Monitor Audio Owners Thread - Page 305

Thank you all for the helpful comments. I have not heard Monitor Audio speakers. I am familiar with Dali- I own smaller Dali Ikon MK-I's, On-Walls and 2's, as surround speakers and Helicon 400's as front L & R in my main HT. I've never heard Ikon Towers playing full range.

The new speakers will be part of a secondary HT system I am assembling in the kitchen / family room. I'm looking for a pair of towers to use as front L & R, plus a Center, in a 5.0 system. Would like to avoid using a subwoofer since this is on the second floor of a townhouse.

Bruce

I contacted Blue Jeans with this information, and they said that it will fit with 7.5mm binding posts, but they had previously said up to only 1/4 inch, so I was confused. What type/brand of spades did you get? I only need 4 spades (two for each GXFX that will be leaning against the wall). Will be using locking bananas for the rest of speakers and to the Emotiva XPA-5.

The GXs come with spades to join the HF and LF posts (pic)

I see from looking at spade sizing charts, that 1/4" = 6.5mm mouth d2. 5/16 = 8.4mm mouth. So you will want 5/16" spades.

Something like these.

Why not use bare wire? It will lie essentially flat and is considered at least the equal of any other type of connection.

I am finally the proud owner of RX6 fronts, RX Centre and Radius HD90 for surrounds! I looked at Dynaudios, PSB, Klipsch Ref and GoldenEars. I considered Aperion Verus Forte, but after auditioning the Monitors I didn't feel like looking at anything else. I live in a small, but open-floored townhome.

I replaced some late '90s Klipsch bookshelf(s) and early '90s Cambridge Audio center and dipole surrounds. Needless to say, this improvement to my system was a long time coming!

The front soundstage is amazing. I'm not good at audiospeak, but sound went from a circle of space in front of the TV to a wall of sound.

Because the center sits back on a table slightly under the plasma, I'm going to angle it up toward the couch.

So, because I barely sit 9 feet from the fronts, is it recommended to angle them up a bit or is that overkill? The excellent plinths allow for that adjustment, but I don't want it to look silly if it isn't necessary.

Thanks.

JP

I have the same front as you. Likewise, I have the center tilted upward. I have found no reason to do this for the RX6's as long as the tweeters are at ear height. Enjoy them!

Thanks, Jim.

The Emotiva XRCS.1 stand fits the RX Centre like a glove. Made a huge difference, especially since the center is pushed back on the shelf. The RX6's are toed in slightly and it sounds amazing! The tweeters are probably ear height if slouching on the couch, but three or four inches below if sitting at better posture.

I'm hearing my music (and movies) for the first time again!

JP

Good to hear. I found with the right setup I was listening to much more music than before. Help to have a system that I want to listen to for one periods.

Hello. I am looking to buy monitor audio bronze bx5 for my small living room sized 4m x 5m. Will bx5 give me enough low frequencies or should i look for bx6? I am not looking for extreme volume levels, but would like to get high SQ.

Thank you.

Ps: i will connect speakers to Denon avr 2113 receiver.

If SQ is a concern buy decent sub... It will be better and easier than finding fronts with good bass, and it is much easier with subwoofer to find the best location for it with the flattest in-room frequency response on sub-80Hz range.

That is all very personal, and depends a lot on the answers to many questions you should ask yourself, such as:

• Do you want to listen to any music at all or only watch movies?
• If you want to listen to music, what kind of music do you like? Is it very dependent on bass, like techno, hip-hop, heavy metal, etc.?
• What's the quality of the recordings you will play, in general? Do they need a bass boost to be enjoyable?
• Do you have any plans to add a stereo amp in the future? I believe you could use the zone 2 outputs in the 2113 to do that, I'm not sure.
• Do you have a sub already?

