Just picked up a pair of Silver 5's and a Silver Center, and man I have never heard hometheater sound so good. the soundstage is deep and 3dimensional and really draws one into the movie. The opening sequence on the Desperado DVD is unbelievable. I have them bi-wired to a Denon avr-2700 and that has no problem driving these speakers. I have been looking for home theater speakers for about a year now and am very satisfied with my decision to go with the 5's, AND they are a beautiful looking speaker on top of the great sound!!

These speakers are a joke. I compared them to a pair of B&W CDM 7SE which are a little bit more expensive (obviously better brand) of the Silver 5 and the CDM 7SE blew them away hands down. The highs are more detailed and smoother on the CDM 7SE. The midrange is so forward and 2 dimensional sounding on the Monitor 5 that Sade's voice sounded like she was in a box. I set her free once I switched over to the CDM 7SE. It is amazing how one company could make a product which not only looks better, but sounds superior. Don't waste your time with the Monitor 5 garbage cans, go out and audition the CDM 7SE. Those who make the comparison will see the light of day and realize just how bad the Monitor Silver 5 speakers really are.

These speakers are simply fantastic, the best value for the money I've ever heard. Their imaging is remarkably good, and EVERY TIME I open my eyes again, I just can't believe such sound is coming from these little, inexpensive towers. You simply can't go wrong with them. Even if you upgrade to megaspeakers in a few years, you'll want to keep them around for a second system.
Their little drivers pump out so much bass that the speakers need some isolation from the floor. Putting them on the provided spikes and loading them with shot or sand will noticeably tighten the bass, and I recommend it to everyone who buys a pair. I have yet to try bi-wiring, but will as soon as I've upgraded my amp. (One word of warning: these speakers will induce upgradeitis for the rest of your system. Once you've heard what they can do, you just want to feed them a better signal to get more of it.)

I give them an enthusiastic five speaker rating.

Imaging, Soundstage, Finish and so much more.

None

These speakers are amazing! The image is dead center and way above the speakers. The soundstage is wide but placement is critical. Clarity and speed are also fantastic.
It really pulls you into the music!

It goes low enough for me and if I wanted more bass, I would
buy a sub. My room is 12' x 9'. I have them loaded with 20Lbs of sterilized kiln dried sand.

The fit and finish are also top notch and the Wife Acceptance Factor is very high.

My music is Dance, Trans, Rock, Metal, Classical, Jazz
in that order. These speakers are competent in all categories.

I've read the negative reviews and say this:
If $4 drivers can sound like this then kudos to the engineer
who accomplished this. If the breakdown is $50 for parts and $950 for engineering, then so be it!

As with anything, don't just buy it but go listen to them for yourself. If you do buy them, don't feel guilty based on someone elses review! Let YOUR ears be the judge.

Stuff:

(System 1)
Panamax Max 1000+ Line Conditioner
Rotel RC-972 Preamp
Rotel 960 AX DPL Processor
Rotel RT-940 Tuner
Rotel RCD-971 CD Player
Technics AC-SH500 DD processor
Panasonic A110 DVD Player
Harman Kardon Signature 2.1 Amp
Monitor Audio 5i x2
Monitor Audio 10i Center
Tannoy Mercury M1 x2 (Rears)

(System 2)
Yamaha 2095 Receiver
Cerwin Vega! CVT-10 x2
Cerwin Vega! CVT-7LCR Center
Tannoy Mercury M1 x2 (Rears)
Hitachi DVP-505 DVD Player
JVC MC-334 200 Disk Changer as Transport

Clarity, acurracy, amount of base, VOCALS, looks

height

5i’s are incredible speakers that could sell for a lot more, a definite buy. I have been listening to my 5i’s for almost a year now and still no regrets. In my at home audition the runner up was PSB Bronze which had better base for needed for instruments. But they didn’t have the soundstage, clarity, or looks of the monitors. NHT 2.5 sound great in the store, but I get them home and they sound terrible. I guess you do need expensive equipment to play with NHT. Lastly, Paradigms Studio 60 had scratchy highs which knocked them out of contention early on.

For vocals nothing comes close. The clarity is undeniable. I can hear everything and then some. My favorite auditioning song was Black by Pearl Jam. Eddies voice is incredible and the Monitors prove it. Plenty of base, but if you want the full sound spectrum a sub woofer is needed. There is a price to pay for incredible sound. Metallica fans might prefer the PSBs for the extra base, which is noticeable in the beginning of Sanitarium. Unfortunately I was not able to find a speaker great vocals and the full sound spectrum for $1200. So I choose Monitor 5i and I am counting on a good subwoofer to make up the difference.

