I bought these second hand and have been using them for many months now.

I am often frequently surprised at how realistic these speakers reproduce sound. The sound stage is wide and spacious. The upper mids and highs are very pleasant. Lower mids feel accurate. Drums and cymbals sound so true-to-life ... it often sounds like the sound is actually being made in the room. Acoustic guitar as well.

Depending on the recording, these low bass is a little anemic. It seems like they handle jazz and acoustic rock a bit better than hard rock and punk. Still the latter sounds great on these speakers.

I'd agree with a previous reviewer and say ~$800-$1000 you can't go wrong with these.

Build quality.
Balanced throughout the frequency range.
Natural sounding but can still make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.

The gold units themselves are quite unusual and look garish with some veneers. It has also taken a long time for the speakers to smooth out after originally sounding metallic and a little harsh at times.

I've had these for a few years but recently brought them back into use. I was quite surprised to read some of the earlier reviews being enthusiastic about sound quality albeit it with some reservations, but criticising the cost. The quality of build is second to none that I have encountered and the sound they produce seems to get better the more I listen to them. The top end is clean and sweet making cymbals sound like they do in real life, double bass is fast and deep without over emphasis, and vocals, piano, woodwind and brass are all melodic and natural.
They do seem to like (in my medium sized room) being placed fairly close to the wall and angled just in front of the listener. I also made some plinths which have raised them a couple of inches and made them much more stable. The stereo image is now spread beyond the width of the speakers with plenty of presence and detail.
I've only used them with Arcam A85/P85 and CD92 but I wouldn't change those either.

Customer Service

Never needed but have heard they're always ready to help.

Similar Products Used:

PMC FB1, Dynaudio Contour 1.8

Tinkly treble. Shiny midband. Deep deep (stealth) bass. Build and looks are exemplary.

Not obvious.

I recently bought a pair of these PMC705's secondhand. They had been in storage for some time, and they are taking a while to loosen up. I am a big fan of Monitor Audio speakers generally - though I acknowledge that some of their designs have been more successful than others ( I never got on with the Silver 7i's for a start). These 705's are an infinite baffle design, and have a lovely non-boomy deep low end. With a low powered amp I have a feeling this could be missed. My Roksan Caspian Integrated and Power amps didn't really make the most of it, but a more powerful Musical Fidelity amp revealed some thundering lower octaves. These speakers would obviuosly relish a big kick up the pants from even bigger MF amps, or your american muscle amps. And I would guess grippy Naim equipment would do the business too. The midband is lovely, and the treble units have that wonderful tinkli-ness that I've not heard from any other manufacturers' transducers. When new these speakers retailed at £1500, which was too much really. You can get GR20's for that now, and they are in a different league. I'd say that the sound is on a par with the recently replaced Silver 8i's, but they're more stylish, and the build is better. If you see a pair secondhand for £500/£600 then snap them up.

Similar Products Used:

A lot of other MA speakers, and others from B&W, Castle, Mission etc.

Fine midband coherence.

Inadequate treble. Pricey for the ingredients and performance.

Monitor Audio is well known for producing some of the prettiest cabinetwork around, and this real-wood-veneered compact floorstander is no exception to the rule. However, in the context of this test group - and also the less expensive models in MA's PMC range - the £1,400 charged for this 705PMC does seem rather steep.

The 705PMC looks very similar to the 703PMC, but whereas that model uses a single main driver loaded by a large reflex port, this 705PMC has two main drivers operating in sealed-box mode. It stands a few centimetres taller too, but neither of those factors provides justification for the huge £600 price difference between two such similar models from the same stable. Still, it does have one of the nicest surface finishes around, and neatly softened edges that are tricky to achieve properly - those are bound to be reflected in the price tag.

Top-class ingredients include cast-frame, metal-diaphragm drivers, rebated into the front panel. However, their gilt anodising might be a bit too strong for some tastes, and the grille is best left off for acoustic reasons. The main drivers have 115mm metal cones, while the tweeter has a 25mm metal dome, well protected by a coarse mesh. Spikes are fitted directly (and most effectively) into the bottom panel, but there's no plinth, so the fore-to-aft footprint is limited.

The 703PMC delivered one of the smoothest in-room balances I've ever recorded, so it was disappointing to find that this 705PMC isn't really in the same ballpark. The tweeter looks to all intents and purposes the same, so the addition of an extra driver merely results in 3dB or so extra through the midrange - ergo the balance is now short of treble. The bottom end is more favourable, the sealed box loading improving extension and delivering a 'dry' balance which is well suited to close-to-wall siting.

Sound quality

Considering its shortcomings in tonal balance, the 705PMC didn't disgrace itself in the listening tests. The fine midband coherence of those metal diaphragms gives impressive focus, detail and delicacy, which drew decent enough marks and comments from half the panel.

The problems, however, lie outside the broad midband. There's simply not enough treble here, and the end result sounds determinedly shut-in and over-restrained. As one panellist put it: "thick and treacly". The bass, too, is a bit of an underachiever in the context of this upmarket group. It's clean and smooth enough, but is short of weight, drive and impetus, tending to plod on regardless of the subtleties musicians might be trying to convey. Dynamics, too, seem rather muted, and 'softened' leading edges do little to break down the barriers between the music and the listeners.

Conclusion

There's no denying that MA's metal cones have their own special and persuasive qualities, but price is the stumbling block with this implementation. It costs £600 more than its similarly-sized 703PMC stablemate, yet in crucial areas it's actually not as good. On this occasion, slapping in an extra main driver seems to have done more harm than good to the sound

Similar Products Used:

703 PMC

These medium sized two way floor standing speakers consist of two bass/mid ceramic coated metal alloy drivers and a gold anodised alloy dome tweeter. They are reasonably sensitive at about 89-90dB. They come from the company's middle range of products (they are the top model in that line). Cabinet work is first rate and crossover components are minimal. Whilst not cheap, I found these to be a significant improvement above speakers such as Tannoy D300 (a bit safe by comparison), Castle Avon (nice midrange but edgy treble and dubious bass) or Mission 753 (fat, seductive tone but runs out of steam and tends to "yell"). The imaging, whilst not holographic like a Quad ESL, is nevertheless very good. Unlike some speakers which seem to tolerate a range of variable material, I have found them to be very critical of source, i.e. how the disc was originally produced, mastered etc. Good stuff sounds sublime, bad stuff is unbearable. Soundstage seems to vary enormously depending on the recording. They deliver stacks of low bass for their size, and treble is rarely prone to "shrieking", although that depends on source and ancillaries. Even when the volume is cranked, they never hurt your ears. The midrange is very fat and revealing, and I know I'm hearing things I never heard before. The sound quality is also very consistent up and down the volume scale, not changing perceptibly. You do tend to find yourself listening to music, and not the speaker, which in my book is a reasonable test of a product's caliblre. Unfortunately they have also shown up the limitations in the rest of my ageing system, especially the old Quad pre/power which will have to go when funds permit. I would give them four stars, especially in the price range, but for my ears (and especially in my budget range) there are very few things which deserve 5 stars, even the venerable Quad ESL 63.

PS on previous "harsh and metallic" observation - this is only true if the ancillaries are crummy. With good amplification and source, there is definitely nothing grating or harsh, it is really transparent and smooth. My friend has 702PMC and same thing applies. In fact one magazine complained of a lack of treble, so you work it out!

These speakers sound too metallic and artificial for my taste but they may work well in a HT setup.