Monitor Audio Studio 89s – Trickle-Down Tech with Incredible Fidelity

It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the Studio 89s would be one of our new favourite speakers. Monitor Audio have released two “Studio” models previously. The new Studios take their name from the celebrated originals, released in 1989. The second Studios, released in 2018, received a less than glowing reception.

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Visually, the new Studio 89s resemble the 2018 model, but that’s where the similarities end. The sound has been completely overhauled with trickle-down technology from both the top-of-the-line Platinum series and MA’s concept speakers, the $100k-plus Hyphns.

The results are surprising and very welcome. When we think of a “studio” speaker, we tend to picture brutally honest monitors used by engineers like a microscope to forensically examine recordings in progress. The speakers are an unusual shape: tall, narrow, and deep, and these visual cues further set us up to expect detail and fidelity, but maybe not “warmth” or “musicality”.

Colour us surprised and delighted that the Studio 89s provide all of the above, balancing detail and precision with rich tonality. The bass is confounding for a speaker this small; while it doesn’t go super deep it is very well differentiated, representing distinct bass tones expertly. You can add a sub if you feel the need to dig deeper (MA’s Anthra series is the logical match) but everything else a speaker can do the Studio 89 does at a reference-quality standard. They throw a room-filling soundstage that you can walk around in---the “sweet spot” is pretty much 360 degrees.

 Monitor Audio is one of our favourite brands at Todds and the new Studio 89s only reinforce this status. At $3999 ($4999 with the stands) these sit in between the Gold 50s and Gold 100 bookshelves from the newly released 6G series. You really do get the sense, though, that we’re getting a taste of technology that MA has previously reserved for speakers in the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Owning a pair of Studio 89s would feel like getting away with something.