• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Monitor Audio Apex A10 Speaker Review

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 108 62.1%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 60 34.5%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 1.7%

  • Total voters
    174

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
46,552
Likes
262,016
Location
Seattle Area
This is a review, detailed measurements and listening tests of the Monitor Audio Apex A10 "lifestyle" speaker aimed for home theater applications. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $750 each.
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker review.jpg

The A10 is absolutely gorgeous for this class of speaker (shown without the cover). It also feels exceptionally solid and has by far the best mount mechanism I have seen for this type of speaker:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker back panel stand review.jpg

Different mounts are provided for stand vs wall or ceiling mounting, making it ideal for wall and ceiling applications for Atmos surround applications.

The finish is excellent and the woofer has nice pattern which adds to feeling of the speaker being "high end."

Let's measure it with our Klippel NFS to see if the performance matches the looks/construction. If you are not familiar with my speaker measurements, please watch this tutorial:

Monitor Audio Apex A10 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our family of frequency response measurements:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker anechoic frequency response measurement.png


Well, that is disappointing. We have a dip in midrange, followed by multiple resonances and then elevated treble response. Variation is as much as 7 dB between midrange and upper treble. There is some directivity error as well despite the modest size of the woofer. Probing using our near-field response we can see both the midrange droop and uneven treble response:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker driver frequency response measurement.png


The resonances are likely caused by the port and woofer in the 1 and 2 kHz.

I would avoid floor bounce with thick carpet to somewhat tame the issues with on-axis:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker early window frequency response measurem...png


As is, you are going to have a rather bright, colored speaker in your room:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker predicted in-room frequency response mea...png


Power handling is excellent at 86 dBSPL but strain was both audible and measurable at 96 dBSPL:

Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker distortion THD measurement.png


Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker distortion THD percentage measurement.png

The issue at 2 kHz should have been identified and resolved specially since it is third order.

Horizontal response is wider than average which is nice:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker horizontal beam width response measurement.png

Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker horizontal directivity response measurem...png

Vertically we have the usual 2-way speaker problem so aim the tweeter at your ear(s):
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker vertical directivity response measurement.png


Edit: here is the impedance and phase:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker impedance and phase response measurement.png


Waterfall shows the resonances:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker CSD waterfall measurement.png


And here is the step response for the fans of that graph:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 home theater bookshelf speaker Step Response measurement.png


Monitor Audio Apex A10 Listening Tests
I listened to the A10 in my far field, main audio system. Out of box, it initially impresses with its exaggerated highs. It is not until you boost the bass response with EQ that you realize what you are missing. I did that with just a crude filter to boost the upper bass resulting in much warmer and more balanced tonality (not shown). Shame the company didn't dial it in this as they would have had a winner on their hand.

Playing content with large amount of sub-bass resulted in very faint response in that region with some distortion. Not surprising then, a subwoofer would be necessary for full range response.

Conclusions
I went into this review super impressed by what this British company had produced in the form of A10 speaker. Alas, measurements showed that it has "showroom tuning" which I suspect is kind of a requirement in this market. I wish like TVs, companies would put in switch for more even tonality. Without it, you have a bright and colored speaker that undermines what it can do. Fortunately with a bit of EQ you can fix the major flaw and have a small, attractive speaker with good power handling.

I can't recommend the Monitor Audio Apex A10 given its performance and high price.

------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

Attachments

  • Monitor Audio Apex A10.zip
    59.8 KB · Views: 36
Last edited:
Reserved for @AdamG to kindly post the specs.

Manufacturer Specifications:


IMG_0979.jpeg

Link to Manufacturer Specs and Overview:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks Amir.

Typo here: “I would avoid floor bounce with thick woofers to somewhat tame the issues with on-axis:”
 
Thanks for the review. Did you measure impedance?
 
... it looks pretty tho!
 
The batman curve is easily corrected via eq but the directivity errors cannot be fixed.
Preference score is 1.9 and get up to 5.6 with an EQ. That's a substantial jump.
You can see the EQ and the impact on the various curves. The spin DI curves are broken atm and I am fixing them.

filters_eq.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here is my take on the EQ.
Please report your findings, positive or negative!

For the score rational your journey starts here
Explanation for the sub score
The following EQs are “anechoic” EQs to get the speaker right before room integration.
If you able to implement these EQs you must add EQ at LF for room integration, that is usually not optional… see hints there.