For music, many people enjoy a pair of bookshelves with a sub. I prefer a pair of towers with no sub. I tend/try to turn off the equalization section in the amp (Pure Direct mode), although some albums are just so badly mixed that I need to turn off Pure Direct and boost the bass to have a decent sound. For movies, on the other hand, I couldn't live without a sub, and almost everyone seems to agree with that.

If you go with the sub (do you already have one?), I'd say you probably don't need towers, so check out the BX2's and RX2's. If you don't want a sub and you decide that the BX5's are not enough, I suggest you check the RX6's too, not only the BX6's. But again, if you need this setup for watching movies, my opinion is that you should add a sub.

Finally, I can say I enjoy my BX5's a lot in a larger room than yours. I don't use the sub, but I have a dedicated stereo amp. Bass is great for me, I don't think I need more. At least until I do my next upgrade...

For movies I have BX2's + BX Centre, and BX1's for surround. With a sub (JBL PB-10 with PartsExpress plate amp). The only one I still think I should upgrade is the sub...

VMat

Sad to find out (too late, as I cannot return/exchange them anymore) that my 5.0 Monitor Audio BX2/BXC/BXFX is not happily paired with Denon 2113 receiver (neither with Yamaha 673, which I have already returned and opted for Denon, in search of a less bright/metalic sounding receiver).
The sound is most of the times muffled, barrel-like. The voices dont sound natural at all. The overall sound is less bright/metallic as compaired with Yamaha receiver pairing, but sometimes the metal-like, unnatural/barrel-like sounding of high and middle frequencies is perceivable with this one too.
Looks like it's due primarily to Monitor Audio specific. Unfortunatelly I didnt get a chance to listen to them prior to buying.

I wonder of things will improve after adding a sub and running again Audissey.

I'm sorry to hear that. I have a similar kit (with BX1 instead of BXFX) and I like it a lot. The fronts and center were great (for me) with a Yamaha RX-V620. The receiver was replaced by an RX-A1000, still great. The BX1's were added later. Even better.

Do you notice that specifically in voice/dialogues? Maybe your center speaker is bad, or the connections to it are bad. Remove the grille, lower the volume to a safe level, put your ear close to each of the drivers and check if they're producing any sound.

[EDIT] Forgot to say: I also have the BX5's in a separate 2.0 set (in case you missed my post above), and they also sound great to me.

VMat
Edited by VMat - 3/6/13 at 11:45am

Don't look for a different receiver/amp to fix these types of issues. Other than different room-correction technologies, they should sound the same.

Make sure connections are correct. Work on speaker placement and room acoustics, then re-run Audyssey (read some of the Audyssey threads to see how to do it correctly).

+1

I'm currently going through a similar experience with my PSB living room setup, although I don't have Monitor Audio speakers there (I have a Sony ES in my 2nd system with my Silver RS1's).

Years ago, when I first got into home theater, I had a Polk setup. I got a Sony receiver at Circuit City and loved the sound but there were some issues with features, etc. I bought a Pioneer Elite and the sound was just muddy. I couldn't ever get that thing to sound "right". I returned it and bought a Sony ES which I still have to this day.

Last year, I decided it was finally time for an upgrade (HDTV, HDMI, etc). I bought an Onkyo 709. It sounded like I remembered the Pioneer sounding, but Audyssey fixed it. I had some issues with it (overheating and drawing ~75W in standby, etc) so I sold it and got a Denon 2312. Same thing (dull sound, Audyssey correction). You can see it in the EQ curves that Audyssey was correcting for a treble rolloff.

This year, my Denon died and just picked up a Yamaha RX-V673 and it sounds like the Sony. I think I must prefer "bright". Warm sounds dull to me. I haven't tried YPAO yet so I'll see if it makes the Yamaha sound like the Denon and the Onkyo.

Based on my experiences, I believe that receivers do sound different despite there being a large camp who disagree. I don't believe that cables, etc make a difference and I also think speakers make the biggest difference, but I think amps sound different especially before room correction.

