Superior quality for its price range. A strong stereo image and balanced sound. About Monkey Banana. It's the brand that gives its name to this line of studio monitors. The entire product family is designed and engineered in Germany before being assembled in China. By all accounts, the founders were unhappy with the monitors they were using and with what they were getting in return for the money they invested in listening to their projects. That was when they decided to embark on the adventure of designing and building their own line of monitors.
It's an idea that would appeal to many engineers: developing your own product line to the technical specifications you believe are truly ideal. So, starting out with a modest approach, they began designing and building monitors of their own to meet their needs according to their own quality standards, while also taking on commissions for friends and collaborators who admired the results. In 2010, Monkey Banana was born as a brand in Europe.
The Gibbon 5 was developed specifically to meet the demanding needs of the home studio, where space is limited. Equipped with a magnetically shielded silk-dome tweeter and a 5.25" polypropylene woofer, this monitor delivers excellent, accurate, fatigue-free monitoring. The woofer and tweeter are driven by a purpose-designed Class A amplifier that provides greater dynamics. The rear panel carries the inputs (balanced XLR, 1/4" jack and balanced RCA) and three controls for overall volume, treble adjustment and bass adjustment.
Who is it for? The first consideration is the price: 299 € a pair. But this modest investment shouldn't suggest a product only for the ambitious home studio. Judging by our listening results, the Gibbon can impress a range of “ears,” both more and less trained. One of the things that grabs you about this monitor is its precision. It's ideal for listening in small rooms, tracking, editing and mixing in post-production. It's a product with a striking price-to-performance ratio, capable of holding its own even against monitors with more power and larger woofers.
Making the choice. Although studio monitors are supposed to have a flat response and be a kind of “neutral” product, the truth is that every manufacturer and every design has its own peculiarities. Likewise, each engineer will feel more comfortable with one type of monitoring or another, depending on the job at hand or personal preference. It's normal to be somewhat undecided about new products that break the mold of other concepts from professional studio audio companies, and to be overwhelmed by the variety and sheer breadth of what's on the market. Perhaps the best way to firmly settle the idea that the Gibbon 5 can be an excellent option in this price range is to hear how it performs, the striking stereo image it delivers and the precision mentioned above. They promise to be one of the more interesting options on the market, at under 300 €, for reliable, tight and balanced listening. We invite you to put them to the test and judge for yourselves.
