Monitor Audio Platinum 300 3G
From the R952MD I reviewed in January 1988 to the Silver 500 7G reviewed by Rob Schryer in February 2022, Monitor Audio speakers have offered excellent sound quality and high-quality engineering. So when I was offered the company's Platinum 300 3G for review, I readily agreed. Having lived with standmounts and mini-monitors for the past year, I felt it would be good to spend some time with a pair of large, full-range, three-way floorstanders.
The Platinum 300 3G
With its elegant-looking enclosure featuring a gently curved front baffle and sidewalls and a concave rear panel, and its drive unit array of folded ribbon tweeter, 4" midrange unit, and two 8" woofers, Monitor Audio's Platinum 300 3G looks very similar to the Platinum PL300 II loudspeaker that Robert Deutsch reviewed in November 2016. Those speakers cost $14,496/pair back then; the 3Gs cost $17,900/pair, which, adjusted for inflation, is a lower price than that of its predecessor.
There are significant differences, however, all intended to reduce distortion and increase driver bandwidths. The new Micro Pleated Diaphragm (MPD) III tweeter, a variant of the Heil Air Motion Transformer (AMT), was developed for Monitor Audio's 50th Anniversary flagship Hyphn loudspeaker. The crossover from the midrange unit is set at 3kHz, and the tweeter's passband is said to extend to above 60kHz compared to >40kHz for a typical AMT tweeter. Monitor Audio's downloadable brochure mentions a gentle rise on-axis to maximize high-frequency detail. The square tweeter diaphragm is surrounded with a waveguide to control directivity.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2023-Ausgabe von Stereophile.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2023-Ausgabe von Stereophile.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor
Let's get this out of the way: The BMR Monitor may be a monitor, but it isn't a bookshelf or desktop speaker any more than a yacht is a dinghy.
Technics SC-CX700 ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER
The usual Specifications box (below) is a nuts-and-bolts listing of the electrical and physical properties of the Technics SC-CX700 loudspeaker, who made it and where, and a widely varying amount of information about their electrical and acoustical performance. The information comes from the included literature, available downloads, and whatever I could find on the manufacturer's website.
Youth movement
Paul Klipsch was a genius,” Roy Delgado told me recently, with the sound of genuine amazement in his voice. “Me, I’m just a tinkerer.”
The Loricraft PRC6i record cleaning machine and the WallySkater v2.1 Pro
In my last Spin Doctor column, I gave an overview of my experiences cleaning records over the last 50-plus years and the advances in record cleaning technology over that time. My review of the HumminGuru NOVA ultrasonic record cleaner focused on that increasingly popular approach to record cleaning, using ultrasonic cavitation instead of scrubbing the record with a brush. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in that half-century of playing around with audio gear, it’s that it can be a mistake to embrace a new technology just because of its newness, dismissing what came before as obsolete. The vinyl record itself is a good example of a technology discarded as obsolete, then embraced again by new (and old) generations. You can add vacuum-tube amplifiers, analog tape, and much else in our hobby to that list.
Wattson Audio Madison LE Streamer
After it was delivered, I weighed the box containing Wattson Audio's DAC-equipped Madison LE Streamer on my bathroom scale.
Grimm Audio LS1c ACTIVE LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM
It's not unusual for audiophiles to have fond childhood recollections of the old family stereo, but Eelco Grimm's memory of his dad's audio system probably stands alone.
Cambridge EXN100 STREAMING D/A PROCESSOR
Each soloist seemed to pop out to the front, between the two speakers (of course), their life force emerging over decades, grooves, and digital bits.
J.Sikora Standard Max Supreme, KV9 Max Zirconium
In his review of the J.Sikora Initial turntable, Stereophile's resident artist/sage Herb Reichert wrote, \"Extended bathing, lighting candles, making tea, and preparing food are ritual work forms that prepare my senses to accept both pleasure and illumination.\"
The Voxativ Hagen2 Monitor loudspeaker
I think I just found the perfect Herb speaker. It uses a hand-crafted 5\" wide-range driver with a cone made from Japanese calligraphy paper. It rolls off around 50Hz at the bottom and 30kHz at the top. It has no crossover. Its cabinet is made of MDF that responds loudly when I tap it with my fingernails. Inside is what its designer calls a “short horn,” which appears to harmlessly disperse back-cone energy while adding energy below the driver’s cutoff frequency. Mainly, though, it’s a perfect Herb speaker because it is naturally phase coherent. And sparkplug fast. And completely unmuffled.
The Beatles in Mono according to Kevin
It's almost too easy to make Dave Dexter Jr. the villain in the story of the Beatles' fumbled introduction to America.