^Amps do indeed sound different, under the following conditions:
1) You're clipping one or the other
2) You're doing a sighted evaluation
3) You're not level-matching the two amps
4) You're not switching back and forth between the two in under 1 second.

I've been loving my Monitor Silver RX2 speakers for about a month, now. One thing which I don't have a clue about (and the instructions are pitiful) is the center bolt-through driver. There was a vague suggestion in the manual that, after break-in (again, no details in the instructions about that), the bolt be torqued for each speaker. I don't use this childish abbreviation often, but WTF? How in the world am I supposed to determine whether the bolt needs to be touched, or not??? It's not like it's hanging out the back, nor is the driver loose. Is there a proper torque number? Ridiculous.Obviously, the speakers sound great. So, what are they smoking in the UK, that they figure someone is going to know what to do, or even if they should?

To me, sounds like either speaker cabinet resonances OR some pretty bad room reflections which are causing the "barrel-like" sound. There may be some slight differences between receivers, but not that much.

Make sure you have the speakers sitting on solid stands or surfaces, and not in any kind of cabinet or enclosed space. If your listening room is "live", in that it has a hard floor and a lot of reflective surfaces, you may be getting a lot of reflected sound and may have to do some room treatments.

Finally, make sure you do not have any sound field options turned on, as they can produce some odd effects. Also, if you have not already done so, you might try setting the receiver on "Direct" or "Pure Audio" sound. If none of this solves the problem of "unnatural" highs and middle frequencies, I am at a loss what the problem might be.

I had the very same question after buying my speakers. In my case most screws needed tightening. Here's the answer I got at the time (credit to VMat):

Thanks for the input. All speakers are brand new, and they dont appear as defective. Also the connections are OK - the only peculiarity being that for the front left channel I used a thicker cable (somewhat of double thickness) as fro the others (I sismply was out of cable length when setting the sistem and I had to buy some additional length, but I just didnt find of the same thickness at the closest shop).
I have no sound options turned to 'On', and the Direct or Pure direct modes don't appear to bring an improvement.

As about the room reflections, this may be - I'm posting 2 pics of my room (small, 10x11 feet surface). Yes, the speakers are on solid surfaces.

OK, a lot of issues there. First, I'd like to see the front three speakers pulled forward out into the room at least to the point that they are on a plane with the front of the stand that houses your receiver. You might have to buy some stands. Secondly, your left front speaker is very close to a wall, and on the right side, that piece of furniture with the glass doors is really bad. You could not find a more reflective surface than glass. Can you rearrange the furniture at all? I think most would recommend some acoustic panels on the left and right walls at the point of first reflections. It does look like you have a carpet on the hard floor, so that is good. I think it is going to be hard to get great sound with the room in the current state and the speakers as they are currently placed.

Thank you. A leaflet...doesn't surprise me. I never found such a thing.
Still a little disconcerting, that the screw needs to be backed out, first, then arbitrarily hand-tightened. It just seems like if it's important enough for them to suggest doing so, then the effects of doing it right or wrong would also be noticeable. Oh well, I'll give it a shot and see.

One of my gx300's arrived today. Somehow the other one won't arrive till monday. Oh well. The white color is gorgeous!!! The first pic is with the grille on and the second has the grille off.




Edited by Maniac2k - 3/8/13 at 7:45pm

Thanks for that, it didnt occur to me that that glass portion of the bookcase might be a problem. If this is especially due to the glass being so close to the right front speaker, I can arrange that, and put that left module of the book case in the place of the right one, so it will be farther away from that speaker.
Or is it the glass surface bad in itself and it will create harmful reflections no matter where it will be placed in the rom?

I'm afraid there are very few practical chances to get the front right speaker forward inside the room - and less so for the centre. The center is actually sitting on a piece of wood placed on the radiator (room heating device during winter). It would be much easier (of course), to simply push back a bit (toward the front wall) the left front speaker - in order to have it alligned with the others. But then it will get somewhat behind that TV, and, at least for someone sitting on the right armchair on the right (opposite) side of the room, maybe its sound will be hindered.

