Monitor Audio Gold GX100 Bookshelf speakers
By design and build quality Monitor Audio Gold GX100 looks very good in comparison with competitors. They have rounded strong bodies without using a budget plastic (according to the manufacturer the thickness of MDF walls is 20 mm), well-designed and carefully made hard grills on magnetic fasteners, wide, smoothly tapering inward bass-reflex port with a rubberized pipe, which has a longitudinal notch against turbulence of output air. Inside there are thick sheets of blue-gray acoustic foam, densely packed into the body. Two pairs of acoustic terminals for bi-wiring are installed on oval aluminum plate from the rear. Everything is nice, of high quality and reliable.
The diffuser of mid-woofer in Monitor Audio Gold GX100 is made of aluminum-magnesium alloy with a ceramic coating (the material from aerospace industry) and has a radial notch to increase rigidity. Even outwardly the membrane is clearly very thin and lightweight, much thinner than in other manufacturers. Suspension is S-shaped, made of moderately dense and rigid rubber, the driver's basket is vented and aluminum cast. The basis for ultra-thin ribbon driver (weight is 18 mg) is still the same bimetallic C-CAM alloy, magnetic system is made on powerful rare-earth magnets neodymium-iron-boron. The tweeter, hidden under the metallic mesh, is able to work in the range extending to 60 kHz. Internal wiring is made by the branded Pureflow Silver wire.
The sound of GX100 can be described as slightly rounded and neatly smoothed at tops, in the best traditions of Monitor Audio. It is a bit light, but not cold, calm, clear and distinct, noise side-tones are noticeably weakened. The middle is very good, also by richness of timbres. The sound is perceived to be quite smooth tonally, with a slight local dip. Subjectively, GX100 seem to be quite bass, although the texture and separation of this bass are not fully perfect. Timbres with their roundness, being visible and dense, sound with pressure. At dynamical peaks, at MIDs and high levels of signal, you feel the intensity of feed.
Monitor Audio Gold GX100 differ by a calm, balanced and clear sound and quite dense, but not overloaded timbres with reduced noises and accent on tones. For symphonic music the signature of the speaker systems is too rounded; as for the rest, everything is good.
