monitor upgrade to ADAM A7 ?s

[cubivore]

hi all,

i'm thinking of upgrading my ten year old alesis monitor 1 w/ ra-100 to the Adam A7. my room space is ~ 139"^2 or 11.5'^2. my budget cannot go higher than $1000US.

the M1s sound ok, get plenty loud and i only have the ra100 set to half of full volume. i have some bass issues with this room, but i'm sure it also has to do with the M1's lack of bass. my primary use is for voice over recording (commercial/industrial/audiobook) and some electronic music. basically, i need high accuracy midrange for the vocal stuff, but enough bass and high end definition for electroacoustic music, preferably with no hype.

my questions/concerns with the A7s:

-being nearfield monitors, will they adequately fill my size room? i like the idea of nearfields because there's a chance in the future that i might have to move to a smaller room, but want something as beefy as i can afford. will the downgrading in A7 wattage (50W) be bad news for my current room? for the micronized future, perhaps not.

-will this be a substantial enough upgrade to be able to sell the M1s and live happily with only the A7s?

-there was something else, but i forgot.

many have recommended the BM5a at this price range, which is a little higher than i want to go. but i also wonder if there is a great enough difference to warrant the increase.

between the A7 and the BM5a seems to be a matter of taste around here, but i really would rather not have to buy two pairs of monitors to audition them since they're not available locally. thanks in advance!

[kirsten]

Originally Posted by cubivore

hi all,

i'm thinking of upgrading my ten year old alesis monitor 1 w/ ra-100 to the Adam A7. my room space is ~ 139"^2 or 11.5'^2. my budget cannot go higher than $1000US.

The A7's are excellent monitors and IMHO much better than the BM5a.
You might also look into a pair of Event ASP8's which IMHO are better than both the Adam and the Dynaudio.

Whatever you decide on, make certain the RA-100 is NOT in the loop....

[cubivore]

Originally Posted by kirsten

Whatever you decide on, make certain the RA-100 is NOT in the loop....

that's part of the reason i'm trying to phase out my current monitor setup. the amp is getting quite noisy nowadays.

[guitoffee]

I too took the leap of faith and bought A7s. They are great. The speakers have amazing detail and are very flat. It's hard to get a good idea on sub bass freq. response. Speakers this size were not meant to reproduce freq below 46Hz. However, I found that if you tweak the bass dial on the back it helps. I am contemplating getting the SUB 8. Especially for dance and hip hop production.

[cubivore]

thanks for the replies, but i'm still wondering how they'll hold up in my room. what are the sizes of rooms you guys are using them in? do they fill out your space with just 50W? my current monitoring triangle is almost 6 feet as well. is this within the A7 normal sweetspot?

[James Lehmann]

Originally Posted by cubivore

-there was something else, but i forgot.

I've not heard the Adams but FWIW I did invest in a pair of Blue Sky ProDesks recently (check out my own review here) and have been nothing less than blown away by the sort of quality monitoring system you get with these for around $1200, particularly if you have the slightest interest in really hearing balanced low end that translates perfectly. Whilst the Blue Skys are not in the same league as PMC (which I used to own) and ATC they are certainly more than a match for the Genelec/Dynaudio crowd at around this sort of price-point - I'd recommend anyone to at least get a demo.