Monitor Audio Bronze BX5
Accomplished in every way you could hope for – the BX5s are stunning
Write your own reviewFor
- Adaptable, poised and entirely unified sound, with looks to match
Against
- Will need thorough system-matching if they’re not to sound aloof
It’s been a year since Monitor Audio’s Bronze BX5s, scored the full five First Test stars in our November 2010 issue – and they’ve held a place close to our hearts – and adjacent to our listening rooms – ever since.
Once or twice in the past year we’ve been tempted to put the BX5s’ pre-eminence down to a glaring lack of opposition, but now we’ve been able to gather five price-comparable rivals around them, it seems the Monitor Audios can impress regardless of numerous rivals.
We have to say the BX5s look the most convincing use of £500. Fit and finish are first-class, while the driver array looks purposeful – if visual confirmation of money well spent is important, look no further.
Sound as good as they look
Happily, the BX5s sound just as accomplished as they look. No matter what you thrown at them – and throw it we did, from Paul McCartney’s Check My Machine to the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra’s rampage through Tchaikovsky’s Symphony Number 4 in F Minor – they scarcely offer an opportunity for criticism.
Low-frequency extension is considerable, midrange communication is torrential and the top of the frequency range is crisply textured.
Tonality is neutral throughout, detail levels are sky-high and driver integration is achieved seamlessly. Timing is similarly effortless, and even under severe provocation the BX5s remain balanced, controlled and full of insight.
They won’t thank you for backing them against a rear wall (that front-firing reflex port has a partner on the back panel), and in some ways their rather analytical approach makes them objects to admire rather than love, but if it’s fidelity you’re after, you’ll struggle to spend £500 more effectively.
Follow whathifi.com on Twitter
