Monitor Audio Platinum Series - Discussion Thread

Well had the demo today, very underwhelming, disappointed with the performance of the demo equipment.

My own room is c.5m wide x 4m deep, carpet & curtains, i sit about 3m from the speakers facing tv LR speakers across the 5m width of the room. At home i am sitting considerably closer than the demo room.

Took a bluray concert Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, Alison Krauss, Coldplay, James Taylor, Paul McCartney, and Adele & Oasis cd's.

Demo room was at a guess 6-7m deep x 5m wide
I was seated about 4m from speakers with 1-2m behind the sofa.
Room was untreated, one large window behind speakers with vertical blinds, carpeted.
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First set up:-

Monitor Audio 200 or 300 Gold, ribbon tweeter, were the closest match the dealer had to my MA PL200.
Cyrus 200 stereo amp with another Cyrus box.
http://www.cyrusaudio.com/products/power-amplifiers/stereo-200
Bass was ok
Treble/highs were very lean thin & screechy, volume was quite high to fill the room but not overly so.
........................................................
Second set up:-

Monitor Audio 200 Gold
Arcam A49
Bass, decent filled the room
Once again treble/highs were very lean thin & screechy as the volume increased.
.........................................................
Third set up:-

Speakers were swapped for Dali Epicon 6, ribbon tweeter(c.£8K)
DALI EPICON 6
Arcam A49
Bass, decent filled the room again
Once again treble/highs were very lean thin & screechy.
......................................................
Fourth set up:-

Speakers swapped again just to hear something without a ribbon tweeter
PMC 24 i think
Arcam A49
Bass was good, but once again to my ears although the treble was slightly smoother than the other speakers it was still lean/thin and screechy.
...........................................................
My conclusions are:-

My Yam1010 driving LR channels only PL200 at home sitting closer to the speakers in a much smaller room than the demo room are,.. compared to th MA Gold 200/300 better in the bass with bluray concert music i mentioned earlier and even the treble is smoother.

My PL200's have only been on about 6hrs(100hrs to run in).

It could be that to fill the demo room with sound the dealer may have had the volume too loud i'm not sure.

The only difference with my Yam1010 Pl200 set up and the demo amplifiers we could think of is that i use the manual setting EQ on the Yam to alter the treble and bass, actually i have the bass trimmed below flat as it's quite loud and have the treble up a notch or two.

The Cyrus/ Arcam amplifiers don't have bass/treble adjusters as don't many hi end amplifiers as i was repeatedly told as i asked a couple of times for the treble/highs to be turned down.

I'm sure at some stage a Naim amplifier was also used.

The Arcam £4k,.. Dirac was mentioned, i assume set up correctly.

Something must be amiss and i don't think it is my hearing, maybe the volume was just played too loud so as to fill a large demo room.

It appears what ever i choose to buy i prefer/REQUIRE manual or EQ adjustments which Yamaha's come with and probably other av receivers. For whatever reason the dealer didn't
offer to connect an avr or power amp up, there was no centre speaker or surround speakers in the room, was some in the ceiling Dolby Atmos was mentioned.
The dealer did mention Anthem av receivers and power amps but none were set up. The dealer has been business for over 40 years.

Looks like a power amplifier for me and possible avr upgrade pre/pro if today is to go by.
 
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Hi I've bought the Gold FX but not put them up yet. Is it as simple as fix the bracket on wall then hang the speaker on it? I hadn't realised how heavy there are so not sure if my plasterboard wall will hold their weight- almost 12KGs each!

Check out Dryline Pro screws they should be suitable but check the spec for your wall. Pack comes with drill bit too. They hold my tv on dot and dab wall no problem.
 
