Monitor Audio Silver 6 Speakers

musichal

poet emeritus
Now that I've lived with these for awhile, I'll make a few comments.

First. Yes, they are a drastic change from Klipschorns, as anticipated. They fit my space better. They have more neutral mids, and a cleaner, clearer top end than the Khorn. The soundstage is a bit smaller. The presentation of vocals not quite as intimate, but more tonally accurate. And, of course, the bottom pretty much belongs to the Khorn as far as stirring up the air in a room.

The 6s sound more cohesive in my room. And they are very dynamic-sounding, as are also Khorns, of course.
The 6s throw a much better image in my space than did the Khorns.

In a nutshell, those are my observations on the comparison.

I like the Silver 6 better - at least in my space. They never annoy me, which the Khorns did, at times. I intitially thought the 6" woofers sounded stressed at times, but eventually raised them off the floor and that apparently changed their interaction with the room such that I now run them full range and hear no distress. The lowest frequencies are augmented by dual subwoofers of the sealed-box variety from SVS. The 6s sit atop the subs.

I no longer listen to the system. I listen to the music from it without any obvious warts to distract me. As long as this continues to remain the case, I'll keep what I have now for speaker and amplification in the main rig, even though some likely think the amp deserves better. It's music to my ears.

Now, tell me about your Monitor Audio Speakers.

Monitor Audio Silver 6


monitor-audio-silver-6-walnut.jpg



 
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I like them. I only owned the R352 Missions (good, but a little too much cabinet resonance). I heard the Monitor 6's when I was buying a set of DCM TF600's. They sounded good, but weren't broken-in yet. Glad you took the plunge and thanks for the update. I'm always looking for good non-vintage speakers to reccommend to friends.
 
musichal,

Great write-up. First the Levinson, now the MAs; You have put together a fantastic combination. The Monitor Audio Silver series speakers are outstanding. Sure, you could upgrade speakers and the 585 will respond well but those Silver 6s are not holding it back and are not a weak link. They deserve to be in the company of the 585.

Enjoy that amazing system of yours!

Cheers,

Scott

Now that I've lived with these for awhile, I'll make a few comments.

First. Yes, they are a drastic change from Klipschorns, as anticipated. They fit my space better. They have more neutral mids, and a cleaner, clearer top end than the Khorn. The soundstage is a bit smaller. The presentation of vocals not quite as intimate, but more tonally accurate. And, of course, the bottom pretty much belongs to the Khorn as far as stirring up the air in a room.

The 6s sound more cohesive in my room. And they are very dynamic-sounding, as are also Khorns, of course.
The 6s throw a much better image in my space than did the Khorns.

In a nutshell, those are my observations on the comparison.

I like the Silver 6 better - at least in my space. They never annoy me, which the Khorns did, at times. I intitially thought the 6" woofers sounded stressed at times, but eventually raised them off the floor and that apparently changed their interaction with the room such that I now run them full range and hear no distress. The lowest frequencies are augmented by dual subwoofers of the sealed-box variety from SVS. The 6s sit atop the subs.

I no longer listen to the system. I listen to the music from it without any obvious warts to distract me. As long as this continues to remain the case, I'll keep what I have now for speaker and amplification in the main rig, even though some likely think the amp deserves better. It's music to my ears.

Now, tell me about your Monitor Audio Speakers.

Monitor Audio Silver 6


monitor-audio-silver-6-walnut.jpg



 
To the OP, when you say you raised them off the floor, can you be more specific, by how much and how?

As I noted, I raised them by sitting them atop the subs. Say about 15" (I'll look it up). That's a little high, but 10" to 12" seems about right to me. I do like them high, though. Guess I got used to the height from the Khorns which preceded these.


edit: 14.6"

SVS SB12-NSD - 12", 400-watt DSP-Controlled, Sealed Box Subwoofer


51MdMIOvziL.jpg
 
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As I noted, I raised them by sitting them atop the subs. Say about 15" (I'll look it up). That's a little high, but 10" to 12" seems about right to me. I do like them high, though. Guess I got used to the height from the Khorns which preceded these.

Great. I bet it sounds fantastic... Enjoy.
Like you said, now you can enjoy listening to the material vs the equipment.
 
That’s the same sub I am running. I love it, it is mated with my B&W N805s.

A poboy's special, still available on Amazon at $399 each, I think. Discontinued, get 'em while they last. Very good deal, imo.


I cranked them up to the highest SPLs I've previously attempted to hear "You go back, Jack, and do it again..." streaming in via Tidal. Most of my listening is pretty low level, and believe it or not, this is the first time I've really cranked them at all. My ears gave in before any gear had a chance to even complain about it. Day-um, it sounded great. Worth a couple days of tinnitus exacerbation. Won't be doing it again any time soon, though.
 
