Some of this is a cut and paste from the previous
Slew of Speakers Audition , but because the conditions were essentially the same (the same two stores, the same people auditioning and the same music/source disc being used) it all applies.
List of speakers and their prices: - Magnepan MG 1.6
$2500 per pair Cdn - Martin Logan Spires
~$9000 per pair Cdn - B&W 803DB
$9995 per pair Cdn - Monitor Audio Platinum PL100
$5500? per pair Cdn - Monitor Audio Silver S6s
$1800 per pair Cdn
Primary Test music:
Holly Cole Trio- I Can See Clearly Now (vocals, bass, clarity, high notes, sibilance)
Ambrosian Junior Choir- Sao Gan (vocals, pitch, echo)
Future Sounds of London- Unknown track (bass notes, detailed low end, stereo imaging)
Ashley Macissac- Sleepy Maggie (stereo imaging, complex midrange) Important Notes:
- These speakers were not auditioned in any A/B fashion.
- The speakers were not hooked up to all the same source equipment, although all were connected to ridiculously priced boutique brand sources and amps including Sim Audio, Moon Audio, Cary Audio, Arcam FMJ and a more common Denon 3803. Some of these components were tube units.
- Auditions involved two people whom for the most part concurred on the general sound characteristics of each speaker.
- Volumes were mostly SPL meter matched (at 88-90dB) and were approximated by the peak notes in the first song.
- Room acoustics were taken into mental consideration especially for echo and bass response to the best our minds could comprehend.
- These auditions were done in 2 separate locations. We tried to estimate some of the general highlighted bass effects that were occurring in one listening location that had a somewhat small listening rooms (<14x12) with a lot of wood walls and floors.
There are no ‘winners’ in our audition just to be clear.
I’m only reporting what two people perceived as sound character of each of these sets of speakers. Magnepan 1.6
Short summary: Sweet but hello bass?
I was very impressed with the sound from these Magnepans. Being my first time hearing them, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’ve read that you either hate the sound or love the sound. I guess I’m in the latter camp for the most part.
Why not all the way in that camp?
Because I feel they have a really disappointing low end.
During the audition we played a few songs that have a bass guitar, cello, kick drums and electronic tones that reach relatively deep but most would be classified in the 40-180 Hz and even low midrange. The Maggies just didn’t cover the range very well at all. These notes sounded distorted in comparison to other speakers (including some we heard in that same room a few minutes later). These frequencies sounded almost distorted, uncontrolled and undefined. It actually had not occurred to me until later when I was back at home and doing some reading that I recalled something about magneplanars having issues with bass. I went through some forum posts for other subjective evaluations of Magnepans including some decent sites such as this
link for a Soundstage review of Magnepan MMGs. It seemed to be a rather commonly posted opinion that as good as Magnepans were with soundstage, accuracy, midrange and “immersiveness” (all of which I highly agree), they have trouble with bass tones.
Many suggestions have come up about pairing them with a subwoofer and crossing them over at the 80-100 Hz mark. I would certainly love to hear such a combination and if it would work, if a match could be made, I would highly consider the Magnepans as a home speaker, for sound quality.
Given that these speakers are not enclosed in a wood cabinet, I would be stuck with the oh so superb black velvet cloth finish. For those who have not guessed, I am not a fan of black, let alone the boring black speaker cloth (thank you Axiom for options!!). In the aesthetics category, the Maggies do little for me, until we start talking about their pricier models again but at least the thin profile adds another element to consider.
That being said, I also have reservations about the power these speakers require. In a large room, just how much power would I need to successfully turn up the music to the point I can play my 94 dB/W/m Tannoys compared to the 86 dB/W/m Magnepans?
Ouch.
The very hefty Macintosh amps driving the Maggies had the power needles ramping up pretty high when the speakers were turned to the 88dB reference point we had set (at about 8-10 foot distance).
I was quite impressed with the overall sound quality of the Maggies, and the price was not as bad as I had thought. I would still buy such speakers on the used market, but had I been shopping for my first ever pair of speakers, I would not have been bothered by the $2500 price tag. For our present, large main floor room, I am thinking I would need some of the larger units to get the satisfaction I seek, perhaps even the MG20 series, and THAT would set me back over 10k!
B&W 803
Short summary: Balanced and refined but bass!I cannot say very much about the Bowers speakers as we did not spend much time with these before a salesman had to turn down the volume to accommodate speaking with another customer. However they generally sounded very good, balanced, refined midrange but heavy on the bass. I did not have time to evaluate the accuracy of the bass, but I found the bass output to be greater than my personal preference. I wonder if the 803s or the 804s with one less bass driver would have been a better blend of sound for my liking.
