Monitor Audio Bronze 100 6G. Video review and audio test. English subtitles. Is a new song from a very high talented artist Hi-Fi energy, listen and download it here for free in mp3 format.
Monitor Audio Bronze 100 full technical video review. ENGLISH SUBTITLES. Monitor Audio Bronze 100 полный технический обзор или ответ почему Bronze 100 получил награду EISA. Полная разборка акустики, полный инструментальный контроль.
00:12 This is the Hi-Fi energy channel
00:14 I welcome everyone to the channel who decided to watch the video review dedicated to the new product of Monitor Audio
00:20 This is a Bronze 100 bookshelf speaker
00:26 The Bronze 100 has already excelled and received many awards, including the main award from EISA
00:33 I’ll tell you in detail in my report why the Bronze 100 won the top award
00:40 Today my video review on the YouTube channel with technical content will be the last
00:49 I decided to do video reviews compact, no more than 10-15 minutes
00:55 I will transfer the main technical information to the Internet resource
01:00 I am planning to open a website hifienergy.ru in the near future
01:05 To my regret, detailed technical reviews were completely useless
01:13 For both companies and viewers of the video channel
01:15 I was unable to raise any funds to support the channel
01:17 Sponsorship is 0 cents
01:19 Therefore, the technical information will move to the site
01:21 Probably only real buyers can become sponsors of the video channel
01:23 I want to communicate and help real buyers who want to buy audio equipment consciously
01:29 Audio tracks will be posted on the site for listening
01:33 My attitude towards such listening is negative
01:35 It’s like watching video reviews before buying a car
01:39 In one video review he is told about a car whose suspension is stiff as a stool
01:42 The second car has a suspension similar to a chair
01:44 The third car has a soft suspension like a luxury sofa
01:46 The buyer alternately tries to sit at home on a stool, an armchair and a luxurious sofa
01:51 After “testing home car suspension”
01:54 The buyer says to himself – a luxurious sofa is very expensive for me, the stool is very hard, and it is very comfortable to sit in front of the TV in the armchair
02:00 As a result of the test video decides to buy the next day Lamborghini
02:03 Listening and testing the sound of audio equipment on YouTube is the same
02:05 I hope that through the so-called “listening” users may be able to read technical information
02:09 And maybe something will change
02:16 When I first saw the Bronze 100 and listened to them
02:20 I said to myself – it’s cool, but it’s interesting to see how they look inside, how they are made
02:24 A lot has been written about the technologies in Monitor Audio Bronze 100
02:27 But nothing can be seen in detail anywhere
02:31 Inside the speakers there is something interesting to see
02:34 Inside the differences from other budget acoustic systems are very large
02:39 Inside the case, of course, it is better not to get with a flashlight, but to cut the column
02:45 Then it will be clearly visible what is inside the case
02:49 I’ll saw up this column now
02:52 Of course, I do not sawed this speaker system
02:55 Such demo samples are made by Monitor Audio
02:59 The company believes that they have nothing to hide from buyers
03:02 Monitor Audio, makes such demo samples specifically for buyers to see how the speakers are made
03:08 I asked for this speaker system from a representative of Monitor Audio
03:12 Now I will show you how it is made inside
03:18 This is a Monitor Audio Bronze 200 floorstanding speaker
03:25 Front bezel thick – 21.7mm
03:30 The walls of the case are slightly thinner – 15 millimeters, but there are no problems
03:34 There are many spacers in the body and there are two ties
03:39 Bolts for fastening the midwoofers are used as ties
03:42 When the bolt is tightened, the front and back of the case are pulled together
03:46 I have not seen this anywhere else in budget systems
03:51 The spacers of the case are qualitatively glued into the grooves of the walls of the case
04:05 A tweeter is installed in the upper part of the body, two midwoofers are installed under it
04:11 The camera for installing two drivers is small
04:15 I will now show the lower part of the case
04:17 I find it difficult to evaluate how a dual-port speaker system with a thick foam baffle works
04:21 For an accurate assessment of the structure’s performance, an undamaged case is required
04:34 This is the lower part of the case
04:37 You can see that the lower part of the second chamber is separated by a thick foam pad
04:41 Whether there is a gap between the cameras or not, I don’t know – this is a demo sample
04:48 Below we see the second bass reflex port (?)
