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.
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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As is, you are going to have a rather bright, colored speaker in your room:
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Power handling is excellent at 86 dBSPL but strain was both audible and measurable at 96 dBSPL:
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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:
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Vertically we have the usual 2-way speaker problem so aim the tweeter at your ear(s):
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Edit: here is the impedance and phase:
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Waterfall shows the resonances:
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And here is the step response for the fans of that graph:
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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.
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