Monitor Audio Pl 300ii vs. KEF Reference 5

@bo1972 The reason I have included the 200ii in my search is because of comments by owners that it sounds like the KEF Blade a very holographic speaker. That is one that places the performers and instruments in identifiable positions (if they were recorded like that). The Blade sounds like live music to me with the ability to visual the performance. If I can find a smaller speaker to have the same holographic ability I will get it. I am going to get this for my office which will be on the small size. I am getting the Blades later for the family room.

I am going to audition the following speakers in a month or 2 in S. Cal. Luckily, all I want to hear are available in a relatively short driving distance.

Monitor Audio PL200ii (same store has PL 300ii)
KEF Ref 1 and KEF Ref 5 (same store as PL 200ii)
Focal Kanta2 (same store are PL 200ii)
Vivid Audio Kaya 45
Magico A3
Totem Tribe Tower (maybe)

I currently have the Audience 1+1 V2 speakers powered by Benchmark DAC3 + Benchmark AHB2 amp. However, I am likely going to get a Luxman 509x integrated for the office so that I can run either the Audience speakers and whatever new floorstander I buy. With the flick of a front panel switch I can run either set of connected speakers. If the new floorstander is short enough in height the Audience speaker will reside on top of it (8 lbs) . If it is too tall I will use dedicated stands for the Audience speaker. The Monitor Audio 200ii is short enough to pull this trick off the others on my list are not.

The Benchmark gear will move to the family room for the Blades or maybe a bedroom.

Both the Blade and Reference have the same kind of distortion in the middle/high freq. range. When you use an amp who can build a huge deep and wide stage like a Pass Labs. You will hear how limited the stage depth and width is.

We can create a stunning level in diversity in height of voices and instruments. Even when you use the best audio products who are able to create this, the Blade and Ref will show you that the height of voices and insttruments are on the same height. We call this a hifi stereo parameter.

There are not many loudspeakers brand who can reveal diversity in height and also all the different properties of sound. Most people who do audio by trilal and error have no F. idea anything about sound. They have no idea what they do and how they make their decisions.

You only can understand audio when you understand all the different properties of sound as you know all the different aspects like smog, acoustics, high frequent noise and magnetism who negatively influence the sound and stage.

When you do not understand this, you will never understand audio untill you die. This is a 100% fact. Maybe it is not what you want to hear. But this is the truth. Trial and error has no foundation and no one can change that.

People need to learn to think further. When you are not able to think further you only can do audio by gambling. Audio is all about sound. And sound is founded on properties. These are all facts. And by sound they can easily be proven over and over again.

Most people don’t like to hear the truth. But when you cannot and will not face it you will have a limited level in sound and stage untill you quit. Trial and error will never make you understand both sound&vision. This is why you never can guide and understand it.

There is only one way to go and this is being able to think and work in properties. I am sorry for all people that this is the truth. When it would be different I would have written it.

Each brand and product owns properties of sound on facts. When you use brands and products who are not able to reveal all the different properties of sound you will use the PL-200 II or PL-300 II at a very low level. All your decisons are chosen by gambling. Based on the fact that when you would be able to think in properties you would have taken totally different decisions.

Take a look on google and search for pictures of the Blade. Take a good look at the way they made the cabinet and look for how they connected the drivers inside.

After this just use your brains..........

@bo1972  I will keep that in mind about the Blades. However, getting back to my original question about room dimensions for the Monitor Audio speakers. What are the room size guidelines you follow for placing a 200ii, 300ii, and 500ii?

You are going to a shop and they will let you hear different loudspeakers by trial and error. Because this is how the worlk all their life. And they have no idea as you have no idea how to do it differently.

The truth is, this will never give you access to a high level in endresult of any of these loudspeakers. I can garantee this for 100% and I can even explain  it.

People all believe and think that you are only able to create and choose your system by yourself. Bases on assumptions this iw what we believe. Like you believed as a child that Santa Claus exist. Now you know the truth is different . Tru-Fi proofs that trail and error is one big F. laugh. It proofs it not on a personal opinion but on facts.

All people will choose that system even blind when it is able to reveal all the diferent properties of sound. Your emotion and my emotion work quite similar. 

I did send a new client to a audioshop to listen to the PL-200 II and some other loudspeakers. He found it a good loudspeaker but not that unique. This is what I knew how he would react.

I know exactly the DNA of the stuff he owns now and which were used during the demo. These products can only create about 4-5 different properties of sound on facts.

They other day I did send him to a client of us with the PL-200 II in a Tru-Fi system. He said alter that day on the phone: to be honest I knew it in a few seconds with the first song I listened.

We always advice new clients to take their own music with them. He said; this was the best system I ever auditioned in my life. It can be explained easily. He is a musician and could hear for the first time things he also can hear when he plays.

He was amazed by the diverisity in height of the instruments. This is what we can reveal with a PL-200 II. Most brands and products cannot create this property on facts. What is missing will never be there.

Music is emotion you only can expeience and feel this emotion when an auddiosystem can reveal all these different properties. But trial and error always creates incomplete systems. It will be an utopie to experience all the emotion.

I am about ready to return the Monitor Audio Pl300ii speakers to the dealer who lent them.  While they have many virtues, such as the mellow, deep sound I described earlier, overall I prefer the KEF Reference 5s.  The KEFs do produce the holographic images and identifiable instruments described by yyz in referring to the Blades, but in a more conventional looking cabinet. The Monitor Audio speakers are a little laid back and dull in comparison (sorry MA owners—just my personal opinion). My wife and an audiophile friend, both of whom have better hearing than me, independently had the same observations. To provide one example, we listened to an excellent vinyl recording first on the MAs and my friend  said he was very impressed.  We switched to the KEFs and his eyes lit up, describing it as a night and day difference, the music sounding much more alive with the KEFs. By  the way, yyz, you also may want to hear the KEF Reference 3, which has many of the same attributes as the Blades and the Reference 5 in a shorter cabinet at a lower price. You are lucky to have so many nearby options.