I have a pair of ADAM a5xs on their way. I was gonna go with Yamaha HS80Ms at first but... I don't know, I felt like taking a risk. We'll see how they do.

swell. we must know your ohpinyun once they arrive.

Opinonion?

I'd wear that bastage on my belt 'cause it was the style at the time for sure. That is a fine example of onionism.

If all goes according to plan I should have 'em here in time for the weekend.

I expect a thorough and detailed review of them.

Thy will be done. I need to listen to lots of awesome stuff on them to get a handle on what exactly they're throwing down. UPS tells me they should be here tomorrow.

Initial impression- one showed up yesterday, the other today- is that these are,,, very neutral re: bass/mid/treble balance. They are not lacking for low end, at least for what i want. I suppose I could add a sub if I felt the need to shake the floor? Very "3d" sounding spacial imaging. More than plenty loud enough. Very detailed and clear. More to follow.

...and then like so many others before me upon receipt of new speakers, I put on Dark Side Of The Moon (playing back off CD through my interface, of course) and... Damn.

fine album for monitauring

What can I say, it's either that or Aja, and I don't like Steely Dan. Though I'mma watch the Classic Albums episode on that anyhow.

Miz Jen came in from porch-garden-tending and commented immediately "those speakers sound A-may-zing" which I think is really a testament to DSOTM than anything else; Wish You Were Here was promptly requested.

I put a lot of classy sounding stuff through there- Floyd, Deutsche Grammophon classical recordings, Tool, Gov't Mule, Isis, mid-'90s Metallica, Collide and Skinny Puppy for sheer goddamn bass, Delerium, Massive Attack, Mogwai, Dead Can Dance, Depeche Mode, things I know and love and know sound great (and there's more I want to hear) and I really feel I can trust these.

There's two philosophies behind monitors, it seems- one is neutral, reproduce what it gets and GTFO of the way. The other is... the NS10 thing- forward, aggressive, revealing. I like them both, and actually find well-recorded things on NS10s pleasant to listen to. I find "studio" sounds preferable to overhyped things. These fall into the former category; the high crossover point and ribbon tweeters give them a bit of top end lift, but it isn't harsh or unpleasant. The imaging re: the bottom end is interesting; stuff that's in the center sounds like it's in the center. I'd have Tool or Mule on and be like "where's all my ass end at?" and it's kick and bass guitar right up the middle with guitars and keys L/R. With Floyd or DCD, and Jen noticed this too, you'd hear stuff that sounded outside the speakers. Really neat. There's also a sense of top/bottom/front/back imaging I'm not used to; that's the "3d" thing. Everything has its sense of place. Reverb tails are amazing. See: DCD, Mogwai, Isis. The kick on Mule's About To Rage and the snare on Amorphis' The Brother-Slayer are roughly perfect ideal rock sounds.

Re: bottom end for a 6" woofer- I put on Skinny Puppy's Greater Wrong Of The Right and Collide's Chasing The Ghost- early '00s electrogoth with deeep bass. It rocked it tight and clear. This is where you might want a sub simply because this stuff goes soooooo low nothing save for perhaps my Sennheisers reproduces the frequencies, but these are really exceptional records in terms of bottom end. I some Infinity subs and hey, they work for Chris Lord-Alge. I don't like using 'em as I feel they give a skewed picture of the bottom end but it's worth a shot? Either that or check those sort of lows on 'phones.

Today I think I'mma put on Rush's Vapor Trails, the past couple Metallica records, maybe some old Damned or Christian Death, Stooges' Raw Power, maybe Cynic's Focus (not the remixes)... Stuff that's (with the exception of St. Anger) not intentionally lo-fi but is Of A Poorly Nature for various reasons- destroyed in mastering, no budget, or in the case of Raw Power, is actually supposed to sound like that. Stuff that's intentionally harsh or odd isn't the point- Waits, Diamanda Galas, NIN, Big Black... I'd love to hear them, but they're not bad as such.

Stuff to listen to for vocal detail... Hmm, Waits might be good there. Late '70s/early '80s Bowie? Superunknown? Queen? St. Vincent, for something new?

Interesting.


