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robdelap « Crisp highs, clear mids, humble bass. »
Published on 09/09/14 at 12:43The Adam A7 was the second little brother (only surpassed by a 5 inch smaller one) in the adam monitor family. It has a bass exhaust port in the front, a (you guessed it) 7-inch speaker cone and the ART tweeter that is the trademark of Adam Monitors. Basically, this design "squeezes" air rather than pushing it like a regular cone would do, meaning faster transient response and a more detailed –and somewhat prominent– high end.
You'll also find the power button and volume knob on the front of the speaker, which makes them ideal for small on-the-desk studio setups. On the back lies the female XLR line input, an RCA unbalanced input (which makes me think they were also designed for the weekend audiophile) and 3 EQ mini knobs that go +-6dB at >6KHz, >150Hz and +-4dB for the overall tweeter level, which should be enough to tweak the speakers slightly to adjust to your room.
Also, Adam monitors are made in germany and yes, they're very well built and designed!
SOUNDS
When judging speakers, always remember that they're part of the system that includes your room. Mine is aprox. 3x3x2.5m (10x10x8 feet), which leads to some canceling at 150Hz. Having that in mind, I setup my A7's on my studio after getting rid of my M-audio 8" monitors, which did a pretty good job for a while but really didn't feel serious, and I was immediately blown away by the stereo image and the reverbs on the songs I played through, sort of like putting on glasses and being able to tell exactly where each instrument is on the X axis.
Dynamics shine with the ART tweeter. Whenever I use parallel compression on snare or kick I can really get it to pop out of the speaker (sadly, this is too much for regular speakers so I have to use it moderately) and you can really feel what you are doing to the transients.
Reverbs and delays are easily identifiable, which helps me put them in the right level where they're not too obvious and not too low.
High end feels a little, little hyped, mid range is good for electric and distorted guitars (never had issues eq'ing them on the A7's) and the low end is a little obscure. I mainly blame this on my room proportions, and it could use a little more bass-trapping, or perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to how the bass sounds on these speakers. Bottom line being I've had trouble getting everything under 150Hz under control.
OVERALL OPINION
These are some very good speakers for the price, very detailed and very trustworthy. They will make you work for your mix, and they're not really flattering when listening to stuff, which sometimes gets me down when listening to old mixes, but once you play your mixes on your car or other speakers the payoff is evident: everything is where it should be.
Frankly, I would have given them a better grade if I hadn't listened to 'more' professional studio monitors since I got these. Then there are the A7X, which have improved on some of the flaws these have.
I strongly recommend this monitors for the audio engineer starting to get serious on his/her craft on a limited budget. You'll still be checking your mixes on them even after getting more expensive monitors!
You'll also find the power button and volume knob on the front of the speaker, which makes them ideal for small on-the-desk studio setups. On the back lies the female XLR line input, an RCA unbalanced input (which makes me think they were also designed for the weekend audiophile) and 3 EQ mini knobs that go +-6dB at >6KHz, >150Hz and +-4dB for the overall tweeter level, which should be enough to tweak the speakers slightly to adjust to your room.
Also, Adam monitors are made in germany and yes, they're very well built and designed!
SOUNDS
When judging speakers, always remember that they're part of the system that includes your room. Mine is aprox. 3x3x2.5m (10x10x8 feet), which leads to some canceling at 150Hz. Having that in mind, I setup my A7's on my studio after getting rid of my M-audio 8" monitors, which did a pretty good job for a while but really didn't feel serious, and I was immediately blown away by the stereo image and the reverbs on the songs I played through, sort of like putting on glasses and being able to tell exactly where each instrument is on the X axis.
Dynamics shine with the ART tweeter. Whenever I use parallel compression on snare or kick I can really get it to pop out of the speaker (sadly, this is too much for regular speakers so I have to use it moderately) and you can really feel what you are doing to the transients.
Reverbs and delays are easily identifiable, which helps me put them in the right level where they're not too obvious and not too low.
High end feels a little, little hyped, mid range is good for electric and distorted guitars (never had issues eq'ing them on the A7's) and the low end is a little obscure. I mainly blame this on my room proportions, and it could use a little more bass-trapping, or perhaps it's just a matter of getting used to how the bass sounds on these speakers. Bottom line being I've had trouble getting everything under 150Hz under control.
OVERALL OPINION
These are some very good speakers for the price, very detailed and very trustworthy. They will make you work for your mix, and they're not really flattering when listening to stuff, which sometimes gets me down when listening to old mixes, but once you play your mixes on your car or other speakers the payoff is evident: everything is where it should be.
Frankly, I would have given them a better grade if I hadn't listened to 'more' professional studio monitors since I got these. Then there are the A7X, which have improved on some of the flaws these have.
I strongly recommend this monitors for the audio engineer starting to get serious on his/her craft on a limited budget. You'll still be checking your mixes on them even after getting more expensive monitors!