04:53 The gluing of the panel joints is very high quality
04:56 The cut shows that the front panel is finished with a film
05:04 At first, I thought the front panel was painted
05:08 The inside of the panel is covered with vinyl
05:13 Externally, it looks like the front panel is painted
05:17 I am now switching to the Monitor Audio Bronze 100 bookshelf speaker
05:23 The outer dimensions of the cabinet are slightly larger than that of a conventional bookshelf speaker
05:28 Finishing body – vinyl, body panels made of MDF
05:35 There are four body finishes – white, gray, black and walnut
05:42 The front panel is gray, this is also a finish with a film for painting
05:53 It is clearly seen from the cut of the case that this is a film coating
06:01 The front panel has a large speaker measuring 200 mm
06:06 He’s a woofer, mid-range and tweeter
06:17 The task of the company’s engineers was to get high volume from the Bronze 100
06:22 Commensurate with the volume of floorstanding speakers
06:26 Top of the housing is mounted tweeter, closed hexagonal lattice
06:30 The grille is not removable, the grille improves sound dispersion
06:38 Measurements show that the grille effectively improves the sound field
06:42 Makes the soundstage wide
06:53 A bass reflex port with Hive II noise suppression is installed in the upper part of the case
07:01 Externally, the port looks like a jet turbine
07:07 The port is tuned to a low frequency of 36.7 Hertz, there is no noise from the bass reflex port
07:17 The port area is small, usually the port area is about 1/3 of the driver area
07:25 However, increasing the port area will lead to a significant increase in the size of the hull
07:31 In the center of the case, there is a mounting bolt for a hex wrench to tighten the speaker
07:37 After purchasing the Bronze 100, you need to check the speaker tightening
07:42 There is a high quality wrench included, it can be used to tighten the speaker
07:50 Do not use any levers, only tighten the bolt with two fingers
07:59 After touching, you still need to tighten the bolt no more than ¼ – ½ turn
08:05 Monitor Audio recommends that the speaker mount is checked every six months
08:10 It seems to me that this is an excessive “safety net”, a special lock is used to fix the bolt
08:16 Terminals are installed at the bottom of the case
08:19 Can connect banana, spatula or plain wire connectors
08:26 For a bookshelf speaker, this may be overkill
08:29 However, if you have two free channels in a low power amplifier
08:34 You can connect the high and low frequency channels to the amplifier separately
08:46 Overloading the low-frequency channel will not damage the tweeter
08:53 The first test is to check the impedance
08:59 There are some differences in impedance value
09:03 The arithmetic mean is 8 ohms
09:06 However, in the frequency range with real load, the impedance value is 6 ohms
09:11 It does not matter in principle
09:19 The minimum impedance value drops to 4.8 ohms, this is not critical
09:30 The tweeter link has an impedance value of 8 ohms
09:35 The impedance value of both speakers in the operating frequency range is the same
09:42 This suggests that the parameters of the drivers and crossovers are the same
09:49 The same value of the frequency response of both speakers
09:56 The gold plated jumpers on the terminal are removable
10:02 Now we turn to acquaintance with the design inside the speaker systems
10:09 And the technology used by Monitor Audio in the Bronze 100
10:20 Externally, Monitor Audio drivers are not much different from regular drivers
10:24 But this is not the case, to achieve high performance
10:29 The company uses many technologies for the production of drivers, there are structural differences
10:36 I have two drivers on my desk
10:40 The first driver is 13 centimeters in size
10:42 The floor-standing speaker system has two such drivers
10:47 Another, large speaker, its size is 20 centimeters, it is installed in the Bronze 100
10:57 The first difference is the way the speaker is attached to the front panel
11:00 Usually the speakers are fixed to the front panel using self-tapping screws
11:05 Less common speaker mounting screws
11:12 Monitor Audio uses a heavy duty steel bolt to mount the speaker
11:17 The bolt is screwed into the magnetic system of the speaker
11:24 This achieves uniform pressure of the speaker basket to the front panel
11:32 There are no mounting screws on the speaker basket, from a design point of view this is good
11:42 The main feature is that such a speaker mount allows you to use the bolt as a chassis tie
