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Adam T8V Studio Monitor Review

Robbo99999

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Hey, that's a nice speaker, lovely up to 1kHz and the nice extension into the bass adds to that! The rest of the range above 1kHz looks quite EQ'able except for that dip at about 4.5kHz, but that's quite a narrow dip so might not have much listenable negative effects. Some impressive performance for the money right there.

Keep up with the speaker (& headphone) reviews Amir, I think they're the best thing on here and I think the best focus, and it feels like you have a massive backlog of speakers sitting in a room(s) waiting to be tested....and then maybe just throw in a DSP/AVR test once in a while (and a DAC test more rarely) to take away from the sameness.
 

3125b

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When I heard theT7V I thought they sounded dull, maybe that same 2kHz dip? These certainly measure better than I would have expected.
Both the A7X as well as the Focal Alpha 65 sounded more lively, I'd imagine they won't measure as flat.
 

LearningToSmile

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It's probably a better option than the JBL308p for nearfield listening, with no hiss and all. Still, the 308's get a lot cheaper when they go on sale, and they go on sale regularly, which matters for people looking for a budget set.

I think the 8 inch studio monitor is an underrated solution for desktop use, as long as one has the space - the bass really is pretty much low enough that a subwoofer is not necessary for most content. My 308's got down to 40hz in-room before they started falling off, and even with some pesky room modes above that, they had enough low end for me to be perfectly fine for quite a while before adding a subwoofer. I'm sure with a 5 inch woofer I'd need it much sooner.
 
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It's probably a better option than the JBL308p for nearfield listening, with no hiss and all. Still, the 308's get a lot cheaper when they go on sale, and they go on sale regularly, which matters for people looking for a budget set.

I think the 8 inch studio monitor is an underrated solution for desktop use, as long as one has the space - the bass really is pretty much low enough that a subwoofer is not necessary for most content. My 308's got down to 40hz in-room before they started falling off, and even with some pesky room modes above that, they had enough low end for me to be perfectly fine for quite a while before adding a subwoofer. I'm sure with a 5 inch woofer I'd need it much sooner.

The 308 is always priced at $199, I always find them on sale for that price. That is a whole $100 cheaper on the Adam's. Tempting indeed
 

BYRTT

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Great thanks for review Amir, looks not bad on objective paper thinking over the big used diameter transducer paired directly to small tweeter diameter, and what a impressing low end reach :)..

Based Amir's spindata multiple frequency overlaid radars for Adam T8V, horizontals then verticals..
Radar_horizontal_2.png

Radar_vertical_2.png




The trouble how smooth directivity steepness as frequency number increase pair a big diameter transducer to a small diameter tweeter is obvious in below animation where Adam T8V is overlaid verse Revel F208 that also use 8incher woofers but use medium diameter midrange to match a smoother directivity pattern to tweeter domain..
Directivity_1_x1x1_800mS_EDIT_2.gif
 
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andreasmaaan

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I hope the DSP its using is not compressing the sound in some of the active speakers i have had. Is there away to turn off the active dsp?

No, the DSP is how the crossover is implemented. So even if you could switch it off, you certainly wouldn’t want to.

As to compression, it is very likely that the DSP includes a limiter that is designed to protect the drivers from over-excursion. This would only kick in if the speaker were pushed towards its limits, and would certainly not be something I’d want to circumvent somehow.
 

Maiky76

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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:

View attachment 90112

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:
View attachment 90113

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:

View attachment 90114

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:

View attachment 90115

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:

View attachment 90116

Measuring the drivers/port at close distance tells us mostly what they are doing:

View attachment 90117

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:

View attachment 90118

View attachment 90119

Is the distortion tail end of woofer or early response of the tweeter? I can't tell.

Beamwidth is nicely controlled horizontally:

View attachment 90120

So moving left and right should not change their tonalities much.

Here is our horizontal and vertical directivity:

View attachment 90121

View attachment 90122

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:

View attachment 90123

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:

View attachment 90124

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/

Great!
One down, two more to go...

