Ah, 2020. The saviour of modern day cricket. Oh, its also a new speaker from Q Acoustics. A step up from the entry point 2010, the 2020 boasts a larger mid/bass driver giving it extra depth and weight. Its also quite sexy, and available in a gloss finish (at a slight premium of course).

Starting out the new 2000 series from Q-Acoustics is the 2010, a great little speaker with bags of character. Its got a smooth sound and is simple to drive, making it an ideal partner for an entry point integrated amp. Plus its at home in home thatre operations too, partnering well with its matching centre and sub. Gloss finish is available at a slight premium.

We are unashamed fans of Monitor Audio, their products sound great, look good and are excellent value for money. Case in point the is the entry level BR1. Fast and punchy, these little marvels will surprise with their bass agility and open top end. Great for detail freaks and certainly a must audition for the budget conscious.

Monitor Audios fantastic run of form continues with the BR2. This stand mounter is well proportioned and has a fantastically balanced and enthralling sound. Put them on top of a good stand (liberal drop of blutack under each corner!) and be prepared for a fast and exciting listen.

This very traditional British brand is one of a number of companies that have been swallowed hook line and sinker by the giant Chinese IAG conglomerate. The last UK ones filtered out of the consumer marketplace in 2008 / 2009 and now these are the first of the SE Asian manufactured products to be released.

Its always a good sign when you haven't even finished unpacking a product and a customer walks in and buys it. Thats what happened to our first pair of Aktimates, a new active speaker with a distinguished pedigree. Michael Creek has designed the amplifier for these speakers and furnished them with Epos drive units. The Aktimate is a unique product, a speaker with a built in ipod dock. Simply plug in your ipod speaker and sit back to hear sumptous music fill your room.

Making a speaker isn't that hard is it? just build a box, bang in some cheap asian drivers, tell everyone its 100 Watts, and your done right? If only life were that simple.

So heres a little speaker, featuring some fine drive units, a well designed crossover and a fit and finish that shames speakers several times its price. Mirror imaged cabinets, smooth detailed sound, punchy bottom end. Add in a real wood veneer (or piano gloss black for another $100) and you've got a loudspeaker bargain at $700.

The Radius 90HD is a radical departure from most satellite speakers in as much as it doesn't look radical. It's a high-class mini monitor, only smaller. In stark contrast to the hard, cold metal appearance of most A/V speaker packages, it has the same sumptuous real wood veneer and lacquer finishes that grace Monitor Audio's reference speakers. The same engineering standards and attention to detail, too, right down to the radiused corners of the cabinet and high-quality, gold-plated cable terminals.

It's not easy to get a new loudspeaker brand into Carlton Audio Visual. We already have lots of really good kit representing a broad range of timbres and tonalities. It was with some surprise that we found this new model Castle loudspeaker to be fantastic value for money and a genuine quality alternative from our existing inventory in this very critical sub $1000 bookshelf loudspeaker bracket.

The first Aktimate Mini iPod speaker system has been singularly successful, with terrific sound and facility from this Michael Creek designed product.

The Maxi version offers a lot more features than its predecessor, this bookshelf speaker has Internet radio (powered by Reciva), FM, wireless audio streaming functions (via Windows and UPnP), as well as Ethernet and Wi-Fi. It even has an LCD screen on the left speaker that helps a user browse through the menu and functions. It has a USB port that plays music from an MP3 or USB stick, with the unit supporting WAV, MP3, RealAudio, and WMA formats.

This is the new model bookshelf speaker from Monitor Audio's Silver Series. Immediate differences are the new derived from the Gold range midbass driver and the excellent graven solidity of the revised cabinet construction with its tensioning bolt from back of cabinet to back of bass driver.

The M5i speaker is the revision of this established bookshelf that is now available for audition at CAV.
Stronger, heavier, and more refined, sum it up. New weightier cabinet with improved tweeter and crossover.
In designing this fully shielded 2-way bass reflex design speaker, the Epos engineering team has fully considered the demands of today’s home theatre requirements. Importantly the speaker equally stands its ground in the world of two-channel audio.

The slender Radius 225 ‘Plasma’ is a versatile loudspeaker, which by virtue of its very shallow depth (105mm) is ideal for use with slim video displays or Plasma TVs, as a centre channel of main speaker. The Radius 225 Plasma can be used as a main speaker system, providing bass performance right down to 55Hz. Combined with an additional sub-woofer, the Radius 225 forms part of a powerful and versatile audio/video based system. The slim wall bracket supplied has a very shallow profile and holds the Radius 225 on the wall to provide a near, unobtrusive appearance. Supplied with full-length oval black or silver grilles, the Radius 225 can be customised to match its environment. The Radius 225’s real wood veneer and lacquer finishes and its driver technologies are specified to the same exacting standards as those employed by Monitor Audio’s reference speaker systems.

The new DM2/7 from Dynaudio may not have the pretty finish of some of its stable mates, but the pedigree is the same. But who can complain when your saving some money and still getting that inspiring dynaudio sound. Sporting a 6.5" woofer and a soft dome tweeter, its got that rich, flattering sound Dynaudio is famous for. Its Dynaudio for the masses!

The Excite X12 takes off from where the old Audience 42 got off the rails. You get what you would expect as the 42's replacement: a compact sized book shelf speaker with sleak design, now made even more shmick with its new tapered face. However if you expected Dynaudio to ride their previous achievements, you'd be dead wrong.

