I bought a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 3i's and I was very impressed, but they lacked a full bottom end. So I searched out a pair of 4i's, and...... WOW. For what these speakers are going for now, you will not beat them, and I spent a year and a half of constant auditioning trying. I am playing them through a Marantz SR7200 and the soundstage, depth, and clarity are superb. From rock to classical, there is noticable room in between the instruments, and the clarity is striking. People have rated the tweeters a little bright and I can see what they are talking about, but what they do with a ride cymbal or the brass section you will not find outside a $500 ribbon tweeter. Even in a 10X12 room, they are going to need a sub if you want to keep the eq flat and get level representation of all freqs. Get a good sub, an -ok- sub will shred the sound quality these speakers put out.

I currently use these in a 2.3 and 5.3 setup, for theater I have these in the front with the 3is in back, with a couple of mods upstream in the opams and this system is VERY hard to beat. Knocking very hard on the door of true reference sound.

Again, for this price you can get picky on the amp, so for under $1k you can build a system that will will truly become something special..

Rated 4 on overall as it says "money doesn't matter", and to be truthful, Most $1.5k- $5k bookshelves (SFabers, Linns, Tylers, Harbeths) will beat them.

Excellent Imaging, clarity, detailed and smooth, warm and punchy midrange, airy highs.

Nothing at this range.

Used as main speaker pair in a hi-fi set-up. They are amazing at this price range, good all rounder with all kind of music, whether pops or jazz or classicals. As for rock music needs a sub to compensate for that low frequency punch, not really a problem here. Excellent for small to medium size rooms. Totally emotional kind of feeling and make you listen to your CD"s again and again. My set/up are as follows: Musical Fidelity X-pre and XA-50 monoblock amps for the highs. NAD 216THX 125watts power amp for the Mids-Bass. MF X-10D line conditioner. Marantz CD6000 KI CD player. All Goertz interconnects- Taralabs Nexa and QED 25th silver anniversary speaker cables

very transparent quick and articulate bass

can sound a bit thin in large rooms bass is a tad hallow

Auditioned these with the highly acclaimed Paradigm Studio 20 and these more than held their own...they didnt match the Studios in soundstage depth...but the highs were a bit smoother and overall presentation a little warmer...not as full sounding as similiar priced B&W in the midrange but bass is never muddy...

Similar Products Used:

studio 20,B&W 600 series

Sound Quality, design and build.

cheap "Z" jumper posts if not using 2 sets of cable to each speaker

I use these for my front channels with the silver 10 center, 3i rears, and asw 110 sub. On the two channel mode they real accurate sounding and really excel on live recordings. On the surround mode, they give you all you would ever need and want to hear. I have them hooked up to a parasound 85wX5 amp and its plenty. I got the natural cherry finish and they are finished better than any speaker twice the cost and below.

Imaging is wonderful...very easy listen, non fatiguing

none so far

I upgraded from a set of JPW P1's about 15 years old....good box type speaker...but the Monitor SILVER 4's WOW, I feel like I have entered audiophile nirvana. O.K. I haven't done a lot of comarison for speakers, but compaered these with the Bronze 2's (a very nice speaker for 1/2 the money), it was in my budget and I liked the Silver 4's enough to spend the exta $'s.
Using with NAD C370 Integrated Amp, NAD CD-541, straightwire cable, MTI Terminator-3 speaker connects (I have demo'd several and these are worth the extra $ if in your budget).

Similar Products Used:

JPW P1's

precise, clean, fast & tight bass, solid build, magnetic shields.

unforgiving in the mids, especially for bad vox recordings.

2 subjects for summarization -
i) Monitor Audio Silver 4i;
Purchased: April 11, 2001: US$360, GBP$270, SGD$650
ii) Integrated amp: NAD C350;
Purchased: April 11, 2001: US$305, GBP$215, SGD$550

Current Ownership -
CD-P: Marantz CD-67 Sp. Edition; IXOS Int. Connector


Oh yeah! 2 thumbs up!
A truly awesome & impressive combination. I've absolutely no regrets in making a choice on the C350 & Silver 4i.
Bass ports are located at the front, as opposed to rear ported speakers which are harder to set-up in a small bedroom.

I've actually made a comparison between Rotel's RA series &
NAD's C series on the M.A. Silver 4's. All I can deduce is that NAD amplifiers provide more dynamics than the Rotel. The latter sounds just plain & boring with straight-clean audio qualities. The former sounds much more lively.

The C350 (RMS 60w, assembled in china) is powerful & precise. Taking into account that i've an exceedingly diverse taste in music (from reggae to rock, electronic to hip-hop), it has got no difficulty in handling virtually all music genres (even thru' my PC playing MP3s, but of course my highly rated Soundblaster 'Live'! sound card performs a huge role as well).
Incidentally, i own a Marantz CD-67 Special Edition CD player (with popular 5 star ratings) which i bought about 6 years ago.

