Monitor Audio GX100 or RX6 help me choose

[Ralph993]

Time for an upgrade and to say goodbye to my Polk audio monitors, I have already purchased the MA GSW12 sub and am trying to decide between GX100 fronts and GXC150 centre or the RX6 and RX Centre. Would my Yamaha RX-V1067 be suitable to drive them in the interim (plan is to move it into another room in time) and what would be a good receiver to match either the GX100 or RX6. 80% of time is spent watching movies/tv.

Many thanks in advance from a first time poster

 

[Frank Harvey]

If indeed you are upgrading your receiver at some point, I would certainly go with the more mature GX100's. The GX's are a better balanced speaker than the RX's, and do perform much better with AV due to this.

 

[Ralph993]

Thanks for the input Dave, any suggestions on a suitable avr for the GX100? I'm all the way in south Africa and most retailers seem to stock one or 2 brands of their preference at best making demos challenging for example I know of no one who stocks monitor audio and onkyo

 

[Frank Harvey]

No hard or fast rules here - have a listen and see what you think. Just get the best you can get, and steer clear of the budget receivers (under £1k for example) as they'll do the GX's no favours - there's no point buying a nice speaker and using a small amount of its potential because the receiver isn't up to the job. I personally would be looking at receivers with an RRP of £1,500-2,000, as these will do better justice to them.

Alternatively, and depending on features needed, adding a power amplifier to an Audiolab 8200AP pre-processor will yield the best quality benefits. Something like this and a Rotel RMB1565 would be pretty unbeatable at the £2k mark as far as audio quality is concerned. The Audiolab achieves this by doing away with the multitude of extras found on many AV receivers, and keeping things simple.

 

[ellisdj]

I have just bought a set of GX100's and the GX150C Centre - I would say they are quite demanding speakers on your amp, so you need a good amp to drive them well after reading posts above - that is for music, not so much for tv

I have just biamped my LX83 and that has made all the difference in the world to a single run - and now I have heard them just start to sing as I expected and they give a very big sound. A pioneer amp is a good option with these speakers as the class D amps drives speakers cleanly, well they do in the 83. The level of control goes up a level when you biamp and that means much cleaner mids and top end

They are also very bassy so need a bit of space or use of the port bungs which is what I am doing - otherwise there is a lot of boom, the Rx6 will be same though, if your room placement/ room is too small for the speakers or generally boom - they are very efficient speakers and big is not always better - depends on your room and crossover point / setup / how you listen.

I demo'd them against the RX6 and to me the Rx6 sounded thin and lost by comparison which was weird as they are very highly regarded I was very dissapointed - however I realised after that was most likely due the speakers having that terrible metal link between the binding posts that they always come with and always makes the speakers sound terrible and untrue of the real world / their best why manufacturers why???

Where as the GX100 have proper links included which makes for a more honest demo. The PMC .22 I demod were the same the bit you wire into sounds good i.e treble, the other part that the metal link links to sounds thin and echo'y mid / bass driver in this case

Either way from that demo I walked away with the GX - however I spent more of my time demoing the GX50 but went for the 100 thinking the 50 might be lost in my room - boy was I wrong the bass from the 100 is like a floorstander which is not necessary in a 5.1 system crossed over at 80htz. The Gx50 will likely be much easier to drive given the smaller driver

Definately demo if you can - dont buy blind if you can demo as its a lot of money invested, the Gx50 sounds different to the 100 - more lively, slightly less refined lower cross over point and different again to the RX6. I think I went with the 100 as its most like the top of the range PL100 in spec - apparently the GX range is approx 80% of the PL range - I am not sure how true that is.

For a lot less money and if you just want TV / Films 5 Apex speakers would likey be more than good enough for you - they are great little speakers - really dynamic sounding - do not be fooled by their size.

With the GX you do need good gear to get the best from them, you can hear that as soon as you fire them up - the Apex are far more forgiving I think of source etc but dont be put off by that - they still sound Great!!!. The better the spaker the more the demands - sometimes less is more - you get better sound from lesser speakers thats driven with lesser gear etc but it sound better overall - what makes more sense

 

[Ralph993]

Thanks for the detailed reply, it's much appreciated. My room is quite large as my house is open plan, so about 12 meters by 6 meters, hence my thinking like yours was around getting the GX100 rather than the 50. An avr upgrade is definitely on the cards within 12-18 months and then the Yamaha 1067 can replace my denon upstairs. The pioneer is definitely on my list but there are very few stockists here so I may need to buy blind so to speak. Placement will be rather close to the wall so I will quite possibly use the bungs and let the GSW so the bass

 

[Ralph993]

Seems the minister of finance and warfare has vetoed any floor standing speakers, so RX6 is no longer an option, so it would have to be RX2, Apex or GX50/100. The setup would really be for movies (80-90%) so which would fare better between the apex and RX, understandably the GX is better still but needs a new AVR to get the most out of it. Would my current GSW12 integrate well with either of those as I have no plans to change it?

Many thanks for your input

 

[ellisdj]

You have a good size room there, if you can get an amp to drive the GX100 you will be duely rewarded.

They really do sing, I am really happy with mine - took me a bit to get them right though

Something to consider if you sit further away than the speakers are apart you have to toe them out a bit to allow them to create a proper soundstage, don't be worried about toe in