Monitor Audio Radius R90HDs; an (attempt at) an unbiased review.
mlistens03
Posts: 2,767
in Speakers
So a while back I went to pick up a NAD integrated amplifier. It came with these speakers, which sat unused for a while before I decided to give them a go. Well, to say I was very surprised is an understatement. I immediately realized these were more than your average mini speaker (these things come in at 7 and a 1/2 inches tall!) Their little 4 inch driver throws out a surprising amount of bass, but what it does above ~120 hertz is awesome.
Anyways, I’ll start with build. These things are built like tanks. Well, very small tanks. They are about 6 pounds a piece, which doesn’t seem like a lot, until you remember just how tiny they are. The cabinets are well braced and are very solid, with 1/2 inch MDF sides, baffle, top and bottom. Crossover components seem to be of good quality; electrolytic capacitors are used so there is room for improvement. The midbass driver uses a plastic basket, but with a driver that small, I don’t think that is really something to worry about. It is otherwise a well built driver, with a big magnet (about as big as it can be while still fitting in the cabinet) with good quality terminals, a surprisungly large VC, and a nice shiny polymer cone (Monitor Audio has a specific name for the material, but I cannot remember for the life of me what it is.) the tweeters are a C-CAM (also Monitor Audio specific, but a different material than the midbass drivers) composite which is then gold plated. The covers are metal, which gives excellent protection and elegant looks. The finish looks great as well.
Now, on to the important part; sound. The highs sparkle. Very crisp and clear, But not bright, leaning more to the warm side of the spectrum. The tweeters are very smooth, and don’t sound congested at higher volumes.
The vocal range is really great. It is once again very clear and accurate, although not as much so as the high frequency. Placed closer to the wall as MA recommends gives a very notciable boost to midbass frequencies, and muddies the entire speaker.
The bass is, well, underwhelming. But you can’t expect great bass from speakers of this size. For what they are, it is incredible. With the loudness switch it can fill my room easily with bass, although still nothing deeper than 70ish hertz. Playing bass through them does seem to mess with the higher frequencies, so I would highly recommend pairing them with a nice subwoofer and using a crossover to keep them out.
The soundstage is stellar, when placed correctly. Once again, MA’s recommendations leave the soundstage nonexistant, with everything localized to the speakers, and just overall giving a flat boring experience. Pull them out a few feet from the wall however, and the sound stage opens up. It is wide, extending about 3 feet past the speakers, and very deep, although the height is a bit lacking.
They do like current, although you can get away with lower powered receivers and amplifiers. They have sounded very nice on just about everything I’ve tried pairing them with, with my Yamaha RX-v665 AVR being a low point.
Overview
Looks: I give them a 8.5 out of ten. They look very nice, although the badges do seem a bit cheap. Otherwise they look great.
Build: I give them 9/10. They are solid, well braced, non-resonant, and feel durable. Grills are very sturdy and feel like they would offer great protection.
Sound: I give this an 8.5 out of ten, because even though they do sound great when placed well, placed even a bit worse gives a lot of compromise in this area. The lack of lows don’t help in this. Otherwise they seem to do everything right.
Overall, I’d say a 9/10 set of speakers, because even though they do have their drawbacks, they are a speaker designed for WAF (or MAF AKA Mom Acceptance Factor
) first, while still offering great sound. These get a solid recommendation from me.
Note: Do not take my experience as the final word, because while I do have nice gear, some parts just don’t do justice to others (like cables, I am severely lacking in that department). You should also try to do your own listening, and get to hear them yourself before you buy them, as everyone has different tastes in sound. (This is not directed to anyone in particular, just thought it worth mentioning in case someone is looking for reviews on these.)
So, how’d I do for my first ever review? all thoughts are welcome.
Anyways, I’ll start with build. These things are built like tanks. Well, very small tanks. They are about 6 pounds a piece, which doesn’t seem like a lot, until you remember just how tiny they are. The cabinets are well braced and are very solid, with 1/2 inch MDF sides, baffle, top and bottom. Crossover components seem to be of good quality; electrolytic capacitors are used so there is room for improvement. The midbass driver uses a plastic basket, but with a driver that small, I don’t think that is really something to worry about. It is otherwise a well built driver, with a big magnet (about as big as it can be while still fitting in the cabinet) with good quality terminals, a surprisungly large VC, and a nice shiny polymer cone (Monitor Audio has a specific name for the material, but I cannot remember for the life of me what it is.) the tweeters are a C-CAM (also Monitor Audio specific, but a different material than the midbass drivers) composite which is then gold plated. The covers are metal, which gives excellent protection and elegant looks. The finish looks great as well.
