Monitor Audio Concept 50 announced

[Matias]

Wow that is a unique looking one!

"all sound is coming from a single point with consistent directivity"

Concept 50 | Monitor Audio

It all leads to this Since 1972, we’ve pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved in sound quality. 50 years later, we set out to create a single s

www.monitoraudio.com

 

[Matias]

Why design a coax if you can stick 6 mids around a tweeter??

 

[dwkdnvr]

Why design a coax if you can stick 6 mids around a tweeter??

Well, patents would be one reason. Plus, 6 voice coils for improved power handling, and I'd wager that you can push the excursion on the mids much higher than in a coaxial before running into problems. The real question on the Monitor Audio shown is why on earth you wouldn't add some form of waveguiding to the tweeter so that diffraction off the mids was mitigated.

Legacy used the circular midrange array idea in some of their speakers. My memory is that they were fairly well regarded.

This actually looks like an intersting-ish approach. Clearly some choices were made to simply be different and make a statement, but I can definitely see this measuring fairly well.

 

[ENG]

Copy from Techradar:

“How much will you need to save up if you'd like a pair? Monitor Audio's technical director, Michael Hedges, won't be drawn on an exact figure, but it'll be a cool £50,000 give or take 20 per cent, which is around $62,150 or AU$88,825 before tax and duties.“

Rather expensive!

 

[Rednaxela]

Anyone seen my clothespins?

 

[ryanosaur]

Huh. I see a lawsuit from Tekton in the future.

I'm always excited to see unique designs and concepts. Even if they are likely to be unicorns in every sense of the word.

 

[ryanosaur]

Anyone seen my clothespins?

What's your clothesline look like? The GGB?

 

[Rednaxela]

 

[BrokenEnglishGuy]

how much $$$$
That's the real important thing

 

[test1223]

Interesting design.

Similar to a monacor diy design

Monacor Raduno test by Klang + Ton (German)

 

[Ron Texas]

Well, patents would be one reason. Plus, 6 voice coils for improved power handling, and I'd wager that you can push the excursion on the mids much higher than in a coaxial before running into problems. The real question on the Monitor Audio shown is why on earth you wouldn't add some form of waveguiding to the tweeter so that diffraction off the mids was mitigated.

Which patent in particular? Coaxial drivers have been around forever. There may be patents of particular features like metamaterial but not enough to block the use of a coaxial design.

 

[dwkdnvr]

Which patent in particular? Coaxial drivers have been around forever. There may be patents of particular features like metamaterial but not enough to block the use of a coaxial design.

No, it's not that it's impossible to make a coax, but it might be rather difficult to make a *good* coax. Kef and Tannoy have various patents on coaxial designs, and my impression is that they're largely around phase plugs and interface design that make for smooth off-axis behavior. Look at other coax designs like Seas and SB Acoustics in the 'hi fi' space, and all the pro coax designs, and none of them seem to come close to what Kef is doing.
Having said that, it's entirely possible that this design wasn't impacted by that at all, Having a unique spin or design element that you leverage in the marketing material might be as big a consideration.

 

[sq225917]

Constant directivity? I think not. More consistent than a typical box speaker, maybe.

 

[Jukebox]

They do look and sound interesting I have to admit

 

[restorer-john]

Wow that is a unique looking one!

I reckon they look fabulous, thanks for posting the pics and link.

 

[Ra1zel]

Their claims are very bold

"The Concept 50 loudspeaker has been designed to deliver unrivalled sound like no other loudspeaker on the market. Making the ultimate statement of just how good a loudspeaker can be, Monitor Audio’s new prototype combines extraordinary sound, refinement and luxury that customers have come to expect, but pushes the boundaries even further to truly strike a chord with audiophiles."

Could it be that such extraordinary speaker would be passive and use AMT tweeter? I'm quite skeptical.

 

[Mario Sanchez]

It certainly looks very, very unique, I'd think they are some sort of floorstanding air conditioner if not told that they are speakers...

 

[Ilkless]

My first thought, especially when seeing the cutaway to the internals, was "prolapsed KEF Blade"

 

[sweetmusic]

They're definitely trying to make a visual statement. It does seem like it's out of the same playbook as the Blade.

It's not as practical or compact a design. To shrink them down much, they'd need to switch to LS60 style opposed outward firing woofers instead of inward. Also, I have a hard time imagining that they would measure as well as a true coaxial design.

I owned a pair of Monitor Audio from the original Platinum series with the AMT tweeters. They were well made and sounded great, though I did use room correction and toe in and a little EQ to fine tune.