I'm not sure my wife will agree about putting acoustic pannels on the left wall (the right is almost all occupied by that piece of furniture - bookcase - so no need for that).
An additional problem might be that, in the middle of the room there is a rather long table with a marble-like surface, so very reflective. I usually have a lot of objects placed on that table though.
Yes, I have a carpet on the floor.

Still, I wonder if reflections can modify the sound to the point that, in speeches (mostly TV programes), 'S' would sound like 'SH'.
I mean, with the Yamaha 673 receiver, I almost got the highs close to sibilance. With this one (Denon 2113), the sibilance tendance is still there, only that it's slightly reduced (probably by Auddysey rolling out high frequencies). But the sibilance attenuation is done with the result of a barrel-like, muffled sibilance: it's still there, it still degrades the highs and middle frequencies, only that it's not that crisp as with the Yamaha (at least that one offered me better definition/separation/transparency), but...muffled, barrel-like.
The distortion is still there. Quite far from what we call a natural sound.

Hello, first time posting. I seem to have developed a "hum" in my FB212 sub. Is most definitely an amplifier hum as will occur at all times whetherr attached to other a/v equiptment, or plugged in solely via power. have moved around to different outlets as well as a double check and hum is present whenever unit is on. (Had a ground loop issue in the past which i rectified via an isolator so knew to check different outlets).

Does anyone know if something can be done to fix or is the sub now shot? If fixable, how much am I looking at or should i consider a new sub instead?

Other Equiptment:

Integra DHC 80.2
Theatre Grand 7X200 amp
KEF CI 130DS sides (in wall)
Monitor Audio Silver 4 rear surrounds
Monitor Audio Siver Center 12
Monitor Audio Silver 9 fronts
Panasonic Blu Ray DMP-BD65
Panasonic AE4000U projector
CINETENSION 2 92" screen

I'm searching for a cheap, or at least not expensive active subwoofer to turn my 5.0 MA Bronze setup into a 5.1. I am aware that cheap would translate in poor sound performance/quality.
Still, I remember reading somewhere that, among the cheap subwoofers, I should choose one which downfires, and not one with side firing, because for some reason (depending on the implementation) even the cheap downfiring ones will sound good enough, as opposed to regular, side-firing subs, which have more chances to sound bad/mediocre if cheap.

Is this correct/real?

I recently bought a pair of MA's RX6 towers and I have it connected to a Emotiva UMC-1 then to a power amp. I don't know what it is but I find it doesn't have the full range of bass it did when I auditioned them. I calibrated them using the UMC-1 auto calibration and still nothing. I followed the Manuals placement guide too. Any ideas? I've heard the UMC-1 auto calibration sucks. Can anyone help me?

WHen I auditioned them, they sounded like I didn't even need a sub!

At the risk of appearing to speak authoritatively as a mere newbie here, I'd suggest the first way to start trying to recapture the bass you heard when you auditioned them would be to creatively ignore some of the advice in the placement guide and play with placement. And ditch the calibration. Rooms do funny things with sound, and I'm still not convinced that consumer-grade room calibration is sophisticated enough to do a good job. Moving the speakers closer to boundaries will reinforce the bass. Making sure that they are absolutely stable will tighten it up.

In most rooms, the room itself is the mostly a big resonator for frequencies below ~200Hz. Placement near walls will greatly enhance this effect. The key then becomes how to best compromise with the fact that above ~200Hz, the room begins to mostly reflect and diffuse the sound and boundaries begin working against you. Meaning that mids and highs can suffer clarity.

So, annoy your friends and family by making many small adjustments in placement and toe in until you lock in a sound you like. The best room calibrator is your ears when all is said and done. Good luck, and I'll be interested to hear how things turn out.

Yes placement matters though what's your setup?
2.1 or full surround sound?


Or 2.0 only




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