Now, on to the important part; sound. The highs sparkle. Very crisp and clear, But not bright, leaning more to the warm side of the spectrum. The tweeters are very smooth, and don’t sound congested at higher volumes.
The vocal range is really great. It is once again very clear and accurate, although not as much so as the high frequency. Placed closer to the wall as MA recommends gives a very notciable boost to midbass frequencies, and muddies the entire speaker.
The bass is, well, underwhelming. But you can’t expect great bass from speakers of this size. For what they are, it is incredible. With the loudness switch it can fill my room easily with bass, although still nothing deeper than 70ish hertz. Playing bass through them does seem to mess with the higher frequencies, so I would highly recommend pairing them with a nice subwoofer and using a crossover to keep them out.
The soundstage is stellar, when placed correctly. Once again, MA’s recommendations leave the soundstage nonexistant, with everything localized to the speakers, and just overall giving a flat boring experience. Pull them out a few feet from the wall however, and the sound stage opens up. It is wide, extending about 3 feet past the speakers, and very deep, although the height is a bit lacking.
They do like current, although you can get away with lower powered receivers and amplifiers. They have sounded very nice on just about everything I’ve tried pairing them with, with my Yamaha RX-v665 AVR being a low point.
Overview
Looks: I give them a 8.5 out of ten. They look very nice, although the badges do seem a bit cheap. Otherwise they look great.
Build: I give them 9/10. They are solid, well braced, non-resonant, and feel durable. Grills are very sturdy and feel like they would offer great protection.
Sound: I give this an 8.5 out of ten, because even though they do sound great when placed well, placed even a bit worse gives a lot of compromise in this area. The lack of lows don’t help in this. Otherwise they seem to do everything right.
Overall, I’d say a 9/10 set of speakers, because even though they do have their drawbacks, they are a speaker designed for WAF (or MAF AKA Mom Acceptance Factor
) first, while still offering great sound. These get a solid recommendation from me.Note: Do not take my experience as the final word, because while I do have nice gear, some parts just don’t do justice to others (like cables, I am severely lacking in that department). You should also try to do your own listening, and get to hear them yourself before you buy them, as everyone has different tastes in sound. (This is not directed to anyone in particular, just thought it worth mentioning in case someone is looking for reviews on these.)
So, how’d I do for my first ever review? all thoughts are welcome.
Comments
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Nice review Micah! Post some pics of your room setup, if you don't mind!Basement: Polk SDA SRS 1.2tl's, Cary SLP-05 Pre with ultimate upgrade,McIntosh MCD301 CD/SACD player, Northstar Designs Excelsio DAC, Cambridge 851N streamer, McIntosh MC300 Amp, Silnote Morpheus Ref2, Series2 Digital Cables, Silnote Morpheus Ref2 Series2 XLR's, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Pangea Power Cables, MIT Shotgun S3 IC's, MIT Shotgun S1 Bi-Wire speaker cables
Office: PC, EAR Acute CD Player, EAR 834L Pre, Northstar Designs Intenso DAC, Antique Sound Labs AV8 Monoblocks, Denon UDR-F10 Cassette, Acoustic Technologies Classic FR Speakers, SVS SB12 Plus sub, MIT AVt2 speaker cables, IFI Purifier2, AQ Cinnamon USB cable, Groneberg Quatro Reference IC's
Spare Room: Dayens Ampino Integrated Amp, Tjoeb 99 tube CD player (modified Marantz CD-38), Analysis Plus Oval 9's, Zu Jumpers, AudioEngine B1 Streamer, Klipsch RB-61 v2, SVS PB1000 sub, Blue Jeans RCA IC's, Shunyata Hydra 8 Power Conditioner
Living Room: Peachtree Nova Integrated, Cambridge CXN v2 Streamer, Rotel RCD-1072 CD player, Furman 15PFi Power Conditioner, Polk RT265 In Wall Speakers, Polk DSW Pro 660wi sub
Garage #1: Cambridge Audio 640A Integrated Amp, Project Box-E BT Streamer, Polk Tsi200 Bookies, Douglas Speaker Cables, Shunyata Power Conditioner
Garage #2: Cambridge Audio EVO150 Integrated Amplifier, Polk L200's, Analysis Plus Silver Oval 2 Speaker Cables, IC's TBD. -
Nice review Micah! Post some pics of your room setup, if you don't mind!
