Monitor Audio Silver S1 Main / Stereo Speaker

Pros: excellent imaging; smooth midrange and highs; outstanding inner detail; firm, authoritative and fairly deep bass
Cons: probably need a sub- for bottom octave (20hz to 40hz)--not really an issue

The Monitor Audio Silver S1 is a relatively small bookshelf-style speaker from Monitor Audio, a British manufacturer of high-end speakers. I think that their $300/pair Bronze B1 is one of the best small speakers in its price range ...

Pros: Very detailed sound reproduction; excellent deep bass extension; precise mids and highs
Cons: Long run-in time; the mid-bass is somewhat prominent in the low audible frequency neighborhood

I got my pair of Silver S2 speakers about two months ago and at first, they didn't sound as good as expected. It took about two weeks of speaker 'run-in' before they started to sound very nice. The Monitor Audio website suggests 50-150 hours of run-in time. Another website suggested placing them face-to-face, not quite touching, reversing the polarity on one wire pair and playing them all day at normal listening volumes. Played out-of-phase, the speakers will be quieter than normal.

The Silver S2s replaced JBL S38s as home theater main speakers; the JBLs are also bookshelf speakers. Compared to the JBLs, the S2s have more detailed bass and mids. The bass also extends much deeper. The improvements become most evident when playing DTS recorded music, but are noticeable with any CD or DVD.

The investment was well worth the price (almost twice as much as the S38s which is a good speaker).