I've just been testing out the Audiolab 8200MB amps, they work very well with the platinums. They sound better than the Tag McLaren 100x5r to my surprise.:smashin:
 
@tommo33
I only use my pl300s in stereo. The cyrus mono x 200 monoblocks control the speakers well.
I would not advice you to use the amplification in your yamaha receiver. U could damage your receiver and or speakers.
I recently listened to the pl300s partnered with roksan caspian m1 monoblocks. The sound was excellent.
I noticed that most combinations u listened too didn't suit your hearing.I would suggest that you use your receiver as a preamplifier so that you can use the tone controls and add some power amps that have a high current output. The high current is critical in controlling and driving your speakers properly. The ma platinum range doesn't like weak/low current amplification. This means that it's going to cost you unfortunately but will be worth it especially if you get a divorce thrown in. Lol. Just kidding about the divorce.
 
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I noticed you didn't demo cyrus mono blocks.
The cyrus stereo amp is no good for the ma platinum range.
The cyrus mono x 200 monoblocks are discontinued.
The next level up in power and price is the cyrus mono x 300 signature. If you have the budget then listen to them.
My cyrus mono x 200 monoblocks produce a balanced soundstage. Never found them to lack in any department and I have listened to systems costing over 150 thousand
 
Thanks guys,

nucky, i did look into the Audiolab 8200MB recently as i noticed on this board one guy has the pl300, plc350 etc powered by 5 Audiolab 8200MB. Was even offered a 15% discount on the Audiolab 8300MB,.. came across some bad feed back about reliability (8200)and only a 2yr warranty so for the moment i have held off.

dean999, yeah the Cyrus i demoed was probably below the mono blocs in performance.
I believe the dealer did say it was the stereo 200 with something else.
http://www.cyrusaudio.com/support/p...eo-200/62-stereo-200-product-information/file.

I did say on the phone i wanted to hear some power amps, he said the cyrus he had in mind would be a good fit and i would need to spend towards £3-4K for the front 2 channels. Cyrus and the Arcam A49 didn't seem to cut it for me, bass was good but the treble/highs just sounded trashy and thin with all speakers even the pcm 24's which I thought are supposed to be smooth sweet sounding.
 
See if you can try them with Sim Audio Moon Gear - thats what they were made using to test and you see loads of companies using to demo all manner of speakers
 
Thanks, probably out of my price range for now, does it have a smooth laid back sound in the highs/treble i'm after?
 
Any out there Used or a used proper Krell?? what about used bryston v.good amps

Indeed I've always been curious about krell apart from professional reviews I've never had much actual user feedback on these amps seem quite popular in the USA not so much over here
 
To the best of my knowledge Krell chief designer was Dan Agostino who makes some of the best amps in the world.

Don't ignore bryston look at the specs on them compared to more conventional amps they do lower distortion at full power than a lot of amps do at 1w and 20 year warranty transferable without the receipt pre 2004 I think. 2004 on transferable with the receipt Pmc in Luton can confirm.this
 
Thanks guys,

nucky, i did look into the Audiolab 8200MB recently as i noticed on this board one guy has the pl300, plc350 etc powered by 5 Audiolab 8200MB. Was even offered a 15% discount on the Audiolab 8300MB,.. came across some bad feed back about reliability (8200)and only a 2yr warranty so for the moment i have held off.

dean999, yeah the Cyrus i demoed was probably below the mono blocs in performance.
I believe the dealer did say it was the stereo 200 with something else.
http://www.cyrusaudio.com/support/p...eo-200/62-stereo-200-product-information/file.

I did say on the phone i wanted to hear some power amps, he said the cyrus he had in mind would be a good fit and i would need to spend towards £3-4K for the front 2 channels. Cyrus and the Arcam A49 didn't seem to cut it for me, bass was good but the treble/highs just sounded trashy and thin with all speakers even the pcm 24's which I thought are supposed to be smooth sweet sounding.
Get the 2015' 8200MB the power supply was upgraded. That is what I am using and they are mind blowing. The best sound that I have heard out of my speakers.
 
