Adam T5V Review (Studio Monitor)

[dfuller]

I had the same problem with T5V when I connected them directly to my pc motherboard's output (RCA --->3.5 mm jack): unbearable, constant ground loop noise which was even made worse simply by moving the mouse. It was louder than the music signal itself at times! I eventually went out and bought a Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen for around 100 euros and was able to go balanced from the TRS outputs of the Focusrite. Absolute silence since then, save only for a slight hiss from the tweeters which I can't hear from 1 meter away anyway (and which of course is not a matter of connections but of the inside amp and the crossover of the Adam).

I would say that going balanced is mandatory when the source is a pc/laptop via usb and hopefully there are plenty of cost-effective solutions nowadays.

I consider balanced mandatory if you're even in the vicinity of a computer. Switching power supplies have a tendency to throw a lot of crap back into the power line and ground loops can make it show up in the speakers.

 

[Cidious]

I had ground loops too on RCA of the Topping D50s. Replaced it for balanced on a Soncoz LA-DXG1 and now on the passthrough balanced ports of my Topping D30 Pro / A30 Pro stack. Balanced connection solves the ground loop instantly. I would not recommend using single ended near a PC indeed. The only way you can make them quite is by cutting the ground pinon the AC cable but that's a safety risk you probably should not be wanting to take.

Owned these T5Vs for a year now or so using them every day. COMPLETELY LOVE THEM still. They are flawless for my general PC entertainment usage (read: nothing professional other than a little video editing).

 

[Lilith]

T7V

 

[Backflash]

After two months of using them I would like to give minor advice for people who want to get them for desktop multimedia like me and skim this thread for some useful info.
If you are gaming, consider going balanced, with something like focusrite solo 3rd gen(I think it's the cheapest decent DAC with balanced outs and a volume control around), or if your DAC can go optical do it. 200w+ GPUs under 100% load will make electrical noise through USB. Just like everyone predicted here, but it's not inherent to Adams, JBLs I had did the same.
On gaming side, if you are coming off headphones, spatial audio with speakers is surprisingly very close to headphones and at times superior, my biggest surprise. Honestly if I could afford it I'd get top tier monitors just for gaming, I bet audiophiles would spit on me for that.
The hiss. It's there, it's not JBL 305p annoying, but it's there at 40cm, at 1m it goes away more or less. At 3o'clock on gain knob it's bearable even at 30cm, but USB DAC I have(MOTU m2) struggles to push volume on that gain so I keep them at ~1m away.
The most important part not emphasized strongly enough in speaker threads. Consider doing room correction. It's night and day difference. UMIK-1 is good, but getting something like Behringer UMC22 and ECM8000 mic would cost around $60 and much faster compared to $100 for UMIK-1 and shipping from Hong-Kong. REW is free. I can't describe how much it improved speakers in my room. There is a whole branch on the forum if you want to know more, topic is an abyss of knowledge so keep it simple, turns out simple is the best for this thing. It's a slippery slope of endless measurements and corrections, but's it's worth it, so much worth it.
-3db treble shelf EQ, to my ears is a must, I think with the treble switch at -2db too. so It's more like -5db EQ.
What I'm trying to say, If you are afraid to EQ, or use speakers without a computer consider something else. But if you are ready to tinker you can make them sound real good. My target was low, just Sennheiser hd600 sound, and I think I'm 90% there.
Ah one last thing, please do not listen to youtube comparison demos, t5v sound nothing like it even without corrections.

 

[daftcombo]

