Monitor Audio MA303 & CC300 Speakers
I bought these speakers from a Craigslist seller and couldn't find much information on them online, thus I created this page to compile whatever information I did find.
The speakers appear to come in black or tan wood finish.
MA303
Floorstanding speaker.
- One 1" tweeter
- Two 5" woofers
- One front 2" port
Claimed specs found online:
- Frequency response: 35hz - 25khz +/- 3db
- Sensitivity: 90db lw@lm
- Suggested power req: 20 - 200 watts
- Nominal impedance: 6 ohm
- Ferrofluid cooled tweeter 3/4 gold dome
- Dual polypropylene cones on magnesium die-cast chassis, 20mm voice coils, low distortion magnets.
- Two sets of gold plated five-way binding posts (for bi-wire, bi-amp)
After measuring and listening to these speakers, many of these specs don't seem right to me. For example, the 35 hz frequency response cannot possibly be true. Klipsch KSF 8.5, which I also own, advertise their frequency response as 36 hz - 20 kHz +/- 3 dB, and the MA303 most certainly does not go down anywhere near the lows that the KSF 8.5 produces. The lower range of MA303 frequency response is more likely to be in the 45-50 hz range.
Sensitivity is another parameter that is dubious. Sony SS-F6000, which I tested side by side with the MA303, have an advertised sensitivity of 89 dB, and MA303 were quieter than SS-F6000. Based on this I don't see how MA303 can have a sensitivity of 90 dB, a more realistic sensitivity to me would be 87-88 dB.
Lastly I'm pretty sure the tweeter size is 1", not 0.75", and because the size in these specs seems to be wrong I wouldn't count on the MA303 tweeter being ferrofluid cooled either. The dome is however gold in all MA303's I've seen.
CC300
Center channel speaker.
This looks to contain the same driver complement as the MA303 with the cabinet rotated 90 degrees to rest horizontally, and two smaller front ports instead of one larger port on the MA303.
- One 1" tweeter
- Two 5" woofers
- Two front 1.5" ports
Claimed MSRP: $450
The eBay listing that I got the claimed MSRP from also claimed the woofers to be 5.25" in size but I don't see where that additional 1/4" is on my MA303's or CC300's.
MA303 and CC300 Together
Sound Impressions
Overall good sound quality.
The small (for floorstanders) woofer size of 5" limits bass volume. The bass however is quite tight, and not boomy. I dialed +8 dB of bass on the receiver for these speakers and they sound surprisingly well (distortion-free) with this much added bass, in fact they are somewhat comparable to my Sony SS-F6000 with 6.5" woofers in bass volume at that point.
Mids and highs at neutral EQ are quite good. Mids are decent even with +8 dB bass added. I added +2 dB of treble to bring the highs up a bit with all of the extra bass.
I was not very impressed with near field performance of the towers - they sound better at least 6 feet away. Granted, towers are not meant to be listened to in near field, but the Sony SS-F6000 are excellent in near field (this is the only possible position for speakers in my office) which is why I am including this data point.
Vertical dispersion is pretty good from 6 feet away.