Tower Speaker Reviews

Setup
I set up the Platinum system in my 26' x 15.5' x 8' home-theater space. The PL100s were positioned at the back of the room, and the PLC350 center was placed beneath the projection screen. In both cases, I used Monitor Audio's own optional, dedicated stands. They are beautifully finished, but come disassembled and are tedious to put together. Get your dealer to do it.

The PL300s were set up to the left and right of my projection screen (retracted when the listening was music-only) roughly 9 feet apart and toed-in toward the main listening seat. The degree of toe-in proved moderately important for critical listening. I ended up with the PL300s set up so that only a sliver of the outer sides of their cabinets were visible from a center listening chair, which was located about ten feet from the plane of the speakers.

All three front speakers were positioned three feet or more from the side and front walls, and their grilles were removed. The spikes were not used; the speakers sat on carpet, but with vintage oak flooring underneath that must not be dinged! All the speakers were single-wired, not bi-wired.

The PLW-15 subwoofer was positioned in the front-right corner of the room, though I alternated this with a position just behind the center speaker (see Real World Performance). All the main-channel bass below 80Hz was directed to the subwoofer via the crossover in my preamp-processor. The bottom end of the PL300s was rolled off below 80Hz whenever the subwoofer was engaged—which it was for most of my listening, unless otherwise noted—but driven full range when I auditioned them without a sub. The sub's graphic equalizer was set up to produce optimum response at the main listening seat with the aid of a Sencore SoundPro audio analyzer.