ADAM Audio D3V specs price ?

[RobL]

Interesting. Here in the States the T5V is $240/ea, so $480/pr compared to $350/pr for the D3V.

Tarrifs? In Canada T5V is US$380/pair and D3V is US$300

 

[InfiniteJester]

I just got the D3V and I find them to be very good. Compared to the desktop speakers that we used to have in the 90s, the jump in quality is insane. They do have a hiss that I can only hear in the quiet moments or between songs at the recommended listening distance, that is the only obvious negative aspect I can point out. It is not an issue, the hiss is faint and imperceptible during 99% of the time.

They shut off on their own more or less quickly, so maybe I need to upgrade the software.

I may add the Presonus sub at some point, but I'm not sure.

 

[Pearljam5000]

I just got the D3V and I find them to be very good. Compared to the desktop speakers that we used to have in the 90s, the jump in quality is insane. They do have a hiss that I can only hear in the quiet moments or between songs at the recommended listening distance, that is the only obvious negative aspect I can point out. It is not an issue, the hiss is faint and imperceptible during 99% of the time.

They shut off on their own more or less quickly, so maybe I need to upgrade the software.

I may add the Presonus sub at some point, but I'm not sure.

How's the bass?

 

[InfiniteJester]

How's the bass?

It is good. Controlled and clean, but I only listen to music at low volumes. It is probably to be expected some quality deterioration at higher levels.

(Graph courtesy of Erin, of course: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/adam_d3v/).

The only other small speaker I use regularly is the Soundcore Motion X600, the bass in the D3V sounds much, much better. More "correct", "precise", "better tuned" or whatever. Of course, there is no sub-bass. The bass is comparable to the one in open-back headphones. It's good and you can perfectly hear it, but it has little physical impact. Which is not a bad thing on its own, particularly for the neighbours. The music sounds completely full, the speakers don't have the hollowed, boxy sound of the ones from the 90s. The highs do seem a little bit (just a tad) accentuated in the room where I'm trying them out (completely untreated), I will see how they sound in a better room in a few days.

I'm listening to this album with them, and the bass lines and kick drums are perfectly present.

 

[DrSpan]

It is good. Controlled and clean, but I only listen to music at low volumes. It is probably to be expected some quality deterioration at higher levels.

View attachment 487542
(Graph courtesy of Erin, of course: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/adam_d3v/).

The only other small speaker I use regularly is the Soundcore Motion X600, here the bass sounds much, much better. More "correct", "precise", "better tuned" or whatever. Of course, there is no sub-bass. The bass is comparable to the one in open-back headphones. It's good and you can perfectly hear it, but it has little physical impact. Which is not a bad thing on its own, particularly for the neighbours. The music sounds completely full, the speakers don't have the hollowed, boxy sound of the ones from the 90s. The highs do seem a little bit (just a tad) accentuated in the room where I'm trying them out (completely untreated), I will see how they sound in a better room in a few days.

I'm listening to this album with them, and the bass lines and kick drums are perfectly present.

Tbh reading "Soundcore Motion X600“ and finding it having better bass makes me conclude that you
1) either have some serious issues with your room response cause this is an comparison like saying „my chainsaw has more torque than my car“ in a way
OR 2) i got what you say the wrong way.
I know its a bit of an abstract example but i had too much coffee today.

The D3V is the first small speaker i have taken with me travelling and did an emergency mastering of an Ep inside a hotel room and it a was the first time i did
not miss my subwoofer in order to mix and master bass. The artist absolutely loved the result. As said, i told them i am travelling and cant reliably do this but i guess thats
what emergency stands for.
Now i am not saying that i am going to start working like this but this says a lot about the D3v
Anyhow. Wishing you long long enjoyable hours with your new tools!

 

[InfiniteJester]

Tbh reading "Soundcore Motion X600“ and finding it having better bass makes me conclude that you
1) either have some serious issues with your room response cause this is an comparison like saying „my chainsaw has more torque than my car“ in a way
OR 2) i got what you say the wrong way.
I know its a bit of an abstract example but i had too much coffee today.

The D3V is the first small speaker i have taken with me travelling and did an emergency mastering of an Ep inside a hotel room and it a was the first time i did
not miss my subwoofer in order to mix and master bass. The artist absolutely loved the result. As said, i told them i am travelling and cant reliably do this but i guess thats
what emergency stands for.
Now i am not saying that i am going to start working like this but this says a lot about the D3v
Anyhow. Wishing you long long enjoyable hours with your new tools!

