Monitor Audio Monitor 1 “Gold” (Monitor One) — Reunited with a Fine Old British Miniature Speaker

Thirty years ago — back when I was still a teenager. The lingering afterglow of the bubble economy was still in the air, Akihabara’s electronics district was buzzing with life, and pure audio had spread well beyond the enthusiast circle into the general public. The major domestic electronics manufacturers were locked in fierce competition, each pushing heavy, hulking three-piece systems — speaker, amplifier, CD player — at a combined list price of around 300,000 yen. Then, as the 1990s arrived, the yen’s dramatic appreciation brought a wave of slim, lightweight, stylish Western components into Japan — what was being called “budget Hi-Fi” — at price points even students could reach. These imported pieces began appearing on Japanese shelves at prices not far removed from domestic mid-range products.

Affordable imported speakers in particular were warmly received in Japan, gradually eating into the domestic speaker market’s share. At the time, even the audio corners of the big discount electronics stores out in the suburbs had things like small speakers from British TANNOY or American Infinity on display. ※Up through the ’80s and ’90s, separate-component audio and stereo system sales took up a considerable amount of floor space in consumer electronics shops. In that era when low-cost pure audio products were having their moment, there were any number of speakers, amplifiers, and CD players that caught my ear during my wanderings around Akihabara — pieces that pierced my heart during audition, yet somehow never came home with me, whether through discontinued stock or simple bad timing. Even now, every so often I find myself thinking: that one was really something.

My Encounter with Monitor Audio, British Speaker Maker

Among the speakers that stayed in my memory as ones I’d wanted but never managed to get, one was the Monitor 1 Gold — a tiny speaker from British manufacturer Monitor Audio. Monitor Audio is by now well established in Japan as one of Britain’s leading audio brands, well known among enthusiasts — but at the time, I believe they’d only just begun to be imported into Japan.

The encounter happened somewhere around Radio Kaikan or the outside of Akihabara Department Store, if I remember rightly. Walking near the station, I heard some remarkably good sound coming from a shop doing a kind of semi-outdoor display of audio equipment and components in a jumbled heap, and when I went closer, I found it was coming from a tiny, beautiful Monitor Audio Monitor 1 Gold in a rosewood mahogany finish — producing an astonishingly clear, vivid sound. If memory serves, this was an outdoor display, not inside a proper shop. The integrated amplifier it was connected to was ROTEL’s thinnest and cheapest model — one that had tone controls, I remember. Most likely the ROTEL RA930AX Mk2 or the RA930BX, I’d think.

The shop price for the Monitor Audio Monitor 1 Gold at the time was around 45,000 yen. Add the ROTEL integrated and you were looking at about 100,000 yen for the pair. By today’s standards I’d probably decide on the spot — but with my budget sensibilities back then, I couldn’t quite commit, and somehow the months and years just slipped by without my ever getting one.

Monitor One Gold — A Reunion After More Than 25 Years

Nearly 30 years have passed since then, I think — but a few months ago, I came across a listing somewhere online for a Monitor Audio Monitor 1 Gold that looked to be in genuinely excellent condition, and before I knew it I’d clicked buy. I hadn’t been actively looking for a Monitor Audio Monitor 1 at this point — but encounters have a way of arriving unannounced. As if all those old feelings had been quietly gathering themselves, and had chosen this moment to reappear.

The previous owner had clearly taken good care of them over the years. The drivers still look virtually new, the natural oak veneer cabinet has no notable scratches, and they really don’t look like speakers manufactured 25 to 30 years ago. Made in England, of course — handcrafted. Small as they are, they have a presence and an air of authenticity and refinement that you simply don’t find in modern budget speakers wearing their obviously cost-cut Chinese-manufactured materials.

The low-priced small speakers I collect include quite a few — despite being prestigious Western brands — that are in fact Made in China, and a lot of them have a certain toy-like quality to their finish and bearing that’s difficult to shake. But British-made products from the ’90s were still primarily manufactured domestically even at lower price points, and when you place them side by side, it’s immediately apparent that what you have here — as furniture, as an object in a room — is the genuine article, in a different class entirely. I found myself reflecting, rather ruefully, on how the globalisation of production has diluted what was once simply a given — that quality of hand-crafted character — and how that has probably been one factor in the decline of audio equipment as an object of genuine hobbyist interest.

※Note: The Silver RX1 appears in some of the images, but the review itself is about the Monitor One.

Specifications: Monitor Audio Monitor One Gold and The MA100 Gold

When exactly was the Monitor 1 Gold produced? It’s no longer listed on the manufacturer’s website, so the details aren’t entirely clear — but there’s an American review from 1991, so an early model was already around by then. In the early version, the driver units sat slightly proud of the baffle face, but at some point this was changed to a flush-mounted arrangement. Also, while the Monitor series speakers distributed in Japan generally had bi-wiring binding posts, it seems the early domestic UK versions also came in single-wiring configurations.

