Polk R700 VS Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G

[MarkWinston]

Both are amazing speakers, with SOTA like FR and LW in all the reviews Ive seen. Stereophile, Soundstage Network, Hifi News all showed the Silver 500 to have a super linear FR, the Polk R700 has that too when reviewed by Audioholics. Which one do you think performs better and why? If anything, I have yet to see any floorstander in this price range measure like these bad boys here.

 

[Laserjock]

Both are amazing speakers, with SOTA like FR and LW in all the reviews Ive seen. Stereophile, Soundstage Network, Hifi News all showed the Silver 500 to have a super linear FR, the Polk R700 has that too when reviewed by Audioholics. Which one do you think performs better and why? If anything, I have yet to see any floorstander in this price range measure like these bad boys here.

Would like to see their center channels measured in these two lines.

 

[TurtlePaul]

Both measure pretty good directivity. It looks like the Monitor speakers have smoother dispersion because of the use of the smaller 3" midrange driver and the waveguided tweeter. However, some may like the much wider dispersion of the Polk that stays wide up through the lower end of the tweeter's range (it is not in a waveguide) but which beams in the top octave.

The only real problem with the Monitor Audio speaker is those bass resonances, especially the 240 Hz one I would expect could be heard.

 

[HooStat]

I am in the same boat, and I had not seen the Polk L400 center channel results from Audioholics. That looks quite amazing, to be honest. I would never have given Polk the time of day, but it seems that they are making some great speakers. I am hoping the Monitor Audio is similarly competent.

 

[MarkWinston]

One thing I dont really like seeing on the Silver 500 is how early the top end rolls off, the Polks do not exhibit such character. Any idea why the treble starts rolling off so darn early?

 

[sdiver68]

I'm currently considering Polk R600/R700, Revel F206/F208, KEF R5/R7, Focal Aria 926, and Phil Towers. All measure well against Toole/Olive parameters except possibly the Focals.

I'd love to see a full spin on the larger Polks as the R100/200 do quite well and I love my R100 paired with sub. Audioholics has some quasi-anechoic data on the Polk R700.