Back to the kick-ass M.A.'s... The midrange on the Silver 4i (made in UK, natural cherry wood, C-CAM bass/mid driver & C-CAM gold tweeter) is super sweet. It's reproduction of crisp sonic qualities for snares & guitars is remarkable. Listening to the whacking of the snare drum & guitars whining is pretty addictive especially with your eyes closed.
Next-up are the highs which are not piercingly annoying but instead, clear & neutral. It might get a wee-bit bright at times but it's no biggie.
The lows are not as bassy compared to the Bronze 2's (which is cheaper by the way, as well as astounding, nonetheless) but it's definitely much more tighter, quick & with as much punch.
It also has solid audio imaging with characteristics of a high end specification. The cross-over circuitry employed is a marvel.
If I may add... I find their overall performance even better then B&W's within that spec. range (no wonder they termed M.A. as "britain's B&W killers").
Speaker placement is a breeze for the silver's & is not a big issue whereas B&W's are known for speaker placement headaches.
Above all, the amp & speakers cost me only $US670! (see above for details). A real bargain for a truly superb sound.
I'd highly recommend this combo. if faced with moderate budget constraints.

The best is yet to come, coz' it will apparently expose
it's full potential after a thorough run-in (incl. the amp).

Did i say that bi-wiring the silvers is an option as well?
Hey, i wouldn't mind coughing up a few hundred bucks more if it really makes a significant difference. Hence, implementation will be duly considered.

Also, always trust your ears & not the sales-person or your friends... or even me! :oD
But use them as a guide instead. Music appreciation is subjective.

To sum it all up... I feel that it shouldn't go wrong if a choice for the Monitor Audio Silver 4i is finalized. It's so easy to drive, it doesn't cost a mini bomb & it looks & sounds fantastic. At only a fraction of the cost, it will probably trash all other makes of speakers.

Got any comments? I would love to hear your views as well.

Have fun!



Spyke's MP3z©®

My URL - http://phunk-rip.tripod.com
My Email Addy - f0reskin@yahoo.com
ICQ.23989464
Title: Certified audio engineer (S.A.E. SG)

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For more, visit these featured web sites:

http://www.monitoraudio.co.uk/
http://www.nadelectronics.com/

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Spyke's favourite albums... just to name a few :

are these your favourites too?

Green Day - Warning
Daft Punk - Discovery
New Radicals - Maybe you've been brainwashed too >(my all-time fav!)
Ash - Free all angels
Weezer - Green Album
Semisonic - All about chemistry
Freestylers - Electro Science
Feeder - Echo Park
Dimitri from paris - A night at the playboy mansion

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END

Similar Products Used:

-

Upon being somewhat dissatisfied with my Paradigm Mini-Monitors I set out to find something better that didn't cost a fortune. I was simply astounded when I heard these!
They get more things right and less things wrong than any other speaker under $1000 that I've ever heard, and even most speakers I've heard that cost even more. And these only
cost $800 a pair. In my opinion, the speaker bargain of the
decade.
Used with Marantz CD17, Arcam Alpha 7R amp, Nordost Blue Heaven interconnects, and Kimber 4TC sppeaker cable.

Fast, precise

Slight brightness

This speaker is incredibly quick. It never seems to miss any of the details. There is definitive pop on the kick-drum. Gunshots can scare you out of your skin. This is the speaker's main asset - it's never blurry.

It has a fine overall sound, and images pretty good considering my placement restictions (RPTV behind and between). It has enough capability that on a good recording, I can tell if the drummer is right- or left-handed. I wish I had a better room to put them in and really let them shine, but the new house upgrade is beyond my price point just now.

This fit & finish of these speakers is spectacular. I got the Rose Mahogany finish, which is beautiful. It has real depth to it, changing hues of red as the lighting changes, brownish red in artificial light, and golden red under sunlight. You honestly can't tell that it's veneer.

The brightness many talk about with MA speakers is greatly exaggerated. Some tracks carry a little extra zing at the top, but it is not fatiguing If you don't like that sort of thing, it can be easily tamed with cabling.

Similar Products Used:

Atlantic Tech, PSB

Smooth, sweet and silky, good harmonics, dynamic and nice tight bass.

Nothing..... if yes, a little brightness and colouration, nothing is perfect.

I'm always in favour of floorstanding speakers rather than bookshelfs ever since I started owning a hometheatre system. My Infinity Reference 60 main speaker served me well in both HT and 2 Channel stereo. The problem is the bass that I have is just too much at times - due to small listening area, it was more prominent in 2 Channel stereo. Now I have a different hi-fi setup using a pair of Monitor Audio silver 4i. Imaging is superb, the bass is just nice but not so deep as compared to my Infinity. Other than these everything is great, sweet and transparent midrange, nice and tight well controlled bass, vocals are full weighted, smooth and non fatigueing. Instruments sounds natural too.....am I reaching high-end? I've auditioned speakers like the Mission 771e, Monitor Audio Bronze 2, Tannoy MX2,Kef cresta 2 but nothing come close to it. The build of the 4i is also very good, rear wood veeners, only one last word.....FANTASTIC!

Similar Products Used:

Old JBL TX Series bookshelf.

The depth and clarity of the vocals is something to be heard, as well as the stereo imagery. Listening to the likes of Supertramp, Neville Brothers, The Three tenors, the speakers gave a very impressive performance. Closing ones eyes and listening, one felt one was there within the music. The clarity of the intruments is truly impressive for speakers of this size.

No apparent weakness.

Overall a worth buy, far more dynamic than the B&W 601S2 series.