Alexandria Audio The Monitor Loudspeakers

Posted by Tan.

A chance encounter with Uniq Fidelity Sdn Bhd's (website link here) head honcho, Mr. Gan, landed me the opportunity to do a review on Alexandria Audio's The Monitor loudspeaker. Alexandria Audio piqued my interest more than other regular HiFi brands as it is new to our shore and it has an unconventional place of origin - Bali, Indonesia, a place we would normally associate with beautiful beaches and enchanting culture rather than HiFi. So, what is better than getting some exposure on HiFi coming out from our close neighbour?

The Monitor loudspeaker bucks the trend of small bookshelf and slim floorstander. It is a bookshelf loudspeaker but it is larger than almost all other bookshelf loudspeakers I came across. It is chunky looking by today's norm, more reminiscent of the classic midsize British 2-way box speakers from the houses of Harbeth and Spendor. As such, The Monitor's footprint would require a speaker stand that have a bigger top plate than usual, to ensure stability. The 4-pillar stands that I have, more suitable for small speakers like the Proac Tablette, were too small for my liking with The Monitoring perching on them, but I had to make do. I think It would be great if Alexandria Audio could come up with matching stands for these beautiful loudspeakers.   

For the specifications and design philosophy of of these loudspeakers, you can refer to the Alexandria Audio's website here. The Monitor measures 28cm X 45cm X 33cm (WHD) and weigh 14kg each. They are rated for 90dB (I assume it is /w/m) and indeed I did find them do sound louder than my lower sensitivity loudspeakers at the same volume dial setting. 

The Monitor retails for RM22,688 a pair, so I though that they should go into my main system rather than me mucking around with them with my entry-level gear. It turned out that, true to their name, these loudspeakers' performance reflected the quality and capability of the gear they were paired with, the better your system is, the greater they will sound. 

I started by positioning them between my resident loudspeakers and thought that I would move my speakers away if they required more space. It turned out that I did not have to, a distance of ~8ft or 2.5m between the pair of loudspeakers was enough, a wider placement thinned out the sound a bit too much for my liking. At their final positions, they were ~4ft (1m+) from the side walls and ~7ft (2m+) from the front wall. 

I needed to do one other adjustment in my room acoustic treatment to accommodate them. Their bass performance was a touch lean initially for my liking though what was there was always agile and tuneful. I need just to reduce some of the bass dampening treatment I did in my room to restore the bass balance. 

Also, no toe-in was required for The Monitors to conjure up well-defined images and well-formed soundstage. 

All in all, I don't think these are fussy loudspeakers, but they are also revealing and responsive, which, in my books, are the hallmarks of well designed loudspeakers.

These are well balanced loudspeakers, with no obvious character or colouration. But, as implied by their name, they will also reveal what’s wrong rather than cover things up. Equipment matching, room treatment and speaker positioning are relatively more critical compared to other more forgiving and coloured loudspeakers. If you found The Monitor's sound wanting, I'd suggest you look into equipment matching and system set up further, rather than placing the blame on them.

Let's start with the all important performance area for a lot of audiophiles, i.e., female vocal. The female voice, played through The Monitors, sounded natural and unforced, little nuances and inflections in the voices were clearly resolved. Listen to Stacey Kent singing "I've got a crush on you" in the video clip below, The Monitor's portrayal allowed the music's emotional content to be fully expressed (all videos recorded with a iPhone SE):

1. Stacey Kent, "I've got a crush on you"

Moving on to larger scale music, in this case David Oistrakh's rendition of Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasia, my reference for this beautiful composition. The violin tone showed excellent details and clarity, it was also well served with brilliance and richness, attesting to The Monitor/s very fine quality in the upper mid and the highs. The ebb and flow of the orchestra and the ambiance of the venue were also very well handled. The Monitor's drivers especially the tweeter are fine units indeed. Oistrakh's expression of this music through his violin always held my attention to hear through from beginning to end. Through these loudspeakers the same held true, which is a testament to their ability as a music maker par excellence. 

2. David Oistrakh, "Scottish Fantasia" 1st Movement

I also threw some fast and dynamic music at these loudspeakers to see how they fared. The result was toe-tapping, head-bobbing enjoyment. I believe this recording of Fourplay's Max-O-Man expressed The Monitors' PRAT capability very well. 

3. Fourplay, "Max-O-Man"

In conclusion, these Alexandria Audio loudspeaker sounded balanced and revealing, they can do details and musicality at the same time, which will satisfy both sides of the listener's brain simultaneously. Scale, dynamic and loudness capabilities are all very good. As long as your listening space is not too large and you pair them with quality gear I am sure you'd have a lot of enjoyable listening hours. Due to their responsiveness, neutrality and revealing nature, they will demand more in terms of system matching and loudspeaker positioning from the owner, but handsome reward awaits when you get there!

Alexandria Audio is carried by Uniq Fidelity Sdn Bhd, contact Mr Gan +60-11-31347900.