Adam T5V Review (Studio Monitor)

[sweetchaos]

Wow...5" woofer model is strongly preferred to a 8" woofer model? Wouldn't have predicted.

Now, I'm wondering about other 5" models like...KRK Classic 5 (US$150/ea) and Fluid Audio FX50 (US$150/ea).
Plus the more expensive studio monitors like...IK Multimedia iLoud MTM (US$300/ea) and Yamaha HS8 (US$300/ea).

Exciting times for everyone looking for studio monitors...can't wait!

 

[pavuol]

small mistake - "early reflections" picture..?

Lovely speaker, priced even lower here in EU.

 

[March Audio]

I think there are a few schools of thought on this. One is, no one hears distortion less than 10% below 100Hz, some extend that to the edge of Schroeder ~300Hz. In the 86dB chart, it would seem all is in order then. Except for that odd bump around 3.5k.

However, I, like you, would prefer lower distortion across the range, even at 86dB, and that rising HF response also scares me every time.

I think the 10% figure is debateable, but yes we certainly are less sensitive to distortion at low frequencies

 

[March Audio]

I agree that for the price distortion is perfectly fine and better than many others.
It does seem Amir likes warm bass. That distortion likely sounds warm and ought to plump up the lower midrage as well.
Plus it likely gives the impression of more bass as well.
I don't know. I think I usually prefer a very exacting and cooler bass to warm but honestly sometimes I do like a warmer sound as well myself.
Who knows?
To get really low distortion down there does seem to require a much more expensive driver. Have not yet seen any really low distortion budget speakers ($500 or less per pair)

Absolutely, you wouldnt expect anything more for the price.

Obviously I havent heard it but just looking at the FR and PIR I would expect out of the box that it sounds thin and bright.

Rising HF response

I think the slope drawn on the PIR is "generous" It slopes less than approx 5-6dB drawn, more like 3-4 dB.

Ignoring the (probably deliberate to enhance the impression of bass) peak at 100Hz the bass extension is extremely limited, F3 about 80Hz and F6 about 60Hz.

As such I am a little perplexed with some of the subjective comments in the review which dont seem to tally with the data. Of course I may be missing something.

In terms of "for the price" and compared to competition in that market segment maybe fair enough, but don't we need also a more absolute rating?

 

[mshenay]

Definitely.

Would the same be said in a treated room? Likely so tbh, tho I'm not a fan of the directivity of the 305p MKii's are these wider or narrower [they look to be narrower]

 

[Geezerman]

new member here. Looking at the Adam T5V , 306P, and the Kali Audio LP-6 sitting on my desk next to my computer monitor. Are these speakers too big for that application? and how close to the wall can I sit the T5V with its rear port. Thanks for your help.

 

[JRAudio]

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:

View attachment 97304

Back panel shows good connectivity and usual controls:

View attachment 97305

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:

View attachment 97306

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:

View attachment 97307

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:
View attachment 97308

View attachment 97309

The smaller woofer integrates well with the tweeter as far as dispersion (beam width):
View attachment 97310

View attachment 97311

And you have more than the usual vertical leeway for listening:
View attachment 97312

A lot of budget monitors in this price range have high distortion but here, it is controlled fairly well:
View attachment 97313

View attachment 97314

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:

View attachment 97315

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:
View attachment 97316

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/

Hi Amir. Is there any know information, if the Klippel system limits the measurement bandwidth to about 22 kHz or if all the last tested (inexpensive) active Monitors do have internal ADC with 48k Sample Rate running. Would be great to know. Thanks.

 

[JRAudio]

Hi Amir. Is there any know information, if the Klippel system limits the measurement bandwidth to about 22 kHz or if all the last tested (inexpensive) active Monitors do have internal ADC with 48k Sample Rate running. Would be great to know. Thanks.

 

[3125b]

Everything in CA causes cancer.

Are there even still people alive over there?

Are these speakers too big for that application?

The 5" Adam is a fair bit smaller than the 6" JBL and Kali.
I have 5" monitors (Mackie MR524) on my desk, and while that is certainly not ideal for positioning, I wouldn't say that they are too large on a 160x80cm desk.
Not a current photo, but for scale next to a 32" screen:

 

[Josq]

Comparing the measurements to the much more expensive Genelec 8030... Genelec looks better, but I wonder if it makes much difference in listening.

 

[amirm]

Would the same be said in a treated room?

A room? I was answering in the context of desktop use. I know the 305 doesn't get nearly loud enough for far field use. I will have to test the T5V to see if it does.

