Adam T5V Review (Studio Monitor)

[somebodyelse]

Again tell me what shorting them exactly means and I will do it but you seem unwilling to.

'Shorting' here means using a connector that has the signal pin(s) connected to the ground pin to ensure there is zero input. With nothing connected the input is 'floating' - it could pick up interference. In practice this rarely happens for line level inputs like these, so if you can't do it easily it may not be worth the effort. It's more of a problem with high gain inputs like microphones, guitars and phono cartridges.

Since you need this explaining I guess you don't have the equipment to solder your own shorting plugs. You can buy them (https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=rca+shorting+plug for example) or make them with an rca screw terminal adapter by joining both terminals with a bit of wire. It's similar for TRS jacks and XLR connectors - you just need to connect all three terminals to each other.

 

[julitoole]

When you short it to ground there is no floating AC (aka RF) pickup so you are eliminating it being the input to the speaker, which you have not yet done. I'm not talking about mains AC.

Again what exactly(!!!) means shorting it to the ground what has to be done to achieve shorting it to the ground? Like exact steps I dont know what you mean.
You repeat telling me to do something which I allready said I dont know how to do.
Are you unable or unwilling to give proper instructions? So ur theory is that my air is so polluted with rf that the rca or xlr picks it up over the air?

 

[julitoole]

'Shorting' here means using a connector that has the signal pin(s) connected to the ground pin to ensure there is zero input. With nothing connected the input is 'floating' - it could pick up interference. In practice this rarely happens for line level inputs like these, so if you can't do it easily it may not be worth the effort. It's more of a problem with high gain inputs like microphones, guitars and phono cartridges.

Since you need this explaining I guess you don't have the equipment to solder your own shorting plugs. You can buy them (https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=rca+shorting+plug for example) or make them with an rca screw terminal adapter by joining both terminals with a bit of wire. It's similar for TRS jacks and XLR connectors - you just need to connect all three terminals to each other.

Thanks for giving actual advice, will try to do it, but it seems unlikely as I tried 1 speaker in a total different enviroment.
I do not have the equpiment thanks for the link

 

[julitoole]

Thinking of getting these. I have the M-Audio BX5s at the moment which are great, but they omit a horrible low frequency hum and hiss. How are these for idle sound is there any noticeable hiss/hum?

There seems to be a dissonace as you can read in the few previous posts.
As with any equipment I would advice to try to listen to it yourself as personal experince can be very different to one another.
I would say they have a noticeable hiss at close listening situations.
For me poti at 0db marker and 1,75m listening distance I can not disntiguish the hiss from the background noise of my room anymore.
But others claim they are absolutely silent if you are at a few inches of distance.

 

[snoopy30]

Again what exactly(!!!) means shorting it to the ground what has to be done to achieve shorting it to the ground? Like exact steps I dont know what you mean.
You repeat telling me to do something which I allready said I dont know how to do.
Are you unable or unwilling to give proper instructions? So ur theory is that my air is so polluted with rf that the rca or xlr picks it up over the air?

Look, it's very simple.

You don't know where the hiss is coming from.

So you use process of elimination starting with what's easy.

You take a phono (RCA) lead, cut it, twist the bloody wires together and stick it back in.

If the hiss hasn't changed you now know it's at the speaker end.

If it does you know it's your DAC or noise being picked up somewhere along the way.

 

[kekus]

There seems to be a dissonace as you can read in the few previous posts.
As with any equipment I would advice to try to listen to it yourself as personal experince can be very different to one another.
I would say they have a noticeable hiss at close listening situations.
For me poti at 0db marker and 1,75m listening distance I can not disntiguish the hiss from the background noise of my room anymore.
But others claim they are absolutely silent if you are at a few inches of distance.

They hiss for me as well, have them plugged into an AVR receiver RCA pre outs. Set at 0, even with AVR off, they hiss audibly until about 1 meter for me. I listen at bit more than 2 meters so it doesn't bother me.

 

[julitoole]

So used that to try it no change in hiss.
tried to twist them by hand and plugging it in no change in hiss.

This was a cheap rca tho that I didnt need anymore I dont think it matters or does it?
Would try with xlr but dont have a spare xlr around.

 

[julitoole]

They hiss for me as well, have them plugged into an AVR receiver RCA pre outs. Set at 0, even with AVR off, they hiss audibly until about 1 meter for me. I listen at bit more than 2 meters so it doesn't bother me.

Yeah that was my plan too to get more distance to them.

 

[julitoole]

Look, it's very simple.

