Adam T5V Review (Studio Monitor)

[Koeitje]

Given its Class-D amp inside, would you say pairing the speakers with a RME or Benchmark dac is an overkill? I read some time ago here (but can’t find the post now) the Class-D amp works in 16 bits thus it is pointless to feed it with an expensive dac. Is it true?
Cheers

An amplifier doesn't work "in xx bits". It has a certain dynamic range based on the noise the amplifier produces, but that has nothing to do with it being class D. Its neither better or worse than AB for example (if you look at the best amplifiers measured by Amir you will notice a lot of class D there).

Regardless, an expensive DAC is overkill if you don't need specific functionality. The RME might be nice because you can use the equalizer to bring down the treble in this speaker. I just use my PC since that's the source.

 

[unpluggged]

Class-D amp works in 16 bits

Wrong. Class-D amps work using PWM signal modulation, so only 1 bit

As to your question, despite the T-series ADAM monitors are DSP-based and thus perform AD and DA conversion of their input signal, it still could be beneficial to use a good source, especially if we speak about something like ADI-2 DAC with useful signal processing and performance-optimizing features like PEQ, dynamic loudness, high-resolution volume control, and multiple analog reference levels with automatic switching between them.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

If the volume control is analog a stepped one would make it impossible to adjust such disbalances.

I think the volume control on the T5V must be either a VCA or a digital volume control. The loudness doesn't track with the knob position while it's being adjusted. It sort of flies all over the place before settling down, and there are sometimes huge gaps in the knob travel where nothing seems to change at all. It's very vague. While annoying, in normal use it's a "set it and forget it" thing for me. Unless I accidentally bump the knob, then I have to do a level check with pink noise and an SPL meter again.

 

[Rosenbloom]

May you guys please help me decide which T series speakers I should go for? My listening area is about 3.8m (wide), 4.7m (long), 2.2m (high), which is a wooden shed in my garden. I have lots of books thus perhaps there is some “room treatment”. The listening distance is about 3m. The speakers are going to be placed on speaker stands.

Initially I was considering T8v, but then I started thinking if I should get T5v and add T10s subwoofer. Which one would be a better choice from an objective point of view? I didn’t find measurements on T5v + T10s combo. Not sure if this combo delivers better measurements than T8v alone.

Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers

 

[Ellebob]

Measurements would have a lot to do with placement of speaker, sub and seating locations for bass. This has nothing to do with the speakers you are considering, would happen no matter which speakers you use.

I would go with the smaller speakers and sub
Getting those bottom octaves with the sub will make music, really everything sound better. The only disadvantage to sub and speakers is more difficult to set up as you have to get volume and phase correct for good integration between them.

 

[Rosenbloom]

Measurements would have a lot to do with placement of speaker, sub and seating locations for bass. This has nothing to do with the speakers you are considering, would happen no matter which speakers you use.

I would go with the smaller speakers and sub
Getting those bottom octaves with the sub will make music, really everything sound better. The only disadvantage to sub and speakers is more difficult to set up as you have to get volume and phase correct for good integration between them.

Thanks for your advice.
I have never used a sub in my system. Yup there will be challenges in the setting up, but no harm trying.
Another reason why I am considering T5v + T10s is that, during the winter time, I may easily move the T5v speakers inside my house to my small study room while leaving the T10s in the garden shed. So from a practical point of view, the T5v + T10s combo will give me such flexibility.

 

[Sybra]

I read the review, I am determined to buy these monitors, but I wanted to consult the masters here to avoid making the wrong decision. I have a small bedroom studio (room dimensions 3.77 meters X 3 meters), I usually make hip-hop music using MPC. There is a bed in the room, a wardrobe, a carpet in the middle of the room, a curtain on the window, a wall bookcase just above my desk, and a completely filled bookcase in the corner just beyond my desk. There are 2 corners in the room with the possibility of reflection and an empty wall right behind me. Since I also use the room as a living space, I have to use the table in a horizontal position along the length of the room. The IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitors that I have now fall short at lower frequencies and have port noise, especially at the 50hz level. So I planned to update the Monitors. I also use this system calibrated with Behringer ECM8000 and Sonarworks Reference 4. Do you think I can provide an efficient working environment with these monitors in the room conditions I mentioned and maybe by using 2 bass traps and a few damper sound panels? Or would it be better to buy a monitor like the KRK RP5 G4?

I don't know if it helps give an idea, but I'm attaching a picture of the sonarworks measurements to my post.

Thank you in advance for your support.

 

[DavidMcRoy]

I read the review, I am determined to buy these monitors, but I wanted to consult the masters here to avoid making the wrong decision. I have a small bedroom studio (room dimensions 3.77 meters X 3 meters), I usually make hip-hop music using MPC. There is a bed in the room, a wardrobe, a carpet in the middle of the room, a curtain on the window, a wall bookcase just above my desk, and a completely filled bookcase in the corner just beyond my desk. There are 2 corners in the room with the possibility of reflection and an empty wall right behind me. Since I also use the room as a living space, I have to use the table in a horizontal position along the length of the room. The IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitors that I have now fall short at lower frequencies and have port noise, especially at the 50hz level. So I planned to update the Monitors. I also use this system calibrated with Behringer ECM8000 and Sonarworks Reference 4. Do you think I can provide an efficient working environment with these monitors in the room conditions I mentioned and maybe by using 2 bass traps and a few damper sound panels? Or would it be better to buy a monitor like the KRK RP5 G4?

I don't know if it helps give an idea, but I'm attaching a picture of the sonarworks measurements to my post.

Thank you in advance for your support.