	Monitor One Gold	Monitor 1 (later version?)	The MA100 Gold
System type	Bass reflex	Bass reflex	Bass reflex
Frequency response	70–26,000Hz ±3dB	60–25,000Hz ±3dB	50–24,000Hz ±3dB
Impedance	8Ω	8Ω	8Ω
Sensitivity	88.5dB – 1m/1W	89dB – 1m/1W	89dB – 1m/1W
Power handling	15–70W	15–80W	15–120W
Tweeter	19mm gold dome	19mm gold dome	19mm gold dome, magnetically shielded
Mid-bass woofer	11cm special impregnated cone	11cm special impregnated cone, crossover 3,800Hz	11cm special impregnated cone, magnetically shielded
Cabinet	M.D.F. medite	M.D.F. medite	All M.D.F.
Finish	Black, rosewood	Rosewood mahogany, natural oak	Black, rosewood
Dimensions / Weight	24(H) × 15.2(W) × 16cm(D), 2.4kg	24(H) × 15.2(W) × 16cm(D), 2.5kg	24(H) × 15.2(W) × 16cm(D), 2.75kg

When I first encountered this speaker, it was called the Monitor Audio Monitor 1 Gold, and the Japanese importer was Rotel Shoji. The recommended retail price at the time was ¥29,800 per unit. Around 1998, the importer changed to Hi-Fi JAPAN, and from that point the “Gold” designation disappeared from the catalogue — it became simply “Monitor 1.” The unit I acquired this time has flush-mounted drivers, so it’s most likely a later-production example imported by Hi-Fi JAPAN. The RRP had risen to ¥39,800 per unit by then — though even that looks like a bargain in retrospect. By today’s visual standards these look like speakers that might cost ¥200,000–300,000 a pair, but at the time you could actually buy small speakers of this quality for ¥40,000–60,000 a pair at street prices. The median income in Japan is considerably lower now than it was then, yet audio product prices have gone in exactly the opposite direction — adding a zero.

The tweeter is an early version of the gold dome tweeter that was developed in 1986 and remains in use in Monitor Audio’s current products as of 2024. Formed from a ceramic-coated aluminium/magnesium alloy, anodised to a specific thickness for ideal rigidity and damping characteristics.

There was also a related model called The MA100 Gold, which appears to have been derived from this one for AV use — though I never saw it on sale in Japan. Aside from a protective metal mesh over the tweeter, the MA100 Gold looks essentially identical to the Monitor 1. Inside, it carries magnetically shielded drivers, and its low-frequency extension stretches down another 10Hz or so. Single-wiring seems to have been the norm for this model, though hunting through photographs you do find bi-wiring versions as well — so, like the Monitor 1 Gold, the specification evidently changed at various points during production.

※The images in this article are captured from a UK catalogue from the author’s personal collection.

Sound Quality Review: Monitor Audio Monitor 1 Gold

To be honest, the author was quietly prepared for the possibility that nostalgia had been doing its usual beautifying work on these memories, and that actually getting hold of the thing might mean waking up to the reality that this was, after all, just a speaker from the ’90s. But when unpacked and nervously played for the first time, the sound was immediately better than expected — genuinely pleasing.

It’s confirmed, a little belatedly, that the younger self’s instincts were sound. Against modern speakers, the Monitor 1 Gold holds up without any difficulty — vivid clarity, a clean and open soundstage. Within that brightness, there’s the deeper atmospheric quality that’s a hallmark of British audio tradition, and the hard, high-speed treble characteristic of a metal dome tweeter. Yet that treble doesn’t tip over into harshness — it coexists, somehow naturally, with an emotionally warm and gently textured character. The result is that when compared with the other miniature speakers in the collection, one finds oneself thinking: hang on… is this actually my favourite?

The weakness is in the bass. The reason for not buying one back when they were in the shops was largely that the low frequencies were conspicuously lean — and that was off-putting at the time. But actually, with a solid amplifier and speaker cables with a bit of low-frequency body to them, it seems like something you can bring into a fairly acceptable balance. When connected to a low-powered entry-level integrated like the ROTEL RA930AX MkII or RA931, it would sound even thinner than its actual potential — that much is easy to see from here. The deep bass is limited, but the resolution is high, and the mid-bass doesn’t have the kind of emphasis that small speakers often resort to — so it fades out in a natural gradient using the bass reflex tuning, producing low frequencies that, while light in quantity, are clear and untroubling to the ear.

The midrange is soft, rich, and charming. Within the brightness, there’s a well-judged degree of shadow and depth — a refined quality to the way it traces the fine emotional contours of the music, with a moistness to the texture. The treble has all the character of Monitor Audio’s metal dome tweeter — hard, sparkling, a touch ceremonial — yet it retains (unlike the later successors) a certain wetness to its resonance, and the metal hard dome’s characteristic edge has a balanced restraint to it; it blends with the soft-material woofer in a way that’s surprisingly natural. The 3,800Hz crossover point is beautifully judged. ※Unlike the shop audition back when this was new, some of the tweeter’s hardness will have mellowed and settled in with age.

