Great sound and looks...and all for under a grand.

I got my Silver 5s back in September and I am slowly rediscovering my music collection. For the price, the quality that the manufacturer put into these speakers is astounding. I personally love the fact that the wood grain of all three veneered sides of speaker match the other speaker in the pair.

But beyond the looks, these things sound great. I say this after living with them for four months and not feeling that way initially. The break in period was very long and because of their height, they sounded kind of boxy. However, by placing them on a pair of Lovan Jazz 600 stands the sound stage grew wider and the boxyness disappeared. The Lovan stands are 6" tall and place the tweeter at the proper height.

Before listening to the Silver 5s I listened to the Mission 755s and found them sounding very thin. The NHTs were OK, but my personal taste led me to the Missions.

A great speaker for the money.

Similar Products Used:

Mission 775, NHT 2.5

These speakers excel at sparsely arranged acoustic music. The treble is clear and well defined, with tight midrange. Female voices are wonderfully reproduced.

When playing heavily layered rock, however, the sound becomes somewhat muddied and much less transparent. Male voices sound congested.

Overall, this is an impressive speaker, especially for its size. Very good build quality. Recommended if you don't spend all your time listening to Creed, Van Halen, Et Al...

Similar Products Used:

various B&W, Canton, M&K

Soundstage & Accuracy

Lousy Electronics will sound just that - Lousy

This is the best speaker you can but in this price range!!! I've listened to lots of others including a home audition of the Paradigm Studio 60v2. They are no where near as accurate as this speaker!!! I returned the Paradigm's and bought the Monitor Silver 5's and WOW what a difference!!!

The down side of the Monitors (if you can call it a down side) is they are extreemly accurate. With good electronics you will hear the music as it was intended to be heard. Cheaper electronics will sound bright and congested. I'm Driving mine with the Denon 3300 and this is an awesome combination.

I HIGHLY RECCOMEND THIS SPEAKER!!!

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm, KEF, Infinity Overture 2 & 3.

Appearance, accuracy, imaging

long break in period, a bit fussy on positioning, small mass loading port on the back

[Important]

While I am simply amazed by the quality of sound these speakers produce for the price, it does not happen overnight. For the first month, I was wondering what happened to the great sound I heard on the showroom floor, but after an extended break in time (80+) hours, the speakers sounded less bright, less flat, and as good as I remembered. Also - these (b/c of their brightness) will produce a significant amount of ear fatigue until the break in period is over. Once they are fully broken in and the proper placement is achieved, these speakers shine.

[Brief Review]

These speakers are an excellent buy for the money. They excel when compared with other products in the same price range and compare favorably with speakers up to $500 more. Anyone that doesn't believe this should try out a broken in pair at their local dealer with a song containing an acoustic guitar or piano and a female vocalist. (Like Jewel-Foolish Games)

The clarity, accuracy, and speed is amazing. For most of my CDs I am able to enjoy subtle details that I wasn't ever aware of previously. With other CDs, their poor recording quality is quickly magnified by the accuracy of these speakers.

While the spreakers are relatively short, they still project a great soundstage and an amazing image with plenty of good center-fill. It did take a while to position them optimally to get a good solid image.

These guys really excel at midrange to highs demonstrating both speed and clarity, but also perform suprisingly well with a nice tight punchy bass.

When useed with the Silver Center 10i and the Silver Surrounds, they are fantastic for home theater use as well.

And of course, the appearance is exceptional.

[Tweaks]

1. Removed the grilles (magnetically attached)
2. Used plinths with spikes
3. Mass loaded wiith lead shot

[My Equipment]

NAD T760 Receiver
Toshiba 2109 DVD
Audioquest Turqoise Interconnects
Tara Labs Prism BiWire 2+2 cables


[Music]

Pop/Rock
Classical
Jazz

Similar Products Used:

NHT Super 2, PSB, Castle Audio

Imageing, Natural Sound, Appearance, Size.

