Great bass for their size,very musical, a bargain when new, even better used

They tend to sound a little thin and forward that's the metal tweeter which can be tamed with warm sounding cables

Let me start by saying that I have been in the Audio hobby for the last 20 years or so. During that time I have gone through my share of all kind of audio gear, speakers included. I had a pair of Dynaudio Audience 52 which in my humble opinion is one fine monitor , their only fault I found is that they are bass shy otherwise I would have never have let them go. I will point out that I have two systems one in my basement and one in my den.Tthe den is where I had the Dynaudio driven by a Musical Fidelity A3.2 Int . I was looking to replace the Dynaudio and found a pair of Monitor Audio SILVER 5I.
. I became a bit skeptical at first maybe because of their diminutive size
and almost passed them up, what a mistake that would have been. The first think I did was fill the bottom with sand,about 7 pounds in each speaker after that I connected them to the Musical Fidelity with some spare Audioquest cv4 speaker wire, the sound was good in all aspects including bass. I was happy with my purchase and left the speakers in the den. After about 1 year last week I had some spare time and nothing better to do I decided to try the MA 5I in my basement , that's when my jaw dropped used with Sim Audio 4150 amp and 4002 Pre along with some older MIT MH-750 PLUS the sound that always had the tendency to be on the bright side became so smooth and full that words cannot describeThe sound stage grew . These little floorstanders are incredible when used with upscale gear.

Fluid midrange, sweet treble, accurate bass when positioned carefully.

Picky about positioning, slightly short for tweeter positioning.

Having been a long term user of MA R700's in the UK, I was amazed to see such a change in design in the Silver 5's. I had to listen, even though I wasn't buying. DAC were fantastic, and when I said I wasn't buying, they said "listen now, buy later" and hooked them up to Arcam Alpha 10 amp/Alpha 9 CD (same as my electronics). I was blown away. The emotion of voices was still there from the R700's, but I was listening in the same room as the singer, and the musicians were gathered around! Forget "too little bass" - get the ASW110 - These babies sing with a velvet voice and hit the spot. I bought.

Similar Products Used:

Monitor Audio R700's (long term owner)

ECCELLENTI

-

SUONO PIENO COMPLETO DETTAGLIATO CON OTTIMA DINAMICA

Similar Products Used:

KEF Q7 Q5 SONUS FABER CONCERTINO, MONITOR AUDIO PCM 702

Detail, sweet sounding with a nice soundstage. Midrange is lovely.

Picky with equipment, cables and system matching. Maybe the height of the speakers are not perfect but but Soundcare spikes and you have solves that "problem".

I bought this speakers in August in 2002. At first I was a little dissapointed. The soundstage wasn´t what I hoped for. But after several hours of playing it appeared. Now I really love this speakers. They are so sweet, detailed, musically and the bass is just perfect! I have read other reviews here and noticed that some people don´t think the bass is enought. That´s up to them. Listen to this speakers and if you like them, buy them. It´s that simple. Concerning the build quility some people are complaining about I must day i don´t know what they are talking about! The speakers are very solid and weel built! Another complaint I have read is that the speakers height are to short. I purchase Soundcare spikes and that problem was solves in my point ot wiev. My system: amplifier: H/K 670 cd-player: H/K HD 750 (while be replaces soon with Thule Spirit CD100) interconnect: Van den Hul D-102 hybrid speaker cables: Van den Hul Magnum Hybrid for tweeter and Kimber Kable 8 PR Of cource there are disadvantages with these speakers. They need LONG TIME to burn in. Give them the time. Put the system on before you go to work so you really burn them in. Another disadvanted if you can call it that is that this speakers are a little picky about system matching and the system components. That´s whay I´m going to change CD-player. Speaker-cables are also very important. But remember one thing, it´s YOUR ears that´s choice that speakers YOU like. No one else.

voice reproduction, particularly female. sound stage. These speakers can freak my black lab out. She thinks she hears sounds coming from somewhere else.

If any, it's low (and by low, I mean really low, not the stuff you think is low) reproduction. I added a Bag End Infra18, which added MUSICAL low end. With acoustic bass, they need no help at all, and in fact, subwoofers do more harm than good here. They seem to be sensitive to cabling, which is a good thing because you can coax better sound out of them with better cables.

