Monitor Audio Silver S1 Bookshelf Speakers

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Bass Quality	Excellent
Treble Quality	Excellent
Look & Design	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Looks, sound, build, just about everything really
Disadvantages:	You can't buy them new anymore, Monitor Audio has  replaced them with a newer model the RS1

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The first thing I need to point out, is that you can't buy the S1's new from a shop anymore, as they have been replaced by a newer model, the RS1.They were discontinued at the end of 2005 .They are very much overlooked by the many but not underrated by the few, as the reviews at hifichoice.com and audioreview.com will show you.

Here's some spec's....

Monitor Audio S1 RRP. £300
Frequency Response +/- 3dB 45Hz - 30KHz
Sensitivity (1W@1M) 90dB
Nominal Impedance(Ohms) 6
Power Handling RMS(W) 80
Drive Unit complement 1 x 6" C-CAM® Bass mid-range 1 x 1" (25mm) Gold Dome C-CAM® tweeter
Bass Alignment 4th Order Reflex Ported
External Dimensions mm (inch) 300H x 175W x 240D (12" x 7" x 9 ½")
Weight 6Kg / 12lb

The first thing you notice about the S1's is how good they look and on closer inspection how well they are built. With a beautifully crafted real wood veneer, a very modern looking silver alloy driver and a gold coloured metallic tweeter protected by silver mesh they manage to mix the old with contemporary perfectly. Too many speaker's within the S1's price and performance range have a very bland, old fashioned appearance. At the other end of the spectrum very modern and exotically styled speakers do so at the expensive of looking a bit cheap and plasticky. The S1's balanced appearance of old with new was what first attracted me to them .

One of the unique features I like most about the design is the fact that the round metal mesh protecting the tweeter can be removed, in the same way you would remove the speaker cover's. This is a feature that will help improve your ability to hear the tweeter accurately and you may prefer the way they look with the tweeter cover's off. Another useful part of the design is the fact you can connect up to four speaker wires, which enables you to either bi-wire or bi-amp the speakers resulting in an improvement of sound.

The basic idea behind bi-wiring and bi-amping is that by splitting up the low and high frequencies there will be less audible distortion due to the lack of interference between the two different types of audio signal, giving you a clearer more defined bass and treble. I personally have, in the past run these speakers in a bi-amplification setup and it improved the sound significantly. I have never bi-wired these speaker's though due to the fact that past experience's with other speakers has taught me the difference in sound is almost unnoticeable. If you weren't aware of bi-wiring, bi-amping before reading this and want to know more on how exactly this is achieved then I suggest you look up the term "bi-amplification" in your search browser or alternatively go to whathifi.com and use there "sound advice" section. All in all these are very attractive, solidly built speaker's with some unique design features and there isn't really anything negative I can comment on regarding the speaker's appearance or build.

The moment I heard these speaker's I knew I'd made the right choice, the improvement in sound over my old speakers was instantaneously obvious. When you upgrade a component and listen to it for the first time there are usually two types of reaction, "err.. mmm… I think it sounds better?" you then start to critically analyse the sound and try and kid yourself there's a worthwhile improvement. The reality of course is that there probably is an improvement in sound but without listening to your old component at the same time, the difference's are all too small to notice. The second type of reaction is an instantaneous "wow" you then start to get a wide smile across your face, that's when you know you've made the right choice. This was my reaction, when I first listened to the S1's.

The most impressive and obvious sonic ability of these speaker's is the way they effectively layer the different sound's resulting in a very transparent midrange, all the instrument's have there own place within the audio image created and you don't have to concentrate on a specific part just to hear it effectively. There is very little interference between instrument's and frequency range'sBasically it gives a very natural, life like sound.

The second thing that jump's out at you is the bass, the bass from these compact bookshelf enclosure's is incredible. The depth and fullness to the bass is outstanding as is the ability to hear the individual bass note's accurately, a feature lesser speaker's miss all together. The thing I like most about the bass, Is It's razor sharp timing which goes hand in hand with the speaker's excellent overall timing and rhythmic ability. Listening to house track's with these speaker's always give me the urge to go and shake my ass at the local discotheque.

Then there's those gold tweeter's, if your familiar with the Monitor Audio brand you will probably know yourself what a legendry status they hold within the hifi world. It's incredible how realistic they make hi-hat's and cymbals sound when you listen to them for the first time. The dynamic's of the high frequency sound's produced are also highly impressive with cymbal's and snare's crashing all around you in a spectacular 3d dimension. The high frequency sound's always stay detached from the rest of the music giving you a sense of realism and genuine sound separation. The tweeter's have a frequency response of up to 30KHZ which mean's they are fully compatible with SACD's and other hi-definition audio sources, basically these speaker's are future proof.

The speaker's possess a sparkling clarity and are capable of picking out the most tiny detail. Sounds that were barley audible with my last set of speaker's(MA B1's) were now fully integrated into the music . Tonal and timbre accuracy is great, piano tones are especially life like. The dynamic's of the sound produced and it's ability to engulf you in a 3D manner is another big plus point for these speakers , you don't feel like you are listening to music you feel you are in it. Music laden with panning and stereo sweeping effect's are especially enjoyable to listen to as these speaker's recreate these effect's brilliantly, to the point were you could almost think you were listening to a full surround sound kit.

These speaker's are incredibly efficient, easy to drive and due to there high sensitivity, guarantee immense sound pressure level's(loudness) even with low powered amp's . That for me is another reason why these speaker's are so good they make the most of my not so powerful 50 watts RMS amplifier, where as other less sensitive speaker design's would make my setup sound a bit weedy in the loudness department. If you were to ask me what musical genre's these speaker's excel in, I couldn't really give you a confident answer. My musical tastes range from underground minimal, techno, house sounds through to electro, alternative, rock ,Britpop, indie, hip hop, and just about every genre there is even classical(its amazing what you'll admit to on the the internet ), if I like it I'll listen to it, regardless of how old or uncool it may be. So you see what I'm trying to say is that I've listened to just about every type of music there is and it all sound's terrific through these speaker's.

The only thing you have to be weary of with these speaker's is the fact they are a touch on the bright side which mean's if you have an overly bright cd player, amplifer combo and would like a warmer sound I doubt these speaker's would achieve that. This isn't really a valid negative comment as speaker's and components always tend to be a bit warm or a bit bright. It's just important to know which side of the spectrum your speakers and other hifi component's are on so you don't put together an incredibly bright or warm system. So if you ever see these speaker's for sale I strongly suggest you give them some serious consideration, they are regularly available on eBay for about £140-£200.

Here's a list of the equipment I use with my Monitor Audio S1's………

Arcam A75(amplifier)
Arcam CD72T(cd player)
Van den hul "The name"(interconnect)
Q.E.D "silver anniversary(speaker cable)

Other speaker's I've owned…….

Monitor Audio B1
Mission 760i
celestion SL6
Celestion F10
Gale 3020
Gale gold monitor

JPW mini monitor
Kef cresta 10
Castle durham
Nad 8225
Wharfdale diamond
Mordaunt Short ms3.20
Mission 70