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I have started threads here at AK a few times, asking owners to be objective and report the weaknesses of a specific component, or speaker, and have found how difficult it is for people to admit to any weakness at all. Quite a few folks will reply "none." An answer I don't find believable, in literal terms.

Perhaps it is simply human nature. We like to believe we made the best purchasing decision for our hard-earned money. We let our egos bar us from being objective, as if to admit our speakers have any weakness implicates our own. And some truly seem to believe they've captured the holy grail of audio, whatever their equipment may be - they've maybe gone to great lengths with room treatments, ancillary gear such as cabling, etc. and aren't about to admit to anything less than perfection - not to imply all who put forth that type effort share this trait of the inability to be objective - indeed, these tend to be some of the most objective - but there are those among them, as there are among other "groups" who just can't admit, or can't assess, a component's performance accurately.

I'm not terribly good at it myself. However, I have no problem at all admitting that any pair of speakers will have anomalies. Especially a pair, like my Monitor Audio Silver 6, which only cost $1050, street price. I've heard speakers in the past that cost ten times more that I liked less, though. Which leads to another issue with attempts to be objective - personal taste, preference, bias and experience - all combining so that one man's assessment will differ with another's. Part of trying to be objective then is taking into account self-awareness of one's own such characteristics.

There are too many types of speakers I have never heard - open baffle, full-range ribbons or panels immediately spring to mind, and my experience mostly comes from twenty years ago, in a part of the country where I was lucky to hear some of the best, but far from what I'd have found in a larger city of a more populous state. Thus as a reviewer, I am behind the times with somewhat limited high-end experience. Not saying the Silver 6 is high-end, just saying that my exposure to the very best is limited, and to be objective about performance, nothing informs as well as hearing a lot of the best - I heard a relative few. Duntech Sovereigns when brand new, powered by the very TOTL ARC tube components of the day (SP-11 preamp, M300 amp - sometimes I get the amp model # wrong, but it was the top, and a behemoth, actually a pair, monoblocks).

So here is what I think of the Silver 6 weaknesses: First, those of you who like vintage speakers best may well not like them. They are not warm, but rather tend to be cool. Detailed, but some may find them sterile sounding. Some may find them too bright, or too lean, then. They are not always the most engaging of speakers. If a recording tends to share some of these attributes of leanness, or excessive brightness, that is when its proclivities can become too pronounced.

While they present a pretty large soundstage, it certainly isn't the biggest, and imaging is not pinpoint. Given its driver design and narrow profile, I was surprised that they didn't excel in this regard. My opinion is that if imaging is high on your list of desired attributes - and for many it is (not so much for me) - then another model, or some other brand may appeal to you more. Bass is reasonably extended, but if you want your chest pounded then you need a subwoofer, or a different speaker. Two sealed-box SVS integrate well with them.

Now for the strong points: Driver integration is very good, one driver hands over to another with a virtually seamless panache that may well be helped by the fact of this being a two-and-a-half-way system. The two six-inch CCAM woofers are separately enclosed internally with different tuning, the upper one extending to the mids.

I find its midrange performance the best I have owned, but not the best I have heard. Resolution is outstanding to my ear, but I'm easy to please and know it - I've heard higher resolution, but not all that often. If that is your primary goal, then some panel types will appeal to you more. Or possibly open baffle types, or, just a different brand speaker. But for those like me who can't properly accommodate those types of speakers, and are looking for slim towers, these do a good job of providing relatively uncolored mids. And that is important to me.

The CCAM drivers are fast and tight, with low distortion and a reasonably uncolored presentation. Some might like a touch more wood to the cello, or voice with a skosh more heft, but for the price these do almost everything one can ask. I find little to complain of about the tweeter, and love this speaker's HF extension and clarity.

And that's about it in a nutshell from my perspective. This is as analytical as I can get about gear, and is not my favorite thing to attempt. And this is about as objective as I can be about these speakers.

The hat I'm more comfortable wearing is subjective, not objective. How I feel about the speakers, how they make me feel about listening to music. I love these things. I like that when I'm listening to music, I'm not sitting here thinking about all these technicalities of speaker performance, but am just feeling the music. The listening I did for this write-up was not always pleasurable, as I concentrated on various aspects of reproduction in an attempt - however unsuccessful - to be analytical. Putting on that hat is like work, and I want to be lazy and just enjoy music when I listen. These speakers do that for me very well - they get out of the way and let me float.

Just one guy's assessment. As always, YMMV.
 
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To the OP - I was somewhat swayed by your mention of running two subs, so I bit the bullet and bought another SVS SB-12-NSD to run in stereo mode off my Parasound Halo Integrated. I like it very much. Thanks.
 
