[Rich Carlson]

Got my Silk Monitors on Friday.  These are awesome speakers - small, but there's nothing miniature about the soundstage or the quality and quantity of bass.  Depth of image is the best of any speakers I've owned, and the dynamics are very impressive.  Thanks to Jim and the gang for the great work.

[mcgsxr]

Nice pic, even though Salk make tons of larger floorstanders, I always come back to looking at their monitors.

Looks like a nice spacious and treated home you have given your Silks.  Enjoy!

[rlal]

Congrats on new silk monitor.

When I moved to US in 2017 I went and talked to Jim for a new speaker and he had a silk monitor traded by another customer.
I was using Harbeth Compact 7es3 back home with Devialet 120. I auditioned different Salk speakers he played. I paid some advance didnt specify
for which model and took silk monitor home. I liked the sound very much and I was amazed by the refined bass of silk monitor compared to the size of speaker. After discussing with Jim he suggested Song3A and I ordered it.

After 3 months I got Song3A and I being used to smooth  sound of silk monitors/Harbeth (BBC dip) I didn't like the highs of Song3A.
When I talked to Jim he said Song3A is more detailed and he said if I am interested I can go with Silk monitor or towers.
I  ordered Silk towers and still using it happily with Devialet.

[Joe Frances]

Congrats on new silk monitor.

When I moved to US in 2017 I went and talked to Jim for a new speaker and he had a silk monitor traded by another customer.
I was using Harbeth Compact 7es3 back home with Devialet 120. I auditioned different Salk speakers he played. I paid some advance didnt specify
for which model and took silk monitor home. I liked the sound very much and I was amazed by the refined bass of silk monitor compared to the size of speaker. After discussing with Jim he suggested Song3A and I ordered it.

After 3 months I got Song3A and I being used to smooth  sound of silk monitors/Harbeth (BBC dip) I didn't like the highs of Song3A.
When I talked to Jim he said Song3A is more detailed and he said if I am interested I can go with Silk monitor or towers.
I  ordered Silk towers and still using it happily with Devialet.

Rial:

Even though you have the towers and I am interested in the monitors, I was wondering if you could tell me how the Silks are at lower-to-moderate volume levels? As I understand it, this speaker was designed for a customer with a small NYC apartment.  It should, therefore, sound good at "good neighbor" levels, which is where I play a lot of my music.  Late at night, I can't blast it (as my "dear wife") says; but no one has commented on the Silks performance at lower volumes, so I would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,

Joe

[Slashfive]

Hi Joe-I’ll chime in. I bought an as new pair of Exotica monitors in medium cherry with RAAL tweeters last month to tide me over until my Song 3 BeATs completed production. My listening room is 14 x 14 x 7 and like you my listening has been at neighborly levels (we have young children). I was initially using mono blocked vintage MC30s but for the last 2 weeks have swapped out for a MC452 so largely different ends of the power spectrum.
I have made some room tweaks as well that somewhat confound my ability to do strict point of comparison but the Exotica monitors are sublime and I think you can’t go wrong for your needs. Some will find the low end lacking and want a sub but honestly at the volume I listen and with my setup I don’t want for ANYTHING with these.
I wish I hadn’t ordered the BeATs now as one or the other pair will be superfluous but this is a good problem to have! Jim and crew sure build a great product.

[rlal]

Rial:

Even though you have the towers and I am interested in the monitors, I was wondering if you could tell me how the Silks are at lower-to-moderate volume levels? As I understand it, this speaker was designed for a customer with a small NYC apartment.  It should, therefore, sound good at "good neighbor" levels, which is where I play a lot of my music.  Late at night, I can't blast it (as my "dear wife") says; but no one has commented on the Silks performance at lower volumes, so I would appreciate your thoughts.

Compared to silk monitors Silk towers has higher sensitivity, so I guess towers would be a better option for low level listening due to one more driver and sensitivity.

Thanks,

Joe

I am not sure what exactly you are asking.
I used to increase volume to good level to enjoy, to be honest I never tried at low volume.
Silk being very smooth I used to increase volume to good level while song 3 A I used to reduce the volume because
I felt the highs are bit harsh, me being used to Harbeth sound.

