Monoprice Monolith Encore T6 Tower Loudspeaker Review

[Danzilla31]

Okay first off let's start off with the bass. I put these babies on with Tidal on my Roku streaming from the Denon X3700H in preamp mode with the Emotiva BasX 3 running them full range with no sub

I'm flipping through songs loving these speakers

But was like were is the bass? It was good and tight and present but then I put on some bass heavy tracks like The Package from A Perfect Circle or Roses the Imanbek Remix and I was like Holy St#!t These things can hit and hit hard!!!

Very powerful very tight I wasn't going gee I miss my sub on this. A little bloated but that's because I had them a little too close to the back wall. Once I tinker with placement they will be fine.

I'm excited for when my sub comes in though. With the dynamics these have letting a sub take the load off the lower end and freeing up the speakers to play the rest they should be even better with there dynamics which are impressive right now to say the least.

 

[Danzilla31]

Okay soundstage and imaging are amazing. They remind of the SVS primes I owned which could image and soundstage like no other these babies do it just as well for $200 dollars less each!

As you can see I don't have them centered under the screen the screen is higher then they are

But when I had them in stereo they locked in a center vocal and image into the middle of my screen no problem

They also do what speakers that can image really well and can throw wide soundstagess do really well which is to lift the image. Voices and instruments were all sounding like they came from the middle of the screen with instruments places throughout the wall

The soundstage was WIDE I had some imstruments and sounds placed way past the sides of the screen

Now this was all done with the speakers just placed equidistant but with no toe in and no proper positioning under the screen

Now that is some fantastic imaging and soundstage

They are very room friendly easy to place and they just disappear with that soundstage

The speakers they remind me of is the SVS primes which excel at this the Monolith Encore do it just as good and are the better speaker. They have all the strengths of the primes without that annoying harshness in the treble

 

[Danzilla31]

The treble very very smooth good detail. Are they going to compete with my RBH SV831R? Of course not but those cost 300% more!

But at no point was I fatigued or wanting to go to the other room and listen to my theater I just laid in bed and got lost in the music!

 

[Danzilla31]

They're midrange was really really good they have that bump in the measurements but I couldn't hear it but I followed Shadys advice on the YouTube review with Gene which it to not toe in play them pointed straight forward or minimal toe very minimal which he said should alleviate it. I didn't hear it at all except for possibly the center tower. Which just made the vocals a little more present and instruments a little more forward but not to the point that it threw off the soundstage and I actually enjoyed it in the center channel with vocals.

It's very subtle though it's not standing out to you to where you will be irritated by it or get pulled out of the music

 

[Danzilla31]

And they're overall tonal balance with highs mids lows very as Shady said superb nothing was muddying up any thing else nice separation clear instruments and vocals. These things remind me once again of the SVS prime towers which are good everywhere with no overall strengths BUT no overall weaknesses BUT The Monolith Encores do it better. The treble is perfect on these where on the primes it's not. Well they do have one strength which is the bass!

In fact these outperform the primes and any thing else in this price range that I've heard to date. That means SVS the Klipsch RP 8000f they are tied with JBL the 590's the 590's are more detailed and dynamic but they are horn loaded and HUGE with 8 inch drivers and still they are not that much more dynamic and detailed at all. I wasn't listening to these going I miss my 590's I was just going these sound great!

And the 590's had one weakness with certain female singers a slight harshness with alto singers a slight honk very slight in certain parts of the range it was annoying as fu!#ck when you heard it a perfect example is with the song Wicked Game the Chris Isaac cover by Ursine Vulpine and Annaca. In the middle of the track when she really belts it out. The Monoliths do not do that at all. So better on female vocals and equal everywhere else just the 590's can handle a bit more power and stay clean doing it due to they're size and compression driver in a horn

As if you'll find the limits on these they got way loud before they quit I did and the monoliths could do it clean too

 

[Danzilla31]

So with music in conclusion I love the speakers

Treble outstanding

Mids excellent for the price

Bass very good did not miss a sub at all very good extension

Imaging and soundstage so good so placement and room friendly because of it too.

Dynamics great

Sound great with every thing

Shady you were spot on what a great fun and nice looking speaker for the price.

Im never getting rid of these at all. Ever

P.S. it was crazy the dynamics and bass these were throwing out for there size they are not gigantic speakers like the 590 so for them to do it at that size was impressive very impressive and they look so dang good!

