Popular Post feelingears Posted May 6, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted May 6, 2021 Hey, I hope this helps anyone who reads this and buys brand new speakers: TL;DR - New speakers take a LONG LONG time to break in and even then, the footers can make a HUGE difference in the emotional engagement vs. technical sonic character Last November, based on discussions with a friend whose ears I trust and because I wanted twin 8" woofers putting bass in my face (I don't have a situation in which I can easily situate subs), I bought a pair of Monitor Audio Silver 500s. I broke them in for a weekend 24/7 before giving them a listen. OMG, SO AWFUL and they literally, literally made every recording sound the same. Madonna, Metallica, or Mozart, it didn't matter: all recordings had the same soundstage, same sonic fingerprint that made everything sound the "same." I wanted to cry since my previous system was dialed to a T. But of course, I knew that maybe they needed more break in...It even says in the owner's manual that you NEED TO break them in/burn them in/whatever term you use to describe the mechanical thing that happens when physical objects wear into their intended actions. Monitor (in the manual) even suggest wiring them out of phase and facing them in front of each other (which I did not do). I really could go on here, because it was FASCINATING how terrible they sounded. I'll just say that for the longest time, maybe three weeks? that phenomenon of everything sounding the same persisted. I even asked my wife if she heard it without telling her what I was hearing and she agreed. Long story short: I went away for a week but I remote'd into my server and turned music on every day and let things play for almost 24/7. By the time I got back, the speakers finally started to shine. And I mean SHINE, like WOW, these are as AWESOME as I had hoped. But still...though technically awesome, they were not emotionally involving. I discovered this when my "lesser" office system sounded more involving/exciting (more "just one more song") than the new speakers in my main system. So the story isn't quite done. But I'll sum up because you're bored now and I'll just say YMMV and in my case, I then went through weeks of footer testing with the included spikes and feet vs. IsoAcoustic Gaias. Because I didn't have the right hardware to mount my IsoAcoustic Gaias, I put them under the outriggers anyway (I have hardwood floors) just to see and it was again, fascinating. Finally, the parts arrive, I mount the Gaias and...I'm done. It's April and the speakers are the emotionally involving, technically incisive, and bass in my face transducers I had hoped for that one can get for low four-figures. It took a LONG f123456 time. But it finally was worth it. Highly recommended: Monitor Audio Silver 500 speakers are tremendous for the money. However, you ears and flooring may prefer spikes, rubber feet, or IsoAcoustic Gaias. Good luck! fas42, Exocer and Rexp 3 Sum>Frankenstein: JPlay/Audirvana/iTunes, Uptone EtherRegen+LPS-1.2, Rivo Streamer+Uptone JS-2, Schiit Yggdrasil LiM+Shunyata Delta XC, Linn LP12/Hercules II/Ittok/Denon DL-103R, ModWright LS 100, Pass XA25, Tellurium Black II, Monitor Audio Silver 500 on IsoAcoustics Gaias, Shunyata Delta XC, Transparent Audio, P12 power regenerator, and positive room attributes. Link to comment
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