To the OP - I was somewhat swayed by your mention of running two subs, so I bit the bullet and bought another SVS SB-12-NSD to run in stereo mode off my Parasound Halo Integrated. I like it very much. Thanks.

Me, too. Cool beans. Fellow AKers swayed me. They were right. They say we're both welcome.
 
I attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last October and had a the chance to hear a number of speakers. At the end, I decided the best speakers in terms of sound/price ratio are the new Silver 300s. I found them to be exceptional sounding and they were in a room nearly the same size as my listening room. So they will be, without a doubt, my next pair of speakers. I just need to convince the Finance Warden, i.e, wife.:idea:
 
A poboy's special, still available on Amazon at $399 each, I think. Discontinued, get 'em while they last. Very good deal, imo.


I cranked them up to the highest SPLs I've previously attempted to hear "You go back, Jack, and do it again..." streaming in via Tidal. Most of my listening is pretty low level, and believe it or not, this is the first time I've really cranked them at all. My ears gave in before any gear had a chance to even complain about it. Day-um, it sounded great. Worth a couple days of tinnitus exacerbation. Won't be doing it again any time soon, though.
I have the same sub. A very good one for the price. I am happy with it.
 
I attended the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest last October and had a the chance to hear a number of speakers. At the end, I decided the best speakers in terms of sound/price ratio are the new Silver 300s. I found them to be exceptional sounding and they were in a room nearly the same size as my listening room. So they will be, without a doubt, my next pair of speakers. I just need to convince the Finance Warden, i.e, wife.:idea:

With a midrange driver and dual woofers in a three-way format, that looks like a nice upgrade from my 6s, not that I'm thinking about it. My upgraditis is currently in remission. May it stay so.
 
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With a midrange driver and dual woofers, that looks like a nice upgrade from my 6s, not that I'm thinking about it. My upgaditis is currently in remission. May it stay so.
I have not heard the Monitor Silver 6s, so I cannot say if the 300s will be a big improvement or not. I do know that once I buy them, I will probably not need the SVS sub. They pump out a prodigious amount of clean bass. And they shined at clarity, dynamics, and separation of instruments. YMMV, of course. Best thing to do is to audition them and see if they are an improvement over the 6s. Alternatively, If you are happy with your current set-up, then why change it?
 
I have not heard the Monitor Silver 6s, so I cannot say if the 300s will be a big improvement or not. I do know that once I buy them, I will probably not need the SVS sub. They pump out a prodigious amount of clean bass. And they shined at clarity, dynamics, and separation of instruments. YMMV, of course. Best thing to do is to audition them and see if they are an improvement over the 6s. Alternatively, If you are happy with your current set-up, then why change it?

I'm not even thinking of it. I meant that if you buy a pair then they are likely even better than what I described of the S6. Like replying, "Nice choice," to your intent to acquire a pair. They appear to have more in common with the S8, which was my first choice, but walnuts were gone. I finally decided that two-and-a-half-way might just be best-way for my room anyway (lol - a sentence only an audio-head will understand)..
 
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I'm not even thinking of it. I meant that if you buy a pair then they are likely even better than what I described of the S6. Like replying, "Nice choice," to your intent to acquire a pair. They appear to have more in common with the S8, which was my first choice, but walnuts were gone. I finally decided that two-and-a-half-way might just be best-way for my room anyway (lol - a sentence only an audio-head will understand)..
I see-sorry to have misinterpreted your post. I definitely want them but pulling the purse strings from the wife is another matter. 2.5 way speaker designs are very good, I have found.
 
1st post after many years away. I had replaced a set of Paradigm Studio 60s V1 with Monitor Audio S6 speakers, I like them a lot but when I 1st replaced. I missed the bigger sound but these sound more accurate and pairs well with My Yamaha RX 797.....thinking to upgrade to 200s but still really like them as is. Great speaker and for that room, bedroom, I prefer it's sound. No sub running but it wouldn't hurt although I have never felt the need. Just happy :)
 
Anytime I start thinking about other speakers, I just listen to mine and the thought flits on through. There is always bigger and/or better, but these do so well in my room within my placement parameters that I fear trying to upgrade might well go the other way. These will likely be my final main rig speaker... given that 51% represents likely, and I'm at 99% right now.

OTOH, I've been toying with the idea of reclaiming some of the guest bedroom as a tertiary listening space with a pair of the small Magnepans, just for a taste of dipole panels. That would give me dynamic drivers in the den with the Silver 6, horns in the bedroom with the Klipsch Forte, and panels in the seldom-used guest bedroom. That would satisfy the current Federal guidelines for speaker diversity.
 
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