Comparing 6 speakers

B&W Solid S100, B&W 686 S2, JBL Arena B15, JBL LSR305, JBL Studio 230

                                            Monitor Audio Bronze Series 1

Time to upgrade my listening room 2 speakers!  Thus I compared and rated:

10 - B&W 686 S2, $550

9.5 - Monitor Audio Bronze, $400 (now down to $300)

9 - JBL Studio 230, $400 (sale price was $300)

8 - JBL LSR305 Powered, $230

7 - JBL Arena B15, $200

3 - Solid Solutions (B&W) S100 $200

The clear price winner and surprise was the Monitor Audio Bronze I, with 5 1/2" drivers they are very close in sound to the B&W 686 with 5" drivers, it's difficult to tell them apart. I would expect the Monitor Audio Silver with its 8" driver to be even better. Their HiVe Port technology and Ceramic-Coated Aluminium/Magnesium drivers with Gold Dome tweeters rivals B&W’s Kevlar technology. Also, have a look at the Monitor Audio Bronze Series 2 with a 6 1/2" driver.

But the future of speaker technology is clearly with the JBL 305’s, for $230 they have built in class-D amps, this allows the amp to perfectly match the speaker, and the results are really stunning! The only reason the JBL 230’s rate higher is they are 2.5 times bigger and have a massive room filling sound, they can serve as L/R main speakers.

 I expect in a few years most new speakers will have amps built in and will be wireless. No a/v systems, no DACs - just a digital stream direct to the speakers via wifi. (check out who just bought B&W!)

The JBL B15 are fine for the price, maybe the best pair of $200 speakers out there, they just didn’t have quite the details of the more expensive models, still not a bad little speaker.

In fact I was so impresses with the Monitor Audio sound I bought the center channel speaker too!

And lastly, to round out the sound of listening room 2, I added the MartinLogan Dynamo 300 Home Theater and Stereo Subwoofer.  75-watts, 150-watt peak, 8-inch woofer, $190.

Both the MartinLogan and Monitor Audio speakers I ordered from Amazon.  I've had no trouble returning items to Amazon and of course it's much better to order speakers and listen in your own home than listen at a dealership, though I did buy the B&W 686 at the local HiFi shop. 

If you're interested in what makes speakers sound better or worse check out this video from GR-Research.