The Monitor Audio RX1 speaker.
(Credit: Steve Guttenberg/CNET)
When I dropped by the Park Avenue Audio NYC showroom, I was on a mission to find an audiophile bookshelf speaker that wouldn't break the bank. The store's selection covers a wide gamut, but the majority of speakers are $1,000-plus per pair. Then I ran across the Monitor Audio "Silver" RX1; it's a medium-size bookshelf speaker, measuring a tidy 12.3 x 7.3 x 9.4 inches. At 15 pounds, it feels surprisingly heavy for its size. It has a 1-inch ceramic-coated aluminum/magnesium-alloy dome tweeter and a 6-inch metal woofer. The speakers sell for $650 a pair.
I listened to the RX1s hooked up to a Rotel stereo 60-watt-per-channel RA-1520 integrated amplifier, and the sound was so full and big I really thought there was a subwoofer in the system. There wasn't -- the little speakers just made a lot of bass. The score to the film "Birth" has some deep tympani drum thwacks in the opening sequence, and I heard real weight and substance in the low frequencies. Few speakers this size could sound like this while filling Park Avenue Audio's 17-by-26-foot listening room!
Amy Winehouse's "Live at the BBC" CD was also pretty spectacular. Her vocals were nice... [Read more]
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