Attractive veneers. Clarity and speed.

Build quality ?. Can be bright and fatiguing with the passage of time.

I purchased these speakers due to the speed and clarity provided by the small aluminum the drivers which is without doubt, impressive. In addition, my SO approved of their appearance. I powered the 5is and 10i with a Harman/Kardon AVR 80II which is a powerful receiver which is quite smooth in its power delivery. Source is the excellent (IMO) Pioneer Elite PD65. ICs were Wireworld Atlantis.

After nearly seven months of ownership, I decided to sell the speakers. The tweeter, while also accurate, can be bright sounding with much of my recording material. The 5is, while floorstanders, do require a sub for music to deliver a full sound. Without a sub, they can sound thin and over exerted with CD's such as Santana's Supernatural and other rock CDs with heavy bass passages. There is a limit as to how much air a pair of 5.5" drivers can move. The bass also has a bump along the frequency range which bothered me at times.

The 5is represented the first set of speakers that I have owned with an entire compliment of metal drivers. The speed and clarity that originally attracted me to the 5is, gave away to long term listening fatigue. When one auditions these speakers, it may be a good idea to listen to them long and hard and on several ocassions prior to purchase.

I personally did not think that these speakers were built with the greatest of care. Close examination of the veneer joints and internal components through the bass port did not exactly set me on fire. Build quality is very important to me but perhaps not as crirical to others.

Good luck with your purchase and audition as much product as you possibly can. Quite a few other excellent speakers are also available in this price range.

Similar Products Used:

a/d/s/, Dynaudio currently.

Very smooth, accurate sound. Looks great in Cherry. Should keep me satisfied for a long time. Also appears to be well built.

None so far.

Simply put these are tremendous overall speakers. They perform better than any others I have owned, or auditioned in the demanding variety of music and movies I play. They simply can do it well. You could not expect anymore out of a speaker.

Positioning is important, but this is the case with any speaker. You must have a sizeable room allowing for flexible positioning and ample room behind them.

They particularly excel in the highs, with accurate uncolored voice reproduction, and the bass is extremely tight and not at all boomy. They have brought so much more out of CDs.

If you want a serious speaker that you can purchase and keep for 10-15 years than audition these.

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PSB - Don't know model

Looks - goods mids

shallow base - too short.

I liked the Silver 5's for the price; however, I think the Silvers 7's are required to take out some of the thinness off the sound.

Used a Marantz 9000 pre-amp with the Outlaw 750. Even with a lot of time spent playing with the placement, etc. I could not get a great sound. They were OK, just not enough punch and a little bright for my room. The Silver 7's added more bottom end, but for the cost I'd rather go with another speaker.

Similar Products Used:

B&W NHT PSB

Sounds good, detailed. Not fatigueing.

little too short

I just wanted to give advice on getting these speakers at a good price. First I went to the mail order store (they usually have excellent prices)where I normally shop and they gave me a price of $800( $864 with tax) Not bad I thought and almost bought them. Then I checked out ebay and found them for $600 + $66 shipping. But I was nervous to buy them on ebay sight unseen. I checked out the sellers feedback and he had 100 positive reviews and no negative. Then I checked out various well known mail order companies and stores who sell on ebay(it seems like they all do)and they all had pretty high negative scores ( from 2-5%). I dont see any problem buying on ebay if you check out the seller. Email me and I'll give you the name of the seller-I think he has more.Or just look for yourselves.

I hope this is helpful-audioreview has sure helped me in my search for a good music system!

Vocals, clairty imaging feeling

boomy bass

Am using these for 3 months and I really enjoy them. Listened to the above listed items and liked the MA the best.

Am especially impressed with vocal quality and clarity.
The performance sounds and feels live. What I like about these speakers is that they do not color the sound. It is pure, as recorded. This means that a poor recording will show all its flaws. The more I think about it the more I like these speakers. The sound spectrum is smoothly distributed mid to high range. The bass portion is a bit out of balance however. I have taken care of this with proper positioning and backing off the bass control a little. Depending on the recording this may not be necessary. At this price, you will not get perfection. Keep in mind, room acoustics plays a major part and will effect the way speakers sound. My room is terrible, all concrete with a solid glass wall(Unfortuntely I have to keep the speakers near the corner and this surely throws off the way I hear the bass).

Again the more I think about it the more I love these speakers. I use them constantly and am constantly impressed with them. I mostly listen to jazz and am interested in vocal quality and instrument tonality. I think the piano sounds excellent on these speakers as do all instruments.

Another plus for me is the relatively small size. The Wife Acceptance factor is big with these speakers.

Picking a speaker is a very personal thing. Lots of people like the Missions, PSB and NHT, personally none of those would be my first choice. The Missions sounded very thin and muffled, the PSB sounded cheap and lacking in detail and the NHT sounded crude and unrefined - the sound was there but it was unbalanced and unpleasant to my ear. The KEF Q55s were the first speakers I listened to and my original fist choice (until I heard the MA). They had great imaging and bass response. The performance also sounded live. The problem with them was that when I went back to hear them a second time they sounded terrible. I can't understand that so I didn't buy em. I found the same thing with the Energy eXL26, I liked the sharpness and clarity but when I heard them a second time they sounded really bad to me.

