Monoprice Air Motion Cinema 5 Bookshelf Speaker $100 (DEAD)

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These are well reviewed speakers and many sites classed them with higher priced speakers, but even still, at the normal $200 each price point most reviews said they were not perfect, but amazing value and if you wanted better, you would be spending much more than $400 to get better. Now they are 50% off, so $99 vs $199 each. If you want to use them for computer/desktop use, I would suggest a sub still as these are not exactly floor pounders.

You can use code SUPER35 to get another $35 off a pair, making it only $164 for a pair, which to me, makes this hot deal blazing. $164 for a pair of speakers is ultra budget range.

Monoprice Air Motion Cinema 5 Bookshelf Speaker

Review 1

Review 2
 
What is up with that top thing? Is that the tweeter? Never seen any speaker that looks like this. Weird.

I'm still on my Pioneer A.Jones bookshelf surround sound speakers. They sound great. 4 bookshelves, 1 center channel, and a sub. Probably won't upgrade until they die.



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elite.mafia said:
What is up with that top thing? Is that the tweeter?
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yep
Air Motion Tweeter: The Air Motion Tweeter is similar in design to a ribbon tweeter, but utilizes pleats to create more surface area and thereby move more air than conventional designs. They feature a nearly flat frequency response to 25Khz with almost no distortion, resulting in sonic excellence for your home audio system. The AMT is theoretically an almost perfect transducer system.
 
cambrian said:
thanks. was looking for affordable surround speakers. $177 for a pair. good deal.
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I have a KEF (Q300) for my home theater system, but needed a good set of near field speakers for my desktop, which these should do wonders for.

elite.mafia said:
What is up with that top thing? Is that the tweeter? Never seen any speaker that looks like this. Weird.

I'm still on my Pioneer A.Jones bookshelf surround sound speakers. They sound great. 4 bookshelves, 1 center channel, and a sub. Probably won't upgrade until they die.



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Yes, its a tweeter, most people not really into audio will not know what they are, as they are often only used in very highend speakers ($1,000+ a pair), as someone said, they can play loud with little to no distortion, and can have very flat response, as normal tweeters can become peaky.

jmilcher said:
This item has been discontinued
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Yeah, looks like they sold out. I didn't expect them to last long as they were already considered a great value at $200 each, and sold like hot cakes when they had their $160 sale, $99 was an almost to good to be true price.
 
Brian_B said:
Not like speakers get obsolete and stop working after the manufacturer stops releasing firmware updates....
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Indeed, this is why the market for some vintage speakers go for crazy prices. A well made speaker with a good crossover system will pretty much never become obsolete.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Indeed, this is why the market for some vintage speakers go for crazy prices. A well made speaker with a good crossover system will pretty much never become obsolete.
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That's why it pays to build your own in the long run.

Now every 15 or 20 years you generally have to refoam the woofers but that's about it.

Regarding AMT tweeters, they are basically the best you can get, their only real downside is cost and efficiency. They generally are not very efficient and are more expensive to make.
 
Chaos Machine said:
That's why it pays to build your own in the long run.

Now every 15 or 20 years you generally have to refoam the woofers but that's about it.

Regarding AMT tweeters, they are basically the best you can get, their only real downside is cost and efficiency. They generally are not very efficient and are more expensive to make.
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It can, but that only works out for those spending good money on speakers anyway, you can build amazing speakers for much cheaper than the $1,000+ units, however understanding of woofer/mid/tweeter, crossover points, cabinet, porting etc etc etc is not something many people understand, and honestly I would be hard pressed to build just the cabinet of the same quality for the total price of this speaker, not including time cost.
 
BlueFireIce said:
It can, but that only works out for those spending good money on speakers anyway, you can build amazing speakers for much cheaper than the $1,000+ units, however understanding of woofer/mid/tweeter, crossover points, cabinet, porting etc etc etc is not something many people understand, and honestly I would be hard pressed to build just the cabinet of the same quality for the total price of this speaker, not including time cost.
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Ever heard of parts express? They sell diy kits with precut cabs along with instructions on how to wire and solder the crossovers. I built a set of the c-note kits over a weekend and they sound amazing. I really only mention it because this is a diy site and if you know how to build a pc this shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

The best bang for your buck is always going to be trolling Craigslist. Plenty of people will dump their speakers cause they don't want to move them or it doesn't fit decor of the room. Or they think just because they are old and that they aren't worth anything.

Back to the topic though, monoprices monolith line I hear is really good, particularly the subs. An amt in a bookshelf is usually a sign of quality but not always.
 
Chaos Machine said:
Ever heard of parts express? They sell diy kits with precut cabs along with instructions on how to wire and solder the crossovers. I built a set of the c-note kits over a weekend and they sound amazing. I really only mention it because this is a diy site and if you know how to build a pc this shouldn't be too much of a stretch.

The best bang for your buck is always going to be trolling Craigslist. Plenty of people will dump their speakers cause they don't want to move them or it doesn't fit decor of the room. Or they think just because they are old and that they aren't worth anything.

Back to the topic though, monoprices monolith line I hear is really good, particularly the subs. An amt in a bookshelf is usually a sign of quality but not always.
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Yes, I have used them often when building speakers. Their knock down cabinets still are not the same quality as the one in these speakers, not only are they that well made, but they are also special in that the cabinets are not your normal boxed design, outside and inside is more egg shaped, going from the front to the back, the sides and top actually get bigger, and then taper down, which is a very complex (and expensive) cabinet design to reduce internal sound wave reflection that happens in straight walled boxed designs, it's not something you find in anything but really high end speakers.

Not saying PE doesn't have good DIY kits, only that DIY speakers is a very small market, and people who are into that, already know it. Many also still buy OEM units as well, as it's not something you just toss together like a PC, cabinet volume, design, bracing, porting, woofer/tweeter selection, crossover building and matching, sound testing to make sure it was done right, wood working tools for putting a cabinet together, finishing of that cabinet etc etc. All of which will be more than this speaker was. If you could build a speaker of the same performance and build quality for $82 each, I would like to see the parts lists. Woofer and AMT would probably cost you more, not even getting to the cabinet, crossover, paint or finishing material, time etc etc.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Yes, I have used them often when building speakers. Their knock down cabinets still are not the same quality as the one in these speakers, not only are they that well made, but they are also special in that the cabinets are not your normal boxed design, outside and inside is more egg shaped, going from the front to the back, the sides and top actually get bigger, and then taper down, which is a very complex (and expensive) cabinet design to reduce internal sound wave reflection that happens in straight walled boxed designs, it's not something you find in anything but really high end speakers.

Not saying PE doesn't have good DIY kits, only that DIY speakers is a very small market, and people who are into that, already know it. Many also still buy OEM units as well, as it's not something you just toss together like a PC, cabinet volume, design, bracing, porting, woofer/tweeter selection, crossover building and matching, sound testing to make sure it was done right, wood working tools for putting a cabinet together, finishing of that cabinet etc etc. All of which will be more than this speaker was. If you could build a speaker of the same performance and build quality for $82 each, I would like to see the parts lists. Woofer and AMT would probably cost you more, not even getting to the cabinet, crossover, paint or finishing material, time etc etc.
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I am not making an argument that you can do it cheaper on the low end. You are absolutely right on that and I never said otherwise. I was talking more about the high end and that you can do champaign on a beer budget if you willing to diy.
 
elite.mafia said:
What is up with that top thing? Is that the tweeter? Never seen any speaker that looks like this. Weird.
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For a bigger version, see Magnepan.

For an even bigger version, even more see through, and even more expensive, see Martin Logan (ESL series, not the Motion series).
 
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