After two months of using them I would like to give minor advice for people who want to get them for desktop multimedia like me and skim this thread for some useful info.
If you are gaming, consider going balanced, with something like focusrite solo 3rd gen(I think it's the cheapest decent DAC with balanced outs and a volume control around), or if your DAC can go optical do it. 200w+ GPUs under 100% load will make electrical noise through USB. Just like everyone predicted here, but it's not inherent to Adams, JBLs I had did the same.
On gaming side, if you are coming off headphones, spatial audio with speakers is surprisingly very close to headphones and at times superior, my biggest surprise. Honestly if I could afford it I'd get top tier monitors just for gaming, I bet audiophiles would spit on me for that.
The hiss. It's there, it's not JBL 305p annoying, but it's there at 40cm, at 1m it goes away more or less. At 3o'clock on gain knob it's bearable even at 30cm, but USB DAC I have(MOTU m2) struggles to push volume on that gain so I keep them at ~1m away.
The most important part not emphasized strongly enough in speaker threads. Consider doing room correction. It's night and day difference. UMIK-1 is good, but getting something like Behringer UMC22 and ECM8000 mic would cost around $60 and much faster compared to $100 for UMIK-1 and shipping from Hong-Kong. REW is free. I can't describe how much it improved speakers in my room. There is a whole branch on the forum if you want to know more, topic is an abyss of knowledge so keep it simple, turns out simple is the best for this thing. It's a slippery slope of endless measurements and corrections, but's it's worth it, so much worth it.
-3db treble shelf EQ, to my ears is a must, I think with the treble switch at -2db too. so It's more like -5db EQ.
What I'm trying to say, If you are afraid to EQ, or use speakers without a computer consider something else. But if you are ready to tinker you can make them sound real good. My target was low, just Sennheiser hd600 sound, and I think I'm 90% there.
Ah one last thing, please do not listen to youtube comparison demos, t5v sound nothing like it even without corrections.

Can you post your measurements and corrections please?

 

[Backflash]

Can you post your measurements and corrections please?

As you can see It's not ideal, need to apply more relaxed filtering I think, previous measurement set was probably with an error. Learning to read timing information, wonder if I need to dabble in rephase or not. Eh, at least I got a new hobby.

 

[YSC]

As you can see It's not ideal, need to apply more relaxed filtering I think, previous measurement set was probably with an error. Learning to read timing information, wonder if I need to dabble in rephase or not. Eh, at least I got a new hobby.

what did you use to do the EQ curves? I mean after REW generated where do you set your PEQ

 

[Backflash]

what did you use to do the EQ curves? I mean after REW generated where do you set your PEQ

EQ APO, I need my PC to produce corrected audio.

 

[2020]

Can you post your measurements and corrections please?

I hate to be that person, but doesn't this question make no sense? The placement and room interaction is going to be completely different to what you'll need. You can't just copy somebody's EQ, unless they are doing it in quasi-anechoic conditions aiming at purely EQing the speakers.

REW is quite powerful, but I find it like similar highly functional, free software: overwhelming. Since it's not a paid for product, there's no real responsibility to make everything as easy or smooth as possible. And if you've never done this stuff before, it's not even free considering you'll need a good microphone and a SPL meter.

I think it's much, MUCH easier for most people to just skip to Sonarworks. Not a shill though, I actually find the interface of v5 a step backwards and wish they didn't try to "modernize" it. Most modern products translate to "make it minimal looking and less functional". I ain't about that life one bit.

I had the T7V a couple years ago and returned them, unaware that my cheap shit Presonus DAC was NOT DC coupled (in general they are a company that just wants your money and had I known better wouldnt consider them at all). They made everything I was using way, way brighter, to the point where I was even skeptical of my subwoofer. With these already bright Adams? Forget it, they were ridiculous, even after Sonarworks. I may have kept them if I had known better, but I was really let down by the puny ass wavyguide. Vertical dispersion has always been an AMT weakness. I wish we could see a circular AMT.

 

[3125b]

Glue is builders best friend I guess, but build quality on the T-Series is a little bit on the ugly side:

Genelec and Neumann are on another level, but the cheap Focals and even Kali wich are comparable in price just look tidier, better thought out.

 

[Backflash]

Glue is builders best friend I guess, but build quality on the T-Series is a little bit on the ugly side:
View attachment 174961View attachment 174962
Genelec and Neumann are on another level, but the cheap Focals and even Kali wich are comparable in price just look tidier, better thought out.

I got mine 250 euro for pair, that is clean enough for such price. Neumann KH80 is 400. Genelec 8010 is 220. Kali LP6 is 200. For one monitor.