The raw data with corrected ER and PIR:

Score no EQ: 1.9
With Sub: 5.1

Spinorama with no EQ:
  • Batman!
  • Robin?
  • resonances 1-2k
  • No bass
  • Actually half decent with EQ and a sub
Monitor Audio Apex A10 No EQ Spinorama.png


Directivity:
Better stay at tweeter height
Horizontally, better toe-in the speakers by 10/15deg and have the axis crossing in front of the listening location, might help dosing the upper range.
Monitor Audio Apex A10 2D surface Directivity Contour Only Data.png
Monitor Audio Apex A10 LW data.png





EQ design:
I have generated two EQs. The APO config files are attached.
  • The first one, labelled, LW is targeted at making the LW flat
  • The second, labelled Score, starts with the first one and adds the score as an optimization variable.
  • The EQs are designed in the context of regular stereo use i.e. domestic environment, no warranty is provided for a near field use in a studio environment although the LW might be better suited for this purpose.

Score EQ LW: 5.2
with sub: 8.0

Score EQ Score: 5.7
with sub: 8.3

Code:
Monitor Audio Apex A10 APO EQ LW 96000Hz
January222025-173350

Preamp: -3.00 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 57.5 Hz Gain 0.00 dB Q 1.33
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 170.5 Hz Gain -2.70 dB Q 1.65
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 465.2 Hz Gain 1.41 dB Q 0.90
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 833.2 Hz Gain 2.44 dB Q 2.68
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1010.3 Hz Gain -2.53 dB Q 4.68
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 1481.9 Hz Gain -3.56 dB Q 5.98
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 5348.4 Hz Gain -1.84 dB Q 5.21
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 10168.0 Hz Gain -3.27 dB Q 0.97
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 19183.1 Hz Gain 2.43 dB Q 1.82

Monitor Audio Apex A10 APO EQ Score 96000Hz
January222025-173350

Preamp: -3.00 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 59.5 Hz Gain 0.00 dB Q 1.36
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 162.9 Hz Gain -2.99 dB Q 1.41
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 461.2 Hz Gain 1.22 dB Q 0.90
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 833.7 Hz Gain 2.22 dB Q 2.61
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 1008.3 Hz Gain -2.50 dB Q 4.18
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 1483.9 Hz Gain -3.15 dB Q 3.96
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 5295.8 Hz Gain -1.67 dB Q 5.14
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 9174.2 Hz Gain -4.27 dB Q 0.76
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 20551.5 Hz Gain 2.41 dB Q 3.09
Monitor Audio Apex A10 EQ Design.png

Spinorama EQ LW
Monitor Audio Apex A10 LW EQ Spinorama.png

Spinorama EQ Score
Monitor Audio Apex A10 Score EQ Spinorama.png
Monitor Audio Apex A10 EQ Design.png

Zoom PIR-LW-ON
Monitor Audio Apex A10 Zoom.png

Regression - Tonal
Monitor Audio Apex A10 Regression.png

Radar no EQ vs EQ score
Large improvements
Monitor Audio Apex A10 Radar.png

Rest of plots attached
 

Attachments

  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 APO EQ Score 96000Hz.txt
    527 bytes · Views: 23
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 APO EQ LW 96000Hz.txt
    525 bytes · Views: 22
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 2D surface Directivity Contour Data.png
    Monitor Audio Apex A10 2D surface Directivity Contour Data.png
    401.7 KB · Views: 27
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 3D surface Vertical Directivity Data.png
    Monitor Audio Apex A10 3D surface Vertical Directivity Data.png
    423.6 KB · Views: 24
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 3D surface Horizontal Directivity Data.png
    Monitor Audio Apex A10 3D surface Horizontal Directivity Data.png
    453 KB · Views: 28
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 Normalized Directivity data.png
    Monitor Audio Apex A10 Normalized Directivity data.png
    386.9 KB · Views: 25
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 Raw Directivity data.png
    Monitor Audio Apex A10 Raw Directivity data.png
    520.6 KB · Views: 21
  • Monitor Audio Apex A10 Reflexion data.png
    Monitor Audio Apex A10 Reflexion data.png
    200.4 KB · Views: 23
Last edited:
Poor showing for a brand that used to sound better. If you compare with similar offers from Neumann and Genelec, thanks to Amir’s reviews, we can now choose intelligently quality and substance over brand name.
To be fair even several of their current models measure quite well, so it hopefully seems to be rather an outlier.
 
@Amir Power handling would be better when used with a subwoofer (as intended) so you can set a high pass filter on the speakers. Here in Europe these were pretty popular for use in a moderate surround system in the living room. These speakers don't appeal to (and weren't designed for) the hardcore home theater fan, nor to the high-end Hi-Fi stereo listeners. Still, Monitor Audio should've done a better job as you pointed out.
 
Poor showing for a brand that used to sound better. If you compare with similar offers from Neumann and Genelec, thanks to Amir’s reviews, we can now choose intelligently quality and substance over brand name.
It would be more useful if Amir reviewed any of their actually reportedly good speakers, such as the Silver 7G series and above rather than some crap lifestyle product that clearly doesn't match Monitor's reputation. I'm certainly not interpreting this review as indicative of the quality of the Monitor brand on the whole.
 
Back
Top Bottom