Review: Alexandria Audio The Monitor speakers – compelling voices

ALEXANDRIA AUDIO THE MONITOR speakers

+ Musically alive and realistic sound; tonally true throughout entire spectrum; brings musical enjoyment of the highest level to the home; a great speaker for vocals.
– May not have the accepted high-end sculpted looks of today; brand is still unknown.
Sound: 9.5/10
Value: 9.0/10
A guide to the ratings

ALEXANDRIA Audio was founded by two music loving audiophiles who also have engineering credentials. Henry Kristanto and Kenneth Lin, from Indonesia, embarked on this endeavour in 2014 and showed The Monitor in its first iteration in 2016. But being perfectionists, they made eight further revisions before the current version was finally released as a commercial product.

The Monitor is a fairly large, squarish two-way standmount speaker that’s beautifully finished in ebony veneer, although the cabinet itself is of birch ply. The drivers, designed by the founders, are made under contract – the woofer, by an Indonesian manufacturer, the tweeter, by an Italian one. The cabinet is made by a Chinese piano maker, which accounts for the very excellent finish. The speakers are specified at a 90dB efficiency with a nominal eight-ohm impedance.

Internal wiring is by Kencraft Labs, an audiophile cable company owned by Lin and garnering quite a following in the region. Interestingly the speaker is specified as 35Hz to 20kHz which are very much akin to a big floorstander. Each speaker weighs a fairly hefty 14kg. Overall the speaker exudes quality and will have very high aesthetic values in homes, despite not having the usual modern sculpted looks of today’s high-end speakers.

The pair of Monitors were set up by the local distributor in my large listening room, which measures 20 x 35ft, in the usual positions occupied by my own reference speakers. As usual these proved pretty ideal and no further adjustments were made. For reference, the speakers were about five feet from the back wall and about nine feet apart with a slight toe-in. Stands used were solid six-pillared steel affairs providing rock solid support.

LISTENING
Both vinyl and digital sources were used, and right from the start, it was abundantly clear that The Monitor are not run of the mill. All the usual high-fidelity qualities are present but there was more to the sound I was hearing. Something that made me sit down and LISTEN and MOVE to the music. I don’t mean just physically move but emotionally, inside my soul and mind. I was reminded then of what someone once said to me – “I don’t care whether it sounds correct, I care about how it makes me feel,” And for the next two weeks, I listened without taking any notes because it was just too involving each time I started up the system with notepad in hand.

Anyway for those who still require the dissection of the sound, let me try to convey what The Monitor speakers sound like from an audiophile perspective. Highs were well presented with excellent smoothness and airiness without any hint of harshness and brittleness. In fact, rather sweet. Violins therefore sounded beautiful and airy on Isaac Stern’s version of Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. This vintage recording from the late 1950s is a challenge for many speakers but The Monitor made it sound quite wonderful and conveyed the musicians’ passion very truthfully.

Playing Cannonball Adderly’s seminal Something Else, he, Miles Davis and the other members were quite clearly heard to be really playing with whole-hearted abandonment and thoroughly enjoying themselves. This album also had some excellent double bass and drum solos and The Monitor did quite an excellent presentation of these lower registers with plenty of depth and textures to each note played. The passionate efforts of the players were quite clearly heard from their utterances as they played.

But it was when I played some of my favourite singers that the true magic of The Monitor speakers became apparent. Diana Krall, Ella Fitzgerald, Eva Cassidy, Tsai Chin, Yao Yingke, David Roth, Jose Carreras all seemingly appeared in my listening room such was the realism and natural presentation by The Monitor speakers.

I dare say that in my many years of being an audiophile, these speakers have the most natural rendition of vocals I have ever heard. As we know, humans have the most uncanny ability to discern different voices and of course also to immediately recognise when a voice is through any form of electronics. The Monitor comes closest to bridging the gap between a real person singing in front of you versus a reproduced voice that I have ever encountered. For just this uncanny truthfulness to the human voice, these speakers are an unqualified achievement by Alexandria Audio. I can wholeheartedly recommend The Monitor speakers just for their truthful rendition of vocals.

The Monitor speakers are also big in soundscape as they filled my large hall with full-bodied sound without any discernible stress. A much larger speaker will still sound bigger and fuller-bodied but given these speakers’ size relative to the listening room area, they sound astonishing large and energising. Soundstaging is excellent although I must admit that the compelling musical experience each time meant that I hardly noticed the placement of instruments much like when one is in a live concert.

During my entire time with The Monitor speakers, I heard nothing to be of concern for any discerning audiophile; however, brand consciousness may stop some from considering these speakers. Give them a shot, they’re pretty special in every way and especially in bringing into the listening room a truly lifelike natural rendition of music and, I daresay, the very soul of the music.

THE LAST WORD
Alexandria Audio has achieved a truly remarkable feat with The Monitor speakers. With their musically enjoyable and lifelike natural presentation, and uncanny ability to bring the magic of a seemingly live performance right into your listening room, the speakers are everything the name stands for.

More than that, their compelling way with voices makes The Monitor speakers excellent value for money and a future classic. The local distributor will be most glad to do a home demo.

Gear
Sources: Technics SL1000 with Hana ML cartridge, Sony HAP-Z1ES HDD player / Amplification: Whest Audio Two.2 phonostage, Shindo Masseto preamp, McIntosh MC402 power amp / Speakers: Yamaha NS1000x / Cabling: Furutech, Belden, Acoustic Zen, Canare and Nordost / Power: Frank Ultrabank

Price: US$6,500 per pair
Malaysian price: RM22,600 pair
Malaysian distributor: Uniq Fidelity Sdn Bhd (+60 11-31347900)