Monitor Audio Apex
After the launch at the Bristol Show, I can now post up details of Monitor Audio’s new Apex home cinema range.
The Apex AW12 subwoofer has been available for a short while now, and sits between the RXW12 and GSW12 pricewise. The cabinet differs a little in that ithas rounded edges, creating a softer look than many other ‘packaged’ subs. There’s no screws, bolt heads or grille holes visible, just smooth clean lines, which means it doesn’t attract attention to itself, and looks a little more pleasing to the eye than many others that can be mentioned. It uses Monitor Audio’s own C-CAM 12″ long throw bass driver, driven by a Class D digital amplifier providing 500 watts (1000 watts peak) of clean power down to 21Hz. It utilises a sealed cabinet which provides a smoother in room bass response, ensures a quicker bass than many ported designs, and is easier to integrate in many rooms.
The Apex 10 satellite speaker is a compact affair, again, utilising the smoother lines and curves of the AW12 subwoofer. These use a die-cast alloy cabinet, which is extremely rigid. bass is taken care of by a 5.5″ RST mid/bass driver, which looks real class with it’s ‘golf ball’ indentations as used in Monitor Audio’s Gold GS and Silver RX Series. The 1″ C-CAM gold dome tweeter ensures a frequency range of up to 35kHz. The Apex 10’s are front ported, using Monitor Audio’s HiVe II port system. This allows lower bass extention, and better room integration than a rear ported design.
The slimline matching Apex floor stands for the 10’s keep the visual impact of this speaker to a minimum. They include speaker connections in the base of the stand, so your speaker cable can run along the floor and connect to the base. They’re internally wired to connect to the Apex 10’s when they’re mounted to the stand.
The matching Apex 40 centre speaker is designed to cope with the extra work that any centre speaker has to, being able to handle 200 watts compared to the Apex 10’s 100 watts. It does this by employing two 5.5″ RST mid/bass drivers, allowing a slightly lower bass extention than the 10’s down to 50Hz. This is also helped by twin HiVe II ports. It uses the same C-CAM 1″ gold dome tweeter.
All speakers are a normal 8ohm impedance, so can be easily matched with almost any AV amplifier/receiver on the market.
Something tells me this package is going to win the next What Hi-Fi 5.1 package Supertest…… 
Apex 10 £250 each
Apex 40 £400
Apex Stands £250/pair
Apex AW12 £900
All models are available in Metallic Pearl White and Metallic Black
Apex System £2,300 (excluding stands)
Available for demo towards the end of April.
Having been interested in hi-fi since I was about 7, I started work for Radford Hi-Fi in Plymouth in 1990. I moved back to Birmingham in 1996 and worked for Bob Griffin for a while, before moving on to work for Superfi Birmingham. After a 7 year stint there, the next stop was Sevenoaks Birmingham. After the owner decided to call it a day, I started work for Frank Harvey Hi-Fi Coventry, where I have now been for over 4 years.
My main hobbies are music and film, and also enjoy cycling, photography, F1 and architecture.
White ones are now available – we’ll have a set on demo when the black ones are released.
I see you’re using a class D amp for the sub, do you think this type of amp will make inroads as general audio amps?
There are a few manufacturers now using Class D amplification (and variants) for hi-fi products. I do think they will start to grow in the 2 channel market as many people now want to be as ‘green’ as they can, and amplification like this helps. It’s also more responsive and dynamic than many Class A/B designs.