The RAM Studio 20 is a speaker named with such unwavering conviction (Reference Audio Monitor Studio) that you’d hope it was being deadly serious. They’re all very good, all striving to achieve an absolute ‘honesty’, but imperfect examples of sonic similitude.

A notional goal might be down-the-line, tell-it-like-it is, warts-and-all honesty but in practice – and to take the example of three acclaimed British monitor makers whose wares can be found in recording studios and homes around the world – a PMC doesn’t sound the same as an ATC, which in turn doesn’t sound like a B&W. Weird thing is, given the emphasis on accuracy and neutrality, it might be reasonable to expect a core ‘monitor sound’ that would make the performance of an example from one manufacturer indistinguishable from that of another. According to some British speaker makers that cater for both the pro and domestic markets, there is only one kind of ‘right’ and what’s good for the studio is good enough for the home. The ‘faux monitor’ craze is long gone, but the appeal of a speaker so accurate and neutral it may even have been used to mix the music that you listen to remains powerful for those attracted by the idea of hearing a closer approximation of what the recording engineer intended. Things should be more straightforward now. Some possessed the required minerals, of course, but imposters simply sought to leverage the tag’s pro provenance.

For a while, some years ago, it seemed that every shiny new standmount costing more than a few bob was marketed as a ‘monitor’.

Monitor audio studio 20 sec