11:52 In the budget line, a full-fledged body screed is most likely not to be found
12:03 The hole for the cooling of the voice coil is occupied by the installation of the mounting bolt
12:11 The voice coil is cooled through the gap between the spider and the magnet system
12:19 No problem with voice coil cooling
12:24 The declared limited power input is 100 watts
12:32 The 13cm driver has a magnetic gap height of 4.5mm
12:35 This is the standard height of the magnetic gap for such a speaker
12:39 The height of the magnetic gap of a 20 cm speaker is 6 mm, which is a very good indicator
12:46 This driver is installed in the Bronze 100 speaker system
12:52 The voice coil is very large, 42 mm, for accurate, fast, dynamic bass
13:04 The edge of the basket has an inclined plane
13:12 Therefore, the speaker can be placed on a tabletop without fear of damaging the cone
13:20 The surface of the thread on the bolt is coated with a special flexible retainer
13:29 This prevents the bolt from loosening
13:40 When we talk about how loud a speaker system sounds
13:45 We mean two factors
13:47 The first is what is the sensitivity of the speaker system
13:51 The higher the sensitivity, the less power is required from the amplifier
13:54 To achieve a comfortable listening volume
13:59 The second is the maximum sound volume with an allowable linear displacement of the diffuser
14:04 It matters what the height of the magnetic gap and the area of the diffuser
14:11 The larger the volume offset, the louder the speaker will sound
14:18 One speaker in terms of efficiency of the Bronze 100 can be compared to two
14:25 16cm drivers with a standard 5mm magnetic gap height
14:40 Accordingly, the Bronze 100 will work well for both home theater systems and stereos
15:06 The cone of the midwoofer is made of aluminum magnesium alloy with a ceramic coating
15:11 According to MA, this diffuser has a much higher bending stress resistance
15:18 Consequently, this allows a much higher fidelity to be obtained in the operating range
15:23 When manufactured to remove surface deformation
15:27 The aluminum-magnesium alloy undergoes a three-step stress relieving process
15:32 After formation, the alloy diffuser is subjected to a high-temperature anodic coating
15:37 In which a layer of pure ceramic alumina is applied to its surface to a depth of 50 microns
15:44 The result is a rigid alloy sandwich with ceramic material damping
15:49 Conventional diffusers tend to bend or twist during operation
15:53 Creating a significant level of audible distortion
15:59 The midwoofer basket is made of plastic, it is injection molded
16:03 The basket is made of very high quality, there are stiffeners
16:08 For me, such a basket is even better than a simple stamped metal basket
16:14 If the stamped metal basket is made well, there are stiffeners and an anti-resonant coating, then such a basket can also be considered good
16:22 For those who like to check everything, I give the initial data
16:26 The reproduced frequency is 100 hertz, the linear displacement of the diffuser for the period is 2.4 cm
16:34 The linear velocity is 2.4 meters per second, and the mass of the moving system is 18.7 grams
16:37 It is required to determine the stored energy, in joules, and then it is necessary
16:43 To recall the strength material and determine how large the deformation values will be
16:48 Input data – stiffener thickness 6 millimeters, width 18 millimeters
16:59 I think that the safety factor will be at least tenfold
17:04 The next technology is soft damping technology
17:10 In fact, it is a breakthrough technology, what is the essence of technology
17:15 A conventional speaker is done as follows
17:20 First, a diffuser is made, then a hole is punched in the center of the diffuser and a voice coil is glued into this hole
17:29 To prevent the ingress of dust and metal particles, a dust cap is installed on the diffuser
17:37 This design has the disadvantage
17:40 When the voice coil moves
17:42 The diffuser cannot immediately move behind the coil due to the fact that the diffuser has some kind of mass
17:45 The load is first transferred to the central part of the diffuser
17:49 Or rather to the place where the coil and diffuser are glued, and only then to the rest of the diffuser
17:54 With a cone size of 16.5 cm at a frequency of 900-1100 Hertz
18:01 You can almost always observe resonance, which is not the best reflected in the sound
18:26 Many companies are trying to get away from this problem, for this
18:34 A ring is glued in from below at the junction of the voice coil and the diffuser, repeating the shape of the diffuser
