What We Like
- Audio performance is flat, neutral, and accurate throughout.
- Good amount of flexibility offered by per speaker adjustments,
What We Don't Like
- Design is a little on the bland side.
- Not a whole lot of extra features or input options.
Monoprice is based out of California and was founded in 2002. Despite a name that sounds like it fell out of a dystopian, neo-consumerist cautionary tale, they’ve done well in their 15 years of operation and provide some 6500 products.
Design
Visually, the Stage Right monitors look just about as generic as they get. The standard driver configuration, a standard black finish, and a very standard cabinet shape. This will either be a good thing or a bad one depending on what you’re looking for, but just know that if you are looking for anything in the way of visual intrigue, you’ll want to look elsewhere.
The back panel of the master speaker is well designed and keeps things simple. Inputs are labelled appropriately, and everything is sufficiently spaced out so as not to appear unnecessarily confusing.
The tweeter is in the mostly standard silk dome design and features magnetic shielding to, as Monoprice puts it, ensure “a flat frequency response and accurate musical reproduction”. The 8” woofer is similarly shielded, but also features a Kevlar fiber cone, a rubber surround for dampening unwanted frequencies, and a high temperature voice coil which ensures continued performance even during long periods of time spent under the duress of high volume playback.
Features
For the most part, the range of features on offer is broadly comparable to most of what you are likely to find in studio monitors at this price range. That’s not a criticism per se, but it does mean that there isn’t a whole lot to be found in the less than extensive feature list which would draw you to this pair of studio monitors above others in the same price point.
Each of the speakers is separately powered and bi-amped, which are both useful boons to audio performance. The use of dual amplifiers essentially means that each of the drivers has sufficient power to run at its full potential without having to load balance between the others on the same circuit. This, in theory, ensures that the audio is as crisp, loud, and well performed as the drivers will allow.
You have some control over the performance thanks to a four position selector switch on the back of each speaker. This means that you can balance performance relative to the individual placements of the speakers, rather than having to approach this customization with a one size fits all method of adjusting both at once. The high frequency bias can be altered from flat to either a -2dB, -1dB, or +1dB shelving of frequencies above 3000 Hz. This should address issues which could lead to the highs sounding unnecessarily bright.
Performance
Overall, the performance of the Stage Rights is very good. Although there aren’t a whole host of features and customization options on offer, the simple fact that you can adjust the high frequency shelving on a per speaker basis allows for a good amount of flexibility and versatility. Being able to take into account the specifics of the room in which you’re listening is always a plus, and in our tests we found that this made a big difference in reducing the overly bright default sound.
Volume is good, and the speakers can output a pretty decent amount of sound if you so choose. Whilst we didn’t experience any particular distortion or clipping even at the higher range of output, the mix did become a little more indistinguishable as we ramped up to the top end of what was on offer. The overall response is best characterised as flat. But in a good way. It’s an accurate, clear sound that will be great if your primary use case is for mixing. If you prefer a little more character or have a penchant for a particular category of sound signatures, then you may wish to look elsewhere.
The Rumble:
Despite an underwhelmingly generic outward appearance and a feature list that leaves something to be desired, the audio performance and specific flexibility of the high frequency adjustment means that these are a good choice for any would be pro.
