Monitor Audio Bronze 2

Award-winning acoustics

While someone goes to the bath every New Year, the guys from What Is Hi-Fi magazine have come up with another tradition — to distribute awards of the year to Bronze acoustics from Monitor Audio. And so for three years in a row. There is reason to suspect that someone hid a wad of money under the mattress, if not for similar awards from other publications like Hi-Fi Choice and Hi-Fi News. And all because the critically acclaimed Bronze back in '98 follow the principle of "don't break what works." Instead, the speakers are constantly being improved and refined, making the fifth generation of the Bronze line appear almost perfect acoustics.

Thoughtful design

Bronze 2 are made of thick MDF 1.8 cm thick and are quite large in size — 35 cm in height with 5.3 kg of weight per speaker. The thoughtfulness and strength of the internal structure is enhanced by stiffening ribs and an unusual fastening of the midrange / woofer, which is held on a steel rod. One end is screwed into the magnet, and the other is fixed on the outside of the case. This gives the front panel of the Bronze 2 an exceptionally clean look.

Branded High Velocity bass reflex

The second nuance worth paying attention to is the front port of the proprietary HiVe®II (High Velocity) phase inverter with longitudinal grooves that reduce airflow turbulence and accelerate the movement of air inside the structure. Thanks to this, the bass is more accurate and structured. In terms of bass quality, the best result is obtained at a distance of 20 cm from the wall.

Aluminium-magnesium alloy woofers

Bronze 2 inherited from the previous models of the series, the Bronze 2's well-proven LF/MF drivers made of aluminium-magnesium alloy with ceramic coating. Only the design has changed — the speaker suspension has been modernized (it is now made of highly elastic fabric), and the speaker cone has become bowl-shaped and more rigid. At the output, this gave better control in the 4-6 kHz region and a more accentuated sound in the upper mids. The traditional gold dome tweeter looks familiar to the company, but it has changed the ventilation system, which now does not allow air to compress behind the membrane, reducing distortion and resonance at high frequencies.

Hear your favorite songs exactly as the musicians intended

For acoustics with 6.5-inch drivers, Bronze 2 surprises with the breadth and scale of the panorama. They do not have the tightness that is usual for small-displacement acoustics. The nature of the sound can hardly be called catchy — they reproduce exactly what the musicians wanted to show. And they do it very clearly and accentuated, with pedantic attention to detail. Perhaps most admired is their ability to work at high levels with little or no coloration or loss of legibility. In essence, Bronze 2 has almost no weak points, hence such a scattering of awards.