Botton line, after finding the right position I love the way these MA speakers sound. I use them constantly and really like em. (For what its worth I paid $775 at a local shop and am using them with a Harmon Kardon 3270 receiver). One more thing, I'm using them only for music.

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Auditioned Kef Q55, Energy eXL26, Mission 771 & 774 , NHT Super2 , PSB Stratus Bronze

Small size
great stylish looks
Sound quality

none so far!

IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT BUYING SILVER 5 SPEAKERS READ ON.

I have read most of the reviews in this catagory which seam to be very polarised. I have never seen this 'Home theatre' review which people seem to mention, so I can't comment.I would like to point out a couple of things:-

It seems there are a few people who are talking about removing parts and openning the silver 5's up to look inside. I am sorry but I am an audio enthusiast and I listen to music which is what they are for right? So would you open up a new Sony widescreen T.V to look inside because you were a videophile? I think not. It seems to me that these reviews were posted by competitors with bitter evil twisted minds. Surely that would explain why the vast majority of the reviews are glowing 4 & 5 stars, yet one or two have like one star.

Some guy mentioned that the drivers are made by Audax, yet when I visited the Monitor Audio factory in London I was very surprised. I went to get a replacement driver for my studio 2 which I now use in the bedroom. I had in fact been directed to the Monitor Audio driver factory and not the head office. When I walked in I was greeted by production lines building the Silver 5 bass units. So how are these made by Audax? Maybe I live in a dream world.

I don't know whats inside the boxes, what I do know is that they are great. I use them with Tag Mclaren five channel amp and processor which gives a fantastic sound for both music and cinema in my modest living room. All we get in the U.K is constant bombardment from B&W and Mission. These companies are huge compaired to Monitor, and I am glad I made the right choice. I have had the Silver 5i's for about 13 months and I still very very happy with them.

In my view if I was seriously intersted in a pair of speakers I would audition them for some time before buying. Why are ther people on this site who have had them for like 1 month, would they admit to buying on the strength of a review those so called audiophile, enthusiast anoraks?

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM7
Monitor Audio Studio 2

Well built, Beautiful, Sound stage, inexpensive

three weeks of break-in time

After a long search, I've never heard anything to compair. I heard them side by side with the above speakers and there was no compairison. The B&W and Dyns came the closest, but no cigar. These little jewels had so much better detai.l I heard detail the other speakers simply did not produce. I will make this a HT system one day but for now, I use them fro music and I haven't been this thrilled with a speaker in many years. My system consists of Meridian 502 preamp, 557 amp and 508.24 CD. I spoke with Meridian and they had suggested MA in my price range. Thank you Meridian! Otherwise I wouldn't have known about these wonderful speakers.
Buy them, break them in well, use good electronics, Enjoy!

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Dyn Audio, B&W, Paradigm

Imaging, imaging, imaging. Smooth top end. Tight, detailed bottom.

Midrange emphasis.

I've had these for less than a week, NEVER HEARD THEM BEFORE MY PURCHASE. Seriously. A friend brought them down from Boston per his recommendation.

I'm totally satisfied. Coming from a pair of B&W DM 602, the differences are amazing and immediately apparent. The Silver 5 presents a killer sound stage: clean, focused, and much warmer that the B&Ws. They do wonders for female vocals, although they're still a little harsh because they're so new...I anticipate this charecteristic to ease in a few days. On electronic music, they're dead on. Sounds emerge with pin-point accuracy, and the soundstage reveals a great deapth from which sounds float around in.

I was going to pick up a pair of CDM1, Dynaudio, or other comprable mini-monitor, but I can express how happy I am that I didn't.

More to come after a few more weeks of listening.

Equiptment: Nordost cables, Acurus amp, B&K Pre, Cambridge CD Player, Techniques deck.

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM 602, CDM1, CDM7; Paradigm Reference 60

definition of sound

none

As a newcomer to this field I suppose I'm not really qualified to comment - but what the hell!!
I've never heard music sound this good. I'm blown away everytime I play my latest CD purchase - Supergrass.
Just crank it up on the 'Moving' track and you'll instantly know what I mean. No these speakers haven't got four drivers and no they don't stand 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide but they are the biggest things I've ever heard and if thats not enough just take a look at the quality of the cabinets. To be honest they look out of place in my flat but when I buy my mansion they'll be right at home!!!

Dynamics, smoothness, imaging, transparency. Plus it sounds good, too!

Only 80 cm (31 in) high.

This is one great speaker. I love it. Beats similarly priced products in terms of transparency, detail, smoothness and sheer listenability. I really don't understand the complaints about the bass lacking. Perhaps the Paradigm 60's have MORE bass, but it's certainly of a lesser quality. The Silver 5i's are smoother and better balanced. To those of you who say "bright", get better cables and don't use toe-in. I suggest very little if any (>5 degrees) toe-in for these speakers, but they do benefit from being angled upward or raised. If you want to hear a REALLY bright speaker, listen to B&W 602's!

The top of the speaker should just be out of visual range and you will very pleased with the sound. I use a NAD L40 CD Receiver with single-biwired Audioquest Crystal speaker cables. Sounds great! Congratulations to everyone who bought these speakers, as they are one of the best deals in hi-fi today.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 602 S2, Celstion SL6, Paradigm Ref Studio 20 & 60