Perfomance, looks, price....

ABSOLUTELY NONE!!!!!

I have the Silver 5s, 10i Center, and the Fxi rears... When it comes to my ears, and impressing ME.. This is definately the ticket.. This IS BY FAR, WITHOUT A DOUBT, THE BEST SOUNDING SPEAKER SYSTEM! PERIOD!! I have listened to so many Canadian and American built systems, they all sound very similar. Drab, laid back, polite, distant, whatever you want to call it.. I wanted an IN YOUR FACE, EXCITING, loudspeaker with PRESENCE!!! I equate it to , Standing OUTSIDE the concert, then going inside!!! That''''s how different the sound is..I have been looking for years for a system to replace my Polk LS-70, klipsh center, paradigm sub... Within 2 minutes of hearing the Silver 5s, I was hooked.. I don''''t care what others may say. To me, these are the Best sounding speakers I have heard at ANY PRICE!!!Everytime I listen I am impressed.. Listening in Stereo mode the sound stage is so large, I have to get up and go to the Reciever to see if its in 5 Channel mode...At times the sound stage is so Large I hear instruments comming from the side of the room, or near the walls.. It is that good!!!The Highs are sweet, the mids are smooth and the bass is very tight. None dominate another... A perfect mix... I hope Monitor Audio WILL NEVER STOP MAKING THESE!!! If you want a Home theater that handle movies and music in fashion, that has the strongest "BANG FOR THE BUCK" value... This is it ....

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, Polk, Klipsh, KLH, Harmon Kardon,Marantz, Kefs,

Great little center. Sound is excellent for the investment. Built quality is also excellent.

Clear, Clear dialogue

None

I purchased the 10i in cherry to match my 5i's. The build quality is excellent. The sound is so clear, I am really enjoying my home theater, I even watch regular TV through them constantly now.

As a budget home theater system you can't go wrong with this combo.

By the way, if you get them keep the grills off and remove the tweeter grill, they look sooo cool.

5 stars all around, especially when you factor the price.

Sound what else!

I previously owned an Energy Take 1 center speakers. For the price it was good, but upgrading to Silver Center i was money well spent. Dialog is clearer and cleaner. I also have the Silver 5is and 3is and the center speaker incorporates the same tweeter and mid driver for a seamless match. I've read that the center speaker is the most important in a HT set-up. I'm a believer now.

Similar Products Used:

Energy

Clarity, Detail, Build Quality and Appearance

Difficult to fault this speaker.

The MA Center 10i produces excellent clarity and will not distort at volumes. This center also produces excellent imaging in my listening area. As stated below, removal of the tweeter screen is recommended.

Bass freaks may desire a bit more low end performance in which case the more expensive 12i may be considered.

I am very pleased with the performance with this speaker which is clearly an additional benefit of owning the Silver series for the mains.

I purchased a slightly used example at a significant discount from MSRP which made this purchase an absolute no brainer.

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned too many to list.

Very detailed, clean sound quality. Awesome voice rendition! No chestiness, muddiness or revibrant effects. Great off-axis response!

May not provide enough bottom end for some listeners. Also, this is a very detailed speaker, so for instance....a person's voice will sound sibilant if it's supposed to. This speaker will not hide anything!

I use this speaker with MA Silver 5i's, and 3i's for the rears. I also use a MA ASW-210 for a sub. I didn't choose the center 10i for it's individual ability, but instead the way it integrated with the rest of the system-absolutely seamless. This is really a great hometheater center channel. It can take a heck of a beating from a good amp, and it will barely distort at EXTREMELY high volumes. It is by far the most detailed center speaker I've heard to date. Like I stated, some listeners may not want as much detail because this speaker can rip a bad recording to shreds, especially if you are using a good amp and cables. Currently, I'm using a Denon 3300 which is a great match but there is no doubt that these speakers would sound better with a pre-pro and seperate amp. Atleast my awesome Custom House Barracuda, and Benchmark II(FOR THE CENTER CHANNEL) make up for some of the flaws created by a receiver. I really enjoy the extra amount of detail, and now I know which recording companies do the best job. 5 stars for value and performance!!! Monitor Audio is a winner, and make sure you take that tweeter screen off!

