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Unofficial Monitor Audio Owner Thread

musichal

musichal

poet emeritus
I have lived with the Silver 6 for several months now, and love the sound more than any other speaker I've owned. Clarity, resolution is excellent. A two-and-a-half-way design, the upper woofer is tuned via a port high on the rear of the cabinet to a higher frequency (handing the mids) than the lower woofer, which is tuned by a front port lower on the front of the cabinet. Both are 6" woofers, which appear identical. The tweeter is a one-inch dome.

All drivers are constructed from ceramic-coated aluminum magnesium (C-CAM), the tweeters with a thin gold deposit, I guess for damping. C-CAM, developed for some use associated with jet engines, is very light and rigid. The rigidity of the woofers is enhanced by attractive dimples arrayed concentrically around the middle of the driver. I figure that allows the use of thinner C-CAM, keeping mass down.

Fit and finish is wonderful, from any view, using real wood veneer. The backs as well as the front and sides. Driver mounting is via a single fastener for each driver accessed from the back of the speaker, tightened with a common Allen wrench. Dual gold-plated binding posts allow bi-wire/bi-amp located low on rear, which is nice. As are the easy on/off magnetic grill covers.

They've been discontinued now, but I see are yet available from some vendors. Crutchfield has them today on a scratch and dent deal for just $399 each. I paid about $1100/pr for mine. The new Silver 300, with improvements (three-way now, adding a four-inch MR driver, among others) are the same price (each).

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Click the pic to see the dimpled woofer treatment, and gold tweeter.

So the Silver 300 is likely the better way to go now, at the full price, but I have no regret. I made a good choice.

Tell us about your Monitor Audio speakers, old or new.
 
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Which ones? I've owned a full 9.1 set of Gold Refs (GR60pr, GRC, 2xGR10pr, GRFXpr, FB212), currently own a full 7.0 (i.e. no MA sub) set of Gold Sigs (GS60pr,GSC,2xGS10pr), a 7.0 in-wall (2xW380LCRpr, GRC (will use baffle/drivers only for in-wall center),C380LCRpr), and a Silver 5i minitower pair (actually before they went to the 'i') each with its own slaved ASW210 sub (dual 10"). Plus some odd Silver 10i centers to supply drivers and a pair of 3i bookshelves I'm experimenting on.
 
I'm surprised at the lack of multiple responses to this thread. Monitor Audio has been building some very good-sounding speakers for many years, so while I realize that the majority of folks here are into vintage speakers, I'd expected to hear from owners of older MA models. Bound to be some nice ones on the used market. Watch for them, you might find something you like. Although I'd read about the brand for years, I never heard any until about twenty-five years ago at a dealer in Memphis, TN, and was favorably impressed. Which factored into my ordering a new pair even though I hadn't heard them. A gamble that paid off, for me.

And this is my 11,000th post - first time I noticed one of my own kilo-milestones at the time posted since I've been a member.
 
I own a pair of 1976 MA-3. They sound fantastic and are beautifully built. Unfortunately I have other speakers I listen to more frequently, so they don't get a lot of play time. But I can't bring myself to sell them. The sound far outpaces their value in the used market.
 
Congratulations on the milestone Musichal! I have not had the good fortune to hear any of the Monitor Audio line but can't recall reading anything but good things about their stuff. Definitely would be a top contender for me if I was in the market for a new set of speakers...
 
A pair of Gold Series 10's.here. I really like these bookselves. Had them a couple years now, and they never disapoint.
 
I love my Silver 6's. They're relatively near-field in the home theater and I never miss a word, which is more than I can say for some of the systems I've heard in local theaters. The subwoofer is MA, but of a slightly older generation with an external amp, instead of the defunct plate amp that it came with (I got it for a song)

5.1HomeTheatre.gif EvilCat.gif
 
I have the little BX1s and really like them in the bedroom. I bought them used from a friend that was using a 13 watt receiver on them but don’t think they had enough gas. I hooked my G-4500 to it and was blown away. My friend that I bought them from said they never sounded like that. I want to get the newer slightly larger bookshelf’s one day.

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musichal said:
I'm surprised at the lack of multiple responses to this thread. Monitor Audio has been building some very good-sounding speakers for many years, so while I realize that the majority of folks here are into vintage speakers, I'd expected to hear from owners of older MA models.
Click to expand...

I have a pair of Rose Wood MA3 Mk II in my system.

have a listen



 
musichal said:
You mic'd the recordings above? Doesn't sound like a feed. What do you use?
Click to expand...
My iPhone 6s, so basically mono recording of the room. My Canon 5D Mk II sounds terrible, been wanting a nice stereo mic for that camera. This way the mic can stay in the sweet spot as you walk around with the camera. I have a digital recorder, a Marantz PMD580 but that's just recording the signal, no amp, speaker or room influence.
 
Nice! My MA3 are rosewood too. The elliptical woofer is an EPI unit, I believe.

This thread has inspired me to get mine out and listen to them again. They really are quite good.
 
I have a pair of monitor audio silver 3i bookshelf speakers. I gave them to my dad, I mostly only use bookshelfs on a desk with a PC nowadays, and in that role I prefer my coaxial, or planar tweeter speakers.

I recently picked up a pair of monitor audio silver 5i towers. Really like them so far, they compare well to my previous favorite (Thiel 04a).The Thiel still does vocals better, but I'm hoping to see if that's still the case after recapping the crossover in the MA. I've recapped the electrolytics in the Thiels, nothing special, just some Dayton 5% caps. I'll probably use the same or similar caps in my MA silver 5i.
 
I recently had an eye-opening experience with my Silver 6 speakers and speaker cable. I was using generic OFC, high-strand-count 16 gauge speaker wire in 8' runs - the common, poorly-marked (polarity), clear-dielectric sort. I replaced them with Silverback 12 gauge cable, which ran $19 per speaker for 10 ft runs, not really expecting to hear a difference. I ordered them for a little extra length for my upcoming bookshelf speaker shoot-out.

After Christine hooked 'em up for me, I sat in my chair playing with my computer, then became engrossed with the music. This turned into a marathon listening session - all night long and half the following day. Improvement top to bottom. The bass integration between the Silver 6 and the subwoofers was the most dramatic improvement. Nice return from a $38/pair expenditure.

I'd never heard differences from speaker cable when I'd sampled some different (and more expensive) cables years ago, but then my system wasn't up to Monitor Audio and Levinson standards then, either. It isn't a rabbit hole I intend to jump too far down, but am now more interested in trying out some other options. If you're a cable cheapskate like me, give Silverback by Sewell a try - available from Amazon. I believe an AK buddy may send me something a bit more high-end to try out, as a loan.
 
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