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Monitor Audio Platinum PL300 speakers

Posted by AVsponge (A) on April 25, 2008 at 20:34:59

I don't post here very often, but I felt compelled to take a moment to spread the good word about some very fine speakers I had the opportunity to listen to yesterday.

The local dealer got in the new Monitor Audio Platinum line of speakers about a week ago, so I popped down to have a listen. When I got there they said that the speakers (the floorstanding PL300's) had only been taken out of the box the day before and that they had not been broken-in or placed properly. I listened to them anyway, and needless to say I was not impressed. The bass was boomy and indistict and the mids sounded pinched, and because they were all of 5 feet apart the soundstage was tiny.

So I got a call from the dealer yesterday to inform me that they had them better dialed in. I headed down to have another listen with two compilation discs of my own music in hand. I spent about 1.5 hours listening to them.

Well, I’m usually not one to use grandiose terms to describe sound quality because it is all so subjective, but the Platinum speakers are pretty amazing!

They have to be the most detailed speakers I have ever heard— and I have heard a bunch. It was like watching HDTV for the first time. But before you interpret the term “detailed” as code for “bright” or “etched”, I can assure they are not. Not by a long shot. Unlike a TV that punches up the contrast, or uses edge enhancement to fake detail, the sound of the Platinums was like true high definition. In fact many of the songs that brought along to test for sibilance and brightness were much more listenable than I thought they ever were. Sibilance was still there but without that edgy quality you hear from a speaker with tipped up treble. I might even go as far as to say that they sounded more transparent than an ESL speaker, and the bonus is that they don't have the draw backs of an ESL. (I owned some midrange Martin Logans a few years ago.)

The separation of instruments is also hands-down the best I have ever heard. I know it is cliché to say, “These speakers let me hear things in the recording that I have never heard before!”, but it is really true with these speakers. Well, it’s not so much that I heard new details, but that the details I had heard somewhat vaguely before were so much more cleanly exposed— “focused” and “delineated” are two words that come to mind. I have to say it was almost a bit of information overload at times. Every sound is just so distinct, that it is easy to get distracted from the musical whole of the piece. I guess some would say that these are analytical speakers in that sense, but “analytical” is too negative a term for what these speakers do IMO. Anytime I’ve used that term, it is was usually in regards to a speaker that seems to highlight the flaws in a recording or has some sort of cold character. The Platinums certainly reveal all the details and differences between recordings but they don’t ruin the music in the process. Not for me anyway. The effect is memorizing.

In terms of tonality, they pretty much sounded dead neutral to me. Not cold, not warm, just passing along the character of the recording. At first I thought they might be a little forward, pushing things like vocals up front, but then later tracks would have the vocalist back behind the speaker plane.

The only thing I still couldn’t get a read on was the bass. It was probably hitting about 30Hz, so it had good extension and because the dealer had taken the time to better position the speakers, the bass was much better, but still not the most defined that I’ve heard. Based on all of the other comments I’ve read about the bass quality of these speakers from others that have heard them, I have to assume that the room had too much influence here. This is further supported by the fact that when I walked around the room I could hear the bass tighten up in one spot but lose bottom-end weight, while another spot had good weight but not very good punch.

The soundstage was as broad and deep as the recording allowed. Sometimes it was wrap-around huge and with other recordings it was all between the speakers. The only thing I noticed occasionally was that some sounds seemed to stick to the speaker locations. The speakers were spread fairly far apart though, so maybe with more optimization of the positioning this effect could be reduced.

Now the Platinum speakers use a ribbon tweeter, which has been known to be difficult to integrate with a dynamic midrange driver. In regards to coherence between drivers, I heard no problem at all in the transition between the ribbon tweeter and the midrange. Even the bass sounded like part of the whole, even though the performance in this range was greatly affected by the room. I also checked the dispersion of the ribbon tweeter. As long as I was at least 3-4 feet away there was little difference between sitting or standing, but get much closer than this and the treble rolls off pretty sharply when standing.

If I could think of anyone criticizing these speakers, it would be that because their sound is so colorless, focused and delineated, I could see some audiophiles calling them clinical. I personally like a clean uncolored sound, though I like the more euphonic presentation of some other speakers as well. Either end of the spectrum is great if done well IMO.

I have been in this hobby for quite a while so it takes quite a bit to impress me. Listening to the Platinums was a refreshing experience and I encourage you check them out for yourself if you have the chance. Good stuff.
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Cheers,

- Tim

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