 

[YSC]

Glue is builders best friend I guess, but build quality on the T-Series is a little bit on the ugly side:
View attachment 174961View attachment 174962
Genelec and Neumann are on another level, but the cheap Focals and even Kali wich are comparable in price just look tidier, better thought out.

if it's sturdy enough and since it's internal, I wouldn't give any negative opinion on them, when glue don't affect the effective heat dissipation in the electronics, personally I prefer them being over than few. having a ton of invisible glue inside is not an issue for user, but if having too few and it breaks from our precious delivering service or gets loose and wiggles inside is an issue

 

[Backflash]

I hate to be that person, but doesn't this question make no sense? The placement and room interaction is going to be completely different to what you'll need. You can't just copy somebody's EQ, unless they are doing it in quasi-anechoic conditions aiming at purely EQing the speakers.

REW is quite powerful, but I find it like similar highly functional, free software: overwhelming. Since it's not a paid for product, there's no real responsibility to make everything as easy or smooth as possible. And if you've never done this stuff before, it's not even free considering you'll need a good microphone and a SPL meter.

I think it's much, MUCH easier for most people to just skip to Sonarworks. Not a shill though, I actually find the interface of v5 a step backwards and wish they didn't try to "modernize" it. Most modern products translate to "make it minimal looking and less functional". I ain't about that life one bit.

I had the T7V a couple years ago and returned them, unaware that my cheap shit Presonus DAC was NOT DC coupled (in general they are a company that just wants your money and had I known better wouldnt consider them at all). They made everything I was using way, way brighter, to the point where I was even skeptical of my subwoofer. With these already bright Adams? Forget it, they were ridiculous, even after Sonarworks. I may have kept them if I had known better, but I was really let down by the puny ass wavyguide. Vertical dispersion has always been an AMT weakness. I wish we could see a circular AMT.

No need for SPL meter because only relative is important.
I tried out Sonaworks trial. It is very interesting, and very expensive. So what I did is measure my current eq apo filters vs sonaworks correction.
As I understand it, sonaworks fixes the latency automatically, which is brilliant, if only I knew how to work this magic manually. The price of this automation is higher than my speakers, sadly pass. Thought I'd post it if anyone curious. GD is different between the two.
Subjectively sonaworks sounds a little brighter, but no minor ringing I experienced with some PEQ filters I experimented with.

 

[daftcombo]

I hate to be that person, but doesn't this question make no sense? The placement and room interaction is going to be completely different to what you'll need. You can't just copy somebody's EQ, unless they are doing it in quasi-anechoic conditions aiming at purely EQing the speakers.

I just wanted to see if he did right according to me, to help.
Because overcorrecting is a risk.

 

[ernestcarl]

No need for SPL meter because only relative is important.
I tried out Sonaworks trial. It is very interesting, and very expensive. So what I did is measure my current eq apo filters vs sonaworks correction.
As I understand it, sonaworks fixes the latency automatically, which is brilliant, if only I knew how to work this magic manually. The price of this automation is higher than my speakers, sadly pass. Thought I'd post it if anyone curious. GD is different between the two.
Subjectively sonaworks sounds a little brighter, but no minor ringing I experienced with some PEQ filters I experimented with.

How are you equalizing the HF? Are you using something similar to Amir's HF shelving EQ based on the CEA2034 curves?

Looks like you may be applying too much EQ in the HF... Also, there seems to be a level imbalance between your left and right channels... could be just a measurement error(?) However, the Sonarworks individual channel measurements appear far more correctly leveled.

*It's possible there might be some mismatch between your two units, but I doubt it's truly as big as your left-right measurements exhibit. You might want to measure by swapping the position of one speaker after the other (exact same distance) without moving the mic at all.



Looks flattish in the single point measurements, but the MMM says you may have applied just a tad too much negative gain around 300 Hz and 700 Hz.

Manual speaker PEQs in REW:

There's also a simple linear phase wave IR file version of the above example I created via rePhase attached -- if you are able to use convolution to test.

 

[Backflash]

How are you equalizing the HF? Are you using something similar to Amir's HF shelving EQ based on the CEA2034 curves?

Looks like you may be applying too much EQ in the HF... Also, there seems to be a level imbalance between your left and right channels... could be just a measurement error(?) However, the Sonarworks individual channel measurements appear far more correctly leveled.

