Are Osborne Grand Monuments THAT good?

Sirspeedy, I have heard them many, many times, as my local dealer has a pair he features prominently.

First, I must say that I am a big fan of Osborne. Terrific sounding speakers. If I had I to describe the house sound, I would say warm, big, and powerful. That goes for even the smallest ones.

The other thing is that the Focal driver complement goes a long way towards determining their sound. If they have the Ti metallic dome, and the Grand Monuments used to have that tweeter, they're like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. The newer iterations use the Focal Audiom tweeter, and things sound far better. I'm also a fan of the Osbornes running the Focal Kevlar tweeter for what it's worth.

Whether the Grand Monuments are for you is a question of how much you like or dislike big speakers, and they are, obviously, BIG. If you love big, powerful, loud music, they're as good a choice as any. And, in relation to most, though I was blown away by their pricetag the first time I saw them, they actually look WAAAAAY cheap today. If you value traits like soundstaging, nuance, and low level resolution, these aren't your best speaker. Not that they fall down badly in any of these areas, because they don't. Just that some folks like Mazda Miatas and some like Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8s.

And if you live in Australia, they would have a price advantage over imported speakers. (I know sirspeedy doesn't).

But as a general principle, there is certainly money to be saved if you don't buy imported equipment and it's nice to support the local industries.

Regards,

I was not interested in selling my current speakers,but felt I needed some input on the Osbornes.Thanks.

BTW-Hi,Metralla.Nice to hear from an old friend.

Thanks to Trelja for his comments. I recall reading this review quite some time ago, and thought it was comprehensive and one of Aczel's better efforts. The writing was very good and the review certainly made me interested in the big Osbornes and interested in hearing from owners here. In some ways, it was surprising that this stellar review did not give rise to more comment here - but maybe that did happen when the article first came out.

(sirspeedy - thanks mate)

Regards,

Thanks for the kind words, Metralla.

I should also clarify my Focal tweeter comments...

The Ti metallic dome is the one I do not like whatsoever. Exceptionally bright and difficult to tolerate - for me, at least. The Kevlar and Audiom are fine. And, I see that Osborne is now using the Tioxid, which I like in most situations (though I recently heard a $32K speaker using it that sounded about $27K too expensive for me), though I have not heard it in an Osborne. I don't want anyone to confuse the Tioxid with the Ti metallic, and be wary of an Osborne because of my comments.

As the former Bush would say, "Tioxid, good. Ti bad."