Detailed, Accurate, Great Soundstage

Low bass in HT

Well, I waited over 3 months to write this review. I wanted to give sufficient time for these to break in properly. I have the silver 5's mated with a Denon 5700, silver centre 10, silver surrounds and ASW210 sub. For music I use a Rega Planet CD player and for Home Theater I have a Toshiba SD-9000.

Let me get straight to the point. These are great speakers. At this price point they are a tremendous bargain. They were a little harsh (bright) in the beginning, but now they are very smooth. They are very accurate (detailed). They may not be as lush sounding as others (Paradigm 60 & 80's) but to my ears, they sounded much more natural. The instruments and voices sounded the way they should. For music I didn't feel a need for a subwoofer. The bass is tight, if not very low. For HT, you will definetly need a sub (review of ASW210 to follow). As good as these speakers are for music, they're awesome for HT (especially when mated with sub, cnter and suurounds). Music, dialogue, special effects, they're all there. I couldn't be happier.

The only tweak I've done so far is to angle the speakers back about 10 degrees. This improves the sound and makes up for the speakers small stature. I will try removing the screens in the future. I may also bass load them.

In closing, these are fantastic speakers. They look great (I've got the rose mahogony) and sound great. There's nothing else that comes close in this price range.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, NHT and many others within $1000 of this price range

Great detail (without fatiguing brightness)especailly on percusion and jazz.

Not the lowest of lows, but great for the size & $$$$

How do you like the speakers?? My salesman e-mailed me---

My reply---

The Silver 5's sounded terrible like the Centre 10 at first. I let them play 14 hours a day, mostly when I was not here and after 3 days they got much better. They sound very good now and should get better with each day. You and the various Forums are right about the need to have a matched center speaker. It makes the sound stage much more seamless than having two different brands like I had before. This week The Independent Film Channel had on the 1992 movie "Baraka" which is a art film odyssey of images from around the world set to music composed by world composers---primitive percussion and rather new age-- all in Dolby Digital. It was totally mesmerizing with these speakers. I think the Silver 5's will be spectacular with any type of percussion or very detailed well recorded material. Later today I will try Saving Private Ryan. I didn't want to make the comparison to the AR's until the Silver 5's were broken in more.

I notice that on some source material I need to play my Denon 3300 at 0db volume level !!! They seem to require about 6+db higher volumn levels across the board. I could not do that (play at 0db) with the AR's without worrying about the neighbors. I guess the Monitor's are a little less efficient. Maybe that will change as they break in. I don't think it is good for the Denon to output much above 0db. ??? I have to get used to the Silver 5's much smaller size. I tell people that they need Viagra. Once they are fired up their size seems to increase due to the surprising sound. Their small physical size will also let me be more creative in placement and living room design than the huge AR 90's which work better in my son's apartment where this is much less furniture.

I notice that the Silver 5's no longer have the square access panel on the back for adding sand or shot. They have a round plastic cap in the same area. I haven't tried to pry them open since they are not mentioned in the owners manual which refers to the previous design with the square panel and 4 screws. Any suggestions? By the way the build quality on the Mahogany Rose Wood is furniture grade. I am very glad I chose that finish over the other two. They look great.

As suggested I took out the round cheese grater tweeter protectors on all three units. I think they are held in place by nothing more than the tweeters' magnetic field.

For the money I couldn't have done better--maybe even at twice the price.

Similar Products Used:

NHT 2.5, AR90, Paradigm 60,

great detail

small stature

Great detail, crystal clear highs, and smooth midrange are this speaker's trademark. Great for movies too although you will need a sub, they can't do it alone. The bass is punchy but can't reproduce the impact of a good low frequency explosion. Quality rivals high end systems making the silver series a great entry point to high end gear at mid level prices. Build quility is top notch and may be one of the best looking speakers i have seen. I would say these are the best direct radiating speakers i have heard for under 2000 a pair. Definatly mate with high quality components or the flaws is your system will be revealed by these beauties.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 603, paradigm ref 80

Crisp and detailed sound, excellent built

Long time to burn in

I bought this beautiful speaker with the silver center. I would highly recommend this speaker for its excellent sound and value. One of my favorite is listening to Eva Cassidy's 'Field of Gold' and 'Songbird'. Wow. It is like she is alive and what a great voice.
I think it is great listening to guitars, piano, female vocals and smooth music like SADE or Fourplay with the MA5. I got a Yamaha 80 watts dolby digital amplifier, biwired with chord, monster interconnect, harman kardon CD player. I would never regret buying this beauty but if i have some more money to spare, I would probably buy the MA8i.
I would like to thank the management of Quality Hifi for the advise. I bought my Celestion Ditton from them as well.