Amazing. I have never had "good" speakers before, unless you count speakers you can buy at mass market retailers that also sell microwave ovens (and you shouldn't). These speakers sound so good, my wife even was forced to admit it. 'nuff said.

Similar Products Used:

Silver 3i as surround; Silver 10 center

No listening fatigue, great detail and voice reproduction.

Don't sound their best at low volumes.

"Small - Beer's look go on top of the stubby cabinet." I think this sentence sums up the previous reviewer's credibility quite well. We'll leave it at that. I took the time to listen to many products comparable to the Silver 5's before buying them and, though I heard many speakers around the same price point that I sounded great, none stood out to me as being noticeably better than the MA's. These beautiful, compact speakers deliver an impressive amount of bass and reproduce voices (especially Lisa Gerrard's) with stunning realism. Great for all kinds of music, I listen to everything from Beethoven to Front 242 and have yet to be disappointed by how they perform.

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio Audience 62 B&W 603s3, CM4

Clarity

Bass rolls off, need a sub woof

These are great little speakers. I love to look at them and to listen to them. They acutually did get better as they broke in. I got a close out price on them and used the money to add a Definitive Technology sub. Most of us have become used to accentuated bass these days, and with out the sub I think most people will find these speakers a bit thin. I keep the crossover at 35 Hz to capture the deep stuff, mostly for movies, and the sub stays out of the way when I listen to well recorded music, doesnt muddy the midrange. These speakers are sensitive to room placement as described. Have had a bose acustamass in the big room for years and these are much cleaner. Great clarity and soundstage.

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acustamass

Looks, punchy accurate bass, small package delivers more than expected, most of all the stereo imaging

$999.00 list price is still to much in my opinion, get them for a little less and you can't go wrong.

Upon first hearing the 5i's I was impressed with their beautiful stereo imaging and clear details, but was some- what dissapointed with the "lack of bass response" but didn't expect much from such a small cabinet. 31"x8"x8" I auditioned many other brands afterwards such as B&W, JM Labs,Paradigm,Dynaudio, etc. I kept comparing everything to the 5i's. No other brand seemed to have such a large sweet spot but I didn't want to pay $999 for a speaker that had little low end. Finally I saw a pair of the Cherry Wood Veneer finish 5i's on Ebay and went ahead and bought them. They were store returns and apparently hadn't even been broken in yet. I was a bit dissapointed at first because they sounded thin and two dimensional. To my delight they begain to warm up after a few hours. I mass loaded them, installed the floor spikes and moved them about a foot and a half from the wall rather than 3 feet. It was fantastic, the bass begain to come through, tight and strong and much deeper than I had expected, my son and girlfriend were supprised also. Since then I have all but unhooked my subwoofer and only use it for movies because it seems to muddy up the accurate bass responce I am getting from the 5i's. The build and finish on these are nice and the overall appearence is very pleasing. The speakers seem to fit into the living room unobtrusivly, atractive and slim. One note I would like to add reguarding their high freq. response.I owned some B&w 602 s2 bookshelfs at the time and compared them side by side in my living room, the B&w's seemed more "shout in your face" and the highs were not as smooth as the 5i's, the 5i's imaged better and were more pleasing to the ear. I got rid of the B&W's.

Similar Products Used:

Manapan planar, JBL s38( not bad) B$W 602 s2, Energy c2, Polk 38i's, Atlantic Tech. more JBL's , Dahlquist.

as mentioned in review 147...clear accurate vocals, and instruments. Dave Brubeck Quartet is quite impressive.

??

I forgot to mention in review 147 that are beautiful looking speakers and take up a minimal amount of space. I also meant to write I had van den hul cables and get very good bass response.

Clear, accurate vocals; dynamic instument reproduction; plenty enough bass.

These speakers are excellent for instrumentals in many forums especially jazz. They produce clear, crisp, accurate sound in my system (NAD C350, Sony CD player, and van der wal cables). I found no bass deficit, on the contrary they produce soild bass, much more for me than what others report. Vocals are also exceptional, either male or female in many types of music, jazz, R & B, and rock. I do find that when Queen gets cranking vocals get a bit overshadowed and aren't as clear. But when there are primary vocal passages the vocal production is great. I compared these speakers with PSB 6T's and Infinity IL 40's and Boston Accoustics VR 950's(I believe I got the BA number correct).

Similar Products Used:

Old Genesis 210's