Two years ago, I found myself listening to Monitor Audio’s flagship Platinum Series towers in the company’s CES demo room and thinking, Who drops 10 grand on a pair of speakers, no matter how good they sound? The question lingered in my mind until last summer, when I sold my longtime reference speakers to a hay farmer from central New York who planned to insert them into the kind of crazy 11.2-channel rig (located in a converted barn, no less) that would make Tom Holman proud. As the guy drove off in his pickup, hay bales securing speaker boxes on either side, it hit me: It’s a big world, and audiophiles come in all stripes — and income brackets.
Monitor Audio’s Gold GX line represents the company’s effort to port the benefits of its Platinum Series to a line priced at a level that not just investment bankers but also farmers (harvest permitting) could afford. The system I checked out is based around the GX200 tower, which at $4,495/pair costs nearly half that of its Platinum Series sibling. The rest of the package Monitor sent me consisted of the GXC 150 center, GX-FX surrounds, and GXW-15 subwoofer. Total tab for all that gold: just north of 10 grand.
The GX200 is a ported 3-way tower with a curved front that measures a mere 6.75 inches wide. A magnetically attached metal grille on the front conceals (barely) a ribbon tweeter and the speaker’s C-CAM (Ceramic-Coated Aluminum/Magnesium) midrange and bass drivers, each of which is bolted through to the back panel to cross-brace the cabinet. Gold-plated binding posts (two sets are present to accommodate biwiring/biamping) around back accept spade lugs, banana plugs, or bare wire.
The GXC 150 center — a sealed design — has the same ribbon tweeter, metal grille, and attractive look as the towers. In this case, however, the tweeter is sandwiched between a pair of 5.5-inch drivers that cover midrange/ bass. Monitor’s GX-FX is a large-ish surround speaker that can be configured — either manually or via a 12-volt input — for a direct or a dipolar radiation pattern.
The GXW-15 subwoofer is a sealed design harboring a 15-inch woofer powered by a 650-watts rms amplifier. DSP is used to control the woofer’s output based on power reserves to limit distortion; it also allows for digital-domain filtering, phase adjustment, and auto on/off switching. The GXW-15 comes with D2Audio’s LEO (Listening Environment Optimizer) automatic room correction, a process you carry out using an included calibration microphone. A remote control lets you control all functions of the GXW-15, with feedback indicated on its front-panel LED display.
Having reviewed both the triton 2 tower and the Monitor Audio GX, of money was no object but ignoring the looks and only going for sound quality which would you purchase and why?
Sincerely
The Triton Two, because I like using full-range towers in my system. (I actually own a pair of Triton Twos.) And also because money is always an object for me. ;)
The GX200s sound great, but I strongly preferred them w/ the subwoofer pitching in.