 

[Danzilla31]

I'll let you know about movies tommorow!

 

[Out-Of-Phase]

OMG, I am currently drooling. Keep the reviews coming. I just might decide to pull the trigger on these.

 

[Danzilla31]

OMG, I am currently drooling. Keep the reviews coming. I just might decide to pull the trigger on these.

No problem tommorow I'll watch some movies let you know what I think!

 

[WookieGR]

I don't understand any of this. Should I be buying these cheapo monoprice towers and not the Philharmonic BMR Towers? For $3700 plus hundreds in likely shipping?

 

[Danzilla31]

I don't understand any of this. Should I be buying these cheapo monoprice towers and not the Philharmonic BMR Towers? For $3700 plus hundreds in likely shipping?

Depends on your budget.

Can these speakers beat say your BMR towers in a AB comparison? Can they beat my RBH SV 831R's probably not.

Can they beat anything under $800 tho. Absolutely

In fact you'll need to pay more then double what each towers costs to really do better

So for somebody who has champagne tastes for audio but right now is on a beer budget these speakers are perfect for someone who wants good sound and good output levels on a tight budget

These were for my bedroom setup

I'm not wanting to spend 3000 plus for my bedroom. But I still wanted great sound these are perfect

 

[ryanosaur]

I don't understand any of this. Should I be buying these cheapo monoprice towers and not the Philharmonic BMR Towers? For $3700 plus hundreds in likely shipping?

All I will say is that BMRs or my Phil 3s can be end game speakers. They sound at least as good as most Speakers I’ve heard at twice their cost and even much more.
If you think you can get that at 400 a piece, you are welcome to try. You may need to pay return fright to Monoprice though if you AB them.

 

[shadyJ]

Okay first off let's start off with the bass. I put these babies on with Tidal on my Roku streaming from the Denon X3700H in preamp mode with the Emotiva BasX 3 running them full range with no sub

I'm flipping through songs loving these speakers

But was like were is the bass? It was good and tight and present but then I put on some bass heavy tracks like The Package from A Perfect Circle or Roses the Imanbek Remix and I was like Holy St#!t These things can hit and hit hard!!!

Very powerful very tight I wasn't going gee I miss my sub on this. A little bloated but that's because I had them a little too close to the back wall. Once I tinker with placement they will be fine.

I'm excited for when my sub comes in though. With the dynamics these have letting a sub take the load off the lower end and freeing up the speakers to play the rest they should be even better with there dynamics which are impressive right now to say the least.

Don't be so sure that the sub is going to improve the bass all by itself. You are trying to get a single 12" to match the displacement of nine 6.5"s- a difference of 2.5 times the cone surface area. So long as you are giving the Encores adequate power, the SVS sub can not touch the mid-bass of those three T6s. It wouldn't take a lot of power for those T6s to outdo the SVS in mid-bass either. They will be much more efficient thanks to enclosure volume and port volume advantage. What is more, there will be absolutely no localization issues with the T6s at all. On top of that, a single sub will have an inevitably bad response in-room all by itself. The three speakers probably sum up for a better low-frequency response than what a single sub could ever hope to do, especially with just a little bit of light equalization.

One interesting experiment you might try to increase bass headroom is to bi-amp the Encore T6s. Add another BasX 3, so that each amp is powering different sections of each speaker. Then EQ the bass to taste. You also might want to try running the T6s full-range along with the sub, and EQing them all to sum up to a flat response.

 

[Danzilla31]

Don't be so sure that the sub is going to improve the bass all by itself. You are trying to get a single 12" to match the displacement of nine 6.5"s- a difference of 2.5 times the cone surface area. So long as you are giving the Encores adequate power, the SVS sub can not touch the mid-bass of those three T6s. It wouldn't take a lot of power for those T6s to outdo the SVS in mid-bass either. They will be much more efficient thanks to enclosure volume and port volume advantage. What is more, there will be absolutely no localization issues with the T6s at all. On top of that, a single sub will have an inevitably bad response in-room all by itself. The three speakers probably sum up for a better low-frequency response than what a single sub could ever hope to do, especially with just a little bit of light equalization.

One interesting experiment you might try to increase bass headroom is to bi-amp the Encore T6s. Add another BasX 3, so that each amp is powering different sections of each speaker. Then EQ the bass to taste. You also might want to try running the T6s full-range along with the sub, and EQing them all to sum up to a flat response.

