Not all speakers have to look like boxes. Some speakers can’t even be designed as a box, because then they don’t work as intended. The Monitor Audio Concept 50 is just such a speaker, which couldn’t have been made to looked any different even if they had tried their best.
That’s because Monitor Audio – celebrating 50 years with the Concept 50 – has thought differently than they usually do.
Gone is the box shape we know from the fine Gold series, among others. Here you’re left with two standing trapezoidal cabinets screwed together, with a new driver placed in the space between the cabinets.
In each of the two columns (if you can call them that) there are two woofers facing the other pair in the opposite, mirrored cabinet. This concentrates the bass energy in the space between the columns, which Monitor Audio says provides better bass control, deeper bass response and better dynamics.
The bass should go all the way down to 21 Hz (-6 dB), which is rare even for large speakers, and the new MPD driver all the way up to 60 kHz.
The columns, or cabinets, are made of a mineral-acrylic hybrid, and each speaker weighs a full 96 kg.
The four 20 cm woofers in the speakers are joined by a special arrangement of six 50 mm midrange units placed in a circle around an MPD III tweeter.
The sound of the Monitor Audio Concept 50, like that of the Gold and Platinum speakers, is taken to the extreme. With a huge and airy soundstage that’s overwhelmingly detailed, while going insanely deep in the bass.
If they ever become available for testing, we’ll find out just how much better they are than their more reasonably priced siblings. Not that we know the price – it hasn’t been revealed yet. But they sure won’t be cheap.
In contrast, the sea-green Silver 100 Limited Edition is much more affordable. It’s a small two-way speaker for a €1,300 pair, which in Heritage Green and with Monitor Audio’s anodised gold C-CAM base unit will be available from selected retailers during September.