19:01 The dust cap is made concave, it also follows the shape of the diffuser, the result is a triple sandwich
19:15 It is possible to escape from resonance, but the mass of the moving system increases significantly
19:32 You can, of course, use a concave diffuser and glue the voice coil to the diffuser
19:39 As many companies do, but a new problem appears
19:43 Due to the rigid connection between the voice coil and the cone
19:48 shock vibrations occur when the voice coil is moved abruptly and quickly
19:51 and this is very well heard, of course, this phenomenon does not improve the sound
19:56 The Audio Monitor solved this problem to a large extent
20:00 This is, in fact, a breakthrough technology, but this soft damping technology is mentioned in passing
20:08 What is the essence of soft damping technology
20:11 The upper part of the voice coil is glued to the support ring
20:14 And the ring is connected to the diffuser through a thin damping pad
20:21 As a result, the mass of the moving system is low and there is no shock vibration
20:30 As a result, the bass will be very clear, accurate and fast
20:37 The efficiency of such a system is higher
20:39 Earlier I told you that Focal uses a voice coil mount in the center of the tweeter dome
20:44 To improve driver efficiency
20:47 The company does not disclose technological features of soft damping technology
20:50 If you carefully look at how all the gluing connections of the various parts of the speaker
20:54 Are made, then everything is done just fine
20:57 Perhaps it is simply impossible to get the job done better, and this is a budget line
21:01 I want to tell you more about the spider
21:05 The spider is very large, very wide
21:08 The spider is a very important element of the driver design
21:11 The durability of the driver is largely determined by the quality of the spider
21:17 The suspension of the driver is unique, that is, it is one whole – the suspension and the basket part
21:24 The quality of the suspension is very high
21:36 Leashes, near the terminal, have a bend of almost 90 degrees
21:47 And from the side of the input to the terminal are fixed with transparent semi-solid glue
21:56 This allows you to significantly reduce the vibration load from the leashes and
22:01 accordingly, eliminate unwanted overtones
22:07 For many decades, everyone has been talking about one significant problem – the time desynchronization of the speakers
22:16 The speakers in 95 percent are installed on the same frontal plane
22:19 this leads to time desynchronization, because the magnetic systems are in different planes
22:26 The arrival time of sound to the listener is different
22:36 The problem is solved as follows – in active systems, a time delay is used
22:56 Iso that the magnetic systems are in the same planen passive systems, the problem is solved by correctly installing the speakers
23:08 But as a result, the cost of such a speaker system increases significantly
23:12 The cost of design solutions is increasing
23:18 We can, of course, solve the problem with the location of the speakers
23:23 In the same plane and synchronize the work of the speakers in time
23:28 For example, this is what JBL does in studio monitors JBL 4349, JBL 4367 and others
23:39 To do this, compression horn tweeters are installed in these monitors to coordinate the operation of the drivers
24:03 However, the price of 6-8 thousand euros makes it necessary to match the possibilities and desires
24:16 In the Monitor Audio Bronze 100 speaker system
24:19 The developers decided to minimize the distance between the magnetic systems
24:22 To do this, firstly, we reduced the height of the midwoofer basket to the lowest possible
24:27 This is a difficult task
24:37 The fact is that the smaller the distance between the diffuser and the spider
24:46 and between the spider and the magnetic system, the less stable the mobile system will be
25:34 Secondly, the magnetic system of the tweeter was moved away from the front panel as far as possible for this budget model
25:46 The lower the tweeter dome is set, the greater the loss at the highest frequencies
25:52 It is no longer possible to move the magnetic system of the tweeter away from the frontal one
25:56 You will need to use a different design of the tweeter – compression, and this is completely different money
25:58 Essentially, Monitor Audio made a classic monitor
26:02 And these are two ranges of reproducible frequencies, minimum time and phase delays
26:08 Compact body dimensions to avoid standing waves in the 150-170 Hertz range
