Monitor Audio Gold 100 6G Review

Verdict

They’re not cheap and they’re not without competition, but the Monitor Audio Gold 100 6G make an extremely strong (and fun-to-listen-to) case for themselves… 

Introduction

It’s been over 36 years since Monitor Audio introduced its first Gold series of loudspeakers, which is more than enough time for technology – even in the world of passive speakers – to have moved on more than somewhat.

Each subsequent generation of Gold has moved with the times, of course – but here in 2024, the sixth generation of the series constitutes nothing less than a complete rethink.

If you count the centre channel and the on-wall Gold models (and why wouldn’t you?) then this sixth generation series is an appropriate six models strong. We have to start somewhere, though – and so it’s the larger of the standmounters, the Gold 100 6G, that’s getting the Trusted Reviews treatment here. 

Time to find out how precious this particular Gold is, then…

Availability

The Monitor Audio Gold 6G range of loudspeakers has been on sale since 15th August 2024 – the Gold 100 6G standmounter I’m reviewing here costs £3000 per pair in the United Kingdom. In the United States it sells for $4000, and although no Australian pricing has been confirmed as yet, a price of AU$6000 or so seems likely.

This is proper money for a relatively small pair of speakers, no doubt – but it’s not as if the Gold 100 6G are in a space all by themselves. Everyone from Bowers & Wilkins and KEF to Neat and Pro-Ac has an alternative with which to tempt you… and I haven’t even mentioned brands from outside the UK yet…  

Design

• High-gloss black, satin white and Macassar wood veneer finishes
• 448 x 230 x 357mm (HWD)
• 14kg

The Gold 100 6G is on the hefty side for a standmounting speaker by today’s compact and discreet standards – at 448 x 230 x 367mm (HWD) it’s quite an assertive presence, and it’s most definitely a standmounter rather than a bookshelf speaker.

And to be honest, it’s nothing much to look at – at least as far as the cabinet goes. It’s an old-school box of mostly parallel sides, with only the mid-pod enclosure breaking the tyranny of the straight edges. It contains the tweeter and midrange drivers that are discussed later in this review, and it’s positioned high up the cabinet of the 100 6G for solid acoustic reasons – but it also constitutes a design flourish. 

A strip of die-cast aluminium seems to flow from the top of the baffle of the enclosure along most of the top of the cabinet. Apart from a little stylised ‘M’ at the bottom of the face of the speaker, this strip of metal carries the only branding.

But while they might not be the most visually exciting speaker around (and are even less so if you decide to cover the driver array with the couple of magnetic grilles that each speaker comes supplied with), they’re certainly not found wanting when it comes to the standard of build and finish.

The build quality is basically impeccable, and the choice of finishes – high-gloss black, the satin white of my review sample, or Macassar man-made wood veneer – is decently contemporary and decorative. The use of bolt-through technology means there are no screw-heads or any other uglies visible, which only enhances the impression of expert construction.  

Specification

• New HDT driver technology
• New crossover design
• Three-way arrangement with rear reflex port

Where features are concerned, Monitor Audio has pushed the boat out far further than it has with design. This sixth generation of the Gold range basically starts again from scratch – and the company has introduced some intriguing new technologies.

The Gold 100 6G is a three-way design. The top of the front of the speaker is occupied by the mid-pod steel enclosure that contains a high-frequency transducer and midrange driver behind a die-cast aluminium baffle. Beneath there is a big bass driver, which is supplemented by a rear-firing bass reflex port. Each of these drivers, it’s fair to say, bears close examination.

For starters, the high-frequency unit is the latest version of Monitor Audio’s MPD III design and is strongly influenced by the transducer used in both the company’s high-end Platinum range and the much higher-end Hyphn flagship speaker. 

This micro-pleated diaphragm design offers remarkable high-end extension (up to a giddy 60Hz, according to Monitor Audio), and its square radiating area ensures equal response in both the horizontal and vertical planes – which should, in turn, offer more convincing soundstaging. This is augmented by a carefully designed waveguide up front, and a rear area of optimised volume in order to minimise ripple in the audible frequency range.