For those interested there is also some data available for some other 8inch monitors:
Kali LP8 vs Presonus Eris E8 XT, Spinorama and EQ design inside

Note on the EQ
The EQ score is designed in the context of regular stereo use i.e. domestic environment, no warranty is provided for a near field use in a studio environment. However the EQ LW to designed to have a flat(ish) response that may (or not) better suited for monitoring purpose.

No EQ Spinorama:
Score: 4.74 not great, the speaker is not exempt of obvious issues...
Adam T8V Spinorama No EQ.png

Listening fairly controlled horizontally except at the Xover point which is a shame given that ADAM spent R&D to add a waveguide on the tweeter. It doesn't seem to do a good job... Still better stay close to the axis.
The notch at 4600Hz may be actually so deep that it could explain partially the peak in THD (no fundamental means THD will always be very high...)
Stay at tweeter height or a slightly above in the vertical plan.
Adam T8V 2D surface Directivity Contour Only Data.png

EQ design:
Two EQ are presented on called LW which it targeted for flat LW not taking into account the Olive metric.
The second one starts from the first one and add the metric as an optimization parameter.
They are so close that they may not be distinguishable.
The EQ APO config files (human readable) are attached

Score EQ LW: 6.4
Score EQ Score: 6.59

Code:
Adam T8V APO EQ LW 96000Hz
October292020-180046

Preamp: -2.3 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 577 Hz Gain -2.18 dB Q 10
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 1091 Hz Gain -1.97 dB Q 4.38
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 2012 Hz Gain 2.43 dB Q 3.09
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 4070 Hz Gain -1.8 dB Q 8
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 4768 Hz Gain 2.03 dB Q 5.76
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 8621 Hz Gain -1.39 dB Q 2.53
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 5888 Hz Gain -1.54 dB Q 1.2

Adam T8V APO EQ SCORE 96000Hz
October292020-175954

Preamp: -1.9 dB

Filter 1: ON PK Fc 577 Hz Gain -2.18 dB Q 13
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 1106 Hz Gain -1.97 dB Q 4.38
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 2045 Hz Gain 2.05 dB Q 2.5
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 4072 Hz Gain -2.19 dB Q 6
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 4650 Hz Gain 3.04 dB Q 8.43
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 8372 Hz Gain -1.39 dB Q 2.53
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 5888 Hz Gain -1.54 dB Q 1.2

My guess is that when @amirm tried to EQ the 2k trough, he might have also boosted a bit too wide and further increase the 4k range which was already way too hot...

Curve for the EQ LW:
Adam T8V Design EQ LW.png

EQ LW Spinorama
Adam T8V Spinorama No EQ LW.png

EQ Score Spinorama
Adam T8V Spinorama EQ Score.png

Zoom on the PIR-LW-ON for both EQ compared to the No EQ version
Adam T8V Design Zoom PIR-LW-ON.png
Tonal - Regression: much flatter after EQ
Adam T8V Design Regression-Tonal.png

Radar significant improvements:
Adam T8V Radar EQ Score.png


Comparing the data form the other two 8inch monitors for which we have some data (with caveats) I don't think that the Adam comes out on top except maybe in the bass department.
 

Attachments

  • Adam T8V APO EQ LW 96000Hz.txt
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  • Adam T8V APO EQ SCORE 96000Hz.txt
    395 bytes · Views: 154
  • Adam T8V 2D surface Directivity Contour Data.png
    Adam T8V 2D surface Directivity Contour Data.png
    501.8 KB · Views: 119
  • Adam T8V 3D surface Vertical Directivity Data.png
    Adam T8V 3D surface Vertical Directivity Data.png
    1 MB · Views: 145
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Ajax

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FWIW in 2010 I purchased a pair of the original Adam A7 active speakers together with a Benchmark DAC 1 HDR. I hooked them up to a Mac mini (via USB) using iTunes and then Audirvana software as the source. Very simple system.

When I played extremely well produced music, such as from the Society of Sound (JV between Peter Gabrielle & B&W Speakers to promote new talent), the sound was sublime even though only recorded at 24/48.

