This is a review and detailed measurements of the Adam T5V Powered Speaker. It was kindly purchased new by a member and drop shipped to me. The T5V costs US $200 each.
Much like the rest of Adam speakers, the T5V has a serious look to it:
Back panel shows good connectivity and usual controls:
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of less than 1% throughout most of the range.
Temperature was 58 degrees F (yes, it is getting cold here). Measurement location is at sea level so you compute the pressure.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Reference axis was the tweeter center.
Adam T5V Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The elevation of treble seems to be on purpose and shows up in one other measurement I found. The sound filed gets kind of complex in the mid-range due to port interactions:
Thankfully the two resonant peaks from the port are around 1 kHz which is before the woofer crossover has taken its toll on it, making them less dominant when summed. Tweeter response is uneven as we have seen in this type of AMT tweeter type before (e.g. Adam T8V).
The following two graphs are designed for far field listening but still give us useful information:
The smaller woofer integrates well with the tweeter as far as dispersion (beam width):
And you have more than the usual vertical leeway for listening:
A lot of budget monitors in this price range have high distortion but here, it is controlled fairly well:
Notice how the bass distortion stays well below its frequency response (otherwise THD would be over 100%!). So not reference quality but better than what one expects as noted.
I wanted to measure the effect of trim switches but the Klippel software was acting up on me. So I manually captured on effect: the treble negative trim:
Was hoping that it would take that shelving down altogether. But instead, it has a slope to it and as such, will leave the elevated levels between 4 and 6 kHz. Still, it may be helpful. Note that the trimmed graph is smoothed but the other is not. So don't worry about that difference.
Adam T5V Speaker Listening Tests
Out of the box, slapped on my desk with half inch foam under it, the sound was very good. It was a tad bright so I dialed in a quick shelf filter:
Done! Track after track sounded beautiful. There was surprising amount of bass combined with ability to get quite loud. The low notes were creating a physical sensation and reverberated throughout my huge space. And my "speaker killer" tracks had no such attribute with Adam T5V. Even at extremely elevated levels there was either zero or just a hint of distortion in the deep bass. Superbly implemented tuning of the bass is in play here folks.
Figuring there would be a lot of interest in knowing how it compares to other speakers, I first paired it with Neumman KH80 DSP. No contest. The little KH80 while sounding smooth, could not remotely produce the same bass and loudness. As a result it sounded quite thin.
I substituted the JBL 305P Mark II. Again, no contest. The 305p had far less bass and could not play nearly as loud.
So I pulled in the Kali LP6. I was quite surprised that the Adam T5V with its smaller woofer was able to once again produce more bass. I think this is due to the shelving of the upper bass in LP6. Regardless, the T5V sounded much warmer and balanced due to more bass energy. And it could play even louder than the LP6!
Quick testing for hiss showed that I could not hear much past a few inches away from Adam tweeter. So really not a problem -- at least not in my sample.
I then sat back and just listened. And listened. Joy, oh joy!
Conclusions
There is a great line in one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting: "I don't know that she is perfect... the key is whether you are perfect for each other." The Adam T5V is not perfect but manages the compromises in the this very low price range incredibly well. The ability produce lots of bass and loudly so puts it a clear step ahead of the competition. Yes, you pay a bit more for that but it is well worth it.
Really, I live for days like this. Discovering a budget speaker that exceeds your expectations and produces great sound with almost no faults. No need for, "well you always need a sub." No, a good speaker should not need a sub to sound good. The subwoofer should be augmentation, not filling design deficiency. A bookshelf speaker needs to deliver enough bass to balance the rest of the response and the Adam T5V does that. Ditto for ability to get loud.
It is my pleasure to strongly recommend the Adam T5V.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Much like the rest of Adam speakers, the T5V has a serious look to it:
Back panel shows good connectivity and usual controls:
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of less than 1% throughout most of the range.
Temperature was 58 degrees F (yes, it is getting cold here). Measurement location is at sea level so you compute the pressure.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
Reference axis was the tweeter center.
Adam T5V Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
The elevation of treble seems to be on purpose and shows up in one other measurement I found. The sound filed gets kind of complex in the mid-range due to port interactions:
Thankfully the two resonant peaks from the port are around 1 kHz which is before the woofer crossover has taken its toll on it, making them less dominant when summed. Tweeter response is uneven as we have seen in this type of AMT tweeter type before (e.g. Adam T8V).
The following two graphs are designed for far field listening but still give us useful information:
The smaller woofer integrates well with the tweeter as far as dispersion (beam width):
And you have more than the usual vertical leeway for listening:
A lot of budget monitors in this price range have high distortion but here, it is controlled fairly well:
Notice how the bass distortion stays well below its frequency response (otherwise THD would be over 100%!). So not reference quality but better than what one expects as noted.
I wanted to measure the effect of trim switches but the Klippel software was acting up on me. So I manually captured on effect: the treble negative trim:
Was hoping that it would take that shelving down altogether. But instead, it has a slope to it and as such, will leave the elevated levels between 4 and 6 kHz. Still, it may be helpful. Note that the trimmed graph is smoothed but the other is not. So don't worry about that difference.
Adam T5V Speaker Listening Tests
Out of the box, slapped on my desk with half inch foam under it, the sound was very good. It was a tad bright so I dialed in a quick shelf filter:
Done! Track after track sounded beautiful. There was surprising amount of bass combined with ability to get quite loud. The low notes were creating a physical sensation and reverberated throughout my huge space. And my "speaker killer" tracks had no such attribute with Adam T5V. Even at extremely elevated levels there was either zero or just a hint of distortion in the deep bass. Superbly implemented tuning of the bass is in play here folks.
Figuring there would be a lot of interest in knowing how it compares to other speakers, I first paired it with Neumman KH80 DSP. No contest. The little KH80 while sounding smooth, could not remotely produce the same bass and loudness. As a result it sounded quite thin.
I substituted the JBL 305P Mark II. Again, no contest. The 305p had far less bass and could not play nearly as loud.
So I pulled in the Kali LP6. I was quite surprised that the Adam T5V with its smaller woofer was able to once again produce more bass. I think this is due to the shelving of the upper bass in LP6. Regardless, the T5V sounded much warmer and balanced due to more bass energy. And it could play even louder than the LP6!
Quick testing for hiss showed that I could not hear much past a few inches away from Adam tweeter. So really not a problem -- at least not in my sample.
I then sat back and just listened. And listened. Joy, oh joy!
Conclusions
There is a great line in one of my favorite movies, Good Will Hunting: "I don't know that she is perfect... the key is whether you are perfect for each other." The Adam T5V is not perfect but manages the compromises in the this very low price range incredibly well. The ability produce lots of bass and loudly so puts it a clear step ahead of the competition. Yes, you pay a bit more for that but it is well worth it.
Really, I live for days like this. Discovering a budget speaker that exceeds your expectations and produces great sound with almost no faults. No need for, "well you always need a sub." No, a good speaker should not need a sub to sound good. The subwoofer should be augmentation, not filling design deficiency. A bookshelf speaker needs to deliver enough bass to balance the rest of the response and the Adam T5V does that. Ditto for ability to get loud.
It is my pleasure to strongly recommend the Adam T5V.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
