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Monitor Audio Gold 4G or 5G Worth the upgrade?

8948 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  mk1981, 
E
Ok guys I need some help. I am updating my old outdated Definitive and Parasound Home Theater And need some input. I’ve considered Dynaudio Excite x38, Focal Aria 936 and Monitor Audio Gold 200 G4 and I’m leaning towards the MA200 G4’s then I find out the NEW G5’s are basically the G4 Platinum so is it really work the 2.5 price to get the G5’s over the discounted G4’s??? I’m going to do 5.1.4 setup with MA CT280 IDC’s and the WT380 IDC’s for the Surrounds. I have a large open Living-room/ Kitchen please give me your thoughts.

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gajCA
Erik6bd said:
Ok guys I need some help. I am updating my old outdated Definitive and Parasound Home Theater And need some input. I’ve considered Dynaudio Excite x38, Focal Aria 936 and Monitor Audio Gold 200 G4 and I’m leaning towards the MA200 G4’s then I find out the NEW G5’s are basically the G4 Platinum so is it really work the 2.5 price to get the G5’s over the discounted G4’s??? I’m going to do 5.1.4 setup with MA CT280 IDC’s and the WT380 IDC’s for the Surrounds. I have a large open Living-room/ Kitchen please give me your thoughts.
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For Home Theater chasing that last tiny bit of detail is not nearly as critical for many as it might be for music.

Crutchfield offers $75/pair returns on towers so you can order the 200s, (the G4 I believe) and return them within 60 days if not happy.
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Ive heard the 5g version is more laid back than 4g, and the 4g didnt seem forward to me at all, just a great balance...
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Del Boca Vista said:
Ive heard the 5g version is more laid back than 4g, and the 4g didnt seem forward to me at all, just a great balance...
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Yes I felt they had a great balance compared to the focal aria 936 and the Dynaudio Excite x38 seamed extremely laid back with an almost mono sound to them.
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Okay, I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm looking at the same thing. Right now, Gold 4G is mostly unavailable in shops, but I'm seeing previously owned speakers pop up every once in a while.

Basically, I asked in some shops, they said that the only noticeable improvement that Au5G offers over Au4G is somewhat deeper bass, but not as much as you'd expect from larger woofers because they apparently have less travel. So while Gold 200 5G goes deeper than Gold 200 4G, and Gold 300 5G goes deeper than 300 4G, the Gold 300 4G still goes deeper than Gold 200 5G.

The smaller midranges are fine even though they cover a wider range of frequencies and the new MPD tweeter is supposedly awesome, but I have no complaints about the ribbon tweeter in my Gold 50 4G.

So the advantages of the new series are not as clear cut as they were made out to be.

On the flip side, the newer series loses the tapered enclosure shape which apparently degrades sound quality due to standing waves and the new speakers don't look as sleek as the old ones (that one's subjective, but I tend to agree).

All in all, the huge price hike is apparently not worth it. One shop owner admitted that while gleefully pointing out that you can't buy Gold 4G anyway, so it's unfortunate, but not much of a loss.

But I haven't actually listened to the two speaker generations side by side, so I have no idea if what they say is true.

Anyone here that did a proper comparison (not just 200 vs 200, or 300 vs 300, but especially same-ish size new 200 vs old 300)? On my side, I'm still messaging stores asking if they have old stock available and I'm looking for offers of the previous generation, but I'm kinda losing hope that I'll be able to find them.
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Resurrecting this thread as I'm also looking at comparisons of 4 vs 5th Gen Gold

want either a pair of Gold 300 4G (hard to Find) or Gold 200 5G which may not be a good match for my Gold 350 4G centre.
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Not to disparage your speakers, but I just want to tell you, do yourself a favor and compare your Golds with other speakers.

I compared my Gold 50s to Wharfedale Evo 4.2, Focal Aria 906 and Heco Celan Revolution 3.

You might point out it's not a fair comparison because the 50s have a smaller woofer. That's true, but the differences weren't limited to low end extension.
Evos were cleaner and much more detailed, but sounded darker. My thought is that they sound very neutral.
Arias and Celans are very similar to each other. Celans are an overall better speaker because of more bass extension, but both were head and shoulders above Golds or Evos.

I think where the Golds really have a problem is with their woofers. I think they're prone to ringing which colors sound much brighter than it actually is. They're still gorgeous and much more compact than any of the speakers I compared them to (especially the Evos), but I eventually sold them and I don't regret this decision.
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Possibly but the gold 50s are the smallest and only surround duties I'm talking about the Gold 200-300 which are fabulous and mid-high end. Not many people would disparage the Gold 200-300 towers as they are truly better then the majority of speakers especially most from wharfendale
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I'm not going to question that, seeing as I have not compared the Gold 4G 300 that I was lusting for. That said, my reasoning was that if I compare the 2-way bookshelf speakers (3-way in case of Wharfedale), the 3-way floorstanders can't be worse than them and I assumed relative quality difference will remain.
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