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grand Monument
Unsurpassed by any speaker, at any price, and the only speaker to be given an A+ Rating. (J.Peter Moncreif. International Audio Review. USA)
Direct: Grand Monument $28,490 | All finishes. (Elite option is standard)
The Osborn Monument has been designed and constructed in Australia, without compromise, in order to obtain an absolutely awesome sound quality. The only criteria in the choice of components, materials, size and cost is the achievement of the ultimate sound quality.
Previously the choice of a speaker always led to major compromises. If you wanted musical transparency and neutrality, you have had to turn to more delicate speaker systems that are less efficient, less dynamic, and cannot play as loud. You have had to trade off one set of ideals against the other. For this reason most high end speakers are small or medium size. Therefore most were of similar performance, each trading some element of the performance to gain an edge in whatever area the designer felt was the most important.
Large powerful speakers which could reproduce the weight and power of live music became slow, ill defined and lacked the dynamics and transient attack of real instruments. Large speaker systems also tended to have a less precise soundstage and did not handle intimate detail as well as smaller, less dynamic systems. One of the first speaker systems to overcome these problems and combine the best attributes of both systems was the Osborn Epitome. Many considered the Epitome, matched with the optional bass units to be virtually the mythically perfect speaker. The success of the Epitome combination led the designer, Greg Osborn to extrapolate the formula to its ultimate conclusion…The Monument.
The Grand Monument Reference uses the incredible Crescendo tweeter. This is one of the very finest tweeter available today. The Grand Monument has an excellent stereo image right across the listening area. The magnet assembly is constructed of a high efficiency ring magnet consisting of 6 radial Neodymium magnets. These rare earth magnet have a 10 times stronger and more focused magnetic field then even the best conventional magnet.
The mid range and mid bass is handled by a 180mm paper sandwich cone driver, also with a Neodymium magnet. It is known as "The best of the best" and it is used in speakers costing over a million dollars. The speed and sonic integrity of this driver is astonishing. The bass is handled by two monster 320 mm paper and foam sandwich bass drivers. These bass drivers are also used in speakers costing over a million dollars. The massive magnet structure ensured that the cone is kept under ridged control at all times. The cabinets are constructed of very heavily braced 32 mm Custom wood, with 64mm fronts, and the lead lining as described above. Each Bass driver operates in its own massively braced, ported enclosure. The finest components available are used in the hard wired crossovers. The bass inductors weigh about 18kg each.
The overall performance is extraordinary. A huge precise soundstage with every instrument locked firmly into its own position in space. Plucked and percussion instruments are lightning fast with their natural resonance's and decay clearly audible. There is no dynamic compression, regardless of the volume. The bass is lightning fast with tremendous authority. The dynamic ability of these speakers is truly shocking, with bass that will shake the entire house and the listeners body.
These speakers are totally unfazed by any type of music, no matter how delicate or demanding, from the tinkle of the tiniest bell to the full bodied roar of a brass cannon.
We are very proud of this speaker and they stand as a monument to the ideals of the designer and to the power and the majesty of the full Symphony Orchestra.
One of the amazing characteristics of the Monuments is their incredible bass control. This allows them to perform brilliantly in surprisingly small rooms, where lesser speakers overpower the room.
Tweeter
29mm soft dome tweeter with a high efficiency ring magnet consisting of 6 radial neodymium magnets.
Mid Range
180mm Patented Sandwich Paper Cone. 42mm voice coil with Neodymium magnet. This mid range is know as the best of the best and is used in a well known 1.2 million dollar speaker.
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Bass
2 X 320 mm Sandwich Paper Cone, with a special foam filling technology (patented). 75 mm voice coil. Cone weight 115g. Resonant Frequency 19.1Hz. Also used in a well known 1.2 million dollar speaker.
Monument Specifications:
Speaker Dimensions: 1620 x 440 x 482 mm
Weight: 175kg each
Efficiency: 92 db for 1 watt at 1 meter
Frequency Response: 15 to 22000 Hz. Tweeter accuracy throughout operating range +0/-1db.
