Monitor Audio Silver or B&W 700 series?

[Adams50266]

I’ve narrowed down my choice between these two brands. Which one would offer better sound?

 

[ryanosaur]

I lean more favorably to MA Silver.

 

[lovinthehd]

They sound equally as good to you? Flip a coin....

Or what criteria are you using other than auditioning?

 

[Beave]

I would say it depends on which Monitor Audio silver speaker you're considering and which B&W 700 series speaker you are considering. Tower vs tower? Bookshelf vs bookshelf? Tower vs bookshelf?

Which specific models are you considering? And then, how big is the room? How loud do you listen? Subwoofer or not? Home theater or music only, or both?

 

[Timforhifi]

Speaker preference is really up to you.
If it were me between those two lines I’d describe monitor audio silver as full sounding, detailed highs but more neutral, mids are neutral as well but not chesty with depth.
Bowers 700 series are full chesty mid, treble is brighter and a little sharper, bass precise but not on the fuller side.
Now I’m really describing their best towers from each line. The silver 500 outperform many stand alone powered subs from 40-100hz. So if 2ch audio is your thing they’re hard to beat.

In a home theater both will do great and have excellent center channels. The silver c350 is really tall and a sealed design, so it doesn’t keep up with s300 or s500 at high spl. Sounds a little different then s500 as well. Now bowers htm71s2 is ported and offers same size drivers as c350. It blends better with 702s2 and is excellent combination.

My opinion on which one I’d take is monitor audio. I just like it’s overall sound better. Especially when pushed they just open up and don’t hurt my ears. I could listen all day. Bowers are too sharp for me and sound great for 10-20min then I’m over it.

hopefully that helps. Which models in each series were you comparing? They don’t really compare to each other with price. Bowers are almost double the cost.

 

[johnkmatthew90]

They sound equally good so I would go for the B&W 700 series because of the looks.

 

[lovinthehd]

They sound equally good so I would go for the B&W 700 series because of the looks.

How did you determine they sound equally as good? Channeling the OP? Personally I wouldn't consider B&W generally, Monitor Audio perhaps. So many other choices out there.....

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

The Monitor Audio would have the better reputation as having better MEASUREMENTS regarding on-axis and off-axis.

Heck, even the cheap Infinity Primus speakers had better on-axis and off-axis than the B&W 800D.

Can you see that Wide Peak around 10kHz? Doesn't matter which Generation of B&W. And these are their FLAGSHIP speakers that cost like $25K-$30K.

Here is the 700 S2. It's worse than the Diamond series. At 5kHz, it's about -8dB. Around 10-13kHz, it's about +6dB.

Bowers & Wilkins 702 S2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar 3: Measurements I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure 7the Bowers & Wilkins 702 S2's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. My estimate of the B&W's sensitivity was a high 90.2dB(B)/2.83V/m...

www.stereophile.com

So it just depends on how you feel about speaker measurements vs reputation vs aesthetics.

 

[ryanosaur]

The Monitor Audio would have the better reputation as having better MEASUREMENTS regarding on-axis and off-axis.

Heck, even the cheap Infinity Primus speakers had better on-axis and off-axis than the B&W 800D.

Can you see that Wide Peak around 10kHz? Doesn't matter which Generation of B&W. And these are their FLAGSHIP speakers that cost like $25K-$30K.

Here is the 700 S2. It's worse than the Diamond series. At 5kHz, it's about -8dB. Around 10-13kHz, it's about +6dB.

Bowers & Wilkins 702 S2 loudspeaker Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar 3: Measurements I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure 7the Bowers & Wilkins 702 S2's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield responses. My estimate of the B&W's sensitivity was a high 90.2dB(B)/2.83V/m...

www.stereophile.com

So it just depends on how you feel about speaker measurements vs reputation vs aesthetics.

Considering my reputation as a B&W hater, I was hoping somebody else would bring this up!

It doesn't mean the speakers cannot sound good: there are many B&W fans that insist they are in fact the best sounding Speakers on the planet.
I value a more accurate and neutral frequency response in my gear. I'm not going to say MA Silvers are the best, but I did prefer them in my experience over both the B&W 600 and 700 Series speakers.
And for the cost B&W charges for their house "sound." No thanks.
*shrugs

MA Silver for the win.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

B&W fans that insist they are in fact the best sounding Speakers on the planet.

R -------------------- I --------------------- G ----------------------- H ------------------------------- T

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

It doesn't mean the speakers cannot sound good

Yeah. If the owner loves the sound, that's what matters.

We all have our own preferences. Many of us prefer speakers that sound great plus have good measurements. But as they say, YMMV.