Filter: ON HSC Fc 5000 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 1

For HF in EQ APO for first measurement I posted. 1khz limit for correction there, second one I thought I'd try whole range correction. Sonaworks measured 1.1 db difference between channels, subjectively very slight difference, also I messed up target in REW. It's a process of try and redo, I'm a slow learner.
Impulse works fine in foobar convolver, but audio goes haywire if I push it through EQ APO which is weird, I'm not using WASAPI or ASIO for foobar. Might be because I kept Sonaworks, even disabled could interfere, keeping it for now while I learn how to rephase. On the other hand EQAPO PEQ corrections work fine along with sonaworks, I switched back and forth between the two to see how it sounds, corrections do not interfere that way. Wonder how sonaworks installs itself into windows APOs without a reboot. Could put a stop to my audio phase adventure if removing sonaworks doesn't fix this.
https://sites.google.com/view/serkangur/home
Found this guide to rephase(the PDF is detailed), it took me ridiculous amount of time to find it for some reason, there is a lot of information around but it's fragmented, especially how to use time align, FWD and vector averages in REW. Method has to wait, neighbors drilling something intensely next door.

 

[ernestcarl]

Filter: ON HSC Fc 5000 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 1

For HF in EQ APO for first measurement I posted. 1khz limit for correction there, second one I thought I'd try whole range correction. Sonaworks measured 1.1 db difference between channels, subjectively very slight difference, also I messed up target in REW. It's a process of try and redo, I'm a slow learner.
Impulse works fine in foobar convolver, but audio goes haywire if I push it through EQ APO which is weird, I'm not using WASAPI or ASIO for foobar. Might be because I kept Sonaworks, even disabled could interfere, keeping it for now while I learn how to rephase. On the other hand EQAPO PEQ corrections work fine along with sonaworks, I switched back and forth between the two to see how it sounds, corrections do not interfere that way. Wonder how sonaworks installs itself into windows APOs without a reboot. Could put a stop to my audio phase adventure if removing sonaworks doesn't fix this.
https://sites.google.com/view/serkangur/home
Found this guide to rephase(the PDF is detailed), it took me ridiculous amount of time to find it for some reason, there is a lot of information around but it's fragmented, especially how to use time align, FWD and vector averages in REW. Method has to wait, neighbors drilling something intensely next door.

The thing with shelving filters is that there are different implementations and the q may not be exactly equivalent. With rePhase, I already know the effect and it is pretty much exactly the same how it appears in REW. It’s pretty easy to just add-in the wave file into something like foobar in combination with whatever EQ you already have in the bass. This is how I do it in JRiver as well — and so we can minimize the taps or time cost requirement as well.

 

[ernestcarl]

BTW, in the overlayed image I posted, Sonarworks seems to have preserved the HF, but has reduced the bass quite a bit more than your manual EQ. Dunno why that is as I would normally think that would make things sound too thin or bass light. Could be the mic calibration mismatch as I do not remember seeing any loaded in your measurements.

 

[Backflash]

The thing with shelving filters is that there are different implementations and the q may not be exactly equivalent. With rePhase, I already know the effect and it is pretty much exactly the same how it appears in REW. It’s pretty easy to just add-in the wave file into something like foobar in combination with whatever EQ you already have in the bass. This is how I do it in JRiver as well — and so we can minimize the taps or time cost requirement as well.

Small report on EQ APO Convolution, because google works in mysterious ways and could lead someone here, extreme buzzing I got goes away when I switch DAC to 44.1 but filter is at 48khz, I have no clue why.

BTW, in the overlayed image I posted, Sonarworks seems to have preserved the HF, but has reduced the bass quite a bit more than your manual EQ. Dunno why that is as I would normally think that would make things sound too thin or bass light. Could be the mic calibration mismatch as I do not remember seeing any loaded in your measurements.

It does ~50 measurements, have to stand there hand wave the mic, what I think it's doing is automatically filtering the room resonances which we would normally go through manually with averages. What surprises me it doesn't sound thin, maybe my hearing finally went down to 15k and I can't tell anymore. Or, I don't know how, but it figured out mic issues? So I need to apply even a generic .cal file to my cheap mic. As they say, ask two doctors, works with audio correction too it seems.

 

[ernestcarl]

Small report on EQ APO Convolution, because google works in mysterious ways and could lead someone here, extreme buzzing I got goes away when I switch DAC to 44.1 but filter is at 48khz, I have no clue why.

In rePhase the output sampling rate I picked was 48000. You can change this to another fixed rate of your choice. It's better to keep the rate consistent throughout the chain.