Cross-over points: 125 Hz and 3500 Hz @ 12 db/Octave
Minimum Impedance: 5.0 Ohm
Rec. max. power: 120 Watts R.M.S per Channel
Rec. min. power: 20 Watts R.M.S per Channel
The above specifications show why these speakers are capable of such extraordinary transient performance and yet reveal such intimate detail in the music. This fidelity is possible due to the fine tolerances and light weight of the driver cones and voice coils and the massive motor assemblies which rigidly control their movement. These are the same motor assembly, cones and basket as the bass drivers used in the Wilson Audio Wamms. The midrange is also the same as used in the Wamms.
The Grand Monument features heavy lead lining to all interior surfaces. The same heavy bracing is used, but all areas between the bracing are covered by a unique sandwich lining. Heavy acoustic felt is used to separate the heavy lead sheet from the cabinetry. A further layer of heavy acoustic felt is placed over the lead and the entire sandwich is stapled to the walls of the cabinet. This result is what is effectively a box within a box. Wrapping the outside of the speaker is similar to knocking on a brick. This totally inert cabinet construction results in the ultimate sound reproduction.
The Warranty on all Osborn Loudspeakers is 5 years for parts and Labour.
Typical Owners Feedback. (We have never had a negative feedback)
Grand Monument Reference
Dear Greg, (## is to avoid offence to the previous highly regarded amps and speakers as they were made lovingly by wonderful people. G.O.)
You have always told me that once I heard the AM805 amplifiers I would never go back to the (##). However the 805’s just never quite got there with the (--) with the woofers arrangement and I kept switching back to the (##)
Last night I listened with the (##) and while the midrange and treble was better than the (--) the bass was boomy and I struggled to like it. I was a bit worried.
Today I have hooked in the 805’s and removed the (##). WELL WHAT CAN I SAY!!!! YOU WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG!!!!
The 805’s SING with the Monuments. Clean deep tight NOT OVERBLOWN bass! The mids and treble to DIE FOR! The overall coherence, soundstage and EFFORTLESSNESS I wanted is ALL THERE!!! I have just been smiling for the last hour. Such real and natural music.
MOST surprising is that the 805’s DO NOT run out of puff now. They are not breathless. As the music gets louder they just play louder there is no loss of bass control or rolling off of treble that I used to get with my (--)! Crescendos are crescendos and OMG the musicality and emotion of voice and the overtones in piano, brass, woodwind and strings that I have NEVER heard before, as well as sounds in the back of the soundstage that I have also never heard before. This is incredible. I was never expecting this much improvement.
Greg you are a genius!
Greg I haven’t even settled on the final speaker position but I have settled on my forever speakers!
Joe (Melbourne)
Follow up, 3 weeks later.
Hi Greg. I hope all is well. I just wanted to say I have literally cried three times at least, while listening to music on the Grand Monuments. Thank you again. Words cannot express how good they are. I hear you have sold more of them and have several people coming, I’m sure you will sell lots. I have heard many speakers at many shows and very little even comes close. I am so happy with them.
Just to be clear, when I compare them to other speakers at shows I’m talking speakers over 100,000.00 dollars plus not coming close. You can quote me on that.
(First pair sold of the new 2020 model.)
Hi Greg,
Sorry it’s taken so long for me to get back to you after installing the Monuments more than a month ago!
Truth be told, for more than two weeks after they arrived, I spent about 8 hours every night just sitting listening – until well into the morning.. Every time I thought I ought to get some sleep I just had to play “a few more tracks” - and I’ve never been that good at numbers! 😉
Over the 45 years I’ve been playing and listening to music, it is only rarely that I’ve heard music the way it actually sounds.. Back in the 70’s and 80’s it was usually inaccurate and either bass-blown-out or horribly harsh, mids terrible, bass inaccurate. Overt the past two decades, manufacturers seem to think that increasingly complex electronics and ‘high-tech’ drivers will save them from what are, essentially, either overly complex designs or the creation of beautiful furniture. The truth is, what they manage to deliver – at least to my ears – is surreal, rather than real.. Treble is usually artificially bright, mids usually okay but not well separated – and lower registers usually inaccurate. Listening to a recent release of the flagship speaker from a much-coveted manufacturer I could actually hear the crossover point between the drivers – musicality?.. zero.
