Monitor AudioBronze100 Bookshelf Speakers in Black (Pair) Latest Generation

I am so stoked to have these speakers. They create distinct, discreet spaces within the field of sound, separating and articulating layers and textures, leading you on sonic discoveries bordering on revelation. These speakers engage you. And it’s right in the feels. Hard to believe they were engineered by Brits. No hanging on in quiet desperation here. So much fun.

These speakers exceeded my expectations, the sound is pure and clean. I couldn't be happier

Tweeter too peaky for my taste

I’ll be the first to admit, there is one thing and one thing only that drew me to this speaker. The 8” driver, which is very rare among passive bookshelf speakers. I’ve had plenty of 5.25” and 6.5” drivers, but never an 8”. The mysticism regarding this and how it would sound made this an easy purchase. Hoping to get as much bass extension as possible in a bookshelf speaker was also an alluring prospect. Okay, I also gotta give it to Monitor Audio for the beautiful, seamless woofer that I’ve always admired in many of their speakers. Top that out with the flush tweeter cover and unique gold-colored tweeter. These look good!I’ll be quick on build cause I usually don’t care too much about this. These are fine. It’s a box wrapped in vinyl. Pretty hollow and basic for its price point but whatever. They are pretty hefty due to their size and boy these are big! Swapping back and forth between these and the Revel M16 with its 6.5” truly reveals their monstrous size, both in cabinet and driver. One disappointing thing was their shipping box, which was about as bare minimum as you could get, with the holes for the handles leaving the speakers fully visible behind their semi-translucent white bags. But at least the binding post caps have been the absolute easiest to remove, no blood, sweat, or tears required. Hallelujah! I hope other brands pay attention.Then I hit play. These are nothing how I thought they’d be. I was skeptical after some lukewarm reviews, but I didn’t care, I wanted the 8” driver. My first impression was that they were a bit hot and thin sounding. I also expected far more bass. While the extension was pretty good, I wasn’t getting as much punch as I was hoping for. These look like they want to GO, but are relatively reserved bass wise. The rest of the spectrum wasn’t fatiguing per say, but I could tell there was a rise in the treble somewhere, which in some situations was their standout attribute. It was a light showroom sound, exciting, but done tastefully enough not to cause fatigue after a few songs. For the first few days, I was partial to this presentation, not quite sure how I felt about it. But, there was something about it that always made me want to listen just a bit longer… try one more song. Especially after experimenting with placement and smoothing it out further.Taking no prisoners, I plopped the M16s on the stands fully expecting them to wipe the floor. Now I was really confused. Both had great imaging, similar bass extension (M16 had more bass overall), excellent vocals, and were very enjoyable to listen to in different ways. The biggest difference was the top end, with the M16 being oh so smooth and not fatiguing by any stretch of the imagination. Whereas the Bronze 100 was more sharpened and forward, occasionally being too much so. M16 played it safe and was basically faultless (once the bass was tamed), but sometimes not as interesting to listen to. Bronze 100 was chilled water, refreshing or even shocking at times; M16 was lukewarm water, always easy to drink with no extra “taste”. I was liking both just about equally and for different reasons.But as I’ll review in the next paragraph, my ears were always hearing more bass from the M16, and my REW graphs backed that up. While the M16’s were easier to place in general and could be placed further apart and retain the center image, they HAD to be away from the front wall! I’d say at LEAST a foot minimum (mine are currently at 20in). The Bronze 100 could be much closer to the wall and STILL have less bass than the M16 (only a smidgen more extension under 30Hz). But the Bronze 100 were more sensitive to placement and lost the center image quickly if too far apart. I went into the Bronze 100 hoping their 8” driver would give me a bit more low-end punch than what I’m used to, but in the end got that from my current M16. Go figure.Curious to match what I was hearing with hard data, I set up my UMIK-1 with REW and took dozens of measurements in my quiet room at 75db. Frankly, I was stunned. First, the 1-2db bass extension “advantage” for the Bronze ended at 25Hz, where from there on up until about 350Hz, the M16 was more elevated. The M16 was 1-3db more lifted in the bass overall. From 350Hz to about 1kHz, they were oddly similar. Each dip and each peak between the two were followed very closely, clearly showing what my room sounded like. It wasn’t until 4kHz that the Bronze 100 regained the elevation up to about 9kHz. Moral of the story: M16 has more bass and should not be placed near the front wall, both measure way more similar than I thought they would, M16 response continues to gently decline after 4kHz whereas the Bronze 100 starts to rise making it an easier listen. No matter how many measurements I took, the M16 always sounded more “correct” when listening to music even though in some cases the Bronze 100’s measured flatter, more consistent, or sounded “better”.So why 4 stars instead of 5? A couple reasons, beginning with their presentation. It's more-forward nature that can sound a bit thin, sometimes hot treble, and surprisingly mild bass. Nothing too crazy here and much of it can be tweaked by placement, the room, or DSP, but fundamentally still there. I could definitely picture the days where its presentation would borderline too much to handle (R.I.P Evo 4.2). Second is more minor but would be its build quality and two-toned finishes that I’m not that fond of. Third and finally is my least favorite attribute. When positioned close enough these have great imaging and a proper soundstage, but these really cannot go too wide or you completely lose the center and begin hearing 2 distinct speakers. I’ve always sat 6ft away with my speakers 6ft apart. All bookshelf speakers I’ve tried in this configuration have handled that, these are the first that could not (regardless of toe-in). I pushed them together about another foot and they regained their proper imaging and soundstage. So don’t place them too wide! (It's funny, the M16 rectifies all these issue)At the end of the day, I could be perfectly happy with either of these speakers! I think that is huge props to the Bronze 100 for being in the running with the revered M16, at least by my tastes. Appearance goes to the Bronze 100 for sure, but the M16 does look elegant with its glossy curved cabinets. My brain says M16, my heart says Bronze 100, and my ears are split. M16 has a wider soundstage making it more forgiving on toe-in and distance apart, whereas the Bronze 100 is much more flexible to be placed closer to the front wall. Sometimes the M16 sounded too mellow while the Bronze 100 grabbed my attention. Other times, the M16 sounded so seamless and perfect while the Bronze 100 sounded slightly too hot. Trading blows here really. If it all came down to just price, I’d probably go with the Bronze 100 (considering they’re $500 and the M16 $700, both my purchase prices). But if the extra couple hundred bucks was in the cards, no doubt the M16 is the safer, tried-and-true bet. Overall the M16 is still my favorite bookshelf speaker under $1000, but I have a huge appreciation for the Bronze 100. What a pleasure to compare the two!

Mediocre performance even after 30 hr break-in. Box damaged in shipment but speakers appear undamaged .

Unbelievable how this speaker with a 8in sub , can't handle low notes.It's tweeter on the other hand makes up for clarity