Munro Sonic Egg 100
Two thousand bucks of pure awesomeness
FOR THE LONGEST TIME, speakers have been one of the most misjudged items any computer enthusiast can purchase. We’re sure you all remember the days of those god-awful $20 plug-in 2.0 Logitech speakers from way back when. That tiny plastic shroud housing the tinny sounding dynamic drivers littered within—great for playing Half-Life2 or jamming along to some substandard MP3s, but they leave a lot to be desired in today’s environment of super-quality headsets and highresolution audio.
As you can probably tell from the amount we’ve been covering it, audio has had a resurgence in recent years; higher quality files, better-sounding DACs, and far superior headphones now litter the market. But where does that leave speaker-lovers? Those not bothered by family, neighboring apartments, or any other inhibiting factors, freeing your cranium from those troublesome ear-huggers?
This leads us to one option, one that is more often than not chosen by the likes of professionals, those sitting in front of their Apple Macs, recording tunes from talented musicians littered across the country. Studio monitors—relatively inexpensive, you can pick up a pair for less than $150 if you look in the right places, but a good set can set you back anything up to $3,000 and beyond. So, what do we have here? Munro Sonic’s Egg 100s—$2,000 of beautifully crafted perfection. For the price, you get two lovely egg-shaped passive monitor speakers, rigid and resonant-neutral, each featuring a 25mm tweeter for your high trebles, and a 100mm driver for your low mids and basal tones. Curvaceously designed to minimize noise resonance from any straight lines and edges internally.
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED Straight out of the box, you’re going to need a solid DAC to plug these babies into, because the only inputs located in the back of the external amplifier unit are two XLR connections. Even in the office, we had to borrow a more premium DAC from the guys at MusicRadar, just to get these bad boys working. We then tested the difference between a standard XLR-toXLR connection and an XLR-to-RCA cable, just to ensure that those utilizing a more traditional PC-enthusiast DAC wouldn’t be penalized for it. And, sure enough, there was zero noticeable difference.
Going back to the amplifier, it’s a stunningly crafted aluminum box featuring a separate snazzy headphone amplifier. That may seem like an antiquated decision, compared to integrating it into the monitors themselves, but having access to the volume control externally, as opposed to on the back of the speakers, is a gift.
Setting up the two monitors is fairly painless, too—the cable connections are secure, and both speakers sit on two well-designed rubber mounts, enabling you to position the Egg 100s at any angle you feel is necessary to maximize your aural experience.
As far as sound quality goes, the Egg 100s are exceptional. They’re crisp and beautifully well balanced, with an incredibly vast soundscape. The bass is well rounded and intuitively pronounced in more synthetic or electronic musical styles. Of course, some of this may depend on what DAC you’re taking advantage of. In our case, we were still utilizing our trusty Denon DA-300USB. When it came to more mainstream genres, you could really hear the higher production values—the music was simply incredible to listen to. Moving on to more acoustic genres and the classical style of sound, there was a serene beauty to it all. There’s something about hearing the mistakes that the artists make; the clink as the plectrum hits the strings, the bite as those vocal chords pronounce the Ts, so crucial to good songcraft. They were hugely warm. Epic score was hairtingling, orchestral arrangements felt alive and powerful—enough to make even the most stoic of hearts take a step back for a second. It was constantly enjoyable, unlike anything we’ve ever experienced.
So what are the downsides? Well, space is going to be a huge concern. Keeping the amplifier external—although a stroke of genius in some respects—may cause trouble for those lacking a larger desk, and the monitors themselves are far larger than anything you’d see from the amateurish 2.1 speaker systems of yesteryear. But then they need to be to fully encapsulate that sound. On top of that, they’re not cheap—$2,000 is a significant chunk of money. Yet, again, if you’re in the market for a professional audio system, you’re more than likely going to be looking at spending more than that anyway. Price aside, in our eyes, the Munro Sonic Egg 100s are damn near perfect.