It’s safe to say it’s been a long old time since I’ve been to a hotel to listen to the latest innovations in Hi-Fi - February 2020 at the last Bristol Hi-Fi show to be exact! So, when I received an invite from the Monitor Audio Group to do just that, I jumped at the chance. So, off I headed to leafy Surrey, to the rather prestigious Pennyhill Park Hotel in Bagshot.

For those of you unfamiliar with the newly rebranded, Monitor Audio Group, this comprises of –

Monitor Audio

First founded in 1972 in Taversham, near Cambridge. Iranian engineer, Mo Iqbal, sought to create a world leading brand of Hi-Fi speakers. Fast-forward 40 years and Monitor Audio is regarded by many as one of the leading manufacturers in the industry with an emphasis in innovation for both Hi-Fi and Home Cinema applications.

Roksan

THE XERXES TURNTABLE THAT KICKED THINGS OFF IN 1985

Acquired by the Monitor Audio Group in November 2016, Roksan was first founded in 1985 by graduates of the University of London, Imperial College London and Queen Mary College, Tufan Hashemi and Touraj Moghaddam. Forged in the fires of Moghaddam’s dissatisfaction of the Hi-Fi systems available at the time, the pair formed a formidable British Hi-Fi company, choosing names for the brand and their products that celebrated the mythology of their Persian heritage. The name Roksan itself is derived from the name of Roxana, daughter of the Persian King Darius. Not surprisingly many of Roksan's product names have references to names of cities, places and famous people of Persia. One such product was the Xerxes Turntable which launched the company to success. Soon after, the company poured their expertise into amplification and digital sources.

Blok

And finally, Blok. Acquired in April 2019, Blok is the manufacturer behind the stylish STAX range of Hi-Fi furniture. Whilst they can’t be grain matched, they can in essence be colour matched to the Monitor Audio speaker range. These are set to be with us in the near future, so if you’re interested in the Blok range, contact your local store for more information.

So, after a quick meet and greet, a coffee and a very welcomed bacon bap; we found ourselves in the “Windsor” suite, decked out with selected kit from the Monitor Audio Group. Before we could listen to the goods, we first had to find out what made the seventh generation of the Silver range so special…

MONITOR AUDIO SILVER 7G

Looks aren’t everything…

It’s not the most popular opinion, but Hi-Fi speakers are as much a piece of furniture as the racks that your records & CDs reside in, so it’s important that they look as good as they sound. Before getting in to the technical nitty-gritty of the speakers, let’s take a moment to appreciate the aesthetics at play here –

The Silver Series 7G have adopted a contemporary, crisp edge design. Not only has this allowed for a sharper look, it has also allowed the introduction of two new, real wood veneers: Natural Walnut and Ash*. It’s rare to find real wood veneers on a speaker of this price point, so this is a nice touch. If the real wood veneers aren’t your thing, you also have a choice of Satin White, Gloss Black and Black Oak – A colour for pretty much every listening space.

(*The Silver AMS 7G and FX 7G will only be available in High Gloss Black and Satin White)

To compliment the slick choice of finishes, Monitor Audio have also introduced new driver trim rings that are painted to match the tweeter rim and give a more balanced visual appearance, by reducing visibility of the rubber driver surround.

And finally, a feature of both function and design – The new outrigger foot system. These new feet are made from moulded ABS and feature a spun metal trim, developed for improved stability. They also have a new locking foot designed to work on both carpet and hard floors.

The technical nitty-gritty…

For years, Monitor Audio have brandished their Rigid Surface Technology (RST) woofers as a trademark of their look. These iconic, silver drivers are now in their second incarnation, derived from the Gold 5G’s RDT (Rigid Diaphragm Technology) development. The composite of the ceramic-coated aluminium magnesium (C-Cam) is considered by Monitor Audio to be the best material to improve the tensile strength of the cone, while being light enough to move quickly, giving the speaker the ability to translate the music accurately. Unlike previous versions of the Silver range, which featured the original smooth RST drivers; the RST II is complimented by a hexagonal dimple pattern, which allows it to handle the higher frequencies at an optimal level.

As if improved drivers weren’t enough, Monitor Audio have taken the opportunity to improve the performance of the speakers as a whole and given the crossovers a new lease of life.

