platinum audio solo's

If you want a good sounding monitor, snap up the $1000 pair of Aerial 5s that were listed a few days ago. They kick the ass of Plat. solos. Another good choice would be Paradigm studio 20s. I had platinum solos on loan for a while. I found them bright, thin on the bottom, and little bass. (not surprising considering 2 4" woofers). They needed about 2-4 layers of toilet paper over the tweeters behind the grill to tame the tweeter's brightness down. (not kidding.) Combine that with the fact that platinum is long out of business and spares/repairs are not available for these drivers, and they are pretty much a pair of boatanchors. There's tons better stuff out there for the same $ or less. The plats do have a nice finish and look cool, but the sound leaves a lot to be desired. I am sure some platinum owners will chime in here with defenses for these (typical proud-owner syndrome of course), but the facts remain as above.

-Ed

The grilles are easy to remove - at least mine were. No damage incurred.

If you guys don't find these bright, try comparing them to something else at the same time. They are without doubt the brightest 2-way small monitor I have ever heard. Metal 4" cones probably didn't help this any either. Compared to a good tweeter such as that in old L-series ADS, the Aerial tweeter, or even the Paradigm reference tweeter, these are *shrill*.

Low 30hz? Doubtful. Even from Plat. they were only rated mid-40s at best, IIRC. Like all small monitors, they need a subwoofer for anything below 40hz or more.

On balance, they just are not a good choice, IMHO, for the reasons stated initially. Maybe for $200-300 or so, if you can afford to throw them away if a driver goes bad. Anything higher than that, price-wise: look elsewhere for something better.

Hey, buy them if you want. But I'd be willing to bet we will see them back on the market before long. There's a reason these are always on Agon...

-Ed