What I tried to communicate is that the bass in the D3V is much better than the bass in the X600.

Sorry, English is not my first language. I will correct my sentencing.

 

[DrSpan]

Tbh reading "Soundcore Motion X600“ and finding it having better bass makes me conclude that you might have some issues with your room response cause this is an
comparison like saying „my chainsaw has more torque than my car“ in a way. I know its a bit of an abstract example but i had too much coffee today.

The D3V is the first small speaker i have taken with me travelling and did an emergency mastering of an Ep inside a hotel room and it a was the first time i did
not miss my subwoofer in order to mix and master bass. The artist absolutely loved the result. As said, i told them i am travelling and cant reliably do this but i guess thats
what emergency stands for.
Now i am not saying that i am going to start working like this but this says a lot about the D3v
Anyhow. Wishing you long long enjoyable hours with your new tools!

What I tried to communicate is that the bass in the D3V is much better than the bass in the X600.

Sorry, English is not my first language. I will correct my sentencing.

Forget about it! I am not the corrector of the internet! sorry if I came across like this.
That said, enjoy your new babies. They are a rare case where you get such a value for money

 

[InfiniteJester]

Forget about it! I am not the corrector of the internet! sorry if I came across like this.
That said, enjoy your new babies. They are a rare case where you get such a value for money

Nothing to be sorry about. I prefer to make my opinions clear so as not to confuse anyone. Thanks for pointing it out!

 

[Pearljam5000]

It is good. Controlled and clean, but I only listen to music at low volumes. It is probably to be expected some quality deterioration at higher levels.

View attachment 487542


I can perfectly hear it, but it has little physical impact.

That's what I was worried about
KH120 while small definitely had physical bass
I think it's somewhat critical for realism and enjoyment in general

 

[DrSpan]

That's what I was worried about
KH120 while small definitely had physical bass
I think it's somewhat critical for realism and enjoyment in general

We need to define a bit what we are talking about. The Kh 120 is a speaker I had. It does not have a much lower bass response.
That makes me think that by “physical bass” you mean Kick bass area bass. So more “Punch”. That is because the Kh 120 have twice the woofer cone area and also cost around 4-5 times more.
But regardless of price, it is a very uneven comparison of completely different woofer and enclosure size categories.
The D3v is a mini speaker. It is logical that a speaker 3 times its size can do more bass

 

[InfiniteJester]

That's what I was worried about
KH120 while small definitely had physical bass
I think it's somewhat critical for realism and enjoyment in general

For what I can see online, the KH120 II has a F3 of 44 Hz, whereas the D3V has a F3 of 50 Hz.

So, yeah. The Neumanns (738€ each) would probably have more impact, but you can buy the D3Vs (289€) and a T10S or whatever (389€) and have better bass (F6 = 28 Hz) and half the money to spare.

 

[DrSpan]

For what I can see online, the KH120 II has a F3 of 44 Hz, whereas the D3V has a F3 of 50 Hz.

So, yeah. The Neumanns (738€ each) would probably have more impact, but you can buy the D3Vs (289€) and a T10S or whatever (389€) and have better bass (F3 = 28 Hz) and half the money to spare.

If I may add to this,
The Neumann don’t have more impact cause if the 6hz lower -f3. This only sounds a bit “rounder” in the very deep regions.
The impact comes from the woofer size and an amplifier that delivers miltiples of impulse amplification.

It’s a bit like comparing a fiat panda with a Range Rover. You can travel with both just fine but comparing them side by side it’s an uneven comparison

Don’t know. Maybe I am seeing it in the wrong way of course

 

[Pearljam5000]

They're not comparable
But if T5V/T7V don't cost much more than D3V and have much more physical bass than them, I'd consider them over the D3V though I like the USB C in and the small factor of the D3v more.
It's just my personal dilemma

 

[DrSpan]

They're not comparable
But if T5V/T7V don't cost much more than D3V and have much more physical bass than them, I'd consider them over the D3V though I like the USB C in and the small factor of the D3v more.
It's just my personal dilemma

I totally understand. There is still no replacement for displacement.
However the D3V with an 8 inch Subwoofer will probably outperform the T5V in almost every aspect.
I say almost because if you want specifically the Kick bass (the punch in the chest area kind of Bass) properties of music you need a minimum size for the woofer as it is an area a subwoofer cannot cover as it goes higher than 200-300 hz. In this case your only solution is a 5+ inch woofer. The woofer of the D3V is too small for this. You need a woofer
that can move a lot of air at once. That can only be done through big cone area or big excursion. However a small woofer with long excursion still cannot sound as tight as a bigger membrane when it comes to modelling kick drums as long throw woofers especially in small sizes tend to become heavy thus being more „draggy“
in their speed. Its a vicious circle.