That was the plan, but the internet went down last night ten minutes or so after I finished. I’ll get some pics later when there is better lighting in my room from outside. -
Here are some pics. I forgot to mention that the terminals are very nice, and also feel solidly built.
And that these speakers had an original price of (I think) $500 for the pair.
I’ve switched to a near-field desktop kind of thing recently, but I have tested them on stands in a full-size enviroment as well. Their qualities become better and their shortcomings become less noticeable in a nearfield environment, so that’s where I plan to keep them.
And one more pic, with a ruler for scale:
They really are smaller than they look in pictures.
A few things I meant to mention, but forgot...
1.These speakers bring good sound in a package small enough to get into most homes today, if you are looking for very small speakers for the family member about to buy Bose cubes, these are a very good competitor with the other small speakers out there. They have even bested several my larger pairs of speakers in many ways.
2. Even though they are very placement dependent, they don’t sound bad when placed poorly. They just sound no where near as good as they can.
3. Here is a closeup of the MA badge I mentioned as looking a little bit cheap. Although it feels like a nice quality sturdy plastic, it still doesn’t look great.
If anyone has any questions about these feel free to ask, I will do my best to answer. And once again, all comments are appreciated.
(A few things off topic to mention; I’m not sure what is on my monitor in those pictures, but it isn’t there in real life. Also, my desk is not dusty and dirty, my sisters trashed it and I haven’t gotten around to stripping the old finish and repainting it yet. ) -
Not bad for your first attempt at a speaker review, not bad at all. HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Not bad for your first attempt at a speaker review, not bad at all.
Thanks! Any ideas on what I could do to improve? -
mlistens03 wrote: »
Sure....before you get into the nuts and bolts of the sound, list the associated gear. Maybe list the music played and your impressions on how that particular song sounds on the reviewed speaker. Save some comparisons to other speakers for last. Maybe a tad shorter too, not everything warrants a lengthy review.
Your doing good though, welcome to the dark side of audiophiles.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
mlistens03 wrote: »
Sure....before you get into the nuts and bolts of the sound, list the associated gear. Maybe list the music played and your impressions on how that particular song sounds on the reviewed speaker. Save some comparisons to other speakers for last. Maybe a tad shorter too, not everything warrants a lengthy review.
Your doing good though, welcome to the dark side of audiophiles.
Thanks! I forgot to list the associated gear... well, it was run in a number of different systems, one with my NAD C352, Technics SL3200, Shure M97xE Bugle 2 phono, generic ICs, and BJC speaker cables. Oh and a Boston Acoustics PV500. This is the system it was used in 90% of the time.
I'll list some music later, but I don't have a ton of time to do that at the moment.
Thanks again. -
Nice review, Micah!
With a little editing and some re-arranging of content we got a future Stereophile reviewer here folks! -
Nice review, Micah!
With a little editing and some re-arranging of content we got a future Stereophile reviewer here folks!
Thanks! -
Very nice review monitor audio makes some good stuff.Klipsch The Nines, Audioquest Thunderbird Interconnect, Innuos Zen MK3 W4S recovery, Revolution Audio Labs USB & Ethernet, Border Patrol SE-I, Audioquest Niagara 5000 & Thunder, Cullen Crossover II PC's.
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Not bad Micah. Nicely done.
Let me put it this way. My opinion.
tonyb gave you excellent advise as to the content & how to present it.
Clipdat the same for structure & style; WRT tightening it up & such.
Pay attention to them as you develop your own writing style & voice & you'll be one of the fortunate 10% not subject to Sturgeon's Law -
Thanks for taking the time to share with us your awesome speaker find. Peace. DMIT Magnum MH-750, Monster HTS 5100MKII, Sony 77" Class - A80CJ Series - 4K UHD OLED,PS4, Def Tech 15” sub,LSIM 706c, Sunfire Signature Grand 425 x 4,Parasound hca 120, LSiM 702 x 4, Oppo 103D, SDA SRS 1.2, Pioneer Elite SC63 , Pioneer Elite BDP-05 “Why did you get married if you wanted big speakers?”
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Very nice review monitor audio makes some good stuff.
Thanks! They really do.Not bad Micah. Nicely done.
Let me put it this way. My opinion.
tonyb gave you excellent advise as to the content & how to present it.
Clipdat the same for structure & style; WRT tightening it up & such.
Pay attention to them as you develop your own writing style & voice & you'll be one of the fortunate 10% not subject to Sturgeon's Law
I will pay attention, and when I’m done with school today I’ll hopefully have time to finish the review with an overview of DSOTM.
Thanks for the feedback guys!