Similar Products Used:

M&K 750 THX System, M&K S-125 System, Definitive Tech. products.

matches the rest of the MA silver system

very thin and boxy sounding. tended to be overly bright. The "Just Buy Them" article is pure hype. No value built into ownership by Monitor Audio. Poor support. Fit and finish is not as good as other products in same price category.

Though I liked these speakers when I first auditioned them at my local dealer, I probably wouldn't have even considered them if it wasn't for the glowing article in Home Theater Magazine. Over time (I owned them for just over a year), the speakers wore on me. I found them boxey and somewhat hollow sounding and overly bright. I wasn't thrilled that one had to do all of the tweeks just to get them to sound good (and I tilted them, toed them in, filled them with sand and of course broke them in for a week). Don't get me wrong, they are nice speakers, just not worth the price. I sold the speakers and replaced them with the M&K S150THX system - WOW whatta difference!!! I really like Dynaudio and would have chosen them over M&K if I was a little more into music (vs. home theater).

The MAs don't image as well as I would have liked in stereo mode and sound somewhat strained at reference level home theater playback (good electronics: Lexicon MC-1 & Bryston 9B). Even with gear (B&K AVR 305) and cables that are know to be "laid back sounding" I found the MAs unnaturaly bright.

Company support is mediocre at best. I received a replacement amp for my ASW 110 sub because the original one was humming (new one dodn't fix the problem BTW). The amp was very poorly packed and arrived with bent cooling fins and one edge was smashed in where the bolt hole is. MA didn't want to replace the amp because this didn't affect the sound. Give me a break! I scratched one of the (black) speakers and tried to get a little touch up paint. After getting "I don't know" answers from Monitor Audio USA, I contact the british company and still couldn't get touch up paint. Try sending an email on the web site. I got a response 3+ months after sending the message. The only person who really knows what he's talking about is Bruno and you have to call him on the telephone and be lucky enough to catch him in the office. It's little things like this that turn me off about a company, no matter how good the product. IMHO, this is a two bit operation.

Monitor Audio does seemingly nothing to protect consumers' investment in these speakers. Though I did get a decent deal at my local dealer, the used value of these speakers is driven into the ground by all of the people on Yahoo Shopping and eBay whoring theses things out for what seems to be dealer cost or below (if that's possible). I've owned other speakers and have sold them used. I fully expect to loose money in this sort of transaction but this was rediculous. I did manage to minimize minimize my loss on the sale, though.

If you decide that these speakers are for you, evaluate them very carefully a second time to be sure and then get the best rock bottom deal you can from your local dealer (for warranty support).

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio, M&K

Clarity, Power, Highs, Mids

Not full range

Great CTR channel speaker. Handles everything I have thrown at it. The seperation of sounds and voices is magnificent. The pan from L to C to R and back again is seamless. I have the MA silver 5's running as main but am waiting for them to fully break in before reviewing them.

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, B&W, NHT

gorgeous speaker, as all MA products. Great quality sound.

A little big, but I guess all 5.5 inch driver centre speakers are this size.

Again, MA has mad my jaw drop to the ground. I have always known the importance of a centre speaker, but I honestly thought there would be no difference between this and my previous Polk centre speaker. I was wrong. I am hearing things in my movies (especially the Matrix) that I didn't hear with my Polks. Along with this, dialogue is MUCH clearer (even at lower volumes) with this centre speaker. This is a perfect match to my MA 8i front speakers and MA asw 110 sub. Truly a great buy.

Similar Products Used:

Polk RM 2300

When I heard them with other cheaper centers it sounded-worse- or as I read with the Silver 5's "dead" sounding. The salesman then hooked up a high powered amp and they sounded the best of the group. He said my 80 watt Yamaha won't be able to drive the dynamic highs necessary for this speaker. The Silver 5 has been rated at under 5 ohms for a lot of the frequencies--therefore hard to drive even though rated at 8 ohms and normal sensativity. Also, these centers aren't full range. Much more bass should come out of centers--IMHO--so look at others with 6.5" woofers in this $500-600 price range. And def.tech. are much too boomy, although they go low. 3 for value-4 for sound.