Hi All,

Long time lurker, first post in this great community.

After seeing all the recommendations across various sources of the Adam A5X I bought a pair. I had been looking for home desktop nearfield speakers to use for multimedia, mostly listening (and enjoying) music. I know this is a pro audio forum, however it seems the consensus is that studio monitors can be great as well for the enjoyment of music rather than just the production, and a lot of hi fi speaker options are not as suited to nearfield. Some users had reported the A5X were preferrable even to the revered KEF LS50W system, which I had also considered.

I have had the A5X for under a week now and am unsure about keeping them. I have found them a little fatiguing, which I read could be a result of the tweeter being used. The A5X costs a lot here in Australia and other options out there would be Focal Shape 40, Focal Alpha 50, Adam T5V, Neumann KH80, Presonus and the like. I have read great things about the ILoud MTM as well and think this might have a great sound signature similar to what I am looking for.

I am not great at describing sound but I am looking for something that is warm, has nice bass and is not fatiguing, something easy to listen to and makes it easy to listen and enjoy music. Happy to pay for something around similar price of an A5X / Neumann KH80 price range.

Can anyone provide a comparison or recommendation of more "easy listening" with "amazing sound" studio monitors that you could recommend?

Years ago, I had been primarily working on Adam A7’s at the studio. I wanted a smaller pair of speakers for home and grabbed the A5’s. They just sounded weird and off to me so I returned them. Ended up seeing a used pair of smaller A3x at guitar center a few days later and thought they sounded much better, definitely a smaller version of the A7’s. I don’t know what it is about the 5’s, but I’ve heard a few other people say the same thing about them.

In your price range, I would suggest looking at the KRK RP10-3. I never really got a chance to mix on them, but they sound amazing for the price range. I guarantee you’ll enjoy listening to music on them. The low end is nice on them, but not overwhelming. Well rounded and punchy, didn’t sound fatiguing to me. I was quite impressed with them. My studios at my home now, so I don’t need another pair of speakers around the house. If I did though, I would grab the KRKs for sure (and that’s coming from someone who has Barefoots now).

I’m sure the other options you’re looking at would be more clinical and accurate, but it sounds like you might be more after something that sounds “fun”. The KRKs are an entry level 3 way system, so just by that factor alone are probably a great bargain.

Have good things to say about the non-MTM version. The MTM's shoud be a step up ... with a larger field.

Thanks for the suggestion, to be honest KRK was never even on my radar, so its great to hear there are other good options out there. I will look into them.

It seems I am looking for a monitor that has some hifi sound qualities attached to it so I may need to look outside the normal recommended studio monitors to find this quality (I know many will say the goal of the studio monitor is to be as flat as possible and not enjoyable)

Cheers! I have heard some great things about the MTMs if listening at reasonable volumes, which I would be on my desktop only, so these are a top contender as alternatives at the moment

If you can stretch it get the neumann, these are great little monitors that can double well as listening speakers.

Other options might include the jbl lsr305 or the kali LP6.
I do think that these are all a step above the adam.

The Kef LS50 are a good hifi speaker (I know some ppl use these for mixing too), they do need a decent powered amp to work well.



Cheu

I have iLoud MTMs.

If you calibrate them correctly they are flat and mostly neutral. The bass has a slight 'processed' quality, but overall for their size they are potent. Their portability is fairly unique too.

However, they have 2 other profiles saved aside from the calibrated profile. One called Desk and another called Flat. You can switch with a button press. Flat in particular has a fair bit of boof in my room. More options come from the variable bass extension settings.

So ... you can kinda switch from flat monitor to something more hifi oriented with a button press.

They have been an interesting high tech choice.