The Pelonis Model 42 monitors are amazing. Shock and awe with a small footprint.
Why?
Accuracy and headroom. The Model 42 has a bi-amped design with four 100-watt amplifiers. Now, the monitors themselves feature 4″ woofers so you’re probably wondering why they have so much power. It’s all about the headroom in this case. It was very noticeable to say the least. Similar to something from Focal like the CMS40, but with a little something extra.
We listened to a whole array of tracks from classical to pop and even a track I loved by the Flaming Lips and everything was accurate and crisp. The imaging was fantastic. Part of that has to do with the Tannoy Concentric Driver technology they feature. That’s one reason people always loved the Tannoy monitors. It seemed more natural to your ear because of the true point-source nature of the speaker.
That wouldn’t be quite enough alone to set these monitors apart, but when you pair that with the custom designed (rackmount) power supply the sum of those parts is fantastic. The price tag for the complete setup is only $999 for the rack-mounted power supply and the speakers.
Some Questions That Arise?
I had a few questions when I was looking at the speakers such as where are the speaker controls, why is the power supply rackmounted, and is there a subwoofer.
The speaker controls are adjustable via a computer application, but come set in the “sweet-spot” by default. If you want to get into the nuts and bolts of the settings you can run the application and make adjustments that way.
The power supply is rackmounted to give you better sound. Chris felt that having the power amp in the same box as the speaker could cause issues with sound quality. He’s not alone…just think about Chandler, GML…etc.
Lastly, there will be a subwoofer available in the coming weeks for $799. We didn’t get a chance to here it as they weren’t finished yet, but I can only imagine how much greater these would be with the subwoofer included. I think the model 42 will join Focal for having some of the best monitors in the price range. Period. That’s not to say there aren’t good options in the price range of $1,000 and below, but it’s hard to find something better than this for the money even going up to $1500.