Audiophilepure

https://www.soundstagehifi.com/index.php/equipment-reviews/1915-bryston-model-t10-loudspeaker

By way of comparison, I listened to the Model T¹⁰s alongside a pair of Monitor Audio Gold 300 5Gs (discontinued, $9500/pair when available). The Monitor Audios stand just under 40″ tall, making them nearly 3′ shorter than the Brystons. Like the T¹⁰s, the Gold 300s employ 8″ woofers, but two, rather than four of them. Additionally, whereas the T¹⁰s have titanium-dome tweeters, the 300s use a Micro Pleated Diaphragm, which is Monitor Audio’s version of an AMT (air motion transformer) tweeter. Standing alongside one another, the Canadian speakers dwarfed the British towers.

Returning to Ongiara, I found both sets of floorstanders sounded neutral in that they tended to impart little of themselves onto the music. The Monitor Audios revealed an abundance of detail in “Your Rocky Spine,” and like the Brystons, they produced a precise, wide soundstage. In terms of their level of transparency, the Gold 300s conceded nothing to the Brystons, which cost nearly twice as much. If resolution was of the utmost importance to me, I’d buy the Monitor Audios.

However, as revealing as the Gold 300s are, they were no match for the impact delivered by the T¹⁰s. Yes, the Gold 300s can move a fair amount of air, but they couldn’t compete with the T¹⁰s’ octet of 8″ woofers. Listening to “Your Rocky Spine,” the bass was far more powerful than what I heard through the British speakers, yet every bit as controlled. I could feel it in my body, and in this battle between David and Goliath, the giant won.

Revisiting various choral and orchestral selections, the sense of acoustic space created by the T¹⁰s was far grander than what I heard through the Gold 300s, reproducing cathedrals and concert halls more voluminously. On Respighi’s “War Dance,” the T¹⁰s’ intense dynamics were more forcefully delivered—on another level than what the Monitor Audios could achieve.

Devices that ‘flavor’ music with their own timbre can make different recordings all sound too much the same. In those scenarios, we end up listening to the gear rather than the music. This is critical (and we often don’t pay enough attention to this). Each recording should sound like a completely different soundscape with the unique experiences buried deep within the performances. We want to hear music as the artists and recording engineers intended for us to hear.

Like many, I’ve previously fallen into the trap of having systems that colored the sound. It makes the performer become secondary to the system. That’s just wrong. We become so comfortable with the way our individual system sounds because it makes everything sound a certain way. That isn’t real life. No two recordings should sound the same. This is the work and reasoning behind Merrill’s way of thinking. Color, timbre, and character should be left to the performers—the way it was intended. All of these nuances can be revealed to the listener, regardless of musical genre with the ELEMENTs. This is the brilliance behind design engineers that strive to get out of the way of the music.