Several tracks sounded so life like that my then 11 year old son remarked that it was creepy ...... "it's like they are in the room with us Dad". 10 years later he is a budding musician and I have passed down the DAC & speakers to him for his home studio.

Not only great sound but unbelievable reliabilty from both Benchmark and Adam. Seriously good companies run by extremely capable and helpful people.
 

pierre

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Some other results with an EQ from flipflop@

Score: 4.7 (with EQ 6.8 (as good as Genelec 8341))

Screenshot 2020-10-29 at 13.17.35.png


and EQ effect on PIR curves:

Screenshot 2020-10-29 at 13.18.28.png


Also comparing the 2 Adam (S2V and T8V) measured on ASR, after EQ. They looks very similar with a lot more bass for the T8V.

visualization (1).png
 

MadMan

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No tweeter hiss is huge in this price range. It's individual I suppose, but for people asking about the JBL 30x...I tried multiple units from more than one generation, and all had annoying to me twitter hiss.

There is also the T5V for a smaller size, maybe it wouldn't be as boomy in the bass for desk use too, if lacking some extension.
 

ctrl

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Lots of distortion on that tweeter around 4.5KHz. Wonder if that's why Adams always had kind of a sandpapery treble to me? I owned a pair of S3As for a while and the top end just never seemed to translate onto other systems right.

Think rather not. Back then with the S3A the crossover frequency to the tweeter was 1.8kHz - which is extremely low for a small ribbon tweeter and might cause problems.
With the T8V (assuming that the tweeters are similar) the crossover frequency is 2.6kHz, so the load on the tweeter is not comparable.

The frequency range with increased second order harmonic distortion (HD2) of the T8V around 4.5kHz is very narrow, which reduces audibility.
The approximately 3% HD2@86dB at 4.5kHz should just about be masked. If the HD2 at a very low sound pressure of 60dB is already at 1%, the HD2 would probably not be masked theoretically, but at 60dB HD2 should be below 1% (is only estimated, as no measurements are available).

When measuring the multitone distortion of the T7V (probably using the same tweeter), no abnormalities appear between 2-5kHz either.
Source: S&R
1603976303509.png
 
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Robbo99999

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It's probably a better option than the JBL308p for nearfield listening, with no hiss and all. Still, the 308's get a lot cheaper when they go on sale, and they go on sale regularly, which matters for people looking for a budget set.

I think the 8 inch studio monitor is an underrated solution for desktop use, as long as one has the space - the bass really is pretty much low enough that a subwoofer is not necessary for most content. My 308's got down to 40hz in-room before they started falling off, and even with some pesky room modes above that, they had enough low end for me to be perfectly fine for quite a while before adding a subwoofer. I'm sure with a 5 inch woofer I'd need it much sooner.
I got the JBL 308p Mkii too, and that's exactly where they fall off in the bass in my room too, 40Hz, that is with a 5dB Low Shelf Boost though:
29th April New Room Layout.jpg

I also feel I don't need or want a subwoofer. And yes those JBL 308p Mkii are pretty good value, I got them on sale here in the UK for £150 each. Prices over here are normally like for like with US Dollar prices: so this would be the equivalent of getting them each for $150 (yes, that's not the exchange rate but all tech like PC components & audio seems to be pretty much equivalent of 1 to 1 exchange rate, ie they get a better deal in the USA!).
 

escape2

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Thanks for the review. Looks like a great monitor if space is not an issue. I find it hard to accommodate anything with woofers larger than 5.25" on my desk.


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.
Is it really that rare?

Mackie studio monitors have it. Alesis do, too. Some KRK and Dynaudio, as well.
 

Ajax

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Thanks for the review. Looks like a great monitor if space is not an issue. I find it hard to accommodate anything with woofers larger than 5.25" on my desk.



Is it really that rare?

Mackie studio monitors have it. Alesis do, too. Some KRK and Dynaudio, as well.

Original Adam A7 and A7x as well
 

daftcombo

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Hi @amirm ,
Great review!

Did you compare that speaker to the JBL 305p (or some Genelec?)?
 
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