Yeah I thought about just running them full range with the sub they can handle it for sure!

 

[Danzilla31]

Don't be so sure that the sub is going to improve the bass all by itself. You are trying to get a single 12" to match the displacement of nine 6.5"s- a difference of 2.5 times the cone surface area. So long as you are giving the Encores adequate power, the SVS sub can not touch the mid-bass of those three T6s. It wouldn't take a lot of power for those T6s to outdo the SVS in mid-bass either. They will be much more efficient thanks to enclosure volume and port volume advantage. What is more, there will be absolutely no localization issues with the T6s at all. On top of that, a single sub will have an inevitably bad response in-room all by itself. The three speakers probably sum up for a better low-frequency response than what a single sub could ever hope to do, especially with just a little bit of light equalization.

One interesting experiment you might try to increase bass headroom is to bi-amp the Encore T6s. Add another BasX 3, so that each amp is powering different sections of each speaker. Then EQ the bass to taste. You also might want to try running the T6s full-range along with the sub, and EQing them all to sum up to a flat response.

This is the first speaker I've ever had except for the 590's where I thought biamping might make a difference do you have a good link on how to do it? I know it's not as simple as just plugging each section into different amps.

This is a good little amp for $500. A second one would not be a stretch down the road at all.

 

[ryanosaur]

This is the first speaker I've ever had except for the 590's where I thought biamping might make a difference do you have a good link on how to do it? I know it's not as simple as just plugging each section into different amps.

This is a good little amp for $500. A second one would not be a stretch down the road at all.

It pretty much is that simple:
Make certain you remove the jumpers.
Y the pre-out.
Send LF sig to one amp.
Send HF sig to the second amp.
Connect Ampto Speakers accordingly.

Take a drink because this just became a thread about bi-amping!

The Official _/Unofficial/_ AH Drinking Game!

I've been joking about this for far, far too long. It started up as an idea in my head after AH was inundated with people buying lower-tier B&W Speakers and coming on the Forum to find out why they sounded like @$$ once they set them up in their home. :) After that, there were... other topics of...

forums.audioholics.com

 

[Danzilla31]

It pretty much is that simple:
Make certain you remove the jumpers.
Y the pre-out.
Send LF sig to one amp.
Send HF sig to the second amp.
Connect Ampto Speakers accordingly.

Take a drink because this just became a thread about bi-amping!

The Official _/Unofficial/_ AH Drinking Game!

I've been joking about this for far, far too long. It started up as an idea in my head after AH was inundated with people buying lower-tier B&W Speakers and coming on the Forum to find out why they sounded like @$$ once they set them up in their home. :) After that, there were... other topics of...

forums.audioholics.com

So basically I would on the back of my X3700H go to each preout use a Y splitter RCA. Connect the splitter to each amp one is for high one for low. Then run the speaker cables from each amplifier to the correct jumper section of the speaker.

Sounds simple enough.

I'm so lazy tho I'd probably just buy a bigger amp. Skip running the extra cables

Okay I get the concept if I do it someday I do it but I agree @ryanosaur let's keep this thread about the Encore T6's I've seen to many meltdowns on biamping threads and I'd rather not derail Shadys review thread for the Encores

 

[ryanosaur]

So basically I would on the back of my X3700H go to each preout use a Y splitter RCA. Connect the splitter to each amp one is for high one for low. Then run the speaker cables from each amplifier to the correct jumper section of the speaker.

Sounds simple enough.

I'm so lazy tho I'd probably just buy a bigger amp. Skip running the extra cables

Okay I get the concept if I do it someday I do it but I agree @ryanosaur let's keep this thread about the Encore T6's I've seen to many meltdowns on biamping threads and I'd rather not derail Shadys review thread for the Encores

But when are you gonna spin those beauts around and show us your ports?!
*crying-laughing

 

[Pogre]

I don't understand any of this. Should I be buying these cheapo monoprice towers and not the Philharmonic BMR Towers? For $3700 plus hundreds in likely shipping?

The way I understand this is, the Encores perform beautifully for the price.

I don't think anyone in their right mind is going to put these on the same playing field as the BMR Towers.

 

[highfigh]

No need to with helpful people like you supplying the answers

That begs the question "Who read the review to you?".