VERDICT
SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME CINEMA CHOICEand harmonic structure to the party, melding with
a midband that’s beautifully voiced and exquisitely
clean. There's vanishingly low colouration and cabinet
contribution. So when Mavis Staples sings Changes,
the opening track from her fab We Get By album (CD),
it isn’t just the dark timbre and deeply felt expression in
her voice that’s so arresting but the sense of a physical
presence. Meanwhile, the twin tower speakers have the
bass extension and nuance to make two-channel listening
a full-range event. Marvellous stuff.Match point
It’s rare to fi nd a 5.1 speaker system that combines slam
and subtlety quite as skilfully as this one (not to mention
wrapping it up in gorgeous enclosures). It’s a distinctly
high-end presentation, and one that serves your Blu-ray
blockbusters and music collection well. I can imagine that,
for some enthusiasts, this fi fth-generation Gold package,
while a long way from inexpensive, could off er the optimal
performance/price ratio QSPECIFICATIONS
Monitor Audio Gold 30 0
DRIVE UNITS: 1 x MPD tweeter; 2 x 8in RST II bass drivers; 1 x 2.5in C-CAM midrange
driver ENCLOSURE: Twin HiVe II rear-ported FREQUENCY RESPONSE (CLAIMED):
30Hz-50kHz SENSITIVITY (CLAIMED): 90dB POWER HANDLING (CLAIMED): 250W
DIMENSIONS: 240(w) x 1000(h) x 361(d)mm WEIGHT: 30.6kgMonitor Audio Gold C250
DRIVE UNITS: 1 x MPD tweeter; 1 x 2.5in C-CAM midrange driver; 2 x 6.5in RST II bass
drivers ENCLOSURE: Sealed FREQUENCY RESPONSE (CLAIMED): 40Hz-50kHz
SENSITIVITY (CLAIMED): 88dB POWER HANDLING (CLAIMED): 200W DIMENSIONS:
537(w) x 205(h) x 331(d)mm WEIGHT: 14.5kgMonitor Audio Gold FX
DRIVE UNITS: 2 x MPD tweeters; 2 x 4in C-CAM midbass drivers ENCLOSURE: Sealed
FREQUENCY RESPONSE (CLAIMED): 60Hz-50kHz SENSITIVITY (CLAIMED): 86dB
POWER HANDLING (CLAIMED): 100W DIMENSIONS: 342(w) x 270(h) x 160(d)mm
WEIGHT: 6.2kgGold W12 (subwoofer)
DRIVE UNITS: 1 x 12in front-fi ring C-CAM bass driver; 2 x 8in auxiliary bass radiators
ENCLOSURE: Sealed FREQUENCY RESPONSE (CLAIMED): 20Hz-150Hz ONBOARD
POWER (CLAIMED): 600W Class D Hypex REMOTE CONTROL: Yes DIMENSIONS:
410(w) x 445(h) x 434(d)mm WEIGHT: 27kg FEATURES: Flat/Music/Movie/
Impact EQ settings; Night Mode; Automatic Position Correction (APC) room EQ;
LED control panel; phase control; balanced XLR LFE input, phono LFE input;
stereo phono input; balanced XLR LFE output; phono LFE output; stereo phono
output; 12V triggerBUMBLEBEE: This
Transformers spin-off /
prequel takes a diff erent
approach than Michael Bay's
eff orts, and is better for it.
Paramount's 4K Blu-ray
release is a winner too, with
Dolby Vision visuals and a
seismic Atmos track.PARTNER WITH
Monitor Audio Gold 5.1
« £8,900 « http://www.monitoraudio.com
WE SAY: Monitor Audio off ers surround sound speaker packages
to suit just about every pocket and they’re all crowd-pleasers- but this fi fth-gen Gold system truly is a class act.
REVIEWS 47
software, although this requires the use of a PC and
wasn't employed here. A rotary dial on the W12's top
panel, or the supplied remote, also off er quick access
to a quartet of (confi gurable) user presets: Flat, Music,
Movie and Impact.
Sting like a bee
It’s sunny outside and with the Gold W12 positioned dead
centre beneath my projector screen, preset EQ set to Movie
and the Blu-ray of Bumblebee at hand, it feels only right
to see what the MA combo makes of a gloriously full-on,
old-school vibe Transformers soundtrack.
How about transforms it? Having seen the fi lm fi rst
in the cinema and then choice chapters on a couple of
other review products, the word I least expected to fi nd
in my notes was ‘subtle’ but it’s the sense of nuance and
fi nesse this Monitor Audio array brings to proceedings that’s
so surprising and, to be honest, so satisfying.
It opens up the dynamic repertoire of the soundtrack,
exposing low-level details, textures and spatial cues
missed by lesser speaker systems. And the reason that
matters is, when it’s fi ring on all cylinders at the other end
of the dynamic scale, this 5.1 combo is truly and (very)
deeply awesome.
Naturally, Bumblebee being a fi lm that invests so
materially in colliding heavy metal, big explosions and
multi-directional gunfi re, moving air is a key requirement
and here the teamwork between the Gold 300s' estimable
low-frequency chops and the Gold W12 sub’s still more
visceral LFE contribution is sonic dynamite. When dear old
(young?) Bumblebee and his evil metallic adversaries hit
the deck, as they do repeatedly but especially in Chapter 19,
the crunching chaos, fi sticuff s and body slams send
shockwaves juddering and rippling through the room,
prompting childish ‘do it again, do it again’ refrains from
the stalls. Which they do. The surprisingly lengthy talky bits
are expertly handled, too, with rock-solid location, steering,
clarity and intelligibility. And this dialogue trick is repeated
even in the midst of Decepticon-instigated mayhem.
On to softer but vastly more suspenseful fare with
A Quiet Place (Blu-ray) where blind Earth-invading aliens
do their hunting with the kind of aural acuity that would put
any self-respecting audiophile to shame. Characters have
to keep shtum for almost the entire duration of the fi lm if
they’re to avoid a nasty end. So is there anything for the
Gold speakers to do? Plenty, as it turns out – albeit with
the emphasis on deftness rather than detonation.
Here, again, it’s the way the Monitor Audios deal with
detail and micro-dynamics that’s so compelling and, in this
case, ramps up the tension to almost unbearable levels.
The subtlest of Foley eff ects creep in from the extremes
of a very three-dimensional soundscape, best realised
for this movie with the Gold FX surround speakers set to
dipole mode. Even quivery breathing acquires an almost
palpable presence.
And it's not whisper-quiet throughout. When the hungry
aliens start to close in, the soundtrack kicks up a couple of
gears, Monitor Audio’s mighty woofer rolls its shoulders for
some heavy lifting and, combined with a few well-timed
Hitchcock-esque screen shocks, the whole experience
becomes startlingly visceral.
I suggested at the beginning that music replay would
be very much another string to this MA Gold combo’s bow
and so it transpires. The extension, purity and speed of the
brand's MPD tweeters brings openness, clarity, fi ne detail
- The Gold 300
fl oorstanders are
supplied with spiked
feet for extra stability - Joining the W 12
sub's 12in driver are
8in passive radiators