Feel free to ask questions. I'll do my best to answer.


Sunday, February 24, 2013

ADAM A3X

Very cool little speaker!  I haven't had a chance to measure these again, so I just removed the cal files from the measurements.  In other words, this was done with an Earthworks measurement microphone without the calibration.  The mic is still very flat but has a 1dB bump above 1.5kHz to about 28kHz with a parabolic arch.

The little dip at 1.3kHz is present in both speakers and I'm not sure of the cause.  It may be the ports or something inherent in the midrange cone(or who knows?).  I haven't tried to test it.  Under quasi-anechoic conditions, it's narrower than presented here.

Update
It's the ports: A5X mod

The coolest thing about this speaker is that both units measure identical(well nearly so--a fraction of a dB off at 12kHz) and neither have amplifiers that vibrate when running the sine wave sweep.  These are the first speakers with amplifiers attached that don't audibly vibrate when running my sweeps.  The Mackie HR624mk2 and Behringer 1030A have been the worst offenders in that regard.  The Mackie's vibration is audible while listening to music where the Behringer's was not.  Their impulse is clean and compact as is their spectrogram--completely uninteresting.

The bass measurements suggest that ADAM is a bit conservative with their specs.  That's a welcome relief.

Their vertical polar is similar to Behringer speakers with a fairly broad lobe aimed in the direction of the tweeter.



13 comments:

  1. Hi Dan

    What do you think about Adam F like F5 and F7? Perhaps Adam F5 is best option that A3X.

    And F5 or A3x/A5X with subwoofer with adjustable phase (not only swith 0º - 180º) like the Canton AS 85.2 SC.

    Nauscopio Scipiorum Monitores de estudio: Adam A5X / A7X versus F5 y F7 February 18, 2013

    http://nauscopio.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/monitores-de-estudio-adam-a5x-a7x-versus-f5-y-f7/

    - Greetings from Spain -

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  2. I just listened to the F series a few days ago, but I really wasn't impressed. They didn't sound bad, but they didn't have that treble detail and clarity of the A3X or A5X, etc... Decidedly not ADAM enough. I wish I could have posted the measurements I did of the A3X last night, but I accidentally used the wrong calibration curve for my mic--and unfortunately no way to fix it afterwards.

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  3. Thanks for the warning in my blog.

    Adam A5X does not dip at 1.3Khz but

    -> http://www.ixbt.com/proaudio/adam/a5x/lowshelf.png

    Perhaps A5X with sub is the best option.

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  4. Interesting enough, I have a pair of those coming in. I'll do a little better job measuring them. ;) I can say for certain that the A3X, wart and all, are the most enjoyable speaker I've heard. The sense of detail/clarity/soundstage/etc... makes me want to get all subjective with my reviews. I am truly impressed by it. You should check out Stereophile's measurements of the ADAM Column--a mighty speaker--and what made me look into ADAM. When I first heard ADAMs, I thought they sounded harsh. It turns out it was the recording. They were just the first speakers to clearly reveal it.

    In my quasi-anechoic chamber, these measurements look better, but I wanted comparable data. I just built it a few month ago intending to make a vocal booth. It's essentially a 2m cube in the middle of my spare bedroom.

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  5. They are definitely revealing on mixes, the number of times theyve shown me something new in only a year leaves me running out of fingers and toes.

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  6. That does not shock me. Thank you

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  7. Hi Dan
    I can five A3X & a subwoofer (what you recommended?) for 5.1 mixing. What you can think about? Thanks!

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  8. http://dtmblabber.blogspot.com/2013/04/adam-artist-5.html

    And the Canton Sub 10. ;) That's what I use.

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  9. Hello Dan!

    Have you tried the new Behringer Truth's B3030A? I'm trying to decide between buying Adam's F5 or Berri's B3030A and i'd lo ve to hear your opinion.

    I won't use them for mastering, just for production and mixing.

    Any thoughts?

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  10. I've heard the 3030 and the F5, but not side by side. Haven't measured either of them, but neither of them sounded bad. It would be impossible for me to give and real opinion, but I don't think either are junk.

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  11. Thank you Dan!

    I know this is a hard question to answer (with the context provided above) but.. Do you think the Behringer Truth's new B3030A are a step up from the B2030/31A's?

    I recently sold all my gear due to some personal problems™ and I'm trying to setup everything again. I'm from Mexico (Mexico City to be exact) and it's very difficult to test gear and compare them side by side here; We've got no guitar center's and most audiogear stores lack a very broad range of monitors to come up with conclusions, personnel is not of any help either: This means I'm doing a blind jump on my next pair.

    I have a friend with the ol' Berri's Truth B2031A and I always thought they were awfully flat (compared to my KRK Rokits 5).. I always praised the sound of them, and questioned the hyped response of my Rokits (which never managed to translate well). The only thing I didn't liked that much were the mid/highs of the B2031A.. they were a bit muddy and lacked detail (something my friend always keeps complaining about)

    After doing a lot of research i've narrowed it down to 3 options:

    Adam F5, Equator D5, Behringer Truth B3030, all of them -tightly- within my budget BUT I don't think I'll be able to get a hold of the Adam's in any store in Mexico without paying a hype-ish fee (which takes them out of my list) and the equators are gonna be a PITA to bring them here from the states.

    That leaves me with 2 options, get a new pair of Rokits (which I absolutely hate and left me with tinnitus after years of working with them.. but I'm at very least, used to) and the new Berri's B3030A.

    So I was wondering if you could detail a little bit the performance of the new Truth B3030A compared to the old model (B2030A).. Are the mid/high's better? Any comment on these would help me a bunch!

    Thanks a lot, and thank you for answering so quickly, I really appreciate it.

    -Miguel

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  12. I'm not a front port fan at all. If the A3X was rear ported, I would be fully satisfied with them. Same with the B2031, the A5X, etc... For a low cost speaker that measures well, sounds great, and has rear ports, I'd go for the Behringer 1030A or for more bass/output the 1031A. The 1030 is one of the best speakers I've measured.

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