 

[Tito]

I totally understand. There is still no replacement for displacement.
However the D3V with an 8 inch Subwoofer will probably outperform the T5V in almost every aspect.
I say almost because if you want specifically the Kick bass (the punch in the chest area kind of Bass) properties of music you need a minimum size for the woofer as it is an area a subwoofer cannot cover as it goes higher than 200-300 hz. In this case your only solution is a 5+ inch woofer. The woofer of the D3V is too small for this. You need a woofer
that can move a lot of air at once. That can only be done through big cone area or big excursion. However a small woofer with long excursion still cannot sound as tight as a bigger membrane when it comes to modelling kick drums as long throw woofers especially in small sizes tend to become heavy thus being more „draggy“
in their speed. Its a vicious circle.

Foi great insight into mixing/mastering and producing value of these.

most of negative comments on reddit/youtube for ability of these for mixin/mastering/production are, and i will try to paraphrase them in a single comment
"you can not be serious mixing with this.. look at that 3.5 inch woofer, you can not seriously expect to hear bass, and midrange is gonna get enormous hit because they will work hard in basss region etc etc"

And of course none of these people used it for the given purposes, they just operate on presumptions..
and the repetitive presumptions snowball and become a"fact". it is quite fascinating how we decide to participate in this simulacra.

ps sonicscoop in his review on youbitube said that he presumes these would be very good for mixing (if i remember correctly)

And i am like oh come on man, you are mix/mastering engineer, couldn't you just take some time and try to do it, instead of guessing.

I believe you are the first person i have seen that actually did use them profesionally for those purposes and succesfullyl so!

 

[InfiniteJester]

Foi great insight into mixing/mastering and producing value of these.

most of negative comments on reddit/youtube for ability of these for mixin/mastering/production are, and i will try to paraphrase them in a single comment
"you can not be serious mixing with this.. look at that 3.5 inch woofer, you can not seriously expect to hear bass, and midrange is gonna get enormous hit because they will work hard in basss region etc etc"

And of course none of these people used it for the given purposes, they just operate on presumptions..
and the repetitive presumptions snowball and become a"fact". it is quite fascinating how we decide to participate in this simulacra.

ps sonicscoop in his review on youbitube said that he presumes these would be very good for mixing (if i remember correctly)

And i am like oh come on man, you are mix/mastering engineer, couldn't you just take some time and try to do it, instead of guessing.

I believe you are the first person i have seen that actually did use them profesionally for those purposes and succesfullyl so!

I specifically bought them to mix for a public national radio program, so quite a bit of people in Spain will listen to something mixed with them.

I was forced to mix with a non-eq'ed AKG702 previously. I don't even want to know how that sounded. It is what it is, I didn't have time, nor alternative, and I wouldn't pass on the opportunity.

 

[madwolfa]

They shut off on their own more or less quickly, so maybe I need to upgrade the software.

You definitely should - it not just allows you to disable auto standby, but also improves tweeter behavior at lower volumes.

 

[InfiniteJester]

You definitely should - it not just allows you to disable auto standby, but also improves tweeter behavior at lower volumes.

Maybe that was the weird "step" I have perceived. If you lower the knob below a certain threshold, the quality degrades considerably and it loses volume in a non-linear fashion.

The "step" still exists, but it is more to the left now, or it is more gradual.

 

[madwolfa]

Maybe that was the weird "step" I have perceived. If you lower the knob below a certain threshold, the quality degrades considerably and it loses volume in a non-linear fashion.

The "step" still exists, but it is more to the left now, or it is more gradual.

Yeah, I believe they just tweaked the threshold, but it's still there. Personally I've never experienced it, hopefully it's not a problem for a majority of people.

 

[madwolfa]

They're now down to $289 on Amazon. Absolute steal at this price, IMO.