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Review NaN of
, from Wisconsin
Price Paid:
$500.00
from local audio store Summary:
I felt I had to write a review of these excellent little speakers after seeing the other two reviewers unfairly give the 301's inappropriately low ratings that do not reflect accurately this speaker's qualities. I recently listened to a whole lot of sub-$800 speakers, as listed above, and these were the best speakers I heard in that price range; the Dynaudios were close, but otherwise, the Monitor Audio was a hands down winner over all the others. By the way, my reference standard is my custom made speakers that have the same drivers as the older model Thiel CS 1.5 and share a close physical and sonic resemblance to the Thiels.
If you read the other reviews carefully, the first reviewer is critical of the 301 because it has no bass if placed in the middle of a large room?! How many small speakers do? I believe that these speakers were designed to be front speakers, not rear surrounds, so that factor should not be a consideration unless you are looking solely for a home theater speaker. The second reviewer's conclusions made practically no sense at all, sound as if he more likely suffered from a cheap Radio Shack component, and he does not even describe the sound from the speaker. Quite possibly, these other two reviewers did not allow sufficient time to burn in these speakers, which is necessary with most speakers and audio components.
I would describe these speakers as an audiophile monitor (i.e. a small speaker designed to reproduce accurately all of the details and characteristics of music in a smaller room), rather than just stereo bookshelf speakers. Maybe others in this price range are better for home theater applications (have deeper bass, higher sensitivity, etc...) but the MA 301's were designed for playing music accurately and are very successful at doing that. They had a very large, impressive soundstage - they made music sound natural, as a good speaker should - and unlike virtually all of the other speakers I listened to, did not sound like a woofer and tweeter stuffed into a small, hollow enclosure. These were the most accurate speakers I have heard, of those listed above, for reproducing electric guitar, bass, drums, pianos and keyboards, and vocals, particularly male vocals. The B&W and Dynaudio perhaps had a touch more detail and were better on acoustic guitars, but lacked the MA's depth, focused midrange and reasonable bass and soundstage. I found the imaging to be very good also, probably the equal of the B&W's, but not quite as good as the Dynaudios. On Dire Straits' Private Investigations, the 301 made the keyboards sound like a piano, rather than the more electronic sounds of most other smaller speakers, and the deep heartbeat sounds were a sharp "tunk, tunk" sound, rather than a sloppy "boom, boom" sound. These speakers do full justice to Mighty Sam McClain's superb voice on Give It Up To Love, displaying his deep, rich soulfulness as it was meant to be heard, rather than the thinner, gravelly sound that most cheaper speakers produce; similarly, Knopfler's vocals have depth and presence with the Monitor Audios that is missing with the B&W's and others. The 301's handle a broad range of music very well - louder rocking songs from Luther Allison's Reckless CD sounded powerful, whereas the B&W's sounded thin and strained with tracks from that disk.
The two "weakest" areas about this speaker are the imaging and the bass, which obviously isn't as deep as that of a full range speaker and could be a bit tighter. However, these are very niggling little criticisms and the Monitor Audios were quite strong in those two areas compared to most other sub-$800 speakers.
Some comments on the other speakers I listed: I think the Paradigms are somewhat overrated speakers, as they lack much punch, are a bit lethargic during transitions to quicker/louder passages, have average imaging and below the Monitor 7, have small speaker characteristics (i.e., sound like they are playing within a small metal shed). I thought the PSB's sounded similar, but with even more of a small speaker sound and very poor imaging - most sound comes straight from the left and right speakers, rather than the central soundstage as a good speaker should. The Phase Techs sounded similar to the Paradigms, but handled bass a bit better and had a slightly better soundstage. The MB Quart is very clear and detailed but is probably the brightest speaker on the market, the sonic equivalent to a 500,000 watt spotlight. The JM Lab speakers were quite similar to the B&W's with slightly weaker detail and imaging, but better low end and beautiful wood cabinets. The Athenas sounded pretty similar to the Paradigms and Phase Techs, had nicer wood cabinets, but still sounded small, even when attached to the dual, matching subwoofer units (the dual subs are a poor value in my opinion). The little Polks were a pleasant surprise and I don't really disagree about the Stereophile editor who recently gave them a budget product of the year award (except the Monitor Audios deserved it more, but they may be a now-discontinued model). The $260/pr RT-25i has the best soundstage and most accurate reproduction of vocals and many instruments of any bookshelf speaker I have heard under $350; the B&W 303 has more detail and clarity, but the Polks just sound smoother and more satisfying on non-acoustic music. The Mirage bookshelves are forgettable and have very low sensitivity. However, the Mirage FRX 5 small tower speaker is a very nice unit, that has good overall balance of all characteristics; it is more efficient than the Mirage bookshelves but still needs reasonably strong amplification and is very, very smooth and mellow sounding (too much so for fans of metal, rap or punk). This speaker can be obtained at tweeter.com for $300 including shipping ($550 MSRP) and is a steal, one of the best deals one can find on a new speaker.
However, given the Monitor 301's strengths, I would say that it is an equal bargain compared to the Mirage. This small bookshelf plays a lot better than most of the speakers approaching or exceeding double its price and would be very satisfying for listening to music for the long term. There are obviously better speakers out there on the market - a $10,000 pair of Martin Logans should very well sound better - but given this price range, the 301 is a clear five star speaker for both value and overall performance.
P.S. I ultimately did not purchase the Monitor Audios because I was shopping for speakers for my sister and came across a mint used pair of Paradigm Monitor 7 floorstanders at more than 60% off retail that I judged would fit her tastes better. The Monitor 7's had a good, deep bass and a better soundstage, shedding the small speaker sound of its smaller siblings and improving on all of their weaknesses, although the Monitor Audios still outclassed them in every category except bass and efficiency. Had I been shopping for myself, I wouldn't have hesitated a second to buy the Monitor Audios. Strengths:
Compact, well made, very large soundstage, very accurate reproduction of most instruments and voices, sounds like a full size speaker Weaknesses:
No significant weaknesses for a small speaker at this price Similar Products Used:
B&W (303,601, 602); Paradigm (Atom, Titan, Mini Monitor, Monitor 5, Phantom, Monitor 7); Mirage (FRX 5, FRX 7, all in lower end bookshelf line); Phase Technology (all sub-$750 bookshelves); JM Lab ($300 and $450 bookshelves); Athena (model 1 and 2 bookshelves, w/ and w/o matching subs); Dynaudio (small $700 bookshelf); PSB (several sub-$600 bookshelves and towers); MB Quart ($800 bookshelf); and Polk RT-25i.
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