Monitor Audio GR60 vs B&W


I am looking to upgrade my speakers pretty soon. I have honed in on the Monitor Audio GR60 and B&W 804, 803, or 704. I have heard the GR60's which seem comparable to the B&W 704 but I have not heard 803's yet. Anyone have experience with the MA's or 803's? I will also likely get the matching center and surrounds at the same time. The application is 70% music/30% HT, Sunfire Ultimate Receiver. Any suggestions or input is greatly appreciated.
maineiac

Showing 5 responses by rsbeck

Monitor Audio GR 60's are nice speakers. I would not be happy with any
B & W speaker short of the N803, but -- that's just me. The B & W 803's
are a slightly better speaker than the Monitor Audio GR 60's, but they will cost you a LOT more money. Also, the B & W speakers are inefficient, so it will take a LOT of amplification to get them to sing. The
GR 60's, on the other hand, are very efficient speakers and will not take
as much amplification to get them sounding great. There is another speaker in that same category to which you should also give a
listen; Sonus Faber Grand Piano Homes. Another speaker that sounds
almost as good as the B & W N803's, but costs a LOT less and is a lot
more efficient. The N803's will cost a LOT more and it you will spend a
LOT more on amplification to get them to sound better than the GR 60's
or the Homes. Just my opinion. Monitor Audio GR 60's are a great bang for the buck and it is relatively easy to get them sounding good.

I agree with Cohn. My point is that it is relatively easy to get the GR 60's
sounding good. They *are* more efficient than B & W's and will take less
amplification to sound good, but if you feed them well, they will respond
to quality components upstream and will sound even better. They will
grow with you for quite awhile.
Depends on your taste, but IMO, that is WAY overkill. Very little comes out of the rear speakers in most movies and the ones that have all the stuff coming out of the rear speakers, only have it coming out every once
in awhile -- and the ones that REALLY use the rear speakers -- Star Wars, etc -- are not the type I watch that often, but even then -- GR 60's
for the rear are more than is necessary, IMO. Get some GR 10's for the
rear -- that's plenty. Whether you subscribe to the notion that you should use a center channel speaker or a full range speaker for your center is up to you -- BUT -- here, I can see the benefit of the higher
quality speaker because almost everything comes out of the center channel during a movie. If you are getting surround for music -- then
that changes everything and then you MAY want to think about full range
speakers in the rear, but I still wouldn't do that. Use the money elsewhere. Like on a Sub-woofer. Bi-wiring doesn't really make that much difference, but make sure you make some nice jumpers -- don't use the cheap things that come with the speakers. Bi-amping is a different story, but I am going to bet you don't want to get into that -- and it is really not necessary in order to get those speakers sounding good.

I use my 5.1 system for movies only. When I listen to SACD, I use two channels. Every 5.1 SACD also has a two channel layer. So, unless you are sold on 5.1 for music listening, there is no reason that you *have* to
have a 5.1 system for SACD. If you want to get your feet wet in 5.1 for
music and home theatre -- get the GR10's for your rear channel. You will be fine.
There *is* a schoolof thought which holds that the GR10's are overkill for rear surrounds. If you go with that school of thought, then GR60's for
rear surrounds would be...well...even more overkill -- say....overkill times two.