Monitor Audio Silver 300 7G Review – What’s Not To Like?

The Silver 300 7G is the seventh generation of Monitor Audio’s popular and affordably priced Sil­ver Series. It’s a three-way, four driver, bass-reflex de­sign with dual ports exiting from the enclosure’s back panel. The handsome, columnar midsize tops out at about 42″ tall. At 7″ the front baffle is just wide enough to accommodate the dual 6″ bass drivers, while at the same time narrow enough to reduce cabinet diffraction. The bulk of the Silver 300’s internal volume is derived from its substantial 12″ depth—a form factor that doesn’t impose itself on the room. In fact, my review pair, finished in natural walnut, blended in almost invisibly against my dark wood floors and furnishings. The speakers are so attractive and unobtrusive that I can even see them being welcomed into homes by partners who aren’t really predisposed to liking any loudspeaker that isn’t named Alexa.

Neil Gader

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Compared with its predecessors, there have been exterior re­finements to the driver trim-rings and to the mid- and bass-driver surrounds. But the real changes are on the inside.

The 25mm C-Cam gold-dome tweeter harbors a new magnet structure and rear chamber, and a newly modeled waveguide for improved and more uniform dispersion The midrange is a 3″ C-Cam (ceramic-coated aluminum/magnesium) cone with Rig­id Surface Technology II (RST II) for extra clarity. Originally developed for aerospace use years ago, RST II employs a new aluminum alloy with a more rigid profile and a hexagonal dim­pled structure for added tensile cone strength, which yields high­er power handling and lower distortion. In addition, the RST II drivers feature a new Damped Concentric Mode (DCM) technol­ogy, in which the cone and surround geometry are optimized to dampen resonance and reduce distortion. The new 3″ midrange has wider bandwidth than its predecessor, resulting in improved directivity and a smoother transition to the tweeter.

Handling low frequencies are two 6″ C-Cam bass drivers with RST II. The crossover has been further refined, with transition points set at 750Hz and 2.8kHz. The rear-firing ports are posi­tioned at two heights. They output a lot of energy, so handy foam port plugs are provided to help resolve placement issues (i.e., sit­uations where positioning nearer a back wall is a necessity). The plugs will reduce the bass energy that smaller rooms often exag­gerate, and smooth bass response into the room.

Because of the Silver 300’s small footprint, stabilizing the cabinet is critical, so outrig­ger-style footers are bundled with each pair; a choice of spikes for carpets or rubber feet for hard floors is includ­ed. Two sets of speaker ter­minals allow easy hookup for the popular bi-wire option. Room- and decor-friendly finishes include satin white, high-gloss black, plus real wood veneers in black oak, walnut, and ash.

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In sonic performance Sil­ver 300 was an easy, amiable speaker to settle in with. It had an inviting personality that was warmly energetic, but seriously propulsive when it needed to be. Its roman­tic-leaning signature was de­signed to charm the listener, and tap emotions—the op­posite of the dry, chalkboard, clinical designs that engage the head rather than the heart. Dynamically, the performance of the Silver 300 was defini­tively three-way, as in, “This baby doesn’t hold back!” Whereas two-way loudspeak­ers tend to withhold dynamic energy from the mids on down, the Silver 300 unleashed the full measure of lower-bass output—the full-throated attack of a baritone sax, the decay of kettle drums, the rush of dark wood resonances as the bow crosses the low E string of Edgar Meyer’s double bass.

The Silver 300’s tonal balance was even, never drawing unwel­come attention to a particular octave. The midrange was full and ripe—a sound that was confirmed by one of my SACD refer­ences, The Manhattan Jazz Quintet’s cover of “Autumn Leaves,” where the piano/standup bass duet issued forth with warm, mel­low, articulate beauty.

Inter-driver coherence was very good. Thanks to the use of the same cone material across the range of drivers, the Silver 300 is better able to maintain a consistent voice across the frequen­cy spectrum. Speaking of voice, this Monitor Audio conveyed a strong amount of vocal presence on Norah Jones’ “Come Away with Me,” and on the soothing Allison Krauss lullaby “Slumber My Darling.”

Transients played out as naturalistic—assertive but not stri­dent. Transient attack was quick, though not lightning fast. Stew­art Copeland’s highly syncopated, high-pitch stick-work during “Murder By Numbers” by The Police should electrify the senses. Here, while very good, the Silver 300 backed off slightly, round­ing some of the more pointed edges of Copeland’s assault.

Bass response was solid, easily dipping into the 40Hz range with gusto, and in some instances, perceptibly lower. The low end was tuneful, specific, and capable of meeting the demands of symphonic music. It could also produce much of the midbass dynamism that is critical to popular music and rock. At its lower limit, I perceived a swift roll-off of energy, but the dual-port set­up was never intrusive or lacking in speed. It was controlled and didn’t lose its composure even in the face of kickdrum triplets. Actual pitch and impact moderated as the volume increased, but the Silver 300 never grew sloppy or ill-defined. True, it couldn’t quite summon the full resonant bloom of a section of double basses or the immediacy and explosiveness of a rock kickdrum (for that you should probably look to the Silver 500 with dual 8″ woofers).

In terms of soundstage, I turn mostly to classical mate­rial recorded in large acoustic venues. The Silver 300’s per­formance was dimensional in the way it portrayed the depth of a venue, but I concluded that it didn’t bring forth the full orchestral layering and individuation of players on a stage. Imaging was very good. I especially appreciated the outlines of Harry Connick, Jr.’s vocal as he harmonized with Branford Marsalis’ ten­or sax—that fine balance between playing together but standing apart. But Silver 300 isn’t aiming to pinpoint musi­cians in its sights as bass-re­stricted compacts might do. Allow me to clarify: If a loud­speaker is limited to 50—60Hz, it will always sound a shred more precise and appear to be quicker on transients. But when deep bass, let’s say 40Hz and below, is added, it introduces a range of hereto­fore hidden information that fleshes out and harmonically rebalances the performance, even to the point of partially masking upper-octave details. There are more than a few tried and true audiophiles who would prefer to do with­out full-range performance for just that reason. They’re hooked on the detail, the as­sumed “transparency,” even if it comes at the expense of shaving off an octave or so. I know I was one of them, and still am on occasion.

With the growing number of big screens (remember when 42″ was a “big” screen?) and the new “Plus” stream­ing channels like Disney and Apple stepping up, I can’t ignore the reality that more loudspeakers in this range are likely to be engaged in double-duty. So, the question arises, “Does Silver do home theater?” Boy, does it ever. It’s a big ask for a two-channel system, but Monitor Audio is not a novice in the multi­channel realm. The company has been producing cinema systems for years—everything from surround speakers to center channels to subwoof­ers. including optional Dolby Atmos add-ons. But the keys that the Silver 300 brings to movies are the dynamics and midbass punch that help launch effects and cleanly articulate dialogue. As for special effects, like the deep subterranean sound signature

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Monitor Audio Silver 300 New 7G in Walnut (Each)

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Monitor Audio Silver 300 New 7G in Ash (Each)

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Specs & Pricing

Type: Three-way, bass-reflex loudspeaker

Drivers: 1″ dome tweeter, 3″ midrange, 6″ woofer (x2)

Frequency response: 31Hz-35kHz (-6dB)

Sensitivity: 87.5dB

Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (4 ohms minimum)

Dimensions (including outrigger feet and spikes): 10.75″ x 41.2″ x 15.25″

Weight: 43 lbs.

KEVRO INTERNATIONAL

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Pickering, Ontario

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