As is typical with B&W speakers, the build quality is hefty with interesting aesthetics, with or without the grilles in place. The finishes are typical wood veneer and matte finish.
A handsome speaker for any room.
BUT AT 10 GRAND??!!
They’re nuts.
Martin Logan
Short summary: Great imaging but bass??!!Unfortunately I cannot comment as much about the Martin Logan speakers either, since we auditioned them right near the end of our day’s session and we still wanted to move onto the MA Platinums and have time to spare.
Overall the Martin Logans fared better than the Maggies for bass control as they have a dedicated sub component, and it really showed. At first I thought they were ridiculously bass heavy and was thinking it had a lot to do with the room effect of the soft wood floors, but then the sales fellow realized the gain was turned up rather high. After reducing the gain the bass was much more controlled and pleasant (though still heavy in this particular listening room). The soundstage was nice, a bit more directional than the Maggies and hence I found the Magnepans to have better sound imaging. Even with the good soundstage, turning up the Martin Logans didn't do much to impress. The Magnepans were more immersive by far (but hey, also consider how much larger the Maggies have in surface area for creating sound).
This particular review is likely biased due to the short time I took with these speakers and the fact the day was nearing a long end. However, I am a fan of the general aesthetics of the speakers and they were certainly no slouch in the sound department. I just wasn’t impressed off the hop.
At $9000 a pair I just closed my eyes completely and went on to the next speaker set and decided to give these speakers a fair shake another day.
MA Platinum PL100
Short summary: Accurate high end, clear but undecided midrange, lots of low end for a bookshelf unit.We spent a good couple of songs worth listening to these new Monitor Audio Platinum speakers. MA has moved away from their long used metal tweeters in trade for a ribbon tweeter. I have not read much about these ribbon tweeters in the past (more so in the past day after the return home), but the first thing I heard in song 1 was how sharp the piano sounded. My auditioning partner noted that the triangle in the song was very detailed, it didn’t’ continue to ring and vibrate but rather made its annoying tingling noise and then ended. It just sounded clear and precise, period. The tweeter definitely displayed a ton of detail in the upper end which was pretty amazing. However, this also seemed to come with something of a downfall. These speakers were VERY directional. Moving a few inches left or right could start changing the sound (not very good off axis response possibly). I commented this to the sales fellow after song 1 (I could tell he was biting his lip to say something during the song, to tell us all about this new speaker) and before I could get out my complete thought, he had already finished what I was going to say. Their recommendation to potential buyers for these speakers was to make sure they have “a lot of room” (i.e. not a small space too close to the speaker) to really generate a good stereo image with these speakers. To me, that is a big negative. I love the sound but to have such a precise requirement for speaker placement and a sweet spot really sucks.
So we continued on, listening to the midrange and bass. For a pair of bookshelf units, these things can really hold their own against some small floorstanding speakers. The bass they exhibited for their size was quite huge, and not flabby, just robust. The midrange was a bit harder to pick out details. I could almost say it was recessed or perhaps somewhat muffled by the frequencies being played by the same woofer used for bass. I would have preferred to hear the PL300 floorstanding units which again have moved away from the long used 2.5 way driver design to the true 3 way (dedicated midrange) design. Many of my past thoughts on MA speakers were in regard to their somewhat overdone bass, a bit too warm, too excessive or too lingering. Remove the midrange-bass driver idea, have a dedicated midrange and see if that tempers the over warm bass.
If i were to compare the MA Silvers or Golds to the Platinum series, i would say the Platinums are not as bass warm as their earlier brethren. Definitely more refined.
It is too bad we could not audition the PL300s, but unfortunately the unit has a speaker base that is permanently attached to the cabinet. The company has placed the banana jacks on the base of the plinth and at some very odd distances apart. The sales fellow did not have a cable with a split plug that was wide enough to fit the plugs (he sold their last set that day) so I will have to head back another time to hear the PL300s.
High resolution image You can see the
Soundstage graphs of the PL100s here.These new Platinum speakers had a beautiful marbled walnut-rosewood type finish with a high gloss surface. Super nice, though I’m not much of a gloss kind of guy. The build quality is very different from their classical cabinets, taking on a curved and slightly tapered shape in the rear.
Monitor Audio has really come out of the closet to redesign a speaker line and I’ll be keeping my eye out on how well it fares in the audio world in the coming years as they continue to refine the design. I will definitely try to audition the PL300s sometime soon.
MA Silver
Short summary: I still like this speaker. It has a lovely airy high and midrange that to me sounds very natural, but it also has some warm bass compared to the Axiom M60s. It can linger.
My complete thoughts on Monitor Audio can be found in two old reviews posted previously:
Here (Silver 6s auditions)And here (Gold Reference 60s A/B comparison)
