Hello, does anyone here have any experience with the new Monitor Audio Silver line of speakers with PS Audio equipment? I ave the Silver 300’s and they sound fantastic, but I’m curious how they’d sound with any of the PS Audio gear (especially amps and pre-amps). I know the M700’s were tested in Stereophile using the Monitor Audio Platinum PL300’s (and paired favorably), but those are obviously quite a step up from my Silver 300’s. Still, I’m sure Monitor Audio’s sound signature permeates throughout its line of speakers.
I’m currently running them with an NAD 326bee and they sound quite good together, but I’m looking to upgrade and am seriously considering the Stellar S300. Cheers.
Nice to know the M700’s sound so good with your MA Silver 10’s. what else have you had a chance to listen to with your Silver 10’s? What do you use for your pre-amplification?
Pre is currently Mytek Brooklyn, but I ordered SGCD - it should arrive tomorrow or next week. With these speakers I have heard couple Marantz receivers (not recommended for music IMO), Emotiva UPA200, Marantz Pearl Lite, Marantz PM-14S1SE and now M700. If I compare the two last ones I would say not a night and day difference but M700 are clearly better sounding.
Speaker cables are really important too, I compared entry level Chord (don’t remember model, maybe clearway) vs QED anniversary x-tube and I prefer QED by far. Chord sounded like DIY Cat5 cables, quite shouty and the sound stage was in front of the speakers, with QED the sound stage is behind the speakers like it should and overall more balanced/relaxed and I like it. I know the Chord cables have good reviews, but for me it seems the QED x-tube is better with Monitor Audio Silver speakers.
Thanks for the great information! I’m actually trying to decide between the Mytek Brooklyn as a preamp / dac vs. the GCD, so I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on these two preamps/DACS paired with the M700’s and through your MA’s. I’ve heard some that favor the Mytek vs. the GCD and vice-versa. If you think about it and get a chance would you mind relating to me your thoughts between these two sometime? Thanks again for your helpful info.
Sure, I’ll let you know. BTW, SGCD get bonus points for HT passthrough, i2s input and 12V trigger. With Mytek I use DIY trigger box and input selector box for HT AVR.
Thanks so much! I’ll be very curious to hear your thoughts your system is one that I aspire to upgrade to. Still trying to decide whether to get the S300 vs the M700’s however.
One speaker cable that is reasonable and versatile are Shunyata Venoms. Check reviews and the fact that they practically never come up on the resale market.
Those do indeed seem solid, though my budget is more along the lines of $400-$500 or less. My problem is that I have a long speaker run…about 25 feet so it’s hard to keep costs down on such a long run.
Unfortunately 25 foot runs put you into custom cables. I’ve seen long runs sent back to the manufacturer for retermination into shorter runs by dealers.
I know…I wish my setup were different, but it’s the situation I face. Was considering some Kimber 4tc…relatively reasonable and well received. Still not sure…
I actually see an older single 55 ft section of Kiber 4tc (blue and black) on audiogon now for $359 that I could just cut in half and use. I may very well just do that. Not a bad price.
Does anyone know if it would be a bad idea and negatively affect the sound (timing) if I ran one speaker cable approx. 20 ft. and the other approx. 30 ft.?
I bought QED’s off ebay. I would definitely buy M700 and run longer balanced XLR cables and short speaker cables. Timing isn’t an issue but resistance/capacitance/inductance is! You want those as low as possible.
Thank you. Since timing won’t be an issue in my instance (one 20 ft. run, another 30 ft.), will resistance, capacitance, or inductance be as spezwend mentions?
If there’s any compromise in sound whatsoever by running different speakers lengths then I will be sure to keep them the same length. If not, it would help my set-up - and pocketbook!
If the 30’ cable is fine then the 20’ cable should be better. There’s very little current so the difference in the resistance shouldn’t matter. If the L and C of the 30’ cable doesn’t cause a problem then the L and C of the 20’ cable shouldn’t either. Much more significant would be any environmental interference, e.g. one cable going near a computer and the other one not…
Very good, Ted, thank you. Since you mention it - the speaker cables don’t run by a computer, but they do run next to my router, modem, and internet phone. If this is a concern, about how far should I hope to keep my speaker cables from these items? But as you mentioned - the cables run together so they are both exposed to this same environment leading up to the speakers.
I do remember Paul mentioning that cabling is best shielded running through metal tubing. Perhaps I should consider running my speaker cable through metal tubing in this specific area of my speaker cable run since it’s out-of-sight leading up to my speakers…assuming it’s a potential problem of course.