Adam Loudspeakers for Classical Monitoring

[Larry Elliott]

Hi

I am wondering if any of you are using Adams for classical/choral monitoring. If so which models and your comments?

Thanks

Larry

[Roland]

Hi Larry, had some SA3's ? in for test a few years ago, good anylitical monitor for rock music, though fatigueing to listen too long term. For classical it was next to useless, weird beaming effect of the treble (I suspect down to the ribbons waveguide,) mid bass congestion, poor stereo image, lack of front, back, depth and an "odd" character to the sound of strings. I'm usre that the current models have improved on this, however, classical is not what these speakers do best. PMC (not ALM 1's), B&W 805's (with sub if you can afford it), ATC SCM20's, SCM50's, possibly K&H although I don't personally have any experience of them so you will have to get opiions from others.


All the best, catch up soon!

Roland

[Petrus]

I am running a pair of S3A:s with Genelec 7071A sub, fed by Crane Song Avocet. Nerfields at DAW are ADAM A7:s. S3A:s are very analytical and precise monitors, but the dispersion angle at highs is narrow, ok for one listener sitting in a sweet spot, but not for group sessions. I do not have much bad things to say about them, the highs I have turned down 1 dB. Maximum SPL is the only complaint I have, protection has triggered a few times at levels I do not think unreasonable.

[John Willett]

I use Harbeth (M30A) and K+H (O110D) for classical monitoring.

ATC are also excellent and I hear that Geithein are also good.

[niquest]

Originally Posted by Roland

fatigueing to listen too long term. (...) and an "odd" character to the sound of strings.

thumbsup exactly my experience. Geithain (overpriced imo but reliable in every aspect) are everywhere in our studio, although for long editing sessions I prefer my old Quad ESL63 since they don't strain your ears so much. Something to do with the phase coherence across the spectrum, I think.

[hbphotoav]

After years of working with HHB Circle 5's (nice enough mids and highs, very smooth, but not enough "precision" in the top end or extension in the lows) and being unable to find B&W Matrix 801s (or really having the room for them) I took advice from Rich Mays at Sonare and found a gently used pair of Tannoy Series 800A with the OEM subwoofer. I also listened to his setup (B&Ws in his room, 800As on location) over a couple of days. For the money ($800US for the system) I'm well satisfied.

YM, of course, MV.

HB

[matucha]

Strangely I don't think S3As are harsh in any way.

But I agree with hf beaming, congested lowmids, stiff sounding bass (aka almost absent bass)... you know those stories when someone wonders how "such a small boxes produce so nice bass", with s3a it is exactly the opposite.

Front-back image is flattened with s3a quite a bit... that's also different for tweeter and woofer so it is a bit weird. The art tweeter brings out big amount of details, but the woofer doesn't.


I like s3a... it is like a zoom-in 400%. But they are weird.



Geithains (I have big RL901k) are great context monitors, you really get the big picture with them. And because they are concentric design, the listening distance can be even smaller than with S3A. I can work 1.5m from 901 and still have nice picture, but with s3a it gets together much further and still it's weird. I can't detect the crossovers and imaging seems natural and accurate. Like out of 2 small speakers.


Some time ago I did little test with just mono 901 an s3a and the differencies were even greater than I thought. S3A sounded quite flat and all the instruments blended in a wall with little distinction between them and the spaces around them. With geithains (swithed with avocet) everything opened like some folder on 3d desktop.
This wasn't so obvious in stereo though.


When talking about classical... my S3A hate pianos (and rhodeses and vibes...). Anything strong in the 300-1500Hz playing solo gets a small shimering halo of distortion. Strangely outside of this region things get back to clean. There was a thread about this some time ago.


Maybe the new S3X or bigger solve most of the issues, I don't know.


For classical, geithains are much more recommendable, though it won't hurt to have some smaller adams for that zoom-in ability.


Again and again, I like adams very much and use them side by side with geithains, but they certainly have their weeknesses I can't ignore.

