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I am quite fond of Monitor audio speakers. They have the type of clarity and musicality that not many speakers have in their price range. Their only shortcoming is lack of bass. If you can live with that, you'll be quite pleased with their performance.
I think the Gold series exhibit quite a bit more color and pizazz in the sound than the Silver line. If you like mellow jazz, acoustic guitar and classical perhaps you should look elsewhere; for rock, pop and electronica you may like them. I think its due to their coloration that many audiophiles have steered away from them. But you gotta listen to the music you like on them to make up your own mind.
I actually liked their silver series better than the gold series. In fact, I thought that they were especially well suited for jazz rather than rock due to lack of deep bass. I'm surprised your impressions are so different from mine.
Monitor Audio have been around for a long time but like any speaker its a personal choice. I found a few models that I listened to a bit bright but if you like them, they come recommended by Stereophile as in the RS6 and there is also mention of their Platinum Series
Are they?
My comments following the bold sentence referred to the Gold series.
I am not as high-end as some of y'all. Bought the MA RS6 in part on the basis of reviews, connected to Marantz PM7001 via Monster Cable (provided by retailer), Sony DVP NS755NV, an older Yamaha tuner and a new Pro-ject Debut III with Pro-ject Phono Box SE. Speakers are in a smallish room, don't usually crank them up and listen to a variety of music more or less continuously. Speakers sound fine to me, nice clarity in mid-bass range.
As others have pointed out: Speakers are a very personal choice... Monitor Audio is a brand that is absolutely loved by its fans and also seriously disliked by non-fans...
I've done a lot of auditioning of different brands including the Monitor Audio Gold and Silver lines... and the best combo I've heard so far was a pair of Monitor Audio Gold Series 20's connected to a Musical Fidelity X-T100/X-Ray V8 combo...
For reviews of Monitor Audio, I'd suggest checking out:
http://www.monitoraudiousa.com/
Thanks all for sharing your opinions--that's all I wanted. I agree, most everything in this hobby is personal choice (once you get past an undefined low threshold of "quality--whatever that means to each individual, IMO)... I ended up getting the GS60's. I guess I am officially an MA fan, b/c I love them!! I don't see how anyone can find MAJOR faults w/ them. Sure, there are certain traits I can see someone not caring for, but I also think (based on my tastes), this is a very quality speaker, ones I'll be happy w/ for a little while anyways. Now I just need to go onto the arduous task of obtaining electronics for my strange little setup!! Should be fun & eye-opening if nothing else; especially since I'm coming off a lengthy hiatus from audio related things.