Monoprice Monolith Encore T5 speaker, listening impressions of a cheapskate

[Barrelhouse Solly]

For me in the bedroom I found them a noticeable but not earth shattering improvement over the Pioneers. I'm using a subwoofer. I could probably set the crossover frequency a bit lower than it is now. I find the highs clearer but because my HF hearing is not so good it may be just built in personalized EQ for me. I've experimented with setting up EQ to go with my audiogram. I find that the room correction that the amp does, a combination of "active eq," which I think is automated contour, and a more generalized eq that affects the bass only, works pretty well for me. I doubt I'd be that pleased with them at list price.

 

[tbob22]

Some quick measurements, lots of room influence I'm sure. I tried moving speakers in and out several feet and still getting a huge peak at ~45hz. Room calibration could probably easily clean this up.

Take these measurements with a grain of salt as there is a lot of room influence going on here. At some point I may try them in the theater which is much better for acoustics, I think Dirac could also clean these up nicely.

3ft from speaker - null at ~200hz and again at ~600hz. Otherwise not bad.

At listening position - a lot of room gain around 45hz​

At listening position with toe in (approx 10 degrees) - slightly improved highs and midrange.
Dip is still there at around 600hz - probably what I was hearing coming from the Diamond 9.2's.​

Overall I'm pretty impressed at the price, they eat up at lot of power from the Carver and don't seem to really be straining too much. I'll try them on the receiver over the weekend and see how much things change and if tone controls are enough to balance things out a bit more.

 

[tbob22]

A bit more listening and comparing them with the 9.2's and I find the 9.2's to handily outperform the T5's when it comes to fidelity.

Treble, midrange and bass are more articulate (T5 does seem to have a little more on the top end ~10-20k). Soundstage is more focused, wider when it needs to be, and phantom center is more stable across the seating area. For classical and jazz the 9.2's handily outperform the T5's (would be better with a sub though, but still are getting into the 40hz range in room just not at the same volume as the T5's).

I preferred the T5's for electronic/metal/rock especially with the bass extension, they can go very loud they were pulling in the range of 40w each according to the meters and still not straining too much I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the 100db range. The treble overall is not too harsh when toed in but the CB-15 is a bit softer amp overall. If paired with a Yamaha or similar AVR it may get rough. Will see how it does with the Panny.

Still impressed at under $200. The 9.2's were about $400 back when I purchased them and with inflation they would be much higher now, the closest today would probably be the 12.2's at $599.

 

[jbattman1016]

A bit more listening and comparing them with the 9.2's and I find the 9.2's to handily outperform the T5's when it comes to fidelity.

Treble, midrange and bass are more articulate (T5 does seem to have a little more on the top end ~10-20k). Soundstage is more focused, wider when it needs to be, and phantom center is more stable across the seating area. For classical and jazz the 9.2's handily outperform the T5's (would be better with a sub though, but still are getting into the 40hz range in room just not at the same volume as the T5's).

I preferred the T5's for electronic/metal/rock especially with the bass extension, they can go very loud they were pulling in the range of 40w each according to the meters and still not straining too much I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the 100db range. The treble overall is not too harsh when toed in but the CB-15 is a bit softer amp overall. If paired with a Yamaha or similar AVR it may get rough. Will see how it does with the Panny.

Still impressed at under $200. The 9.2's were about $400 back when I purchased them and with inflation they would be much higher now, the closest today would probably be the 12.2's at $599.

Considering the price, what's coming out of these is impressive. I found that podcasts are very clear and dialog is easy to understand. I need to try a few movies to see what happens.

 

[jbattman1016]

While maybe not on most people's radar as a test scene, as it is buried inside a kids movie, but In Frozen 2, the scene when Elsa attempts to cross the dark sea is a good SHORT audio test. It's only a few minutes, but just wanted to point it out.... yes I have kids .... lol

The clip on Youtube doesn't have the start of the scene, which has more waves crashing. So I didn't link it.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

Considering the price, what's coming out of these is impressive. I found that podcasts are very clear and dialog is easy to understand. I need to try a few movies to see what happens.

I watch videos on my tablet using a Tempotec dongle and find the dialogue clearer than with the Pioneers. It's an incremental improvement but it's noticeable.

 

[tbob22]

I watch videos on my tablet using a Tempotec dongle and find the dialogue clearer than with the Pioneers. It's an incremental improvement but it's noticeable.

I notice the opposite from the Wharfedales but dialogue is still plenty clear, definitely clearer than the Sony bookshelves I have in the garage. Wharfedales are kind of known for their crisp midrange though.

 

[tbob22]

After some burn in I'm finding the differences between the 9.2's and the T5's to have minimized quite a bit. They are measuring fairly close as well. The soundstage is still wider on the 9.2's but the T5's midrange has improved a bit.

I will be measuring on the Panasonic AVR soon - I do notice it's a bit brighter compared to the Carver.

 

[joentell]

For $180 a pair, sheesh. You could spend more on just the waveguides if you wanted to DIY something like this... if the performance is anywhere near what the FR graph on their product page shows I figure these are a very reasonable deal, if not a steal.

Can you give any subjective sense of how the directivity is? Like, if you walk in a semicircle around the speaker at a single distance... does the treble seem to change wildly or is it pretty even?

Somebody with $200 sitting idle in their wallet should ship these to Amir just for the hell of it...

