If you have to share your monitors with your stereo system or if you want to upgrade your desk-top monitors, these speakers might interest you.

Mordaunt and Short have had a reputation for producing fine hi-fi loudspeakers for as long as I can remember, but their new range of CD-compatible speakers are equally at home in the studio. With the increase in popularity of the Compact Disc, speaker design has had to be modified to handle the increased dynamic range offered by this medium and the Mordaunt Short MS25 incorporates both a rugged titanium tweeter and a solid state protection network (POSITEC) which shuts down the drive to the speakers in the event of a potentially damaging overload. This means that amplifiers of up to 200W per channel may be used to drive the speakers though the protection circuitry will make its presence felt if you drive the amp into clipping for very long.

Construction

These speakers look quite conventional from the outside and the plastic veneered particle board construction is the same as that used by a large number of speaker manufacturers throughout the world. Familiar too are the removable grilles consisting of fretcloth stretched over a chipboard frame and the twin drive unit concept shouldn't raise too many eyebrows.

This design is built round an infinite baffle enclosure, ie. it's not ported for greater bass efficiency, and the two drivers are fed via a passive crossover network and via the protection circuitry. A 20cm bass driver is used and this has a smooth paper cone and a flexible rubber or neoprene surround whilst the titanium tweeter is a modest 25mm in diameter.

Connection to the speakers is made by Banana plugs (supplied) rather than the more usual spring clip arrangement and the whole enclosure measures just 40 x 25½ x 22cm.

Because of their small physical size, these speakers do not develop enough true bass for serious main monitoring applications but their range is more than adequate for secondary monitoring or home use.

Though there are more efficient speakers on the market, these are well up to scratch in this department and can produce painful sound levels if you're using them in the near field.

"I eventually resorted to placing two layers of tissue paper over each tweeter to calm things down a bit."

In Use

On trying out the speakers the suspicions concerning low bass end efficiency were confirmed and I would doubt that the response is accurate much below 60Hz. The apparent bass response can be improved by mounting the speakers near to a wall or even in a corner and the manufacturers recommend a minimum distance of 5cm between the wall and the rear of the cabinet. Surprising though was the brightness of the speakers which was almost painful at high levels. Not only do the tweeters generate a very bright top end but also a lot of upper mid-range emanates from the bass unit giving these speakers a very up-front feel and I eventually resorted to placing two layers of tissue paper over each tweeter to calm things down a bit.

You might think from these previous comments that I didn't like the sound of these speakers but strictly speaking that's not quite true. This sort of bright, up-front sound can be very flattering to recorded material but that is not what I look for in a monitor. Having monitors with a flatter sound means that you are going to strive to create a lively sounding mix and the chances are that this will then sound satisfactory on most other speakers. With the review speakers however, I found that I was using the desk's EQ to take the edge off the sound which gave me a mix that sounded dull on other speakers. That couple of layers of tissue over the speaker certainly improved things and the precedent for this kind of trick has already been set by countless Yamaha NS10 users.

However, I cannot personally recommend this approach for serious work as the sound quality varies depending on the position and type of the tissue. Also, some of the energy is reflected back into the tweeter and gives rise to comb filtering effects at high frequencies. Even with the tissue fitted, the mid-range sounded a little hard but the fine details within the sound were revealed which is one of a monitor's main functions.

"On trying out the speakers the suspicions concerning low bass end efficiency were confirmed and I would doubt that the response is accurate much below 60Hz."

At all but the highest sound levels the speakers sounded good but driving them very hard produced a hard, brash sound which would be wearing to listen to for any length of time.

Provided that the speakers were mounted such that they were directed at the mixing engineers head, the stereo imaging was satisfactory, though nothing special, but soon deteriorated if the listening position was radically changed. To be fair, though, this is true of most non-concentric speaker designs.

Conclusions

These little speakers perform very well within their design limitations and their cost is surprisingly low. Every pair of speakers, no matter how similarly specified, sounds quite different and these were a little too bright for me to consider as serious monitors as they sounded too flattering to the music. If they had been wine, I would have described them as sharp and presumptuous but with breeding. If you share these speakers with your stereo, then you'll get to know what music from the outside world sounds like on them and mix your own material accordingly. If however you use them in the studio as your only monitors, the lack of bass response will lead to your mixes possessing an area of uncertainty in the sub-60Hz region and you will probably be tempted to remove top end from your mix unnecessarily.

Used with a little care and thought, though, these speakers offer a lot in the way of quality for remarkably little outlay, they really are good value.

The Mordaunt and Short MS25s cost £119 including VAT.

Further details are available from Mordaunt and Short Ltd, (Contact Details).