Sound quality
Monitor Audio Silver 6
Fiddle with the positioning of the Silver 6s as much as you like (closer to a wall/away from a corner/toed in towards the listener/toed in a bit more), you won't get a representative sound until the Monitor Audios have had a good 72 hours of use under their belts.
We preferred them out in the room, just slightly angled towards the listener. Once that ritual is observed, though, the Silver 6s reveal themselves to be a vigorous, up-and-at-‘em listen with a level of enthusiasm and attack that borders on the relentless.
No matter the type or quality of the recording offered, nor the source from which it's derived, the Monitor Audios sink their teeth in and give it a good shaking.
From Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Higgs Bosun Blues to Martin Carthy's The Wind That Shakes The Barley via Drake's Take Care and Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings, the Silver 6s exhibit the same fanaticism where the leading edge of notes is concerned and the same unwillingness to let the minutiae of a recording properly reveal themselves.
There's a lot to be said for the Monitor Audios' rather caffeinated approach. Certainly where the entry into individual notes and sound is concerned there's nothing to touch them – this sort of unarguable, straight-edged accuracy is rare at any price.
And it makes for a very well defined presentation, with music kept firmly on the front foot and a tangible sense of momentum to even the most pedestrian recordings.
The metal driver array (or, more correctly, ceramic-coated metal) brings a crisp, occasionally rather chilly signature to the Silver 6s' sound – certainly a song as warmly recorded as Bob Marley & The Wailers' Turn Your Lights Down Low doesn't benefit from this somewhat tepid approach.
Monitor Audio Silver 6