I've been playing around with a quick measurement method, aka my ghetto spinorama, to get some reliable measurements for my reviews. I have these Monolith Encore T5's in for review. I'm still finishing it up, but here are some of my measurements. I'll save the frequency response info for my review. I think they're a bit brighter than my Encore T6 and B6 though.

The real question I had was if the Encore T5 were noticeably better than the Audition T5. Gotta wait and see.

Full disclosure: Monoprice is a channel sponsor and they sent these free for me to review.

 

[tbob22]

I've been playing around with a quick measurement method, aka my ghetto spinorama, to get some reliable measurements for my reviews. I have these Monolith Encore T5's in for review. I'm still finishing it up, but here are some of my measurements. I'll save the frequency response info for my review. I think they're a bit brighter than my Encore T6 and B6 though.

The real question I had was if the Encore T5 were noticeably better than the Audition T5. Gotta wait and see.

Full disclosure: Monoprice is a channel sponsor and they sent these free for me to review.

I found that they were a bit bright right out of the box but after about 20h of use they settled down, still a bit brighter than the Diamonds but not what I'd call a bright speaker. I'll have to remeasure as the last measurements I had did look a little bright at the 3ft measurements, but those were basically right out of the box.

When I measured them they looked pretty good from ~650hz up but this was in room with no treatment so I think a lot of the midrange/lows were just the room, but we'll see with more measurements to compare to. I really only use the UMIK for Dirac and MiniDSP.

That directivity doesn't look amazing, but looks about as expected for this level of speaker I think.

 

[tbob22]

I've been playing around with a quick measurement method, aka my ghetto spinorama, to get some reliable measurements for my reviews. I have these Monolith Encore T5's in for review. I'm still finishing it up, but here are some of my measurements. I'll save the frequency response info for my review. I think they're a bit brighter than my Encore T6 and B6 though.

The real question I had was if the Encore T5 were noticeably better than the Audition T5. Gotta wait and see.

Full disclosure: Monoprice is a channel sponsor and they sent these free for me to review.

Looking forward to the review. I noticed they are all out of stock now - pretty much exactly what you were worried about .

These have been on sale for a couple of months, maybe they'll be back in stock soon. I have no idea how they are making a profit off of these - I'd imagine the packing and shipping would cost over $90/each.

 

[Mustang]

They are almost out of stock altogether for Monolith products..... It's interesting.

Agree how can they produce, ship and warranty these for $90 Each?

 

[tbob22]

I'm liking these even more on the old Panasonic AVR. Treble -1 and bass at -3. Still plenty of bass, I find myself turning it down to -5 for some bass heavy albums. Really feels like there is a small sub - decent tactile bass in a moderate size room (~1700 cu ft) that is open to hallway, other rooms. Imaging is much more focused on the Panasonic.

They are almost out of stock altogether for Monolith products..... It's interesting.

Agree how can they produce, ship and warranty these for $90 Each?

Yeah, maybe getting ready for a new line?

 

[jbattman1016]

They are almost out of stock altogether for Monolith products..... It's interesting.

Agree how can they produce, ship and warranty these for $90 Each?

There was a large sale the other day and these were featured in the AD, so I'm sure that helped push them out the door.

 

[jbattman1016]

I'm liking these even more on the old Panasonic AVR. Treble -1 and bass at -3. Still plenty of bass, I find myself turning it down to -5 for some bass heavy albums. Really feels like there is a small sub - decent tactile bass in a moderate size room (~1700 cu ft) that is open to hallway, other rooms. Imaging is much more focused on the Panasonic.


Yeah, maybe getting ready for a new line?

Running on my SMSL A50 the sound is great, just looks comical. I find Jazz music is a perfect fit.

 

[tbob22]

Running on my SMSL A50 the sound is great, just looks comical. I find Jazz music is a perfect fit.

I have a little SMSL SA50 in the office paired with some Diamond 10.1's, great little amp - it's been running for about 8 years about 6-8h a day on average. It does start to fall apart at higher volumes but it's perfect for a near range desk setup, I think the A50 does have more power though.

Jazz does sound really nice on the T5's.

 

[tbob22]

The two amps measure pretty differently in the low range but not dramatically different in the higher range. Bass -3db, treble -1db. In direct mode 2 (equivalent to pure direct today) there is way too much bass especially at listening position.

 

[tbob22]

@joentell uploaded a review:

Measurements are a bit different from mine, but his are probably more in depth, mine were only from one position. Different amps may change the response as well, I'm sure the DAC on the old Panasonic is not nearly as transparent as you'd find in a budget DAC today, may try one of my SMSL's just to see how different it is.

I noticed my measurements actually match up fairly closely to monoprices above ~300hz.

 

[joentell]

@joentell uploaded a review:

Measurements are a bit different from mine, but his are probably more in depth, mine were only from one position. Different amps may change the response as well, I'm sure the DAC on the old Panasonic is not nearly as transparent as you'd find in a budget DAC today, may try one of my SMSL's just to see how different it is.

I noticed my measurements actually match up fairly closely to monoprices above ~300hz.

If you take a screenshot from my video and adjust the scale so they match, is it a closer match?

 

[kemmler3D]

how can they produce, ship and warranty these for $90 Each?

Build & ship them to the warehouse for no more than $20 each.