Monitor Audio Silver 500 8G Floorstanding Speakers

The top of the Silver range, and it acts like it

The Monitor Audio Silver 500 8G is the largest floorstander in the eighth generation Silver range, a three way design with twin 8 inch bass drivers, a dedicated 3 inch midrange and a 25mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter. Sold as a pair, it reaches down to 28Hz in room and holds 90dB sensitivity, so it fills a large space without needing an exotic amplifier. Every driver is now through-bolted to the rear of the cabinet, which is the change you hear rather than see.

Why You'll Love It

• Bass with room to breathe. Two 8 inch RST III cones and a port tuned to 33Hz give genuine low end weight in big rooms, so you are not reaching for a subwoofer to fill in the bottom octave.
• A midrange that is properly its own. Handing vocals to a dedicated 3 inch driver between 640Hz and 2.8kHz keeps voices clear of the bass drivers' workload, which is where two way towers usually give something up.
• Easy to drive, easy to place. 90dB sensitivity and an 8Ω nominal load mean a good integrated amplifier is enough, and the outrigger feet let you level the cabinet properly on carpet or timber.

Under the Hood

• Three way layout with 2 x 8 inch C-CAM RST III bass drivers, a 3 inch C-CAM RST III midrange and a 25mm C-CAM Gold Dome tweeter with UD Waveguide II.
• Silent Flow Port Technology with a wider port and a flare geometry inspired by owl wing feathers, tuned to 33Hz to smooth airflow and cut port noise.
• Through-Bolt Driver Technology braces each drive unit to the rear panel at a set torque, working with internal bracing and damping to keep the cabinet quiet.

CHT Insider Verdict

This is the one to buy if the room is genuinely large and you want a single pair of speakers to do the whole job. The extra midrange driver is what separates it from cheaper towers, and it shows up most on vocals and acoustic recordings. Give them a metre of space behind and a solid amplifier with real current delivery, and be aware the quoted frequency response is an in-room figure at -6dB rather than an anechoic -3dB number.

Pro Tip: Fit the outrigger feet before you decide where they sit. A tower this size only produces its rated bass when it is dead level and properly coupled to the floor, and a wobble on carpet will cost you more low end than any repositioning will get back.