View attachment 278138

You are a good candidate for a subwoofer or two, no matter which speakers you use. I personally would give that a shot first.

 

[Sybra]

You are a good candidate for a subwoofer or two, no matter which speakers you use. I personally would give that a shot first.

Thanks for the recommendation, my heart goes out to Adam, I felt like I heard more details when I listened to it.

 

[doalt]

Thanks for the recommendation, my heart goes out to Adam, I felt like I heard more details when I listened to it.

Take my opinions with a grain of salt as I am just a regular listener, but I have a similar room (small + packed), so my experience may be useful to you.

When I replaced my 4'' speakers with the Adams, I immediately heard the improvement on the lower bass. However the FR is uneven due to room modes. My left speaker has a 15db peak at 60hz, and my right speaker has a 23db dip at 80hz. In practice they kind of average out and sound OK, but sometimes I wonder if what I am hearing is accurate.

I don't have a lot of freedom to move the speakers around, and I learned in this forum that bass traps are not very effective for frequencies below 100hz. So to get more accurate sub bass I may need to use a subwoofer (or two) eventually.

I am not sure why you mentioned KRK RP5 G4 though.

 

[Rosenbloom]

I finally purchased a pair of T5V and T10S.

I encountered some troubles in the setting up:

(1) The two T5V have different volume levels when both knobs are turned at 0 dB. I played some pink noise track, and used an app to check the volume level in an attempt to make both speakers at the same volume level. Interestingly, the app was showing the speakers were at the same volume level but from what I heard the sound image was leaning to the right channel. It's a bit annoying. (Perhaps something wrong with my ears? Don't know. It did not happen before.)

(2) It is my first time using a subwoofer. I followed the manual instructions to set up T10S with T5V. My first listening is not a surprising experience. (Perhaps I was expecting too much?) I tried to turn up the volume level of T10S but the result is not good. I got boom-boom sound which I don't like (especially when listening to classical music.)

I will keep trying to make the setup right, at least to my ears. Fortunately Amazon provides convenient return thus I have a fall-back.

Now I am also thinking...... Would T8V be a choice easier to live with?

 

[Hayabusa]

I finally purchased a pair of T5V and T10S.

I encountered some troubles in the setting up:

(1) The two T5V have different volume levels when both knobs are turned at 0 dB. I played some pink noise track, and used an app to check the volume level in an attempt to make both speakers at the same volume level. Interestingly, the app was showing the speakers were at the same volume level but from what I heard the sound image was leaning to the right channel. It's a bit annoying. (Perhaps something wrong with my ears? Don't know. It did not happen before.)

(2) It is my first time using a subwoofer. I followed the manual instructions to set up T10S with T5V. My first listening is not a surprising experience. (Perhaps I was expecting too much?) I tried to turn up the volume level of T10S but the result is not good. I got boom-boom sound which I don't like (especially when listening to classical music.)

I will keep trying to make the setup right, at least to my ears. Fortunately Amazon provides convenient return thus I have a fall-back.

Now I am also thinking...... Would T8V be a choice easier to live with?

A first reflection close to one of the speakers could greatly influence which speaker is perceived as 'louder', may be it's something like this?

 

[doalt]

(1) The two T5V have different volume levels when both knobs are turned at 0 dB.

This was discussed in this thread before. If you turn both knobs all the way down, you may find the marks don't align perfectly with the -60db line. One may be slightly on the left and one on the right. So when you match them at 0db, you need to put them slightly left and right accordingly.

If it's not an alignment issue, you may need a more accurate measurement tool than your phone app to match them.

 

[misterdog]

what I heard the sound image was leaning to the right channel

Room artefacts/reflections ?

 

[Rosenbloom]

Room artefacts/reflections ?

I think not. My previous active speakers sounded good, no such problem at all.
———————-

I know T5V is cheap, yet it is still inconvenient for users to balance the right-left channels by themselves with a serious SPL meter.

 

[Sybra]

Take my opinions with a grain of salt as I am just a regular listener, but I have a similar room (small + packed), so my experience may be useful to you.

When I replaced my 4'' speakers with the Adams, I immediately heard the improvement on the lower bass. However the FR is uneven due to room modes. My left speaker has a 15db peak at 60hz, and my right speaker has a 23db dip at 80hz. In practice they kind of average out and sound OK, but sometimes I wonder if what I am hearing is accurate.

I don't have a lot of freedom to move the speakers around, and I learned in this forum that bass traps are not very effective for frequencies below 100hz. So to get more accurate sub bass I may need to use a subwoofer (or two) eventually.

I am not sure why you mentioned KRK RP5 G4 though.

The only thing that appealed to me about the KRK was that the EQ and volume controller on it were digital. But I don't care much about that anymore. I've already ordered a pair of T5V.

 

[thecity2]

I'm looking to upgrade the speakers in my digital piano setup (currently have Klipsch RP600m driven by Aiyima A07). I was comparing these T5V's vs the Eve Audio SC205 which are almost twice the price. Is there any reason not to go with the Adams? I imagine it's not worth 2X $$$ to get the Eve's.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

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/

I just got to hear Yamaha, M-Audio, JBL, KRK and Adam studio monitors of different sizes at Guitar Center and these blew my doors off. Really fucking good.

 

[Deleted member 60987]

Found a pic so peeps can get a size reference of this bad little boy beside a person.

View attachment 97325

The kind of sound something that size puts out is just ridiculous. I will have to get rid of something first, but they are my next purchase. T7V would be nice but I don't need that much sound for my home studio. These are crazy.

 

[Rosenbloom]

I had returned the T5V and T10S finally.
I then bought a pair of LP-8.