Adam S2V Studio Monitor Review

[restorer-john]

Even having drivers custom made in Asia, is usually code for going to one of a number of Taiwanese manufactures who offer a range of customisation options from an existing parts bin of castings, magnets, coils etc. There is nothing wrong with this.

Nothing wrong with it, but dressing up assembly-house OEM customized drivers as something special is so typical these days.

 

[beefkabob]

I did see a video of a HEDD employee hand-folding a ribbon tweeter. It was not a high precision process.

 

[restorer-john]

Three: have a propriatory cone design using a hex core laminate that is very characteristic in appearance, and apparent on the ADAM bass driver.

Probably have the cones shipped to their low coast Asian manufacturer to assemble..

 

[restorer-john]

I did see a video of a HEDD employee hand-folding a ribbon tweeter. It was not a high precision process.

Audiophiles need the mystique and perception of clean-room style workers in white coats carefully (in slow motion preferably) assembling their expensive speakers with love.

Reality is quite different. Somewhere on youtube there's a few Rega turntable factory tours where they are assembling a TT with a Makita cordless drill/driver and bashing bearings in with a mallet or similar. There's a Technics TT factory video with Japanese de-rigueur 'men in white coats' and coronavirus masks too.

Here's the Technics one :

 

[BYRTT]

The high-Q 2,5dB step at 500-550Hz in NFS measurements is strange. In factory measurements there is a small successive step-dip like an interference. By baffle diffraction simulation there shouldn't be anything and 6,5" woofers don't have that either, at that freq. Directivity, distortion or CDS don't show anything strange at same freq either.

I started wondering, where is NFS's transition of soundfield separation-direct response? Perhaps the level matching in software just didn't do it right. This step can be seen in many other speakers too, but not so sharp.

For the JBL 305P mkII and the Neumann KH-80, it was at 2000 Hz.

Probably a ballance that garage even its big one for three cars is not so very welcome into graphs and SPL got lowered a bit for small active speakers after KH 80 sample 1 was under compression suspicion, now you arond that 2kHz say 1950Hz is a very steep glitch on both 500 verse 1000 points exercise for KH 80 sample 2, well think remember first Harbeth take one was reloaded and recomputed higher order wave field expansion that lifted it to top of preference rating database, its the fitting error plot at left below that without retake but post recompute improved from blue to red fitting curve, have added predicted acoustic XO slopes and power response DI to look for clues but mostly think one can conclude its really a nice welcome improvemient in post error fitting and probably important it looks be a smooth curve including transition to gating at 1950/2000Hz. Then at right is the exercise and hard work amirm kindly did for KH 80 sample 2, apreciated is the work put to investigate for optimation but it fails for sample 2 compared what was expected above 8-10kHz area missing bit amplitude in think it was center ridge and +/- 10deg but worst at same it suddenly spike unseen hot off axis numbers in 13-20kHz area as seen in bump for DI even its a waveguided tweeter and not seen in sample 1. Bit fun for 500 point scan field seperation from lows to 1200Hz area where field seperation is required based on NFS-ALMA pdf document is better than 1000 points scan, cant know but document talks about redundancy of information when points is larger than the number of coefficients probably what they call insufficeint order or what do i know, other than that 25 dB glitch from field seperation to gating at 1950Hz looks weird high Q glitch like transition compared to the smooth one at left for Harbeth and also its sits where KH 80 acoustic 1800Hz 8th order slope sits.

Maybe that steep 1950/2000Hz transition area is in general a bit high in frequence and agressive compared NFS ALMA document that show below transistion area which is lower and also could look those N order filters at right, the higher orders of them could press that anechoic bump for SV2 to be a high Q step, that said its probably there because of other reasons as a filter or something, and amirm have done alot of work for retakes and deslike and as told he had SV3 run a 3 hours run, in a way feel that 1950Hz tansistion area can be seen on axis including SV2 for all the scans of better speakers except first one 305P that spike natural too hot exactly there, but then again NFS is probably close enough and also amirm looks been right each time so far have fine scan even we raise eyebrow for scanned acoustics graphs now and then especially for KH 80.

 

[beefkabob]

Audiophiles need the mystique and perception of clean-room style workers in white coats carefully (in slow motion preferably) assembling their expensive speakers with love.

But they must use a particle accelerator to harmonize the quantum fields of my trans-directional interconnects. VEIL LIFTED!

 

[restorer-john]

of my trans-directional interconnects.

I need to get me some of those...

 

[hardisj]

I need to get me some of those...

 

[amirm]

I read or saw in a video that they OEM the woofer but they make their own tweeter in-house.

 

[amirm]

Someone had asked about fitting error. Finally back at my desk where I can put it up:

As noted, the dashed error line is 1% error mark. We are way better than it up to 19.7 kHz.

 

[amirm]

Someone else had asked about the transition to gated response from field separation. Here is that data:

Don't mind the frequency response. It is at a random 3-D position. Reflection-free zone is 2.4 kHz as indicated. I made this higher for this scan to reduce any chance of reflections getting in the way. The effect of reflections becomes negligible after 1 kHz.

