I would fully expect those three aspects to improve, maybe significantly, with a good break-in time.
Soundstage and the 45Hz peak will certainly be influenced by placement.
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Monoprice Monolith Encore 5-series Speakers On Sale (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Todd Erwin
- Start date
Soundstage and the 45Hz peak will certainly be influenced by placement.
Quite possibly the best $250 I ever spent on front speakers, not including employee discounts/accommodations.
Well, 2-3 years ago I got ELAC Debut B/C6.2 across the front in my living room for a little less than that, so it would have to be the value winner for me.
Thing is those Debut bookshelves would still need good stands though, so one would probably have to factor that, hehheh... even though they may well still be a bit better performing than this T5+C5 set, especially once one adds subwoofer to the mix.
For me, I'd also rather not have to use stands (that aren't dedicated and perfectly mated) if I can avoid it, NVM the extra cost of stands (though yeah, I'm spending $$$ nonetheless to try a pair of SVS SB-1000s partly as riser/stands for the T5's, LOL, but I'd need/want unusually tall stands if I go w/ bookshelves to get the tweeter up to circa 44" height
)... That was largely why I went w/ floorstanders for the UniFi 2.0s in my current HT setup -- in that case, going w/ the bookshelves + good (but not dedicated) stands would certainly save a good deal of $.Anyway, I did just recover my old Yamaha RX-V663 AVR and quickly set up the T5's on it (and my Oppo 95 too), but haven't been able to do any calibrations/tuning/tweaking yet. Yeah, definitely hearing that bass bump/peak in my tiny space w/ very rough setup -- and I'm only sitting ~3ft from them in front of my PC. Sounded very/overly "tight" and constricted (and definitely in need of plenty of break-in) when I first fired them up, but seems to have loosened up a fair bit even after just a couple hours (unless my ears have simply adjusted to them a whole lot). No doubt even the amp section of my AVR could use plenty of burn-in, not just these (4-ohm) speakers, as I've never even used it to drive any speakers before, LOL.
_Man_
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Yeah, even with the drawbacks they are still an absolute steal $180/pair. They do like power.
A bit more listening and comparing them with the 9.2's and I do find the 9.2's to handily outperform the T5's when it comes to fidelity. But again this is in an untreated room, things could definitely change in a different room - may try them in the theater some time.
Treble, midrange and bass are more articulate on the 9.2's (T5 does seem to have a little more on the top end ~10-20k). Soundstage is more focused, wider when it needs to be, and phantom center is more stable across the seating area. For classical and jazz the 9.2's handily outperform the T5's (would be better with a sub though, but still are getting into the 40hz range in room just not at the same volume as the T5's).
I preferred the T5's for electronic/metal/rock especially with the bass extension, they can go very loud they were pulling in the range of 40w each according to the meters and still not straining too much I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the 100db range. The treble overall is not too harsh when toed in but the CB-15 is a bit softer amp overall. If paired with a Yamaha or similar AVR it may get rough. Will see how it does with the Panny AVR.
Still impressed at under $200. The 9.2's were about $400 back when I purchased them and with inflation they would be much higher now, the closest today would probably be the 12.2's at $599.
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That's what I thought but the waveguide is smaller on the auditions. I contacted monoprice and they said they may have changed to higher performing drivers which is why they look different from the promotion photos. I get the feeling they really don't know why the photos are different from the product.
Welp. It'd seem the mid driver (or maybe it's the crossover or wiring?) on one of my new T5's is already fritzing/flaking out w/ increasing regularity.
I first noticed some slight bit of very sporadic gurgling noise that I wasn't sure actually came from the speaker instead of my space's ambient noise, especially when my AC kicked on (in same small room) -- I don't usually have my AC on (and only in eco mode even then) unless it gets hot (and/or muggy) enough for me, which is maybe just 2-3 weeks scattered across the summer.
Well, after casually using and testing my pair of T5's out for less than 10 hours, that one T5's mid driver issue has degraded to the point of cutting out (nearly?) completely very often for varying stretches -- sometimes just brief moment (from split second upto couple seconds) and sometimes for good deal longer stretches. By this point, I'd say it cuts out for maybe 10-20% of the total playback time.
Yes, I tested w/ just that one T5 connected (and switching between both front channel outputs) to help ensure there wasn't something else going on... like my ~14-yo AVR possibly having 1 bad front channel output or maybe being overtaxed by the 4-ohm loads and/or this being the first time it's driving any speakers at all -- I'm not driving them quite that hard, but did wonder if these 4-ohm loads could cause problems (beyond sound quality) for this AVR. I should probably make one final check to rule out the speaker wire itself though that's almost certainly not the issue given the symptom.
Note that this is actually the T5 that didn't have the fairly significant shipping box damage I mentioned earlier. Haven't noticed the same for the other T5, ie. the one w/ damaged box, so far.
Would seem possibly a general QC and/or possibly suspect/mediocre manufacturing issue (although Todd's 1st shipment had more substantial shipping damages). Certainly makes one wonder anyway, especially given the clearance level pricing that Monoprice continues to sell these. Meanwhile, one would probably never suspect such issues from the packaging and fairly good (at least surface level) quality finish of these.
Guess I better make sure the C5 is actually working reasonably as well even though I wasn't really planning to use it anytime soon...
_Man_
I first noticed some slight bit of very sporadic gurgling noise that I wasn't sure actually came from the speaker instead of my space's ambient noise, especially when my AC kicked on (in same small room) -- I don't usually have my AC on (and only in eco mode even then) unless it gets hot (and/or muggy) enough for me, which is maybe just 2-3 weeks scattered across the summer.
Well, after casually using and testing my pair of T5's out for less than 10 hours, that one T5's mid driver issue has degraded to the point of cutting out (nearly?) completely very often for varying stretches -- sometimes just brief moment (from split second upto couple seconds) and sometimes for good deal longer stretches. By this point, I'd say it cuts out for maybe 10-20% of the total playback time.
Yes, I tested w/ just that one T5 connected (and switching between both front channel outputs) to help ensure there wasn't something else going on... like my ~14-yo AVR possibly having 1 bad front channel output or maybe being overtaxed by the 4-ohm loads and/or this being the first time it's driving any speakers at all -- I'm not driving them quite that hard, but did wonder if these 4-ohm loads could cause problems (beyond sound quality) for this AVR. I should probably make one final check to rule out the speaker wire itself though that's almost certainly not the issue given the symptom.
Note that this is actually the T5 that didn't have the fairly significant shipping box damage I mentioned earlier. Haven't noticed the same for the other T5, ie. the one w/ damaged box, so far.
Would seem possibly a general QC and/or possibly suspect/mediocre manufacturing issue (although Todd's 1st shipment had more substantial shipping damages). Certainly makes one wonder anyway, especially given the clearance level pricing that Monoprice continues to sell these. Meanwhile, one would probably never suspect such issues from the packaging and fairly good (at least surface level) quality finish of these.
Guess I better make sure the C5 is actually working reasonably as well even though I wasn't really planning to use it anytime soon...
_Man_
In the T6 reviews they mentioned they went down to about ~3.5 ohm - this is tough for some AVR's but I wouldn't expect a issue unless they're being driven very hard. I had also read that some monoprice speakers may have a resistor in line with the woofers which could burn up over time.
I've used them probably ~20h so far and no issue yet. I did drive them quite hard. Luckily mine arrived is pristine condition.
If you've ruled out other issues sounds like a return to me - I'd also return them if they were damaged in shipping anyway. If you purchased from target or walmart you can return them in store.
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