So, I had stuck predominantly with one manufacturer for several decades – someone who really understood – and has a passion for – reproducing real, accurate, natural sound. The acid test has always been the ability to accurately deliver live performance and real acoustic sounds – and spaces. His early speakers were the first time I’d ever heard a violin sound like it does when you’re in the room (that was in the mid 70’s). Unfortunately that generation of his speakers required augmenting to achieve anything like realistic bottom-end reproduction.. A few years ago he moved to an isobaric design that allowed much better, accurate, low frequency response, while retaining all of the beauty and honesty of the mids and highs. He had developed prototype solutions to deliver even better low frequency response, but the amplification required just made them unrealistic in anything other than a studio environment..
And then I stumbled across you and your astonishing Grand Monuments! Finally I could have honesty, clarity and real-life music reproduction I live for with no compromises anywhere in the sound spectrum. The real differentiator was having a complete low frequency response that is a seamless extension of a beautiful three-dimensional sound stage – not an add-on. As importantly, your ability to deliver large, accurate bottom-end with as much force as was recorded, but with decay as swift as much higher frequencies, is something I’ve not heard before. The overall musicality that emanates from these significant speakers is just astounding. I won’t try to break all of the observations I have had sitting listening into lots of words and expressions – because in truth the words would be wasted..
What I will say is that I have spent more hours listening with greater joy to music I know and love, than has ever been possible up until now. Thank you!
For those who may read this and wonder whether your speakers deliver this kind of rapture for the type of music they listen to, suffice it to say that there’s not a genre of music I don’t listen to and the 10,000 albums in my collection cover every type of music from the very first mono recordings through to current releases in all genres. It spans classical (orchestral, solo instrumental, chamber, opera, choral), jazz, blues, rock, vocal, popular and electronic and includes both analogue and digital sources (predominantly digital these days) in all formats and at all resolutions. There is simply no music I’ve played that doesn’t sound as good as – and usually better than – any rendition I’ve been able to reproduce up until now. Importantly, the same applies to music played at low volumes – not just when the drivers are really getting a workout – which is another really significant gift.
So, I couldn’t be happier – and couldn’t recommend more highly – that anyone in search of audio nirvana arrange to have a listen to the Grand Monuments. They’re no bookshelf speaker, but don’t need a huge room to sound amazing and are, without a doubt, the most musical, most realistic, most enjoyable speakers I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to. They are, I think, the last set of speakers I’ll ever purchase!
Simon.
Spencer Lake - New Zealand
All I can say is WOW!!!
These are truly fantastic speakers
I had a set of the focal Grande Utopia BE for 12 months previous to the Grand Monuments- I'm not joking when I say Grand Monuments sound better.
Just more right, and way, way easier to integrate.
Obviously the Grande Utopias are great speakers, but you could only play them in big rooms and very, very picky - with source and amps.
Your speakers just seem to get on with it and play music how it should be. Very, very impressive.
Thanks for all your help.
Regards Spencer.
Garry
Geelong
As soon as I walked into your room at the Show, I knew I had found the sound quality that I have been looking for a long time. I got sick of buying expensive equipment that just didn't do it, so I spent a ridiculous amount of money on what was supposed to be the best. As soon as you connected your AM 833M that I had heard at the Show, to my system in place of my $150,000 Mono-blocks, I could not believe that big an improvement was possible, so my first thought was "What are the big ones like? When you bought them down I only had to listen to one track to know that these were never going to leave here. So I had to hear the RT-s against my much more expensive English Pre. But the Grand Monument References against my $90,000 speaker was just insane. Finally. The sound I had been craving. Huge, open, pin point imaging, and Ohhh. The detail and life. I couldn't wait to get my old stuff out. No I have the World's most expensive bedroom system, that I haven't even bothered to connect.
Mark J Weichard (Artist/Designer)
Gembrook.
The ‘holy grail’ of music for the purist will always remain the live musical performance.
Many speaker designers come from an electrical engineering background and design their products to maximise the performance of the technology involved, studying test graphs and diagrams to plot the performance of their speakers.
