Monitor audio bronze 5 5.1

[leon2016]

Hi

Looking to get a 5.1 set up that is 50/50 for music and movies. Would like to know which receiver would get the best out of the monitor audio bronze 5 5.1 upto £1000 or less and why?

 

[Leeps]

First of all, you've picked a jolly good all-rounder in the Bronze 5 set-up, if you want good performance for music and movies.

As far as the AV receiver goes, The usual suspects from Denon, Marantz, Pioneer and Yamaha would all perform well. Much will depend on your own preferences as far as tonal balance is concerned and the specific range of features offered by each manufacturer.

Denon seems highly rated these days, but I'm not convinced by Audyssey's auto-set-up capabilities. And the better streaming options (that incorporate their HEOS streaming and multi-room software) are only available on the higher end receivers, the 4300H and 6300H.

My own preference would be for Pioneer's current range. I know Pioneer and MA work very well together (to my taste), and this year's models have excellent streaming capabilities.

So check the specs of your shortlist carefully, in particular to check that each model offers the streaming features you need (as a Tidal subscriber, only the higher end Denon and Pioneer would meet my needs as Yamaha only offer Deezer and Spotify at present).

But you really HAVE to listed to the combo at a dealer. 20 minutes in a demo room will give you a far quicker "yes"/"no" response in your own mind than hours trawling other people's opinions on the internet. You're spending a not inconsiderable amount of money, so even if it means travelling a distance to get the right dealer, then you really must do so.

 

[leon2016]

Thank you for your comments, they are much appreciated. The monitor audio bronze 5 5.1 have had many good reveiws and at there price point, really appealed to me.

I enjoy movies just as much as music so 50/50 in that regard. Music taste is varied but i enjoy listening to classic rock, heavy rock, motown, disco and some classical. So the right av receiver is very important, it has to been equally as good at music and movies.

Movies i like the complete set of lord of the rings, all star wars, bourne identity films, the matrix, harry potter and bond films, star trek. I like to hear details in film and music like i've not heard it before.

I've heard of denon, yamaha, pioneer, marantz, sony. For me the performance and quality and how the receiver delivers musically and with movies to the best it possibly can for the money is the priority. Features not so much.

I've never used tidal or sportify, deezer etc... most of the music i have is from cd and turned into wav or flac files on my phone.

Yamaha rx-a1060, denon x3300, denon x2300, sony dn1060/1070. They are some of the latest receivers i need to look into more about pioneer. In your view are pioneer receivers warm or bright sounding?

 

[Leeps]

As you don't use subscription based streaming, then that widens your choice really.

Pioneer is slightly forward and crisp, punchy, detailed. Some would call it bright yes. But with the gold dome tweeters of the Bronzes, personally I think the Pioneer gets a lot right tonally, particularly piano. These tweeters IMO are excellent.

But it's your ears that must decide, particularly as music is that important a factor in your choice. I sympathise - I use my system principally for music, less so for TV & movies. Take a mixture of tracks that you're most familiar with to a dealer, that way you'll know them well enough to determine subtle differences in tone between receivers.

Normally dealers may not be so keen to do a comparison test with AV receivers as it takes a lot more time to set-up, but in your case, the main purpose of a demo is to assess the tonal differences between AV receivers. You could do this simply by just asking them to play pure direct in stereo through the Bronze 5's only. This way it won't distract you by their multi-channel performance. It makes the dealer's job a little more realistic too as they wouldn't need to go through the whole set-up procedure for each AVR.

If music is a priority, my first recommendations would be Arcam and Anthem, but they're becoming very expensive these days, so in the midrange category, Denon, Marantz, Yamaha and Pioneer would all be worth a look.

 

[leon2016]

Just wondering how much of a difference in performance terms would there be between those two systems? What would the 5 give you thant the 2 couldn't and vice versa? Is the bronze 5 av package better than say dali zensor 5 5.1 package when listening to heavy rock/metal(guns n roses,metallica?) Which would you say is better with movies? I am 50/50 when it comes to music and films. Which receivers would be ideal partners for zensor 5 5.1 and bronze 5 5.1?

 

[macdiddy]

regarding what makes of av receivers you should consider already been answered by Leeps reply.

Why have you dragged up a almost ten month old thread to ask the same question again, haven't you had enough time to listen to either the Monitor audio or Dali speaker packages to find out which one is best for you.

In the time you have taken I think Monitor audio has launched several other ranges of speakers besides the Bronze 5.1

*dash1*

 

[leon2016]

Well a lot has happened in 10 months. Before i was renting and now i'm a property owner for first time, so a lot of expense. Your right Monitor Audio have had some new products, but not at the bronze price point and they are still of intetest to me. Either bronze 2 or 5 package i will need to demo and the zensor 5 5.1 as well as maybe zensor 1 5.1. The next issue is all the walls are hollow when you tap them and i have a laminated floor and there is the furniture to take into consideration as well. Maybe floorstander speakers aren't possible and possibly bookshelf speakers on brackets might be the answer. I have in last 2 days been in touch with richer sounds and are looking into it, so we shall see.

In terms of Av receiver Leeps made some very good suggestions and i have taken that on board. At the moment if i just picked one it would probably be the Denon x4300h 9.2 channel, if it was a 7.2 receiver then maybe Denon x3300w or yamaha rx a-1060.

 

[bigboss]

Both speaker choices are fine. I've had Monitor Audio speakers since 2009 (initially Radius HD and now Trimless 200). Both Yamaha and Marantz and excellent receivers, and so is Denon.

For room acoustics, consider putting lots of fabric and cushions (fabric sofas, carpets, curtains). You can even hang canvas frames filled with rockwool.

 

[leon2016]

Thanks for the ideas concerning walls and floor, will take those on board. Next step is to actually demo these systems and av receivers.