You don't know where the hiss is coming from.

So you use process of elimination starting with what's easy.

You take a phono (RCA) lead, cut it, twist the bloody wires together and stick it back in.

If the hiss hasn't changed you now know it's at the speaker end.

If it does you know it's your DAC or noise being picked up somewhere along the way.

I know the process of elimination but you werent answereing my points. I used the process of eliimination.
And if you would discuss in good faith you would have seen that as I eliminated a lot of sources until not having the knowledge to do further elimination.
Of course you can gatekeep your knowledge to elevate yourself above others but I would rather get the T5V to be quiet as you say they can be or give other customers the information they need. And for what its worth hold up the reputation of this being a forum with reliable Information and with less bias than any other forum I visited.

 

[uwotm8]

Would try with xlr but dont have a spare xlr around

They hiss no matter what you (do not) plug in in any input.
Just accept it. And don't turn up level knob above 0 - then there's almost no hiss. At +18 (max) it's unbearable.

 

[Wizard509]

They hiss no matter what you (do not) plug in in any input.
Just accept it. And don't turn up level knob above 0 - then there's almost no hiss. At +18 (max) it's unbearable.

The level knobs on mine are halfway between 0 and +18. I am sitting at arms length and have zero hiss.

 

[Hayabusa]

They hiss no matter what you (do not) plug in in any input.
Just accept it. And don't turn up level knob above 0 - then there's almost no hiss. At +18 (max) it's unbearable.

could be xlr gives you 6dB more gain with the same noise floor....

 

[Sebby]

They hiss no matter what you (do not) plug in in any input.
Just accept it. And don't turn up level knob above 0 - then there's almost no hiss. At +18 (max) it's unbearable.

I returned them for that reason. That hiss is really annoying.
Just plug them in to hear it, so it's impossible to eliminate. It's the internal preamplification that's poor...

 

[Ajax]

deleted

 

[Sugaree]

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.

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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/

 

[Sugaree]

Can I ask if this was straight out the box? I bought a pair a couple of months ago and at first some tracks sounded brilliant, mostly acoustic, but some sounded absolutely dreadful. I then read that these need run in, so I then played all sorts of stuff from Black Sabbath to Sibelius and Cat Stevens to Van Der Graaf. After a couple of weeks they came to life.

 

[staticV3]

Can I ask if this was straight out the box? I bought a pair a couple of months ago and at first some tracks sounded brilliant, mostly acoustic, but some sounded absolutely dreadful. I then read that these need run in, so I then played all sorts of stuff from Black Sabbath to Sibelius and Cat Stevens to Van Der Graaf. After a couple of weeks they came to life.

What would burn-in achieve on the T5V?

Remember that sound impressions weeks apart are in no way reliable or indicative of real effects. They're just as likely to be pure placebo.

 

[MediumRare]

Can I ask if this was straight out the box? I bought a pair a couple of months ago and at first some tracks sounded brilliant, mostly acoustic, but some sounded absolutely dreadful. I then read that these need run in, so I then played all sorts of stuff from Black Sabbath to Sibelius and Cat Stevens to Van Der Graaf. After a couple of weeks they came to life.

If you burned them in with Cat Stevens you might as well sell them. There’s no recovery possible. Sorry.

Loudspeaker Break In: Fact or Fiction?

The debate on loudspeaker break-in persists, sparking arguments from both sides. This article examines the topic with objective measurements to reveal the truth behind the claim.

www.audioholics.com

 

[julitoole]

Can I ask if this was straight out the box? I bought a pair a couple of months ago and at first some tracks sounded brilliant, mostly acoustic, but some sounded absolutely dreadful. I then read that these need run in, so I then played all sorts of stuff from Black Sabbath to Sibelius and Cat Stevens to Van Der Graaf. After a couple of weeks they came to life.

You absolutely can ask that.
I strongly believe that the review was made on a fresh out the bix unit.
My reasoning is that amirn uttered in a post that even if burn in or run in is a thing theis should be done on the manufacture site if it is that important and makes such a huge difference.
Of course it is possible that he changed his stance on that.
I for my part strongly agree with that perspective out of several reasons.

 

[Newman]

Can I ask if this was straight out the box? I bought a pair a couple of months ago and at first some tracks sounded brilliant, mostly acoustic, but some sounded absolutely dreadful. I then read that these need run in, so I then played all sorts of stuff from Black Sabbath to Sibelius and Cat Stevens to Van Der Graaf. After a couple of weeks they came to life.

The speakers didn't change their sound, you just adapted to them.

Cheers