Cheap or Bright electronics sound just that!!!

I've used these speakers as part of my home theater set up for 7 months now and I must say I still would have no other speaker. That should be testimonial enough for this realy great speaker!!!

Excellent details for each instruments.
Very smooth and sweet.

If the lower end can go a little bit deeper,
it will be perfect.

I have been using this pair of speakers for 4 months. I'm very pleased with them. I listen to almost every kinds of music. In my opinion, this pair is perfect for jazz, pop, and new age. I can catch most of the detail of the instrument. Very smooth and sweet. For metal fan, this pair is doing a good job but if they can go a little bit deeper, they will be better. My equip:
Preamp: Cambridge audio C500
Amp: Acurus A100
Cd: Sony CDP-CE525
Speaker wire: Mit 6
For jazz fan, give it a try. You won't be disappointed.

Great looks, great sound quality

size, bass bump

I have been demo'ing speakers for the last few months and after 2 or three sessions, I finally decided on the Monitor 5i and Center 10. I should get them this week and man I cannot wait.

These are a great little speaker, especially when you factor the price. I cannot think of any other $900 speaker that can produce that kind of sound quality. I can listen to them all day. The highs amd mids are excellent. The bass "bump" of the ported enclosure can be a love it or hate it thing, depending on what you are listening to. I decided I don't love it but it works for HT and R&R.

I A-B'ed them with the Silver 7 for a few hours at a time and it came down to price. The sound quality is excellent on both, but I have to say they are a little bit different and definitely suited to different tastes. The 5's are a bit more efficient which is good if you don't have major power. I will say that the 7 is definitely an audiophile speaker in a truer sense than the 5.

I give them a 5 overall, and I would give them a 6 for value, for they fit my needs perfectly.

I can honestly say, just buy them!!

Similar Products Used:

PSB, paradigm, NHT, snell, KEF, Boston, Polk

Good imaging, excellent bass, looks and price

depending on listening position, these speakers should really be about 10 to 15 cm taller

The Monitor Audio Silver 5i's are excellent speakers and they have performed above and beyond my expectations. I have a farily modestly priced system (see below)and it is important to me to be able to get good equipment at a sensible price. With my set up and in my listening room, the Silver 5i's not only give a wide and detailed sonic image with good depth, but they also provide more tight, fast bass than you could beleive (how this is possible in a speaker this size is beyond me).

About the hype. I think that some of the unfavorable reviews below are due to unrealistic expectations caused by the 'just buy 'em' nonsense. I really can't understand how any reputable magazine can make such a silly suggestion. No matter how good a piece of equipment is, you definitely need to shop around and make comparasions. As far as the comparsions with speakers up to $2000 goes, I think that this too is ridiculous. As with any kind of electronics, some products give you more for the money and some less. I think the Silver 5i's can hold their own against many more expensive speakers, but it is simply insane to think that you couldn't find better speakers for $1500 to $2000. I paid roughly $600 for mine and I am absolutely convinced that you cannot do better for that kind of money and that is good enough for me.

Though it should be obvious, speaker positioning is extremely important -- I find a 1:5 speaker/speaker to speaker/listener ratio to be the best in my room. Also, my experience with the Silver 5i's is to keep the toe-in to a minimum (about 10 degrees)-- too much toe-in gives a far too narrow sonic image.

In my set up, I found it absolutely essential to bi-wire these speakers. Until I bi-wired them, I couldn't really understand what the fuss was about.

I tried three other tweaks, I think they helped, but I couldn't say for sure if I would be able to spot any difference in blind test. They are: taking off the grilles (well duh) and the small tweeter grilles; adjusting the spikes so they tilt back and placing them on 10 cm thick granite slabs (of course I can hear a difference when the speakers are raised, I'm just not sure that it is better, but I think it is).

I have heard really positive things about mass loading these speakers, but I haven't got around to that yet (they sound so damn good the way they are), but I will soon.