Silk towers have higher sensitivity than silk monitors and it has one more driver/ transmission line.
Hence I assume Silk towers will be a better option than monitors for low level listening.
I do live in an apartment and I cannot go to very high volume level. Hope this helps.

Thanks
Rlal

[Joe Frances]

I am not sure what exactly you are asking.
I used to increase volume to good level to enjoy, to be honest I never tried at low volume.
Silk being very smooth I used to increase volume to good level while song 3 A I used to reduce the volume because
I felt the highs are bit harsh, me being used to Harbeth sound.

Silk towers have higher sensitivity than silk monitors and it has one more driver/ transmission line.
Hence I assume Silk towers will be a better option than monitors for low level listening.
I do live in an apartment and I cannot go to very high volume level. Hope this helps.

Thanks
Rlal

Thanks this is helpful.  It is only recently that I have discovered that some speakers sound very good at moderate to high volume levels and others do not.  In fact, there was one highly-rated speaker that the dealer told me wouldn't work in an apartment because it only sounded good at higher volume.  Since the Silk monitors were designed for an apartment dweller, I thought it would be good for a smaller space and had good energy levels if played at lower levels, of course one man's lower level is another too quiet, I understand. The whole problem is not being able to actually hear them in person. 

But let me ask, since you have Harbeth experience, how would you compare the sound from the Silks from the Harbeths you know?  Any points of comparison would be helpful.

[Rich Carlson]

Hi, Joe - So far, my experience is that the Silk Monitors sound very good at low levels as well as high.  As you say, this is not true of all speakers.

[Joe Frances]

Hi, Joe - So far, my experience is that the Silk Monitors sound very good at low levels as well as high.  As you say, this is not true of all speakers.

Thanks, Rich, your comments are very helpful.

[rlal]

Thanks this is helpful.  It is only recently that I have discovered that some speakers sound very good at moderate to high volume levels and others do not.  In fact, there was one highly-rated speaker that the dealer told me wouldn't work in an apartment because it only sounded good at higher volume.  Since the Silk monitors were designed for an apartment dweller, I thought it would be good for a smaller space and had good energy levels if played at lower levels, of course one man's lower level is another too quiet, I understand. The whole problem is not being able to actually hear them in person. 

But let me ask, since you have Harbeth experience, how would you compare the sound from the Silks from the Harbeths you know?  Any points of comparison would be helpful.

 To be honest it was in a different room and I couldnt do an A to B comparison as I had Harbeth back home.
As you know room is a big variable which has got a big influence on sound.
Harbeth needs less power compared to Silk monitors due to higher sensitivity and it is  smaller compared to Compact 7.
Other than that nothing comes to my mind. Presentation wise both are similar.

Thanks

[Bikeratl]

Joe,
I’m normally just a lurker, but I had the similar concerns, so I thought I’d chime in.  Plus I’ve had three glasses of wine.  Anyway, I tend to move a lot so I didn’t want full size towers, and I usually live in apartments or complexes with adjoining walls, so sound at moderate volume had to be excellent.  I was seriously comsidering  Silk monitors and I know I would have been completely happy with that decision, but I had a couple priorities I wanted to address.  I knew the Seas Excel and RAAL sound and I loved the accuracy they provide, whereas I had not yet heard the Illuminator.  I wanted the greatest possible bass extension in a smallish cabinet size.  Finally, I liked the fact the Seas Excel and RAAL would have a slightly higher sensitivity.  Thus, I had Jim build a Veracity ST monitor.  What continues to impress me with each listen is the ability to play really low frequencies even at low volume.  Regardless of music type, and I listen to nearly all genres, apartment friendly volumes sound phenomenal.  After mine were built, I did have the chance to listen to Silk monitors, and while they may not go quite as deep as the Veracity monitor, they do have extremely impressive bass for their size and deserve all the praise they receive.  I suspect you will be very happy.

Also, here is a big shout out to Jim and the team he has brought together.  They create a great value, with exceptional build quality and superb sound.

