Spin up electronica from Kalya Scintilla to Mercan Dede to Smadj to the Miles/Gurtu collab and other hard-hitting stuff with carefully artificed XXL soundstages. VC's virtues will truly alight. Here its tremendous imaging separation and localization powers rang all my bells and the well-damped overall demeanour ideally suited and played to the angular edgy compositional elements. When I switched to Baroque music including the faux but brilliant Vivaldi Clarinet Concertos on Sony Classical; or chamber music like Dvorak's bucolic String Serenades or Schubert's Octet – our usual IQ's more redolent textures and greater ambient fill create a more believable concert approximation where for most seats, hall sound dominates. That means more generous texturization and dynamic scaling. If classic music at large is an arguably legacy endeavour—contemporary exceptions exist particularly with film scores—close-mic'd studio productions represent modern sound. In such a generic division set up purely for the sake of argument, I'd peg VC a thoroughly modern specimen. It's not operatically dramatic or a deep-tone worshipper. That's one way of identifying its target audience.

With Allnic Audio ZL-8000 speaker cables also from South Korea.

Relative to bandwidth, what in a domestic context becomes a somewhat larger space could want for a bit of bass reach particularly at this budget. Now a good missing octave telegraphs louder especially on electronica whose synths can mine depths which remain blessedly off-limits to most acoustic instruments. It's obviously nothing a quality subwoofer won't address brilliantly with an icOn-style lo/hi-pass. An initial kneejerk reaction could protest. In a 2.1 scenario, Jun's SuperMon Mini would save a colossal €4'000. That ought to be enough for a really good sub? Quite. Already my upstairs €1'390 Dynaudio did an ace job. So take a knee. But now compare VC and Mini+sub. The significantly larger monitor's cubic volume with its expanded cone surface still sounds demonstrably more substantial and assured. It really is the next step up on size, price and sonic conviction. Even the usual 'you still need a stand' complaints won't wash because here custom stands include. Which needn't mean that you couldn't prefer the looks of an equivalent floorstander. It's an argument costlier stand mounts face regularly; and probably lose half of the time. Here a YG Acoustics 7¼" 2-way tower might suit which throws response to 32Hz into the bargain. UK dealers simply list that at £18K/pr. Even a Magico A1 6½" monitor claims 35Hz but demands £10K/pr and still needs a stand.

In the end that's how I'd peg MonAcoustics' new Platinum VC One: a prime aluminator alternative to established brands which seriously undercuts their dearer stickers while not going all out on US-style bass reach. We're back on either pocketing the difference with a big grin back from the bank; or investing the difference in a premium sub and outboard active crossover. Option B will build out dynamic headroom and bolt on LF reach and power which none of the competition can match. In the end that's how I'd get on with VC for my bigger room to then declare it shorthand for victory.

Solidly built. Finely finished. Cleverly isolated with that concealed roller-ball interface. Carefully voiced with asymmetrical ports and driver mods including wooden magnet covers. Fairly priced for an all-metal proposition. Quickly and safely dispatched from Seoul to a country without current representation. Adding up the key talking points, this Virtual Coaxial One multiplies nicely. It should in particular charm trekkies for whom space is the final frontier. Now out-of-bounds soundstaging and holographic imaging become job N°1. For their kind I propose VC as an honorary member of the Sonic Star Fleet. While the 'virtual coax' moniker could seem a bit gimmicky, it's actually most descriptive in how this speaker behaves. It aces the same disciplines we expect of premium dual concentrics. That only leaves the curious PlatiMon name. If that's all the creative slack we must cut its maker, it's one paper-thin concession. In closing, this is a well-balanced speaker in sharp Scandi styling which puts the allure of solid alu cabs more within reach. If you're a 'modern' listener with a smaller room looking for very high resolution from soft-cone not metallic drivers, today's speaker should make your shopping shortlist. If your room is larger and its acoustic gain above PlatiMon's ported cut-off, you might like to add a subwoofer for the bottom octave. That's very hard to predict. Not everyone fancies my type ambient e-fare which I know to include 25Hz beats and pedals to want them fully restored. For most acoustic fare without infrasonic synth shenanigans, PlatiMon solo should be perfectly sufficient. Whoever needs more still has bigger models in this same catalogue. For most everyone else, the buck will stop at PlatiMon.

PS: When I asked where my samples would head next, I learnt that it'd be John Darko in Berlin. So to everyone who loves 2nd and 3rd opinions, stay tuned. More is in the wings…