The 76mm midrange driver and the 203mm bass driver beneath it are both brand-new designs, and draw on more than four decades of Monitor Audio’s near-obsession with metal drivers. The new metal cones that are on display here are based on the C-CAM (ceramic-coated aluminium magnesium) material Monitor Audio has been refining since the early 90s, and are called HDT (or Hexagonal Diaphragm Technology to the likes of you and I). 

HDT builds on the RDT III (Rigid Diaphragm Technology) Nomex/aluminium/carbon fibre cones featured in the Platinum and Hyphn loudspeakers, and adds a stamped hexagonal pattern to disrupt the breakup characteristics inherent in a symmetrical cone design. The overall arrangement delivers what Monitor Audio reckons is the strongest, most piston-like cones it’s ever developed. Add in new spider designs, new driver surrounds, increased voice-coil lengths and larger, more powerful motor systems, and the overhaul is complete.

Crossover occurs at 700Hz and 2.6kHz, and Monitor Audio has had a predictably long and hard think about the crossover network that’s fitted here. Improvements in the quality of capacitors, allied to hundreds of hours of pre-production listening, as resulted in crossovers that, the company says, are a match for alternative designs costing three times the price of the Gold 100 6G.

The rear of the cabinet features a sizable HiVE II bass reflex port that’s tuned to 38Hz. It sits above four hefty speaker cable binding posts that allow for bare wire, spade or banana connections and make biwiring or even biamping possible.    

Sound Quality

• Detailed and positive sound
• Convincingly express rhythms
• More dynamic heft would be nice

If some owners end up looking like their dogs, then some loudspeakers sound exactly as they look. But in the case of the Monitor Audio Gold 100 6G, that’s only partially true.

Certainly they sound as big as they look. The soundstage they are capable of generating when playing anything from Fairport Convention’s Autopsy to LesAplx by Floating Points is wide and deep, and is complete with a proper sense of space and scale. They organise the layout well, and there’s elbow-room in even the most complex recordings. 

They’re no blunt instrument, though, despite their physical and sonic size and scale. Detail levels are high at every stage, and the level of control they exert over low frequencies in particulate means that rhythms are expressed confidently. The amount of straightforward punch and drive they can muster is nicely balanced by the amount of fine detail regarding tone and texture that’s available, and no sonic event is too fleeting or too deep in a mix to evade them. Fast-moving basslines present no problems, and even complicated patterns are described with assurance.

The top of the frequency range is equally expressive, and that dedicated 76mm driver allows the midrange to be delivered with real eloquence and insight. Voices sound direct and unambiguous, and there’s plenty of information revealed regarding technique and emotional state – and all in the most uncomplicatedly direct manner.

Despite the relatively complex nature of the Gold 100 6G, the frequency response is smooth and even – crossover points are not remotely conspicuous. Overall tonality is ultimately on the slightly cool side of neutral, but this is a trait rather than an obvious shortcoming – system-matching should not be a particularly time-consuming or complicated process. 

The overall attitude of the Gold 100 6G is reasonably sedate – even the most raucous recordings can’t goad them into losing composure, and they’re a controlled, authoritative listen in all circumstances. That’s not to say they lack excitement, though – they’re more than happy to prioritise entertainment over introspection.

In fact, about the only way in which they come up fractionally short (or, more correctly, lack complete command over the music they’re playing) concerns dynamic impetus – and it’s not as if they’re catastrophically lacking in this respect either. 

But despite the sort of insight that means small dynamic variations in harmonics are identified and contextualised with a sort of unfussy confidence, the broader dynamic variations that a massed symphony orchestra, say, can indulge in don’t get quite the sort of emphasis they require. The Monitor Audio sound big and potent to start with, so when a recording really ramps up the intensity and/or volume, they don’t manage to travel quite as far as is absolutely ideal.

This is far from a fatal flaw, of course – but prevailing standards at this sort of price are sky high, and even the most minor shortcoming requires highlighting. Minor is what it is, though – in every other respect, the Gold 100 6G are right on the money. 

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