Rather than just look at the crossover merely as an electrical component, Monitor Audio approach them as an acoustic requirement that should complement the drivers, even if it means using non-mathematical methods and splitting the frequencies in a non-symmetrical manner, as long as it benefits the tonal balance, phase and musicality of the speaker.

One thing that really came across in the presentation is that Monitor Audio are producing speakers that are really designed to allow the listener to get the most out of their musical experience.

ROKSAN ATTESSA

I’ll be completely honest with you. Roksan is not a brand that I’ve had a lot of experience with, so it was a good opportunity to learn about the brand and the new Attessa range. Something that I instantly liked about the range was how limited it was. Some brands release a product line with numerous iterations and combinations that is almost impossible to navigate, well not this one! The moderately priced Attessa family consists of a turntable, CD transport, integrated amplifier and streaming amplifier. The turntable is available in satin white or satin black, and the other components of the system come in either silver or black… And for possibly the first time in a very long time, I found myself preferring the silver finish over the black!

Both the Attessa’s integrated amplifier and streaming amplifier are not short of inputs. Both feature a dedicated MM Phono stage plus two more line level analogue phono inputs, accompanied by four digital inputs (two coaxial & two Toslink). There isn’t much more you’d want, especially if you’re planning on sticking with the rest of the range. As to be expected, the CD transport features a solitary coaxial digital output.

Now, I just want to talk about the turntable for a second… Some record players feature an optimised hardwired audio cable, others give you phono outputs to pick and choose your own aftermarket cables. The Attessa Turntable does a little of both. Whilst it does have the option for aftermarket cables, Roksan have paired it with a dedicated phono cable which they claim provides the optimum quality of musicality. “So why not just hardwire that cable?” - Well, the turntable features a built in Moving Magnet switchable phono stage (active/passive) that allows you to run to line level outputs or even active speakers. Very cool! There are a whole host of technical features that make this turntable impressive, you can find out more here.

Whilst on the surface, these seem like your run of the mill Hi-Fi boxes, beneath the chassis lurks some rather clever tech. The whole system can be used with with Roksan’s very own application, MaestroUnite. This clever software package will allow you to control your complete Roksan system as a whole, but will also automatically perform any firmware updates or bug fixes that you may have not known about unless checking the site. This is something a lot of manufacturers could benefit from. Not only does this work on smartphones and tablets using Android or iOS, but also on PC and Apple computers.

When it comes to the Attessa Streaming Amplifier, you’ll find the integration of BluOS™ technology. A tried and tested method brought you from the people behind Bluesound. This Premium Multi-Room Audio Technology allows you to not only stream from Roksan to Roksan device, but ANY product that utilises the same software. So for example, if you had a Bluesound Pulse 2i wireless speaker in other rooms of the house, you could stream the same music across the house… Great for parties!

Evidently the list of manufacturers using this application is growing. And what is even more impressive is if you use the turntable input on the streaming amplifier, you can then stream that record around your house with ease.

Right, enough tech jargon for one blog…

The proof is in the listening…

After a quick coffee break, it was time to get to the good stuff. Using the Attessa streaming amplifier as our source with a bespoke Tidal playlist curated by Monitor Audio (scroll to the bottom to find out more), we set through the Silver 7G range of stereo speakers from the 50 right up to the 500.

As you’d expect when ascending through a range of speakers, the musiciality, detail and clarity all improve with each step up. Bass response and sound stage are the most noticeable improvements. That being said, even the performance of the smallest member of the family, the Silver 50 7G, exceeded expectations considering it was working in a location well outside of its intended space.

The real winners of the day for me were the 300 and 500 7G. You can’t beat a big pair of floorstanders. They particularly shone with the track Uprising from Muse. Whatever your take on that band, it’s a great track for testing not only bass response of a speaker, but also how they deal with complex midrange arrangements.

Sadly we weren’t able to listen to the full range of the Silver 7G and missed out on the AV applications, which is a shame as the new AMS 7G and FX 7G look like they’d be an incredible addition to any home cinema system.

As with any Hi-Fi system, beauty is in the ear of the beholder! We strongly advise getting yourself to one of our stores to book a demonstration.

Thanks for reading -

Brad - Audio T

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Monitor Audio can be found at the following Audio-T stores

Roksan can be found at the following Audio-T stores -