some Plex FLAC streaming) > Chromecast Audio via toslink > Musical Fidelity vDac first gen > Denon 3500H receiver preouts >
Crown XTi2000 amp > Monitor Audio RS6 Silvers and 2x Infinity SUB R12s
A few test songs:
Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Anderson Paak - 6 Summers
Alice in Chains - No Excuses (unplugged)
Four Tet - Daughter
Hans Zimmer - Day One
Pimps of Joytime - Bonita
Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon
Leslie Odom Jr. - Stronger Magic
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Breathless
The Time Tomorrow - The Kinks
Khruangbin - August 10
Beck - Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime
I then proceeded down the google rabbit hole and found So. Many. Reviews. saying they were very special kit.
Not a week later my "local pickup only" speaker search from eBay picked up something new: a rosewood pair of Monitor Audio RS6 about 10 miles away. After picking them up in the city I quickly swapped out my excellent Sony SS-TL5s and sat down with a drink to do some legit listening. I was underwhelmed. They sounded fine... I guess? They bested the Sony's in soundstage and detail, but the mids and bass were kind of... meh. Booo! Time and money wasted! Better get these up on Barter Town.....
As it turned out, during the 7,384,682 buttons and menus I had pressed during the transition of speakers and inputs, I managed to absolutely ruin everything:
- I had left the Audiseey XT32 EQ profile for the Sony's on for the MAs
- I had somehow disabled my dual 12" Infinity SUB R12s
- I had the polarity wrong on the right speaker (was I drunk???)
Ashamed of myself, I finally just disabled all EQ by enabling "pure direct" mode, re-enabled the subs and, well, Holy $hit! Mind-bending detail, highs right at the edge of too much but never going over, a shocking amount of low-end (I toggled the power to subs to test this), and they look sexy as all hell!
I will say these tend heavily toward detail on the "detail v. 'smoothness'" scale we all tend to use.
"Blue Eyes Cryin' In the Rain" sounded good and not harsh at all, but compared to the Sony's and other vintage speakers it didn't feel quite as "right". It felt like Willie was literally in front of me, not slightly around the corner crying into a beer as I believe that song should sound.
For pretty much every other type of music, these MAs were unstoppable.
"6 Summers" by Anderson Paak is one of my favorite songs in the last few years. It's well mastered and has so much going on it can be dizzying the first listen through on a good system. A driving baseline that kicks almost randomly, seemingly every auxiliary percussion instrument in existence, and a complete tone shift halfway through to a R&B jam.
"No Excuses" from the Alice and Chains MTV Unplugged album was where these speakers really became special. The opening 30 seconds or so is the true torture test of a system IMO. The MAs just slaughtered it. I won't even waste words here, suffice it to say I found a new personal benchmark for speakers. At current used prices ($400-600) these are an absurd value. Absurd!
Note: These were tested in pure direct mode, with no EQ. I will be re-running the Audissey mic calibration with these, as the bass management on it is amazing. I'll update this review when I get time to do that.
Test system:
Tidal Hifi (and some Plex FLAC streaming) > Chromecast Audio via toslink > Musical Fidelity vDac first gen > Denon 3500H receiver preouts >
Crown XTi2000 amp > Monitor Audio RS6 Silvers and 2x Infinity SUB R12s
A few test songs:
Willie Nelson - Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
Anderson Paak - 6 Summers
Alice in Chains - No Excuses (unplugged)
Four Tet - Daughter
Hans Zimmer - Day One
Pimps of Joytime - Bonita
Frank Sinatra - Fly Me To The Moon
Leslie Odom Jr. - Stronger Magic
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Breathless
The Time Tomorrow - The Kinks
Khruangbin - August 10
Beck - Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime
