All-metal drivers are nothing new. Anyone possessing old copies

of the missing-in-action Hi-Fi Yearbook can rattle off a list of
forgotten manufacturers who offered metal woofers and tweeters of
myriad shapes and sizes. The current revival in metal as a driver
material, concentrated so far on dome tweeters, has been made
possible because of advances in metallurgy and manufacturing
techniques, but few makers have been tempted to create modern-day
metal woofers. With only Acoustic Energy springing readily to
mind, I'm here to tell you that the number of makers has doubled
with the introduction of Monitor Audio's Studio 10.

Like the Acoustic Energy models, a couple of Celestions and
legends like the LS3/5a, the Studio 10 is a classic example of
what is primarily a British specialty: costly, 'high end'
compacts. The Americans still can't understand why British
consumers are so enamoured with pocket rockets, but few of my
compatriots have experienced life in a 10x12ft listening room.
Whatever others think, I'm particular fond of the genre and
welcome most new entries.

Monitor Audio's candidate features the now-(painfully)-familiar
26mm gold metal dome which has already appeared in at least five
'MA' prefixed models. Briefly, then, the tweeter consists of a
magnesium/aluminium dome with an anodized layer of gold (hence
the colour), fitted to an ABS-plastics plate. The anodising
improves the rigidity and pushes the first breakup mode to beyond
28kHz, in contrast with breakup modes occurring at around 21kHz
in earlier metal dome designs. For high power handling (Monitor
Audio eschews protection circuits), better cooling and improved
damping, the tweeter employs a vented coil former, ferrofluid
cooling and specially selected surround material.

The news is what's down below, a development which means that
Monitor Audio's new speaker sports two drivers made from the same
material. The 170mm cone is formed from soft, pure
magnesium/aluminium sheet, anodized on both sides with a special
ceramic coating. This differs from other, spun-formed metal
woofers because the press forming (in one piece, as per
polypropylene drivers) ensures the consistency of the thickness
from the centre out to the edges and with no tolerance
variations. The cone is strengthened on the outside rim through
the formation of an integral lip. The manufacturing process
ensures that the cone opening is perfectly spherical for superior
coupling to the 32mm high temperature voice coil; this also
improves heat transfer. Other benefits of both the forming
process and the ceramic anodizing include greater cone stiffness
as well as superior scratch and corrosion resistance. The
finished cone weighs in at 5g, which MA mainman Mo Iqbal reckons
is the lightest in the galaxy. Another feature of the cone is a
first breakup mode above 6kHz, well beyond the 4kHz crossover
point (at 6dB/octave).

The woofer also uses a vented pole magnet like the tweeter and is
fitted to a 10mm-thick diecast chassis. The crossover is a simple
two-element design using a ceramic resistor to correct the
tweeter sensitivity. The main ingredients are polyester
capacitors and custom-made 100-strand wire. The Studio 10 is
supplied ready-to-biwire, with the bass and treble pairs of
five-way binding posts linked by short lengths of wire.

The drivers are fitted to a rear-ported cabinet fashioned
throughout from 18mm Medite, veneered inside and out and
'bituminized', which is Mo's way of saying that he's damped the
cabinet with the same stuff used to deaden car body panels. The
cabinets measure 400x200x240mm (HWD) not counting the removable
grilles; they're perfect for mounting on 24in stands of the
chunky variety.

I'd rather not waste any calories typing out a justification for
high-priced mini-speakers, because the perceived value of such
boxes will always pale alongside the gigantic, multi-drivered
beasts available for the same money. You already know the reasons
why some would prefer a small box to a floor-standing behemoth,
so let's just say that the Studio 10 is typical of the breed in
that it's solidly built and packs a wallop not available from
like-sized speakers at 1/10th of the price. I'll tell you now
that the Studio 10 sells for a few pence less than a grand, and
that it is not a rival for the more substantial floor-standing
bass generators. As I fully comprehend the notion of niche
marketing and am in favour of judging products in context, I have
assessed the Studio 10 only in terms of other quality 'minis'. To
judge them in terms of dipoles or floor-standing phone kiosks is
a useless exercise.

The Studio 10 was auditioned with amplifiers ranging from the
solid-state Aragon 200-watter to 50W valve amps to the 50W Solen
Tiger tube/tranny hybrid. The Studio 10s proved relatively easy
to drive, but the prospective user is advised to go for more
rather than less power. While reasonable levels could be obtained
from small amplifiers, in keeping with an 88.5dB sensitivity at 8
ohms, the Studio 10's real virtues were only apparent with ample
reserves of power. Smallish amplifiers with even the most minute
traces of clipping will be shown up by the Studio 10s, and I'd
find it quite tragic if you misjudged these speakers because of
the amplifier.

The Studio 10s, like all world-class minis, have the capability
of fooling you into thinking that they're huge boxes. This is
done in one of two ways, and you can guess which most of them
employ. The first is to deliver bags of bass, which the Studio
10s do not do. The second is to create a soundfield in three
dimensions, with scale which dwarfs the speakers themselves. In
this the Studio 10 is something of a miracle worker, because it
created a stage with width, depth and height of convincing and
realistic dimensions. By comparison, the vista created by my
cherished LS3/5as seems like a 3/4 scale model.

Don't let my reference to the inability to produce 'bags of bass'
suggest that these sound in any way 'light'. For a speaker of
this size, the Studio 10 is on a par with the best and is not
embarrassed by champions like the much dearer Sonus Fabers. The
Studio 10 may lack extension when compared with much larger
speakers but it compensates for this with exceptional slam and
control. And it's this characteristic, directly attributable to
the super-stiff metal bass driver, which gives the Studio 10 its
own special appeal in a sector crowded with fine products. And
when that sector includes a couple of Acoustic Energy faves, the
Celestion SL6/600/700, the Sonus Fabers, the Ensemble, the SOTA
and a few others, you can see that a new contender really does
need an edge.

The bass performance tends toward the 'dry' or 'lean', in part
because small speakers can only ameliorate this characteristic
with a minimum of weight as a distraction. But this impressive
control is a desirable enough virtue to allow some listeners to
forgive the lack of extension. Compared to true minis like the
LS3/5a, though, the Studio 10 is a headbanger's dream and easily
on a par with the more ample minis of SL6-ish dimensions. The
only way you'll extract the maximum from the this speaker is to
fix it to a substantial support. I used the Partington
Dreadnaughts, but Monitor Audio has released a dedicated stand
(to sell for #299 per pair) which wasn't available when I pushed
for this scoop. One can assume that it will be up to the task; it
weighs enough at 25kg...

The upper registers, while easily recognizable to those familiar
with other recent Monitor Audio designs, improve on the rest of
the family because they integrate far more smoothly with the
lower registers. The transistion from metal to metal is far more
homogeneous -- as you'd expect -- than a transition from metal to
plastics, so the argument about using identical materials for
both drivers holds true. The Studio 10 just might be the most
coherent and consistent of the high-end mini-monitors when it
comes to top-to-bottom seamlessness. This is not to diminish the
achievements of the competition, most of which are carefully
crafted to allow for a discontinuity in materials. It must be
said, however, that a critical listener can detect the character
differences (however subtle) which help to identify the cone or
dome materials. If a perfect speaker would incorporate a single,
full range driver, then the most readily apparent 'second choice'
would be a two-way employing drivers of similar construction.
That's why multi-way electrostatics or ribbons seem more coherent
that panel/cone hybrids; the Studio 10 shows that it also applies
to speakers employing dynamic drivers.

My penchant for crystal-clear female vocals (Juice Newton, Connie
Francis) or soul which drips with emotion (Aretha, Howard Tate,
Aretha, Sam & Dave, Aretha) naturally forces me to focus on
mid-band performance. The Studio 10s, while not a match for my
'vocal reference' LS3/5as, did a marvellous job with both the
textures of throaty male voices and the burr-free sweeps of
distaff country warblers. Sibilance was tolerable rather than
indetectable; the absence of extra 'warmth' in the midband meant
that the Studio 10s sounded more life-like with valve amps than
solid-staters for most vocal material. Curiously, the Studio 10s'
lack of warmth was not apparent when dealing with acoustic
instruments, so I'd suggest that you audition them with both
uncluttered vocal recordings and small scale acoustic works
before you form an opinion about this particular characteristic.

Intentionally or not, the Studio 10 lives up to its name because
the aforementioned dryness and bass precision combine to lend the
speaker an analytical air -- just what you'd want when monitoring
recordings. Fortunately for music lovers, this characteristic
falls short of being clinical. A good sense of decay, ambience
and smoothness keep the edges from intruding, while the benefits
of surgical precision mean clear-cut images and bullseye
positioning.

Cautions are few and mainly concerned with the choice of
ancillaries. The Studio 10 is not a forgiving design; by
comparison, the Sonus Faber is 'easy'. If you don't choose
carefully, the Studio 10 can spit and produce a graininess which
many will find intolerable. With solid speaker stands and a hefty
amplifier, though, the Studio 10 is yet another dream solution
for those who want or can only house small systems. Mo Iqbal may
not appreciate my saying this, but I reckon that the Studio 10 is
the most complete product Monitor Audio has produced since the
MA6 over a decade ago. I just hope that it's demonstrated with
the care it demands.