Update: this product line has been discontinued. You can check out our best-of page for alternative recommendations.
Important Specs Overview
| Model | Bronze 1 | Bronze 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker Type | passive, 2-way, back ported | passive, 2-way, front ported |
| Continuous Power Handling | 70 W | 100 W |
| Max SPL | 109 dB | 113 dB |
| Impedance | 8 ohms | (<-- same) |
| Response Range ( +/- 3dB) | 55 - 30k Hz | 42 - 30k Hz |
| Sensitivity (db/W/m) | 88 dB | 90 dB |
| Woofer Size | 5.5 in | 6.5 |
| Unit Dimensions (w x d x h) | 6.5 x 7 x 10 in | 7.5 x 10 x 14 in |
| Unit Weight | 8 lb | 11.5 lb |
| Warranty | 5 years | (<-- same) |
Review And Discussion
Monitor Audio is a ~40 year old British company that produces a wide variety of home theater equipment and does high end custom installation as well. The Bronze series is their longstanding entry level home theater lineup, and has received intermittent upgrades over the years. The simply named Bronze 1 and 2 are the bookshelf speakers in the line up and likely one of their most popular overall products.
The Bronze 2 is slightly larger and more powerful than the 1, and has the port moved to the front, but otherwise has the same components and overall design, hence a joint review herein.
These are definitely classic looking speakers that fit the bill of a lot of the other British companies that we’ve seen. The cabinet is ~3/4 in MDF all around, pretty standard, with a nice looking mock vinyl wood finish. They come in a variety of colors, including standard black/white, but all the wood colors look particularly good.
The baskets are simply embedded into the singular cabinet piece and flush to it, with surrounds that are small and seemingly barely noticeable. It’s a nice classic look with a more modern minimalist twist.
Right away the drivers look unique and are indeed interesting. The tweeter is a nice looking gold dome housed in its own protective grill, and the so called C-CAM woofer is a proprietary metallic blend. We’re not normally fans of colored trim, but in this case the chrome trim that matches the woofers looks pretty nice. They also come with front cloth grills if you wish to cover them.
The nice driver materials is reflected in these speakers’ specs. They have great power handling for the size and can get very loud. The tweeter’s ceiling is also very high, which thereby means the floor is also low, which then means the woofer can focus more on the mids and lows and achieve better bass, which is a normal limitation of two way bookshelf speakers.
The larger bronze 2 in particular can get down quite low at 42 Hz (though there will probably be some drop off before then). Obviously the larger driver helps there, but also the fact that, in moving the port to the front, the cabinet needed to get significantly larger. Yet while the Bronze 2 is quite a lot larger than the 1, it isn’t all that much heavier, and also has the added advantage of not needing room in the back to breathe like the Bronze 1 will.
Monitor Audio has a five year warranty on these and most of its other passive speakers, which is pretty top of the line coverage.
Our Overall Take, As Compared To The Competition
Very solid and performant speakers all around, with particularly good power and range for the size. They look nice too. They’re a bit dated though, mainly in that, for the price, they don’t really offer anything apparent to make them stand out. Superior options with better specs and/or more features exist. So, for the time being, these are the kind of speakers you’d probably best get with a thrifty discount if you happen to find one.