26:44 The temporal desynchronization of the speakers is small, about 10-20 millimeters are missing
26:56 You can use the JBL tilt stand to completely eliminate time out of sync
27:40 The phase characteristics of the Bronze 100 are very good, the sound is directed upwards
27:46 Therefore, in a standing position, the sound of the speaker system practically does not change
27:59 Time Correction is the Bronze 100’s flagship technology
28:23 And now I will turn to the measured parameters of the midwoofer
28:26 The figure shows the measurement result
28:30 Driver performance is good
28:32 High sensitivity nearly 90 dB / W / M
28:37 Sufficiently low resonant frequency of 43.5 Hertz
28:42 Low weight of the moving system 18.6 grams
28:46 For a driver measuring 20 centimeters, this is good
28:51 One parameter is the equivalent volume, this parameter has raised doubts
28:55 Equivalent volume (suspension flexibility) is large enough
29:03 This indicator says that the normal operation of this driver requires a larger case
29:11 On the other hand, there were doubts that the engineers at Monitor Audio could be seriously mistaken in their calculations
29:17 To simulate the work of the midwoofer, I used an old program from JBL
29:23 You can use another program to simulate the work, since this is pure mathematics
29:29 I set the measured values of the midwoofer parameters in the program
29:33 After calculating, I got two graphs
29:38 Red graph – optimal calculation of the body volume
29:46 Turquoise graph – Bronze 100 speaker performance
29:52 I have already seen the turquoise graph, this is the result of my measurements
30:01 The difference is only in the return of the real port of the bass reflex
30:23 Doubts appeared again
30:29 I entered into the calculation new data taking into account the “warming up” of the driver after 100-150 hours
30:36 During this time, the flexibility of the suspension changes significantly
30:39 Changing the flexibility of the suspension, the suspension becomes more flexible by 10-15%
30:42 Accordingly, the equivalent volume increases
30:43 the resonant frequency decreases
30:45 the overall quality factor decreases, and the driver sensitivity increases
30:49 I got new graphs after “warming up”, this is a completely different result
30:57 The red graph has become slightly worse, the green graph is the work of the driver in the Bronze 100
31:07 At a frequency of 40 Hertz, the recoil will be 6 dB higher, at a frequency of 50 Hertz it will be 3 dB
31:15 This is a lot, as saying “meat will appear”
31:20 The waiting time for happiness is 100-150 hours of work
31:24 99% of drivers with a normal spider have 10-15% flexibility during this time
31:37 The only thing I did was add a synthetic winterizer to the calculation
31:43 To bring isobaric and isothermal processes in line
31:50 Foam rubber works more as a vibration damper for the case
31:53 I have no questions about Monitor Audio for calculating the midwoofer
31:57 Driver parameters matched perfectly to the Bronze 100 case
32:03 After 100-150 recoil in the range of 40-50 Hertz will approach
32:09 The standard floor-standing speaker system with two 16 centimeters drivers
32:34 Now I’ll tell you about twitter
32:36 The tweeter is located at the top of the cabinet and covered with a nice hexagonal lattice
32:49 The grid is rigid on one side, soft on the other
32:58 Material selected to eliminate resonances that strongly affect sound
33:06 The tweeter is prettier without lattice
33:10 The lattice is not removable, it is probably impossible to use the tweeter without a grill
33:19 The tweeter consists of two parts, the upper part is the waveguide and the driver
33:25 Two parts are connected to each other using four self-tapping screws
33:29 There is a special lock for precise connection of the tweeter parts
33:34 The surface of the waveguide is treated with a special material, possibly ceramic
33:42 Rough surface with very fine particles
33:46 There is no coating in the pre-sealing chamber, this part of the waveguide must be absolutely smooth
33:59 The dome is made using the same technology as the midwoofer cone
34:07 The tweeter is very cute, can be used alone as a piece of jewelry
34:15 The suspension is very wide
34:20 Plastic used for the tweeter
34:23 In the lower price category, no other material is provided
34:26 The tweeter is glued into the body and additionally fixed with a screw
34:33 The tweeter is not collapsible, and why take it apart
34:43 An interesting feature is the very low resonant frequency of the moving system
34:55 750 Hertz!