Similar Products Used:

PSB Bronze, Paradigm Studio 60, NHT 2.5, Energy XL26, Definitive, Polk Audio

Tight bass for such small speakers.

None.

One of the finest speakers I've own.

Similar Products Used:

Atlantic Technology

Looks,Excellent finish, build quality and very,very detailed sound.

None so far

I purchased the speakers a couple of weeks ago.First what made the deal so sweet was, that they were showroom speakers so i got them for half the price.
2nd i already owned a pair of MA 700PMC which i used to drive with a Audiolab 8000S and they sounded wonderful.
I've kept them for the surrounds and now use the Silver 5's as main speakers.
I love the detailed sound they produce and the bass, but then again i auditioned them with the Marantz SR 7000 and didn't like them at all. The SR 7000 is a very "smooth" amp and the lack of bass on the MA are not exactly the ideal speakers to match with the SR 7000. I now drive them with the new AMC R9 and love the sound.Bass is deep enough for me even without the sand in them and the detail is amazing.My 700PMC produce detailed sound but these babies go well beyond that.Noted no difference in bi-wiring them.
Conclusion: be careful which amp you choose.

AMP: AMC R9
Surrounds: MA 700 PMC
Center: MA Silver 10

Similar Products Used:

listened to B&W, Infinity and Acoustic Energy.None comes close to my mind.

yes, i am back, with another good tweak for these speakers. unlike my past recommendations, these will cost you a bit of money, and these tweaks can be applied to any speaker, but i find that they are very synergystic with the monitor audio silver 5's. the first one comes with a little story attached to it: a while back I had one of my drivers go out & needed to replace it. when I took it off to put on the new one, I looked in the speaker to see what the inside looked like. Suprise - there is no crossbracing in this speaker whatsoever. No vibration control at all, except for some foam that is stuffed around the sides & back. So, I went to audioadvisor.com and ordered a pair of tekna sonics vibration control panels that attach directly to the back of your speakers. on most speakers i think these would be a waste of money since most are already crossbraced, but it is very evident after applying them that the silver 5's benefit a great deal from them. about the same time that the vibration absorbers showed up, so did some new interconnects and speaker wire I had ordered from pure silver sound (www.puresilversound.com) This is pure silver wire (99.99% pure) that you can buy for a song (as little as $69 for a pair of interconnects). this wire is a perfect match for the silver 5's as it completely tames that bit of copper edge that most people hear when they say this speaker is bright. actually i think that this speaker is so accurate that it lets you hear the true nature of copper wire & it is the wire, not the speakers, that are responsible for the forward sound. my speakers are now very smooth and have just the right ammount of warmth to the sound.

so how do they sound overall? damn good! better than anything even close to its price bracket. better than every nht speaker, paradigm, dynaudio, vandersteen, psb, b&w (except the nautilus 802, but even that is close) meadowlark, jamo, sonas faber, or thiel that i have heard. the only speakers that clearly best them are the monitor audio studio 50 & 60, and the hales transcencence 8. but these are seriously more expensive speakers. up to around $8000 you simply cannot do any better.

Great soundstaging, imaging, very detailed.

Extension of bass is not enough.

Have bought Silver 5i for 2 weeks. When the first pair delivered to me, I found that there's no sound coming out from the tweeter of the left speaker. Then I changed a pair with the shop. The second pair is perfectly okay. I partnered it with Denon AVR 3300 and Marantz CD-17DA. The sound is very detailed with great soundstaging and imaging. However the bass extension is not enough. I'll try to mass load it with lead later. Also the sound is a little bit bright, maybe due to not enough break in. But for a price tag of US$ 620 in HK, it's definitely a best buy.

Geat looks, Awesome sound

Has good bass, but really needs a sub for the LFE's

I had listed at a local audio store to the B&W 602's,CDM 1, and CDM 7. I fell in love with the clarity and "realism" of the sound reproduction from theses speakers. My budget, however, would have restricted me to the 602's which aren't very visually appealing with the VINYL construction. It was during this time that I came across Monitor Audio speakers on audioreview.com. Luckily, I came found someone on the net who was selling brand new Monitor Audio speakers at heavily discounted prices. After reading the reviews on this website, I bought them without ever having listened to them because there is no local dealer. (I know this is a big no no in the audio world.)
Anyway, they have definitely lived up to my expectations and I think they sound just as good as the B&W's. PLUS, they look awesome!!! To the people who have complained about "build quality" I have no idea what they are talking about. I mean these things look (and sound) like works of art!!

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM 7