 

[Deleted member 12179]

I was expecting in a review of this type of speaker, at least some comments about this approach ADAM uses because, as far as I know, that DSP starts form the analog source, turns it into digital, that eq it, then turns it again to analog... Seems like a weird thing to do, on paper. No comments on this.

And then again, if these speakers take a usb source directly, I would have liked some comments about how the dac performs.

I also would have liked to try to make a desired eq for them, with the power/features these speakers have. In other words, use the features of adjustment in these speakers, to get the best desired measurements; maybe that bass shelf could have been edited directly from the speaker?

And then again, for such a expensive pair of speakers, I would have liked more time and explanations regarding the subjective listening tests.

Anyhow, looking forward for measurements of both Adam A7X, and A5V. Those are both cheaper and probably offer more bang for the buck.

 

[amirm]

I was expecting in a review of this type of speaker, at least some comments about this approach ADAM uses because, as far as I know, that DSP starts form the analog source, turns it into digital, that eq it, then turns it again to analog... Seems like a weird thing to do, on paper. No comments on this.

I mentioned it has digital input to avoid the ADC conversion.

And then again, if these speakers take a usb source directly, I would have liked some comments about how the dac performs.

USB is for control only, not as a DAC.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I was expecting in a review of this type of speaker, at least some comments about this approach ADAM uses because, as far as I know, that DSP starts form the analog source, turns it into digital, that eq it, then turns it again to analog... Seems like a weird thing to do, on paper. No comments on this.

There's actually nothing unusual about this in the pro audio world, it's completely standard for active speakers using DSP crossovers, and a very sensible way to do things. Of course, it requires two conversions (AD and DA), but the drawbacks of this are minimal in the context of the greater level of control DSP processing provides.

And then again, if these speakers take a usb source directly, I would have liked some comments about how the dac performs.

They don't take USB, but they can take digital input via the AES3 input. This standard is much more common in pro audio than in home audio though.

 

[amirm]

I also would have liked to try to make a desired eq for them, with the power/features these speakers have. In other words, use the features of adjustment in these speakers, to get the best desired measurements; maybe that bass shelf could have been edited directly from the speaker?

I mentioned there is built-in EQ in the speaker. You need to download their app after registering to set them. For my tests, all EQ was off including shelving filters.

 

[Deleted member 12179]

There's actually nothing unusual about this in the pro audio world, it's completely standard for active speakers using DSP crossovers, and a very sensible way to do things. Of course, it requires two conversions (AD and DA), but the drawbacks of this are minimal in the context of the greater level of control DSP processing provides.

They don't take USB, but they can take digital input via the AES3 input. This standard is much more common in pro audio than in home audio though.

Unusual or not, both Andrew Jones and the founder of Hedd, Klaus Heinz, say it's quite awkward, and decide to do the opposite with their current speakers.

The usb is only for service indeed. At this level of money, I think it's extremely stupid, in the digital world, to put a DSP at the end, when the digital source has been converted to analog, instead of putting it at the source. It's a triple facepalm and so much tech and measurements or what not to then do this. But then again, it it takes digital as you mention via that AES3, what kind of digital signal is that? it then has a DAC inside? the dsp thing is done with that dac, or after it's turned into analog?

 

[Deleted member 12179]

I mentioned there is built-in EQ in the speaker. You need to download their app after registering to set them. For my tests, all EQ was off including shelving filters.

Yes, you mention that, but since the response of these speakers seems to be deliberately not flat, and the included EQ thing is supposed to be the bees knees, would have been nice to ask ADAMS, get an EQ for real flat, the real deal, and then measure them? just saying... If the company decided to have that shelf by default because it works well for reflections, which seems good idea... but then, unshelve it for measurements, if possible, would have been nice to see how precise and worthy that eq option is in practical and measured terms. Cause it could work flawlessly, or it could be a piece of... but as it wasn't really tested or spent time with, we just don't know.

 

[majingotan]

The usb is only for service indeed. At this level of money, I think it's extremely stupid, in the digital world, to put a DSP at the end instead of putting it at the source. It's a triple facepalm and so much tech and measurements or what not to then do this. But then again, it it takes digital as you mention via that AES3, what kind of digital signal is that? it then has a DAC inside? the dsp thing is done with that dac, or after it's turned in to analog?

You probably need to consider the target market for these speakers which is professional studio mixing and mastering. The advantage of DSP in the monitors is that the digital mixer audio interface allows for endless options when it comes to adding presets, templates, etc and ease of transfer projects from one studio to another. and that the signal is sent as digital purely prior to DSP that is calibrated to speakers and the studio room. The DSP built-in to the speakers makes sense to me in that scenario.

 

[beefkabob]

Curious if there's a measured difference between analog in and digital in.

 

[amirm]

Yes, you mention that, but since the response of these speakers seems to be deliberately not flat, and the included EQ thing is supposed to be the bees knees, would have been nice to ask ADAMS, get an EQ for real flat, the real deal, and then measure them?

Before we start messing with them, we need to understand why I am measuring a shelf and they are not. That is the message I sent to Adam USA. Unfortunately they did not acknowledge my email let alone answer it. So let's see what happens next week.

Meanwhile, any bass response will be highly varied due to your room. So a simple shelf is not enough. You need to measure in-room and then EQ to remove modes and set the target curve.