[Joe Frances]

Joe,
I’m normally just a lurker, but I had the similar concerns, so I thought I’d chime in.  Plus I’ve had three glasses of wine.  Anyway, I tend to move a lot so I didn’t want full size towers, and I usually live in apartments or complexes with adjoining walls, so sound at moderate volume had to be excellent.  I was seriously comsidering  Silk monitors and I know I would have been completely happy with that decision, but I had a couple priorities I wanted to address.  I knew the Seas Excel and RAAL sound and I loved the accuracy they provide, whereas I had not yet heard the Illuminator.  I wanted the greatest possible bass extension in a smallish cabinet size.  Finally, I liked the fact the Seas Excel and RAAL would have a slightly higher sensitivity.  Thus, I had Jim build a Veracity ST monitor.  What continues to impress me with each listen is the ability to play really low frequencies even at low volume.  Regardless of music type, and I listen to nearly all genres, apartment friendly volumes sound phenomenal.  After mine were built, I did have the chance to listen to Silk monitors, and while they may not go quite as deep as the Veracity monitor, they do have extremely impressive bass for their size and deserve all the praise they receive.  I suspect you will be very happy.

Also, here is a big shout out to Jim and the team he has brought together.  They create a great value, with exceptional build quality and superb sound.

Thanks for your insightful comments.  For me the issue is finding a monitor that communicates the music and creates an emotional experience for the listener.  The technical details are good, fine, but the hard part is to determine whether something special is happening when you listen to them.  I am coming to a good realization in reading through this thread that that is what is really important to me.

[Rich Carlson]

Now that I’ve listened to these several hours a day for a five months (time flies), I’m going to take a shot at writing a review. My wife Lori has listened along with me much of that time, and has contributed her thoughts as well. First, the obvious – these are small, stand-mounted monitors with RAAL ribbon tweeters and ScanSpeak Illuminator woofers. You can read more about them here: http://salksound.com/model.php?model=Silk+Monitors  I have them set up on sand-filled, spiked Atlantis 24” stands, about 8 feet apart, with the front panels about 46” from the wall behind. They’re well away from the sidewalls.  The electronics include a Bluesound Node 2, mostly playing flac files from an NAS, but also some streaming from Deezer and Qobuz, a Benchmark DAC3L, Benchmark LA4 preamp, dSpeaker Anti-Node 2.0 room correction system, and Benchmark AHB2 amp. 

What’s most striking at first is the soundstage and imaging – on recordings that allow it, the soundstage is huge, with excellent depth.  They’re also exceptionally good at producing a centered mono image, on mono recordings or the dialogue channel of movies (we don’t use a center-channel speaker).  Second, the bass is very impressive for speakers this size. It’s quite deep, tight, and powerful. Percussion and both electric and acoustic bass come across very well, as does the lower range of piano.  Adding the Hsu ULS-15 sub helps on many recordings, but the sound is full and satisfying even without the sub. The sub low-pass filter is set at about 45 Hz, and the Silk Monitors are run full range.

As we’ve listened more, we’ve come to appreciate how smooth and detailed these speakers can sound, given a good recording. This is especially clear on delicate percussion, and on complex music and mixes – it’s easy to hear voices and instruments far back in the mix. Clarity is excellent, but never seems overdone. Maybe most impressive over time is the way the speakers convey the textures of voices, reed instruments, and so on. Solo guitar, solo piano, and large groups and orchestras all sound very convincing. Voices especially sound very realistic - something I've become more and more aware of the longer I listen.  The imaging and soundstaging on good recordings, especially live recordings and good orchestral recordings, is very impressive.  We’ve listened at levels from near-whisper to very loud (for us, probably not very loud to some of you). The speakers sound very alive at all levels.

Weaknesses? Well, room correction from the Anti-Node 2.0 does improve clarity in the bass – primary correction is removing some small peaks between 60 and 150 Hz. It would be nice not to need this, but in a nearly square (19 x 20 ft.) room, some peaks in the bass are probably inevitable. And the harshness on some, mostly older, recordings is more obvious than with the Newform R645v3 speakers these replaced. But that’s about it. I haven’t heard a lot of recent high-end stand-mount speakers for comparison, but we did consider the Joseph Audio Pulsars, and have no regrets about choosing these instead.

Not a professional review, of course, but my effort to convey what the Silk Monitors are like. We’re very happy with them.