The soundstage is wide and clean. Being a bass reflex design, you have some ability to control the low-frequency weight by adjusting the distance from the rear wall. If you prioritise the stage imaging — which is one of this speaker’s genuine strengths — a speaker stand is advisable, and it benefits from having some space around it. Even at the cost of some bass, the stereo imaging you get is still genuinely valuable: a clarity and transparency that’s hard to match.

The defining sonic characteristic of the Monitor Audio Monitor 1 Gold is that it combines high-resolution transparency with an organic musicality and rhythmic quality — elements that often work against each other. In memory, the one-size-up Monitor 2 Gold and Studio 2 were also highly musical, with better-balanced bass extension — but the smallest model, the Monitor 1 Gold, had an edge in pure musicality. If you’re after a single speaker for everything, the Monitor 2 or above — with deeper shadow and wider versatility — is objectively superior. But for someone running multiple systems in parallel, there’s a charm to the Monitor 1 that the loss of bass weight doesn’t diminish: it simply sounds brighter and more captivating.

Driver Units and Cabinet Quality

The cabinet finish is genuinely beautiful — 1cm-thick MDF with a real wood veneer in rosewood mahogany or natural oak, giving it exactly the kind of understated refinement you’d associate with a traditionally crafted British speaker. In the UK home market, a black-painted version without the natural veneer was also available at a lower price. The rear has a bass reflex port, though the interior is bare, unpainted MDF — which is very much of its era.

The relative placement and sizing of the two-way driver array on the front baffle immediately reads as near-perfect in its design balance and visual elegance.

Reading through the Monitor Audio Monitor series catalogue, you find that different cone materials were used in the mid-bass woofers across models in the same lineup — same approximate cabinet size, different driver. To the eye, all of them look like straightforward black cones with synthetic rubber surrounds, but in the Monitor 1 Gold’s case, the catalogue lists “special impregnated cone” without specifying the material. From visual inspection, the diaphragm appears to be resin-impregnated pulp, and — uniquely to the smallest models, the Monitor 1 Gold and the MA100 Gold – there appears to be a fabric layer added over the centre cone area. The surface isn’t smooth; it looks like a deliberate construction choice to avoid resonance peaks in the diaphragm’s behaviour.

Also: visually, the woofer is very similar to the Norwegian SEAS polypropylene units used in the Vienna Acoustics MOZART Signature T-2 from around the same period. After some digging, it appears this may actually be the same 11cm SEAS unit used in the ProAc Super Tablette — a legendary mini-monitor from the ’80s–’90s… which would certainly explain why it sounds so good.

Around 1998, this model series’ successors began transitioning the traditional black woofer cones over to what Monitor Audio calls C-CAM — Ceramic Coated Aluminium/Magnesium — their metal cone, which gradually became the foundation of Monitor Audio’s modern product range. C-CAM gave Monitor Audio a more contemporary, high-speed, punchy sound — but personally, the sound image built up of the older UK-manufactured models stayed with the author, and Monitor Audio became a brand to keep auditioning but somehow never quite buy. ※This reflects only personal taste — in the meantime, the brand went on to considerably greater international recognition and commercial success.

The size-equivalent successor in the current lineup, the Radius Series 90 / Radius 90 HD, has been written about on this blog several times, and every time it’s heard the temptation is real — but haunted by the memory of the Monitor 1 Gold, the step was somehow never taken. The Radius Series 90 / Radius 90 HD is bright, crisp, and dry. The vintage Monitor series has shadow and depth in its resonance, and a quality that stays wet throughout. Even with the same tweeter lineage running through both, the sound shifts with the era and the designer. Getting hold of the Monitor 1 Gold again has made it clear: this is what was always being sought from Monitor Audio.

Summary

One of the speakers that might be called a personal touchstone has been acquired, at this rather late stage — and in doing so it’s been inadvertently confirmed that the sensibilities going back to student days haven’t shifted. A speaker designed and built almost entirely by hand, by the analogue instincts of the engineers who made it — yet it doesn’t fall short of the high-precision industrial products produced by computer-aided acoustic design. If anything, it sounds cleaner and clearer than many a so-called hi-res-compatible speaker on the market today.

Which makes you wonder: maybe what gets called progress in audio technology has really just been about cutting costs more efficiently — and the sound quality of new products hasn’t followed along nearly as much as the industry would have you believe. Come to think of it — what is technological advancement in Hi-Fi, really? It’s the kind of question that lingers.

＋For
High-resolution, vivid, beautiful treble
Transparent, nuanced, and moistly textured midrange
Rhythmic and charming musicality
Clean and open stage imaging
Excellent cabinet finish and refined bearing as a piece of furniture
A harmonious blend of old British sound character and modern clarity

－Against
Lean bass, limited deep bass quantity
Plain, unfinished rear panel