Fried Monitor 7 Opinions

I can't speak for the Monitor 7, but I bought two pairs of the Compact 7 and I can tell you they are fantastic. Clear, clean and very musical. Plenty of bass without any boominess. My friend was dumbstruck when he heard them. He and I grew up listening to my Fried Betas and Fried Subwoofer system and he said these were the best sounding speakers he's ever heard. I like other speaker more, but they are 10-20 times the price.

You really can't go wrong - they are speakers you can listen to for a lifetime and not get tired of them.

Also,

They are not out of business. Just out of the mass market speaker business. They want to become custom speaker providers, I believe.

As I said, they're basically out of business! Both Jonathan Raines, President and David Finley, former Bud Fried employee, have always had "real jobs" and only did speakers part time.

Bottom line though, the Monitor 7 is still a very good sounding speaker and easy to live with; so is the Compact 7 and Studio 7. I doubt you'd ever have a problem with any of them(I still have a working pair of C/3L's I built over 20 years ago) but don't expect any factory support down the road. That's why I said, if the price is right, go for it.

Well, I waited too long and the Monitor 7's are gone...

Rfogel8, based on your definition, all the audio companies I work with (TRL, Intuitive Design, Fried) are "out of business." They are by definition small batch, boutique manufacturers. That is where you find the best, most cutting edge gear IMO.

As for factory support, I managed to blow one of the Scanspeak drivers in my References (quite a feat!), and David Finley ordered a new driver, modified it, and shipped it to me in the space of about 2 weeks. I would classify that as pretty good support....