Similar Products Used:

Celestion Ditton II

Great Sound, Small Package, Beautiful case (cherry finish), two sets of posts, Complete enjoyment

Will show up the weakness in the rest of your setup, a lot of money for a guy on a budget, but more than worth it

Bought a nice pair of Polks in the same price range as the Monitors (but were on sale, so I went with Polk) that had built-in subs, and was mystified at the sound I was getting. Went to the store where I'd auditioned the Monitors and bought them. Had a head-to-head duel in my house, and the difference was amazing. The Monitors were FAR better - more subtle, clean, better articulation and had excellent bass for speakers with no sub assisting.

To top it off, they were MUCH smaller (don't dominate the room) and the nice cherry finish looks great in my den.

I would venture to guess that the negative reviews you see here are the result of the ability of the Monitor Audio speakers to deliver out what is put in. Lesser speakers may sound "great" because they are masking the weak links in a setup with their own weaknesses. (my humble opinion)

In any case, I am completely satisfied and happy with what I got - I think you will be, too.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio towers w/ built-in sub (don't remeber model #)

Unusually detailed, crisp and clear sound.
Tight bass
Great looking

None what so ever.(for the price)

I have used this product for 3+ months now, and must say that I have never been more happy with any audio product.
This speaker has an unusually detailed and open sound. I've experimented with different speaker cables, and found that this speaker has an extraordinary potential as long as the rest of the gear can deliver. With an Pioneer VSA-E06 amp, MIT Terminator-2 biwire cables, Pioneer DV-717 player, and Leftfield's latest CD, the Silver 5i perform like no other in this price range. The heavy bass is wery much there, but they need the rest of the gear to cope up.
In this price range most people may not have the right gear to force this gems to do what they can at they'r very best.
In my opinion, there are none to touch them in this price range.
Five stars every time

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Acustic Energy

Great imaging, speed and fun!!!

POOR PACKAGING COMPARED TO OBVIOUSLY " BETTER BRANDS"

This is directed towards the guy who said " sade sounded like she was singing in a can " . What makes you so sure that B&W makes an " Obviously better brand ".My experience with that company is very negative. 3 models i have recently purchased (incl 7se) all poor fit and finish, all manafacturing flawes, all poor quality sound compared top the " obviously inferior M A silver 5's ). I must admit the B&w speakers all had nicer shipping boxes!!!!!!! I only gave them 4 stars because there has to be room for improvement.A good fun speaker!!

Similar Products Used:

CELESTION, B & W

After auditioning speakers for the past 3 months (I listened to everything from $700-$4000), I finally bought the Silver 5's today. They are the most accurate sounding speakers I could find. For only $950, they are by far and away the nicest sounding speakers I heard. I auditioned with all sorts of music, ranging from acoustic blues, to hard rock, to jazz to classical. Everything sounded perfect.
Again, for less than a grand, you won't find a better speaker. A big 5 stars.

I just ordered a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 5 from Tatum Electronics for $641, I called the company to confirm that this was the improved version and they assured me that it was, but then i discovered audioreview.com, and it appears that others have had difficulties with Tatum electronics. The local HiFi store had these for $900, and when I auditioned them there, I felt that they were by far the best speakers i've ever heard; better than many costing thousands more. I guess i'll have to wait 2 wks to see if Tatum will actually deliver my speakers. If they do I will let you guys know, as i see there are quite a few of you who are interested in these speakers.

I had these speakers plus the C10 for about 3 wks and the only thing I cansay is WOW!. I'm using them for music and home theater. The clarity, imaging,
and soundstage are EXCELLENT, EXCELLENT, and EXCELLENT. I have also auditionned
others (including the B&W products, good speakers but NOT EXCELLENT) and the
silver 5 is top in the high PERFORANCE low PRICE catalog. Can't wait for the break-in period to be over. I got the silver 5 for $1100.00 CAN (or 733.00 US).