These curvey buggers have clearly been assembled by people who had a lot more time to do it than the Brits did when they were making the previous model 782's in Huntingdon a couple of years ago. The Piano finish and the curves are gorgeous.

New to CAV, and new to Australia, Audiovector is another fine hifi purveyor hailing from Europe. The K1 super is the baby bookshelf of the stable, its slim cabinet is finished in a high quality wood veneer. Soundstaging rightfully impresses, with instruments marking their territory in the sound landscape with precision. Sonics are detailed yet smooth, none of the 'hello I'm a cheap tweeter' nasties here. Also quite adept at the mystical arts of home theatre too, when partnered with their matching centre and surround partners.

What happens when you take a brilliant sounding and designed bookshelf from Dynaudio, then inject it with steriods and send it to the gym with a ruthless cigar smoking olympic weight lifting coach? Result: The Excite x16!

The basis of the Focus 110 is the extremely solid cabinet construction. The asymmetrical form of the cabinet takes shape with sidewalls that gently taper towards the back, contributing additional rigidity to the assembly. In principle, this further prevents unwanted resonance and its detrimental effects. The end result is pure and untainted sound reproduction free of coloration.
The Esotec+ technology is also prominently featured in the smallest model of the Focus range. The integrated D 280 tweeter with its coated 28mm soft dome fascinates with its incredibly detailed resolution of the high frequencies – a level of performance for which Dynaudio has become renowned.

Ten months of R&D and lengthy listening tests has facilitated the launch of the original DB1 reference mini monitor. The DB1 is the worlds smallest transmission line design, with an effective line length of 1.5m in a tiny, heavily damped cabinet.

Go for gold! The Monitor Audio Gold Signature series is here and the new GS10 standmounters are stunners. deep and tuneful, they will really put to rest the theory that bookshelf speaker's don't do bass. A transparent top end and absolutely beautiful finish combine to make these compact speakers are a must audition!

The TB2 shares many of the remarkable attributes and awards of its smaller brother, the DB1, in a larger stand mounted form. With its new PMC designed 6 1/2 inch bass unit it allows for higher volume levels, increased bass extension and dynamics, making it suited to both large and small listening rooms. It has the same tonal balance and wide dispersion characteristics, as with all PMC designs, providing a room filling audio picture outstanding for both stereo and surround configurations.

The Kurre 5s are here, and they represent a significant improvement over the outgoing 4s. Add they've dropped $500 in price to boot. We have an exceptional range of bookshelf speakers, but the Kurre 5s, with their studio monitor like accuracy and transparency are truly unique.

The Focus 140 embodies all of the virtues in Dynaudio’s long-standing tradition of high-performance compact loudspeakers: Highly evolved Dynaudio technology, meticulously selected components, painstakingly matched materials and carefully voiced sonics. Every technical detail is developed and manufactured exclusively by Dynaudio.

These Jo D'Appolito designed Beryllium tweetered bookshelf speakers have ben really grabbing the attention of some serious audiophile buyers in our store. Weighing in at just too much for one chap comfortably to lift they exude a granitesque solidity. Their aesthetics are a matter of controversy but their transparency on the right amp allied to their review cred has given them much success in our listening environment.

The advanced Dynaudio technology and the innovative cabinet construction are unified in a spectacular design � all individual aspects form a harmonious, synergistic whole of the S 1.4. Elegant, slim lines shape a soft curve on the front baffle. The thin cloth grille cover, held in place by small, hidden magnets, underlines the silhouette. The real wood veneer is meticulously polished by hand to yield a silky smooth finish, an elegant contrast to the solid aluminium and metal elements essential to the advanced technology of the loudspeakers. To realize the full sound quality potential in any room - in stereo or home theater systems - the S 1.4 employs an intelligent stand construction.

Hi Fi World May 2008 recants of the Monitor Audio PL100's:

"Brilliantly atmospheric, transparent and musical loudspeakers, but dont suffer poor partnering ancillaries or recordings gladly."

The ultimate bookshelf speaker system, the C1's feature all the technological wizardry of their larger siblings in a more compact, space friendly enclosure.

Set up correctly and partnered with the right amp and source, these little speakers are amazing. The sound stage extends well beyond the speakers yet is totally defined, placing instruments and voices with pin point accuracy. Bass is surprisingly deep and extremely quick and tuneful. Box colouration is non-existent and treble detail sublime - you hear the music, but nothing else - no harshness, no muddiness, just an astonishing insight into the music.

If you have a small to mid sized room, or don't need massive levels of volume, and are after the ultimate in articulation and musicality, then the C1's must be on your short list.

Stunning highs? Sweet mids? Sublime bass performance? No generic cliche taken from a British HiFi magazine can do these speakers justice. None. Simply amazing (whoops, there I go again). This fully active loudspeaker has seperate amplification for each driver. The transmission line design and flat piston carbon/nomex woofer means these speakers play deep and with all the authority of a MUCH bigger design. The tweeter is the same as that featured in their top dollar US$125,000 monitor. These speakers are the answer for those forced to sit relatively close to the speakers (near field). One of our staff members ordered a pair of these pint sized brutes upon first listen. Need we say more? (I didn't think so, but see below for a detailed review anyway).

It takes a very special product to get our jaded staff excited, but these speakers are just that. Already prompting many a late night(ane into the early morning) listening session, The MB2's have already earned a special place in our hearts. And they will find a place in yours too after an audition we're sure.