I'm looking at the Silver series. They look great and have gotten great reviews. Does anyone own them? If so could you post your thoughts on them. Thx.
I don't own them but have listened to the silver 4i's, 5i's, silver surrounds and silver center many times. I really like the 5i's and think they are an excellent speaker.
They have good reviews (although they were linked off their homepage) that it's hard to believe more people dont' have them. I guess it's because they are speakers from England?
i have a 5i's, 3i's, and 10i setup. i love these speakers. however they are not for everyone. i like them because they are exceptionally smooth and mellow, i cannot tolerate a bright speaker. because of this they are not extremely detail. very detail, yes, but not excetionally. dialogue from movies and vocals sound great from them. however when listening to classical it feels like something is missing. if you like speakers on the bright side these are not for you. i auditioned many speakers before i got them including b&w (600's and cm's), paradigm (monitors and studios), psb, nht, mission, mirage, and last but not least revel. the revels, don't remember the model but it was the bookshelves, were the only speakers i like more then my monitors. but they cost about 2g's for a pair. i got my whole setup used on audiogon for $1100. i also love the way the speakers look. i don't know why they aren't talked about more here either. wouldn't trade them for anything, well maybe revels.
I owned the Silver 7is for about 8 months. They are beautiful looking speakers. I found them to be very bright. They caused 'listener fatigue' fairly quickly with me. They have metal dome tweeters which more often than not are bright. I end up selling them because of it. Every review (from a 'normal' person ie: not a magazine) I have read felt the same way as me. StanleyW is the first person I have heard who has said they are not bright. Over at audioreview.com, if you search, you will see them get slammed quite a bit. There are some very anti-Monitor Audio people over there. My associated equipment was a Rotel RSP980 preamp, RB985 amp and Yamaha CD player. Rotel is known for being warm, not bright. My current speakers (ACI Sapphire IIIs) are wonderfully balanced and never cause listening fatigue. Your best bet is to listen to them yourself. If you buy them, get the someplace where you can return them if you are not happy with them after a few weeks.
I haven't heard any Monitor Audio speakers so I won't comment on the sound. IMO, I don't think you hear too much about them because they don't have a large dealer base in the US and they tend to be more expensive than their competition.
I have listened to most of the silver series speakers....once demoing a long time ago, and again recently in a local shop. They are nice, but I don't understand why they are so hyped, nor do I understand why they get ripped. I actually don't think they deserve either. Are they good? Yes. For movies, I think they compete very well with anything in their price range. They work well with modest electronics and will take advantage of the better electronics too. Music listening is much more subjective I think. For me, they never quite hit a home run with any type of music while I listened. This isn't to say they do music poorly...I just don't get as "moved" listening to them as I do with others. Sonically though, they do sound good. I don't think they do any one thing great or bad. Would I consider them today? For a 100% home theater setup....yes. For a two-channel music setup...no. Just my opinion, and for what it's worth, I am not surprised many many people DO like them for music. After all, it's the subjectivity of all of our tastes that makes room for all kinds and type of equipment.
I have the silver 5i,3i,10i center, fx surrounds, asw 210 sub and I have really enjoyed them for over 2 years. They were hyped pretty big on audioreview back then, don't hear as much now. But then, I feel that audioreview.com has really gone down in quality information. Some of the good guys still there, but a lot of trolling and flippant posts. Hard to find reliable information. I am moving up to an svs 16-46 pc+ when they come out later this summer. The monitor sub is tight and fast and great for music, I just want to go deeper and louder.