Greg Osborn, although aware of all this, does not come from this background but pursues his design work because of an abiding passion in music and in having this reproduced as close to an original performance as is possible. One needs to look through the beauty of design and the complexity of the electronics involved to always seek the humanity and passion at the heart of every musical performance
Greg’s high point in his speaker range is the Grand Monument tower speakers, large, heavy, beautiful and very impressive in any setting. Having now owned many pairs of Greg’s speakers including a pair of Monuments, these truly are the epitome of brilliant design and performance. Visitors to my music room are shocked by the depth and breadth of the sound they are hearing, even on their own CD’s that they may have owned for years. I always explain that most reproduction systems and speakers do not accurately reproduce the recorded sound available to them. But the Monuments transform every recording into a living musical performance. Being allowed to access this quality of sound transposes your listening space into a performance space filled with all the original musicians who created the sounds that you are listening to. You feel the acoustic bass and the drums through the floor, you hear the cymbals high above you and the vocalist is right in front, performing just for you. These speakers have been reviewed as among the best in the world, but they are more than that, they are the music, because they become the performance.
Grand Monument Reference
Walter Moro (Melbourne)
I bought an Audio Aero Capitale power amp push pull 50 watts pure class A. Plus the Audio Aero Prestige Signature CD player, the Grand Monument Reference, Osborn data link cables and a Consonance power filter.
Speaker's I've listened to are the JM Labs Grand utopia, Wilson Watt/Puppy and many more in this Hi End range. I will describe the Grand Monuments... they are very big and very heavy. The sound is absolutely amazing. Transparent like you wouldn't believe; it's as if the sounds come to the back of your head, plus 3 metres to the outer side of the speakers, filling up a large room. Instruments sound like you're at a live concert, bass goes down to sub sonic regions, but all balanced with the mid and high's.
It's hard to say that $18,500 is a bargain but it's true... if you don't believe me have a listen for yourself and make up your own mind. I've been into hi end hi fi for more than 20 years and I've never owned, or seen a system like this one before. There is only one more thing to say... Greg Osborn from Osborn loud speakers makes one of the finest speakers in the world. I take my hat off to him.
Strength
Transparent beyond this world, bass mid and top end balanced, suites medium to large rooms, Bubinga timber glossed, looks fantastic on the Grand Monuments.
Weakness
It's big and heavy (make sure you have a strong back), need good gear like Audio Aero, price not in the reach to all enthusiast hi end puffs but Grand Utopia costing about $140,000 Australian dollars it's bargain for the Grand Monuments Ref.
Customer Service:
Greg Osborn is a very nice guy as he lets you try the equipment before you buy it, no pressure and he is an honest person, not like others in the industry that are money hungry and no customer service once they've got your money.
Greg Osborn keep up the good work!
Grand Monument Reference
From: "David Payes"
Subject: Re: Grand Monument Ref - comments please I am happy to share my experiences with both the Grand Monument and Grand Monument Reference speakers.
By way of background , the speakers I previously owned were;
Sonus Faber Guaneries
Aerial 10ts
Avalon Ascent Mk 11
Rockport Synergy
I have also extensively auditioned the Watt /Puppy 5 system. The Grand Monuments in terms of scale and resolution out perform all of the above. There is a complete lack of compression which imparts a true sense of musical reality.
Sound staging is at least as good as the Ascents and imaging was only bettered by the Guaneries. The Reference has a level of refinement above most other speakers in its class. The treble is detailed but with a complete absence of Hi Fi etchiness or brightness.
Imaging on the References approaches the levels of the Guaneries. Macrodyamics and bass slam on the Reference are the best I've heard on any system (including the Wilson Grand Slam). Its interesting to note that the Drivers on the Reference are better than those on the Grand Slam (US$75,000), with the exception of the bass drivers, which are the same Focal 13'' units. The rest of my system consists of the following;
CD - Sonic Frontiers FSCD1
Pre Amplifier - Sonic Frontiers Line 3
Amplifier - BAT VK 500
Cables - MIT 750 and 330 's
Power Cords NBS Signatures
I have driven the References with much smaller integrated amps such as the Gryphon Tabu . The Metaxas Soliloquies also sounded great with the speakers , BTW the Metaxas was the designers reference Amp . I'm pleased your customer found my comments useful.
The performance of the speaker excels in all areas. Whether it is the effect of the new tweeter or the lead-lining of the cabinet walls, micro dynamics, the so called inner musical detail that most audiophiles love so much, is superb on the Reference Monuments. Vocal inflections on good recordings (e.g. Betty Carter/Ray Charles) are rendered almost life like. Harmonic structures particularly of Cello and double bass are better than any speaker I've heard to date. Despite its awesome sense of scale, the speaker can reproduce the most delicate musical nuance, it is almost the perfect speaker (except its somewhat daunting size)