Monitor Audio Hyphn Speakers
REFERENCE AUDIO – WITHAM ESSEX
BOB’s Review Series - No 89 – MONITOR AUDIO HYPHN LOUDSPEAKERS
INTRODUCTION
It doesn’t seem that long ago that almost all speakers came in rectangular boxes with sharp edges and the likes of Rogers, Harbeth and PMC for example are still firmly but not entirely in that camp. Of course there have been many speakers from the last century that, mostly for reasons of driver type, have never been beholden to the square, I’m thinking QUAD ESL57/63, Magneplanar, Martin Logan and Sonus Fabre for example. Since the early 2000’s material science and manufacturing techniques have change massively and now it’s hard to find a pair of speakers that are not boat shaped in section or have curves and rounded edges. Some of today’s speakers that are still conventional box shaped externally have hidden advanced technology inside and in the formation of the cabinets and the choice of materials used in the enclosures.
We have come to accept the more unusually shaped ones because they have been around for some time now, the KEF Blades, the B&W 800 series and the German Physiks come to mind. At the turn of the century these shapes couldn’t have been manufactured with any degree of consistency or accuracy and most likely not within acceptable cost parameters. Of all the current established speaker manufacturers likely to develop something so different from their bread-and-butter product line I wouldn’t have looked first to Monitor Audio to lead the charge, having built their reputation building mostly rectangular boxes, albeit with rounded edges. In 2023 however, to celebrate their 50th anniversary that’s exactly what they did by launching a concept speaker called, just for fun I’m sure, the ‘Concept 50’. The Concept 50 was touted around various shows worldwide and was so well received that Monitor Audio decided to put a variant of it into production and so the Concept 50 became the Hyphn.
Reference Audio have recently taken delivery of a pair of matte black Hyphn’s now on permanent demo and I have been listening to them in our large demo room. You are unlikely to come across these speakers very often, but we have them here for the long term and we are just getting to know them. They retail at £70,000 a pair in a choice of three finishes. Our first listening impressions follow.
ABOUT THE HYPHN
It’s hard to describe these speakers unless you have at least seen a picture in a magazine or perhaps come across them at an audio show somewhere. They consist of two towers joined at just above ear level by a tweeter and midrange bridge called the M-Array, and with two cross braces above and below each of the two bass drivers. The twin towers are unusual in that they each contain two bass drivers in a force cancelling layout firing inwards towards each other. The M-Array bridge which sits between the towers to form a point source with the bass drivers contains a central ribbon type tweeter which is surrounded by six midrange drivers. Each speaker therefore accommodates 11 drive units. Monitor Audio call them the Hyphn perhaps because in architecture a hyphen is something that connects two parts of a building together. In 40 years as a qualified architect, I must admit to never having heard that term used before in association with buildings, but what do I know. Hyphn they may be called but for the life of me all I can see when looking at the Hyphn speakers is two enormous cloths pegs, the older wooden types that you don’t see much these days, not the more modern plastic types. I also can’t stop imagining a giant pair of the Hyphn’s striding across a post-apocalyptic landscape in the moonlight surrounded by ash and total devastation with rays of light beaming from their M-Array’s, I must be watching to many science fiction films.
The Hyphn’s are made of a composite material of mineral and acrylic stone, which is, I’m reliably informed, nothing like Corian. This is why each speaker weighs in at 107kg. Located in each speaker tower is a downward firing port so locating them closer to a rear wall will not be such a problem as speakers with rear firing ports. They are tall but not as big as they look in pictures measuring 1392mm high, 502mm wide and 520mm deep, including outrigger feet. They are a nominally 4ohm load with 86dB sensitivity and are rated from 18Hz to 60kHz. Monitor Audio suggest a good 200w amplifier is an ideal match. Each speaker has a single central MPDIII ribbon type tweeter, 6 No 51mm RDTIII midrange drivers and 4 No 203mm RDTIII bass drivers. They come in three finishes, Matte Black, Pure Satin White and Matte Heritage Green.
They look fabulous, especially in the menacing looking Matte Black of our demo pair, although I’ve not yet seen a green pair in the flesh.