[Roland]

I suspect with the S3A's that the fact one of the drivers is mid bass and the other just a bass speaker leads to rear mid energy "escaping" through the bass only driver, thus leading to the "congested" sound I and others hear seem to hear. I do think that there is possibly a driver integeration problem too as they have a strong mid peak, noticeable on rock music, but not too much of a problem with that. Of course with classical music this would be a real issue. Image wise I found them to be either left, right or centre, no real spread. Again this tends to effect classical music but not so critical on rock stuff.

As I've said in other threads re the Adams, I think their best quality is that they seem to exaggerate balance and HF vs LF content so they can be useful for checking problems in a mix, but I can't listen too them for very long, it's just too hard work.

I've not used the Geithains, so I can't comment. Personally the monitoring set up I've enjoyed the most for classical was a pair of 805's with the B&W sub. It was capable of very good imaging and the bass never sounds overblown, but was definitely all there. Only possible criticism was perhaps they are a tad bright, but only minimal.


Roland

[Ozpeter]

The author of this post - ADAM Monitors - something interesting I found out today [ AudioMasters Forums - The Home of the Original Cool Edit and Adobe Audition Community ] - knows of what he speaks (classical audio engineer, acoustic consultant, pipe organ tuner, etc etc) but it's four years old so maybe the models mentioned are no longer available.

[matucha]

Originally Posted by Roland

I suspect with the S3A's that the fact one of the drivers is mid bass and the other just a bass speaker leads to rear mid energy "escaping" through the bass only driver, thus leading to the "congested" sound I and others hear seem to hear. I do think that there is possibly a driver integeration problem too as they have a strong mid peak, noticeable on rock music, but not too much of a problem with that. Of course with classical music this would be a real issue. Image wise I found them to be either left, right or centre, no real spread. Again this tends to effect classical music but not so critical on rock stuff.

As I've said in other threads re the Adams, I think their best quality is that they seem to exaggerate balance and HF vs LF content so they can be useful for checking problems in a mix, but I can't listen too them for very long, it's just too hard work.


Roland

This mirrors my experience.

[Sheikyearbouti]

I've never used the S3As but I guess that since Adam is replacing this model there must be reason why.

I use Adam A7 as nearfields and can not say anything bad about them considering their price. I can listen to them for hours and don't get ear fatigue. The stereo image is very, very good and precise and I can hear the smallest panning or change in mic to mic distance in stereo.
Yes, the bass is not sufficient but after all it is a 6.5 inch speaker we are talking about and by putting the low's EQ to +1/+1.5 helps a lot plus their is a sub available which cost something like 400£.
I have made AB tests with at least 5 different same range speakers and a bit more expensive ones and those are certainly among the most detailed and accurate I could find.
I have done some jobs on the P11 some time ago and what I remember is that they were really good.
One thing which surly is a disadvantage is the small sweet spot. It's just tiny.

[AlexK]

Originally Posted by Sheikyearbouti

I've never used the S3As but I guess that since Adam is replacing this model there must be reason why.

I use Adam A7 as nearfields and can not say anything bad about them considering their price. I can listen to them for hours and don't get ear fatigue. The stereo image is very, very good and precise and I can hear the smallest panning or change in mic to mic distance in stereo.
Yes, the bass is not sufficient but after all it is a 6.5 inch speaker we are talking about and by putting the low's EQ to +1/+1.5 helps a lot plus their is a sub available which cost something like 400£.
I have made AB tests with at least 5 different same range speakers and a bit more expensive ones and those are certainly among the most detailed and accurate I could find.
I have done some jobs on the P11 some time ago and what I remember is that they were really good.
One thing which surly is a disadvantage is the small sweet spot. It's just tiny.

Smaller sweetspots actually tend to occur as a result of narrower dispersion, which makes the speaker better behaved in a poor acoustic.

Wider dispersion means more sound firing off-axis into walls/ceilings/furnishings. The A7s are quite narrow (for a studio monitor)!