 

[amirm]

Hi Amir. Is there any know information, if the Klippel system limits the measurement bandwidth to about 22 kHz or if all the last tested (inexpensive) active Monitors do have internal ADC with 48k Sample Rate running. Would be great to know. Thanks.

I looked everywhere in the software but could not find any place to set the sample rate for Klippel. It is advertised to support 96 kHz sampling but I don't see where that is exposed. I need to ask them about it as it showed the same sharp drop off with a passive speaker which didn't make sense.

 

[pavuol]

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.

Also, thumbs up for the movie, so many heart touching moments there. And the retrospective coincidence that Mr. Williams acted as therapist here while not finding rest "proper help" in his real life is just so sad...

For another "more positive" /perfect/ coincidence, just recent evening I heard this "guided meditation track" - from the time linked (10:40) it has a repetitive "You are perfect" section. So I got the idea, some member with a soothing voice could make a similar track for curing "audiophilia nervosa and upgradentitis" which would feature lines like
"Your headphones are perfect", "your DAC is perfect" .... "everything you need you already got inhouse" etc.
In case anyone dares yet don't want to search a background template, the Loma tracks comes as a speechfree version as well.

 

[daftcombo]

Great and useful review @amirm ! Many thanks.

Last 5' woofer monitor to get a golfing panther was Genelec 8030C IIRC. How would they compare?

 

[Lorenzo74]

T5 or t7? B.L.U.F. : Depends on you. Near or mid field listening.
check this...
http://digitalstereophony.blogspot.com/2019/05/t5v-or-t7v-which-adam-audio-studio.html
best

 

[KSTR]

Too many 'live' surfaces inside that box. That aluminum plate, the port tube itself, the circuit boards for the amp. All of that—if it's not covered with some sort of damping material—is contributing to the ragged midrange response. The little bit that is in there is probably not doing much to damp out reflections and resonances. Most unfortunate.

I beg to differ. Back in the day when I was with ADAM we made comparisons with the amp plate replaced by one solid slab on different models, notably the F series. Zero difference in the FR when compared with the production electronics backplate.

Also, note that both PCBs are actually well damped, there are two foam blocks under the PSU and the amp PCB is damped by the sealing compartment (a little hard to see in that photo). This damps the back plate nicely as well.

Finally, a rather ragged fine structure in the FR is pretty much acustically benign when the CSD is OK. When it is induced from simple diffraction and low order internal reflections it is practically irrelevant. When you really have standing waves and/or mechanical parts resonating in symphony then the troubles begin.

 

[YSC]

Note: Made for far-field listening, as such the shallower PIR slope that near-field monitors usually have is detrimental to its score.

Preference Rating
SCORE: 4.2
SCORE w/ sub: 6.4

Frequency response: +/-6.2dB 45Hz-20kHz ; +/-2.5dB 80Hz-20kHz

View attachment 97332View attachment 97333View attachment 97334View attachment 97335View attachment 97336View attachment 97337​

it looks like listening at 40 degrees would sound most neutral? maybe it's a good choice to put desktop without pointing the speaker at you

 

[q3cpma]

Not bad at all, vertical isn't bad too for an AMT (probably because it's quite square). That H3 peak at 4 kHz (only at avery high - for nearfield - 96 dB @ 1 m) and 1 kHz port resonance are worrying, though.

 

[YSC]

new member here. Looking at the Adam T5V , 306P, and the Kali Audio LP-6 sitting on my desk next to my computer monitor. Are these speakers too big for that application? and how close to the wall can I sit the T5V with its rear port. Thanks for your help.

well it depends on how large your screen and how close they are to the walls, the T5V need 10cm minimum clearance,plus they are quite long speakers it might feel too close to you on computer desk, I had slightly smaller KEF X300A previously in my small room (24" screen ~30cm from wall) the KEFs are kind of like 30-40cm from my seating position so at times they feels crowded. for that purpose the very thin Genelecs might be better for you, since I changed to 8030Cs as they can be put 5cm from the wall and depth is smaller, I cleared up like 25cm of space for putting around stuffs

 

[thewas]

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.

Interesting that while the LP6 has significantly (around 15 Hz) deeper bass, Amir perceived the T5V as more bassy although its only approximately 1dB between 70-90 Hz while in the rest the LP6 has more bass when both normalized to a similar listening volume, here the estimated in room responses of both:

A possible reason I can think of is the rear vs. frontal port which can couple differently to the room, some real listening position measurements would shed a light on that.