That is a good example those audiolab are rated 0.03% distortion 20-20 doesn't say at what power I doubt full

Bryston are 0.005% 20-20 at full power - power depends on the model up to about 600w. But you do pay for it.

They have just released the cubed range 4th iteration in about 30 years so bound to be some sst2 about at good prices
 
I've just purchased a new set of pl300's and I already have pl200,pl100,plc350 and plw15. I'm going to invest in some ceiling speakers to use a 7.1.4 with the pl200 as rears and pl100 as side speakers in a Dolby atmos set up. I was going to go for the Yamaha pre power 5100/5000 but the local dealer/installer here in Ireland recommends the anthem mrx1120 to power it with maybe a 2 channel amp to bi amplify the pl300's. What are people's thoughts on this? Would that amp combo be sufficient to drive the system? Would you view the anthem as better than the Yamaha? What about anthem separates? Any other suggestions are welcome. I need 4K and HDR pass through for the projector. Just looking for feedback as I haven't personally heard the Yamaha or the anthem. Thanks!
 
I think you need better quality than both of those in all honesty. Cant believe they have recommended an av receiver an 11 channels av receiver to power plats personally

Speakers are worthy of much more
 
Thanks for your reply, I was thinking the price of the amplification wasn't really equating to the price of the speakers. What could you recommend that would have the latest features that would be worthy of the platinums? What kind of budget would I need for atmos eleven channel amplification that would match the performance of the platinums? Also any recommendations of a particular amp/amps? Cheers
 
It's not necessarily price but design and what you like.
How good is your room acoustics?
I don't know what your budget and room space allows but there are loads of power amps out there.

Processor with atmos is very limited.
Not sure I can think of many ?
 
It's upstairs in a garage,12 metres by 6.5 metres. Concrete first floor slab. Block external walls. Will be using plasterboard on the walls under instruction from the installer, who is a sound engineer. I will also partition it some way along the room to maybe make it 7 or 8 metres long. Before I bought the pl300's I was using the pl200 as fronts with pl100 rears and pl350 centre with the plw15 sub in a 5.1 system powered by my pioneer sc lx90 susano amp, which I still have and would sell if I change amp. It has ten channels so bi amplified each speaker. I thought the sound was very impressive but always thought the amplifier would be the weak link. Not sure on budget but would stretch for the right gear
 
That's a lovely big room.
Is your sound engineer acoustically treating the room??

Amps list is pretty big I don't know all of them worth shopping about and listening to what you like
Moon, Bryston, macintosh maybe they just released a new processor not sure if it's atmos etc

Classe also there are quite a few.

Depends on what you are expecting and whether I suppose musical performance is important also.

Are you still only planning to use just one sub or multiple subs.
 
I think pick your processor for feature set dac quality and power supply quality.
Then listen to see what ygou think works well with the processor and your speakers worth demoing a few options at home if your spending serious cheddar
 
Thanks Ellis, what kind of money do you think would get me a Macintosh set up or the likes? Yes he said to treat the room first day as I have yet to plasterboard and insulate it anyway. I will consult with him all the way for speaker and cables and power socket placement etc. He said it would only be 1.5 times the cost of standard plasterboard anyway. I'll start research on those brands I think! What are your thoughts on the Sony 520 4K projector also? Thanks for your input Ellis. Ps-with the pl300's and one plw-15 do you think I'd need a second sub?
 
Macintosh is vexpensive kit they do 2 processors £6k and £13k
Then amps on top won't be cheap either

If your spending this ££ you need to hear it.

I was wondering if the plats was worthy of a datasat processor. Maybe I think a bit over highly of them not sure.

Acoustic plasterboard is sound proofing not treatment. Treatment is for sound quality

A big room like yours with have a natural high decay time I would have thought. If it's going to be hollow treatment less I am not sure I would spend fortunes on amps not sure you would see the benefit of better over not quite so.

So hard to recommend stuff to someone else you don't know.
 

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