Adam T8V Studio Monitor Review

[weasels]

Those are for the HR824, which are a step up from the MR824 - but it does look pretty solid.

 

[Robbo99999]

it is room gain

Yeah, some of it perhaps, but don't forget what you see in my measurement is with a +5dB Low Shelf, which would match almost exactly what I'm seeing in the specs. https://jblpro.com/en/products/308p-mkii#specifications
The specs say 45Hz for -3dB and 37Hz for -10dB.

 

[temps]

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.

I had A5s (same tweeter as A7X) before and they were flatter than this in-room with no issue in the treble... FR doesn't characterize them very well though. There was always an excess of treble energy even after the room was treated, they were bright and sibilant. Translation was always a problem even after 10 years of practice on them.

 

[PeteL]

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.

Rear ported speakers are a bit of a tough mandate on a desktop setting, especially something that dig deeper... Did you have a good distance from the back wall? In most "studio" settings this could work but even, at this price it's more of a home/semi-pro thing so to me it's a questionable decision, since "most" desks are against a wall. Yes front ported is a compromise in the absolute, but in real life, for this typical application, for me this would not be an option, but then again, they are not really desktop speakers neither. Again I can't talk for everyone tough, but for me the Adam F5 front ported, 5 inch Woofer, made much more sense for desktop use.

 

[Xulonn]

Whaling? With harpoons and all?

Amir seems to have an animal thing now - voles in the last review and whales in this one.

 

[dfuller]

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

That low crossover would probably explain it. Thanks!

 

[richard12511]

This or the jbl mkii?

I've got the 308p. My guess is the Adam is better, just based on the measurements I've done with the JBL. Will need to wait for the JBL to meet the Klippel to find out for sure.

 

[q3cpma]

Rear ported speakers are a bit of a tough mandate on a desktop setting, especially something that dig deeper... Did you have a good distance from the back wall? In most "studio" settings this could work but even, at this price it's more of a home/semi-pro thing so to me it's a questionable decision, since "most" desks are against a wall. Yes front ported is a compromise in the absolute, but in real life, for this typical application, for me this would not be an option, but then again, they are not really desktop speakers neither. Again I can't talk for everyone tough, but for me the Adam F5 front ported, 5 inch Woofer, made much more sense for desktop use.

You don't need that much space for rear ports. For example, Genelec recommends only 5 cm for its 8030C model.

 

[andreasmaaan]

I had A5s (same tweeter as A7X) before and they were flatter than this in-room with no issue in the treble... FR doesn't characterize them very well though. There was always an excess of treble energy even after the room was treated, they were bright and sibilant. Translation was always a problem even after 10 years of practice on them.

View attachment 90198

That is a lot of treble energy for an in-room response though. My guess would be the on-axis response would be elevated to produce an in-room response like that. Would you be able to gate the measurement, by any chance?

 

[jcebedo11]

I have the Mackie HR824 (original) for many years. To me they are the best value studio monitors you can get in the used market (under $600 a pair)

 

[YSC]

You don't need that much space for rear ports. For example, Genelec recommends only 5 cm for its 8030C model.

that likely is design related? my old KEF X300A recommend at least 15cm, some say 30.

 

[andreasmaaan]

that likely is design related? my old KEF X300A recommend at least 15cm, some say 30.

The amount of space you need depends on the area of the port. 15cm or 30cm would be required for a very large port indeed.

 

[q3cpma]

The amount of space you need depends on the area of the port. 15cm or 30cm would be required for a very large port indeed.

Or a small one with high air velocity.

 

[daftcombo]

Or a small one with high air velocity.

I'm a big fan of high velocity slot port, like the one on the ELAC DBR-62.

I hope to see more on monitors in the future.

 

[AudioSceptic]

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 for the money, but "whaling"? Reminds me of that joke:

"I went to the Wailing Wall. What a fool I felt holding my harpoon!"

 

[daftcombo]

This can be a bit annoying to some:

Each monitor has its own volume pot, with the ideal 0dB setting at one o’clock; turning the monitors up full introduces invasive hiss from the power amps. These pots are continuously variable, so you’ll have to set each level precisely for perfect stereo matching. It’s a minor issue, then, that these pots aren’t indented. Indented pots would make this considerably easier, and would provide some protection against accidentally altering the volume when using the LF-shelving EQ switch just above it.

Source: https://www.musictech.net/reviews/studio-recording-gear/adam-audio-t8v-monitors-review/

 

[andreasmaaan]

Or a small one with high air velocity.

I'm not sure I follow. Would you mind explaining your reasoning?

 

[q3cpma]

I'm not sure I follow. Would you mind explaining your reasoning?

Doesn't the minimum distance depend on the port's air displacement? Thought it was to prevent turbulence due to air movement encountering resistance from the wall.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Doesn't the minimum distance depend on the port's air displacement? Thought it was to prevent turbulence due to air movement encountering resistance from the wall.

Well yes, that could be a problem, but only at very short distances, i.e. it's not going to be the limiting factor.

 

[q3cpma]

Well yes, that could be a problem, but only at very short distances, i.e. it's not going to be the limiting factor.

Then, what is the main reason for rear port's wall clearance?