CONNECTIONS
To keep the setup simple, we connected the Hyphn to a Gryphon Diablo 333 integrated amplifier and limited the source to a Rose 151 streamer DAC. Although Monitor Audio recommend 200W as being the sweet spot for driving the Hyphn’s we couldn’t resist the 333W Gryphon especially as we know it so well. In hindsight perhaps the Rose 151 was the weak link in the chain, at just over £4,000 it probably wasn’t the best match for a £100k speaker and amplifier combination. Nonetheless it performed faultlessly as always, and that screen is a delight to see and use. All cables used were by Jorma.
SETTING UP
Monitor Audio delivered and set up the speakers for us in our main demo room and they set them well clear of side walls, but they were still some 3.5m apart, centre to centre. This is fine if you have the space to sit far enough back from them. I have noticed a trend lately that many of our customers are sitting too close to the speakers during demos and I assume this is to reflect how they sit at home. It may also be because the generally accepted rule is that your seat should be in an equilateral triangle with the speakers whereby you sit in a position equal to the distance the speakers are apart. This is how it was set up for us but because these speakers can generate such a wide soundstage with pinpoint centre imaging, I deferred to my own preference of sitting around 1.25 times back from the distance between speakers, in this case around 4.5m with the speakers towed into a point about 1m behind my head. For me this worked much better as that central image had more space to develop and expand before reaching my ears and allowed the room to play a bigger part in the sound they developed. I also found that sitting in a taller chair than our normal sofa, putting the tweeters at ear height, seemed to help the imaging and spatial abilities of these speakers. Getting your ears at the same height as the tweeters is not always easy or practical to achieve at home but adjusting the speakers’ feet so that they lean forward slightly might help.
LISTENING
No matter what music I played the Hyphn always generated a wide soundstage with pinpoint central imaging that couldn’t fail to hold my attention. Listening to ‘In Your Face’ by Cat Power the Hyphn showed how good they could reproduce female vocals and accurate piano, two of the hardest challenges for any speaker. Those bass drivers can generate more bass that you might expect, helped by having four in each speaker but although Monitor Audio give a low frequency output down to 18Hz I didn’t feel they reached this low, and I can see many customers adding one or two subwoofers to extend bass down further. This will of course be very room dependant and in other rooms maybe their bass will be deeper.
The bass they do generate is tighter and more accurate that I have come to expect from Monitor Audio speakers, and they are better for it. I listened to ‘Hallelujah’ by Jeff Buckley, and this showed how capable the Hyphn is at generating and holding a 3D image between the speakers. Try this with Pink Floyds ‘Time’ from DSOTM and you will hear what I mean. I find this track is always a little bright, and it was no different on the Hyphn, but it wasn’t ear shatteringly bright, and the left/right panning was just great. If you are looking for utmost accuracy with magnificent stereo imaging and a tight and controlled bass, then these speakers should be on your shortlist, if the price doesn’t frighten you, but they sit amongst stiff competition at this price point so careful listening is essential.
CONCLUSION
Monitor Audio must be congratulated for thinking outside the box and for developing a speaker that shows just what they can do when budget becomes less of a driving design factor. Wouldn’t it be good if other manufacturers did this occasionally.
At six times the price of the next speaker in the Monitor Audio catalogue, the Platinum 300, the Hyphn stands alone in their line up and although there is some very serious competition at this price point, there is nothing else out there that looks anything like the Hyphn, and this might be enough to attract you to them. The build quality and finish are exemplary, as you would expect from Monitor Audio. I wouldn’t say they have a unique sound because there are many other speakers capable of matching their performance, but I felt they differ in sound signature from their Monitor Audio stablemates by offering a more refined sound and this might attract a wider customer base for them.
My only concern with how the Hyphn sound is that I didn’t find them as fully engaging as some other speakers at this price point and they didn’t leave me emotionally attached to them but not everyone is looking for a tear jerking speaker. Perhaps when I get to hear them with a better source and DAC it will change my opinion. In your room and with your system and your musical preferences you could easily fall in love with what they can do. They are certainly a talking point on looks alone, so please call us to book a demo.
September 2025
Bob – Team Reference Audio