Audioslave. Listen to it in your lo-fi listenings. Should sound pretty fucking awesome.

I actually got that one out thinking it would be an interesting listen. All the individual sounds are pretty overdriven, but the mix itself is really nice, the bottom end is great... I'm thinking some Steve Albini stuff- Shellac would be great. Those drums ! Nasty harsh guitars, superdistorted chordbass... and a super clean mix.

hoo.. hrm.. that sounds like a sharp mix. all the ribbon tweets i've heard have been very kindly to the ears for long sittings... interested to see how you think the mixes translate outward!

Why hello there!

We'll see once I actually get some proper mixes done on the things. If I can get the top end to translate right, I'm golden. I mean, it's present so I can see how it could read as "bright", but it's nothing compared to, say, JBL or some of the scooped-out stuff I've heard from cheapie monitors. The mids and bass I trust implicitly. The midrange especially, and that's where all the music is happening, or most of it at any rate. I'll throw something on there and it comes across to me as just... how it's supposed to sound. I was quite surprised; they don't impart a whole lot of coloration on their own save for that bit of top end lift, and even then I think perhaps that's more being able to actually hear what's going on up there than anything else.

In re: perception of tones, it's all there. For example, Warren Haynes' tone sounds red to me. Or should. It still sounds red here. Yeah, don't ask, I hear a lot of stuff in color, at least when it's not a 128kbps .mp3 or on Youtube or something. Mostly neutrals, earth tones and warm colors. I know it's a good recording on a good system when I can hear that, or things like the space between the sounds. That coupled with a flat-ish response and I'm quite content to listen to these things all day. So far I feel there's a very small learning curve here.

curious-- did you listen to the yamaha 80s next to 'em? i'm pretty curious- and really beginning to have the mind drift to something better- and after my last mixing session with my mackies-- i'm beginning to think i'd have an easier time with something having a little more low reaching bass. 6" drivers just not getting me where i wanna go-- particularly for bass/kick interaction, and i usually have to adjust vocal girth AFTER a trip to another system too. too much shuttlin' around goin on.

the 80's were the best bang for the buck i listened to-- but i ignored the ADAMs... they were getting on the fringes of 'ouch'..

Alas, I ordered the ADAMs on a whim and the desire to punch myself in the bank account, so I never got to A/B the two. My current room at home is decent-sized- about 13.5 x 28 x 9- and they do a good job of filling it. I heard the 8" Mackies in the B room at GCR, and that control room is smaller than mine, and I was pleasantly surprised they weren't overbearing in that space.

I'm usually up pretty close on the things and not listening at very loud levels generally; I have them in stereo link mode with the volume under 9:00, though they can move some air and have surprising bottom end for something of that size. The real test will be how stuff translates that was mixed on them, of course. They're certainly pleasant to listen to, but that doesn't mean a thing. (Granted, I have no issue with the sound of NS10s, so...)

Sounds quite lovely.

And for your music choices.


Which Mogwai did you thump through?

Happy Songs For Happy People. I need to have more Dave Fridmann-produced stuff, I think. Or record there sometimes. He does do tape; I missed it on his site when it came up in conversation here in the past. GCR is getting a 2" machine back in as well.

A quick check of his discography reveals a ton of Mogwai which I have, a Sparklehorse record I have and a MGMT record as well, so I guess I have a fair bit. I think he went to college with my drummer or something along those lines; I'll ask.

I am really liking these things, for what it's worth. They pair well as a speaker/headphone combo with my Grados. (Note to Dan.)

aw.. that second sparklehorse record is FANTASTIC. one of my favorites, and SUCH fantastic engineering! i used that record to help voice my altecs a LOT as my token 'pop' record. go dave fridmann!

right on-- i'm glad yer digging the sr80's. they sound WAAAY different than my beyers, that's for sure- but they're great for a whole lotta great mid sorting. i gotta get a new set of sennheiser pads for mine.. i thought the 'new' grado pad'sd help.. but alas.. my ears still hurt if i wear 'em long.

i gotta put my ears on some adams.. after this latest project.. i'm thinking it's getting on time to shake loose the mackies.