Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-500-7g-loudspeaker

Inside there’s also a new crossover, which the brand says was designed concurrently with the Silver 500 7G’s drivers, one project informing the other. Ceramic resistors, polypropylene and polyester capacitors, and air-core and steel-core inductors are used across an optimised three-way (800Hz/2.7kHz) network.

For £1725, these floorstanders are rather imposing. If you want a loudspeaker that will fit neatly in a small/mid-sized room, investigate the Silver 200 or 300 models, as these use 156mm woofers and so don’t have this cabinet’s 23cm girth. The Silver 500 7G enclosure is deep too (33cm), and once Monitor Audio’s new – and smart – moulded ABS outriggers are attached you’ll have lost a lot of floorspace.

It’s useful, then, that the new styling of this seventh generation is right on trend. Monitor Audio describes it as ‘crisp-edged’, but that sells it short. There are no curved faces, but corners are smooth and the finish of our ‘High Gloss Black’ and ‘Satin White’ samples was spectacular. There are three other colourways to choose from: Black Oak, Natural Walnut and Ash variants that dress the cabinet in real wood veneers. The last of those is intended to evoke the ‘Scandinavian look’, so ABBA fans should hunt it down.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/monitor-audio-silver-500-7g-loudspeaker

Generally speaking, the Silver 500 7G’s high frequencies are crisp, clear and airy. There’s some lack of sweetness, and I noted an occasional tendency for them to slip into bright, sharp territory depending on the recording. The high-fret bends during the guitar solo in The Marshall Tucker Band’s ‘Can’t You See’ [Tidal Hi-Fi download] appeared to find a place that the speaker’s C-CAM tweeter didn’t really agree with. Elsewhere, however, the loudspeaker’s warm, enveloping voicing is sure to please its mid-budget audience.

Time spent positioning the Silver 500 7G reaps rewards. My pairing imaged very well – I didn’t find them fussy regards toe-in to get them focused, and even when sat off-axis I still felt invited to the party. Yet the dual bass drivers’ output requires some management. These speakers have considerable low-end reach and impressive stop-start ability, but site them too near boundary walls and these admirable traits can suffer. Four foam bungs are provided for the bass-reflex system, giving flexibility over tuning, and with the speakers positioned 45cm from my wall, I found using them on the lower HiVe port tightened up the LF

https://www.stereophile.com/content/wilson-audio-specialties-alexx-v-loudspeaker

Over the years I’ve been seriously interested in hi-fi, I’ve come to associate Wilson with emotional approachability—why else would their products have such passionate advocates? Their use of traditional driver materials—paper cones and silk domes—reinforced that stereotype in my brain: no analytical sound or harsh-sounding metal tweeters on a Wilson speaker!

There’s nothing wrong with that, but that assumption, which I held without evidence or sufficient experience, sold Wilson short. During the long audition leading up to this review, I heard nothing that would cause me to label these speakers as warm, or pretty, or endearing—no midbass emphasis, no rolled-off highs, no tweaking of the presence region (one way or the other) to accentuate the midrange or increase the sense of detail or immediacy. The Alexx V is distinguished not by any special warmth, approachability, or friendly coloration but, rather, by its evenness and consistency of tone, its ability to excavate detail effortlessly and without emphasis, and its clarity, accuracy, and naturalness of musical expression. My experience as a reviewer has taught me that those are difficult things to achieve all at once.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/perlisten-s7t-loudspeaker

I compared the Perlistens to my Revel Studio2 speakers sequentially by moving each into their ideal positions, and by placing them side by side and using an A/B toggle switch. When comparing them sequentially, I noted that the Revels’ soundstage was consistently wider but their tonal balance was thinner, particularly in the upper bass. Conversely, the Perlistens had a more even tonal balance and, while the soundstage was not as wide, it was just as deep as that cast by the Revels. It was, as Dan Roemer said it would be, impossible to localize any sound to the individual Perlisten drivers.

I got similar impressions in the direct A/B comparisons, although in this round of testing, the tonal balance differences seemed less striking than I expected. I consistently preferred the fullness of male voices with the S7t’s, but that preference could be erased by invoking Dirac Live correction with the Studio2s. Overall, and without the advantages of Dirac Live, the S7t seemed more neutral and relaxed. The Revels offered a wider soundstage and also more midrange detail, but, in extended listening with the S7t’s, I didn’t miss them.