34:58 For a crossover frequency of 2200 Hertz, resonance at 750 Hertz will have no effect on sound
35:05 I will now show the tweeter in close-up
35:13 Let’s move on to the crossover
35:47 The Bronze 100 case is made as well as the Bronze 200 demo sample
35:57 The body is neatly glued, the foam is in place, the wiring is correct
36:03 A crossover is installed at the bottom of the case
36:08 Crossover mounted on a small board
36:11 The board has two filters – high and low pass
36:16 On the voltage graph, the red graph is the voltage graph of the midwoofer
36:26 The voltage graph shows that from 200 Hertz to 1.1 kHz
36:28 There is a gradual drop in voltage across the load – 2 dB / oct.
36:32 At a frequency of 2000 Hertz, a notch filter is connected and the voltage drop across the load is 18 dB / oct.
36:40 This will ensure good alignment with the tweeter performance
36:48 There is very good correction in the tweeter circuit, this allows you to provide a fairly smooth frequency response
37:04 This is a third order crossover, the connection of the two bands is very smooth
37:10 Circuit design
37:14 A first-order filter is installed in the woofer circuit, the use of another filter in this design is impossible
37:16 There is a chain with a notch filter to match the work with the tweeter
37:19 A third-order filter is installed in the tweeter circuit, adjusted for normal tweeter operation
37:28 As a result, a fairly smooth frequency response
37:32 Please note that this is the lower part of the budget acoustics
37:34 In almost the entire audio range, the deviation does not exceed +/- 2.5 dB
37:39 At the bottom, the calculations show that a significant improvement in the 30-80 Hertz range can be expected
37:53 The arrival time of sound from two speakers can be corrected by the correct installation of the speaker system
38:11 Measurement and listening completed
38:18 The system turned out to be universal, works well with amplifiers of various powers and costs
38:22 In the budget segment, I highly recommend the Bronze 100
38:25 In the Bronze series, the Bronze 100 I liked the most
38:31 Bronze 100 has great fidelity
38:37 Floor standing speakers have more bass emphasis, pure home theater acoustics
38:43 Bronze 100s are more accurate and more versatile
38:46 Bronze 100 is almost a classic monitor
38:50 Listening to the speaker system in almost any position – sitting or standing does not affect the result
38:57 The only caveat is that when sitting, the piano sounds unnatural
39:04 In a standing position, the piano sound bounced back
39:08 I slightly adjusted the position of the Bronze 100 and everything fell into place
39:11 The position of monitors is usually adjusted for front height by 10-20 millimeters
39:21 The soundstage is very wide, thanks to the hexagonal lattice on the tweeter
39:28 Without a lattice on the acoustic axis, the sound is “sharper”, but in the non-axis the high frequency response decreases
39:35 With a hexagonal lattice, the treble response is aligned across the width
39:45 For those who like to listen to something via the Internet, on the site I will post “sound examples”
39:58 Although I have a negative attitude towards such “listening”
40:16 But if it helps someone, no problem
40:26 My video review is over, see you soon!