As far as ratings go, I must give them the highest rating possible for both value and sound. These are really fun speakers to listen to -- place them properly, tweak wisely, make comparisions using good recordings and I think you will agree.

My system:

harman kardon CDR 2 player/recorder
harman kardon HK 3270 RDS receiver/integrated amp
Monitor Audio Silver 5i loundspeakers
Tara Labs prism 22 interconnects
Tara Labs Klara loudspeaker cables

Similar Products Used:

No similar products used, but I have tested the following: Tannoy R2, B&W DM603 S2, Wharfedale Emerald EM-97, among others

superb sound and built quality at this price range,You can concern it as 'Reference monitor speaker', because it can reflect the character of different equipments and cables

Probably a little bit picky on the equipments and cables to match it perfectly.

According towhat Hank and Anthony.B said , they are disappointed about the silver5, it is probably the gears you use is not good enough, especially some people believed speaker cables won't make difference in the sound quality...it is absolutely wrong. In this case Silver5i "REALLY..really...." needs good quality equipments to go with, the better gears you use, the better sound it will show you!
In my case,I used to use Marantz sr8000 as AV center with mission 77series all round with boston pv800 sub, accuphase c240, stereo amp with b&w805 with qed silver 25 anniversary biwire cables as music system,both system use marantz DV18 as singal souce.but I was not fully satisfied with the sound of 805 without sub, it sounds sweet, but I want speak that give deep tight musical low frequencies, so I look for new speaker after one month of research(this web site and local audio store),I picked silver 5i home and play with it.
Connected to accuphase c240, it give full range sound that sound better than 805, warmer , more emotion, very good bass details and bass extension. Connected with sr8000, sounds cold and hard edge and the bass is coloured. Wow , what a good speakers, it reflect the character of equipments. recently I have up graded from sr8000 to sr19, in analog direct mode the silver5i with sr19 sound a bit less warm than accuphase c240, but faster mid and high frequency "younger" feeling but the bass details is not as good , last step I change speaker cables the MITerminator 2 biwire cables, when put this cable in it perfect the soung the sound. this make sr19 overall sound better than the accuphase with silver5i. use good equipments.

Similar Products Used:

owned (mission773e, b&w805), dynaudio mini tower(auditioned)

superb sound and built quality at this price range,You can concern it as 'Reference monitor speaker', because it can reflect the character of different equipments and cables

Probably a little bit picky on the equipments and cables to match it perfectly.

According towhat Hank and Anthony.B said , they are disappointed about the silver5, it is probably the gears you use is not good enough, especially some people believed speaker cables won't make difference in the sound quality...it is absolutely wrong. In this case Silver5i "REALLY..really...." needs good quality equipments to go with, the better gears you use, the better sound it will show you!
In my case,I used to use Marantz sr8000 as AV center with mission 77series all round with boston pv800 sub, accuphase c240, stereo amp with b&w805 with qed silver 25 anniversary biwire cables as music system,both system use marantz DV18 as singal souce.but I was not fully satisfied with the sound of 805 without sub, it sounds sweet, but I want speak that give deep tight musical low frequencies, so I look for new speaker after one month of research(this web site and local audio store),I picked silver 5i home and play with it.
Connected to accuphase c240, it give full range sound that sound better than 805, warmer , more emotion, very good bass details and bass extension. Connected with sr8000, sounds cold and hard edge and the bass is coloured. Wow , what a good speakers, it reflect the character of equipments. recently I have up graded from sr8000 to sr19, in analog direct mode the silver5i with sr19 sound a bit less warm than accuphase c240, but faster mid and high frequency "younger" feeling but the bass details is not as good , last step I change speaker cables the MITerminator 2 biwire cables, when put this cable in it perfect the soung the sound. this make sr19 overall sound better than the accuphase with silver5i. use good equipments.

Similar Products Used:

owned (mission773e, b&w805), dynaudio mini tower(auditioned)