Monitor Audio MA-301 Speaker System Review

The MA series loudspeakers from Monitor Audio of Cambridge, England, are small, two-way systems based on a family of drivers that share many common design characteristics. The MA-301, which is typical of the group, can reasonably be described as a mini-speaker in view of its size and weight, but its diminutive qualities do not carry over to the system’s sound in either a qualitative or a quantitative sense. In common with some of the other good small speakers we have tested recently, the MA-30I’s performance often seems out of proportion to its size.

Constructed of rigid medium-density fiberboard (rapping it with the knuckles is like rapping a concrete block), the MA-301 can actually be held on the palm of one hand, although that would be a somewhat precarious and unstable support. Half of the speaker’s front panel is occupied by a (nominally) 5-1/4-inch polypropylene-cone woofer whose actual effective diameter is a mere 4 inches. Above the woofer is a 4/4-inch dome tweeter with a gold-anodized diaphragm. The crossover frequency, which is not specified, appears to be in the vicinity of 2 kHz.

The woofer enclosure is vented at the rear of the cabinet. Near the bottom of the rear panel are two pairs of recessed, angled speaker terminals — gold-plated binding posts, normally strapped in parallel, that accept single or dual banana plugs, stripped wire ends, or lugs. Removing the jumper straps permits bi-wiring or bi-amplifying the speakers, although this option is probably seldom applied to speakers in this size or price range.

The front panel of the cabinet is normally covered by a framed black cloth grille retained by rubber sockets and easily removable. The entire speaker cabinet is finished in black, and it is attractive enough to be used without the grille if desired.

We installed the MA-301 speakers on stands that placed the tweeters 32 inches above the floor and 3 feet in front of the wall behind them, with 7 feet between the left and right speakers. We measured room response with the microphone 12 feet in front of the left speaker, driving one speaker at a time and plotting the two response curves on the same coordinates.

The smoothed and averaged room response varied +3 dB from 100 Hz to 10 kHz, dropping off by another 7 dB at 20 kHz. That is fairly typical for this measurement, which is intended to roughly approximate the system's average response in a more or less ordinary and normally furnished room.

Room-response measurement at the low audio frequencies is impractical, so we evaluate a speaker’s bass performance with the microphone close to the woofer cone. Since the MA-301 is a vented system, we used two microphones, one at the cone and one at the port, and combined their outputs in proportion to the areas of the respective sources.

The resulting bass-response curve varied only +1.5 dB from 200 Hz down to 70 Hz, dropping off at 6 dB per octave below 70 Hz. Listening to test tones and music from CDs confirmed that the MA-301 produced a clean, usable bass output down to approximately the 50-Hz range, certainly highly creditable performance for a woofer of its size.

The quasi-anechoic (MLS) frequency response, measured at distances between 1 and 3 meters, was better than ±5 dB from 300 Hz to 16 kHz, with much of the variation occurring in the uppermost octave. The tweeter’s horizontal dispersion was excellent over a ±45-degree angle, with a mere 2-dB drop-off at 15 kHz.

The nominal impedance rating of the MA-301 is 6 ohms. In our measurements, 6 ohms was its minimum impedance, between 200 and 300 Hz.

The maximum impedances were 24 and 26 ohms at 35 and 100 Hz, respectively, and there was a broad 18-ohm reading at around 2 kHz, probably related to the crossover between woofer and tweeter.

According to the manufacturer, the MA-301 is magnetically shielded to permit its use close to video displays in home-theater systems. Scanning the exterior of the speaker with a gauss-meter confirmed that over most of its surface the external flux was less than 1 gauss and entirely negligible. In the vicinity of the tweeter, however, the magnetic flux rose sharply, exceeding the 2-gauss maximum of the meter’s range. To evaluate the practical significance of this reading, we placed the speaker close to a TV set. Although it caused a slight color shift when it was very near the front of the screen, the effect was completely eliminated when the speaker was moved 5 or more inches away from the TV.

The MA-301 speaker is rated for 100 watts maximum input, and it had a measured sensitivity of 88 dB sound-pressure level (SPL) with a 2.83-volt input signal — right on spec. In our 300-square-foot room, we drove the MA-301s with a 100-watt amplifier at very high levels (higher than we would normally use in a room of that size) without audible signs of distress or damage to the speakers or to our listening sensibilities.

Obviously, a speaker of this size has its limitations, as dictated by the laws of physics. While it sometimes seemed to perform miracles of sound reproduction, you cannot expect to shake the room with deep bass from a 4-inch cone. Nor can you expect to play music at lease-breaking volume with impunity, although we reached uncomfortably high levels on occasion without mishap.

Although it might seem expensive for its size, the MA-301 can easily hold its own against most competitively priced speakers in respect to listening quality. The chief exception to this statement involves low bass, below 50 or 60 Hz, where some competitively priced speakers deliver a deeper or stronger response. They are also considerably larger than the MA-301, however, and often lack the natural tonal qualities of this little giant.

For someone who has a modest budget and limited space, and who is not addicted to the lowest musical octaves, the Monitor Audio MA-301 speaker could be an ideal choice.

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