This is a review and detailed measurements of the Adam T8V active monitors (speaker). It was kindly sent to me by the company a few months ago. I was surprised at the very low cost of these speakers at US $299 (each) considering that they are DSP speakers with dual amplification.
This is one giant of a monitor, certainly far larger than other speakers in this price range:
One great thing about these speakers is that they generate essentially no tweeter hiss. This is a common problem in many budget monitors and is something that when you become sensitive to it, you hear it more when not much is playing.
The back panel shows something unusual for the class:
See it? It is the RCA input. It is very rare to see such on a studio monitor. Only computer powered speakers have these, not pro monitors. This makes it easier to integrate for hi-fi applications.
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 800 measurement which resulted in error rate of less than 1% throughout the range.
Temperature was 59 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 T8V 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:
Starting on the left, it is nice to see almost flat response to 45 Hz. Response remains flat until about 2 kHz where we see a dip. And farther up in frequency we have a narrow notch around 4.6 kHz. The highs are a hair higher in amplitude on axis but listening window is flatter.
Early reflections indicate more of a dip in crossover region:
Predicted in-room response is for far field listening so may not apply if you sit very close to these monitors and put them on desks/meter bridges and such:
Measuring the drivers/port at close distance tells us mostly what they are doing:
That same notch is there at 4.6 kHz in the tweeter response (green). And its response has fair bit of variations.
Distortion is well controlled at 86 dBSPL but gets messy at 96 dBSPL:
Is the distortion tail end of woofer or early response of the tweeter? I can't tell.
Beamwidth is nicely controlled horizontally:
So moving left and right should not change their tonalities much.
Here is our horizontal and vertical directivity:
As you see, there is a hole in the response where the arrow points if you go below tweeter height. So be sure to place the speaker vertically where the tweeter is at or below your ear level or the crossover hole gets worse.
Playing detective, I looked at the 3-D response of the speaker at 4.6 kHz:
It seems the woofer is still whaling at that frequency as is the tweeter so perhaps that is causing the cancellation at that frequency.
Adam T8V Speaker Listening Tests
I simply don't have room for such a large speaker on my desk/workstation. Still, I managed to fit them in. Overall, I was very pleased with the sound. There is plenty of bass and tonality on the warm/balanced front. I tried to put an EQ in the crossover to pull that up a bit and while that increased detail some, it made them too bright so I just listened with no EQ.
I think I have some bass modes that are not normally activated by studio monitors since they don't go low enough. The T8V does and I thought that caused a bit of boominess which needs correction.
With the large 8 inch driver, I could play as loud as I wanted and in this regard, they are superior to just about any studio monitor I have tested in this situation. I did not detect any distortion at my 1 meter listening distance.
I let the T8V play for a while and the response is very easy to listen to with no hint of high frequency brightness.
Conclusions
Adam has managed to create the most optimal execution of an active monitor in this price range. I still can't believe they cost only $300 each. For hi-fi use, remember that you are getting amplification here and with little reminders of "oh, I think I need a sub." No the ground does not shake but the bass response is extended enough that you don't think you are listening to "little speakers."
Overall, I am happy to recommend the Adam T8V. If you were looking for a budget powered monitor with plenty of bass and good overall frequency response, your search is over.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Picked what was left of the Asian eggplants from the greenhouse:
I don't know why some of them are yellow. As far as I remember, they were all supposed to be purple. Maybe they cross pollinated with melons next to them!
As always appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
This is one giant of a monitor, certainly far larger than other speakers in this price range:
One great thing about these speakers is that they generate essentially no tweeter hiss. This is a common problem in many budget monitors and is something that when you become sensitive to it, you hear it more when not much is playing.
The back panel shows something unusual for the class:
See it? It is the RCA input. It is very rare to see such on a studio monitor. Only computer powered speakers have these, not pro monitors. This makes it easier to integrate for hi-fi applications.
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 800 measurement which resulted in error rate of less than 1% throughout the range.
Temperature was 59 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 T8V 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:
Starting on the left, it is nice to see almost flat response to 45 Hz. Response remains flat until about 2 kHz where we see a dip. And farther up in frequency we have a narrow notch around 4.6 kHz. The highs are a hair higher in amplitude on axis but listening window is flatter.
Early reflections indicate more of a dip in crossover region:
Predicted in-room response is for far field listening so may not apply if you sit very close to these monitors and put them on desks/meter bridges and such:
Measuring the drivers/port at close distance tells us mostly what they are doing:
That same notch is there at 4.6 kHz in the tweeter response (green). And its response has fair bit of variations.
Distortion is well controlled at 86 dBSPL but gets messy at 96 dBSPL:
Is the distortion tail end of woofer or early response of the tweeter? I can't tell.
Beamwidth is nicely controlled horizontally:
So moving left and right should not change their tonalities much.
Here is our horizontal and vertical directivity:
As you see, there is a hole in the response where the arrow points if you go below tweeter height. So be sure to place the speaker vertically where the tweeter is at or below your ear level or the crossover hole gets worse.
Playing detective, I looked at the 3-D response of the speaker at 4.6 kHz:
It seems the woofer is still whaling at that frequency as is the tweeter so perhaps that is causing the cancellation at that frequency.
Adam T8V Speaker Listening Tests
I simply don't have room for such a large speaker on my desk/workstation. Still, I managed to fit them in. Overall, I was very pleased with the sound. There is plenty of bass and tonality on the warm/balanced front. I tried to put an EQ in the crossover to pull that up a bit and while that increased detail some, it made them too bright so I just listened with no EQ.
I think I have some bass modes that are not normally activated by studio monitors since they don't go low enough. The T8V does and I thought that caused a bit of boominess which needs correction.
With the large 8 inch driver, I could play as loud as I wanted and in this regard, they are superior to just about any studio monitor I have tested in this situation. I did not detect any distortion at my 1 meter listening distance.
I let the T8V play for a while and the response is very easy to listen to with no hint of high frequency brightness.
Conclusions
Adam has managed to create the most optimal execution of an active monitor in this price range. I still can't believe they cost only $300 each. For hi-fi use, remember that you are getting amplification here and with little reminders of "oh, I think I need a sub." No the ground does not shake but the bass response is extended enough that you don't think you are listening to "little speakers."
Overall, I am happy to recommend the Adam T8V. If you were looking for a budget powered monitor with plenty of bass and good overall frequency response, your search is over.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Picked what was left of the Asian eggplants from the greenhouse:
I don't know why some of them are yellow. As far as I remember, they were all supposed to be purple. Maybe they cross pollinated with melons next to them!
As always appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
