Adam Audio A7X Monitors Review

We’re massive followers of the unique Adam A7s, launched in the year 2006. With a 6.5-inch mid-woofer and wonderful ribbon tweeter, the A7s placed themselves notably prominent to digital music studios.

Adam has been exhausting at work updating their product line over the past 12 months or so. We did not suppose there was a lot mistaken with the unique mannequin, however, the A7 has now been changed with the A7X, so we had been very eager to see the way it sounded.

Updates

On the floor, the A7Xs seem broadly just like the originals however nearer inspection reveals that nearly every ingredient has been redesigned.

The most important replace focuses on the excessive finish: Adam’s ART (Accelerating Ribbon Know-how) folded ribbon tweeter has been upgraded to the X-ART, which provides a flat-frequency response all the best way as much as 50kHz (the X stands for eXtended).

The idea of the ultra-high frequency response is not something new – way back to the 1960s speaker producers had been utilizing ‘tremendous tweeters’ to hold out an analogous job – nevertheless, it’s an uncommon strategy within the professional audio world. The 7-inch mid-woofer has additionally been redesigned with a bigger voice coil.

Elsewhere, the modifications are smaller however nonetheless significant. On the entrance, the baffle has been redesigned with two ports moderately than the unique one.

Around the again issues are broadly just like the unique mannequin, with XLR and RCA inputs, plus controls for tweeter degree and excessive and low shelf filters.

Inside, the A7’s 50W PWM amps have been changed by a 50W class A/B design for the highs and 100W PWM for the lows.

Sounds

Critically listening to a combination of mastered tracks and unmixed sources, the first factor that stands out is the distinctive element.

On condition that human listening to solely extends to round 20kHz at finest, you could surprise what the purpose of the A7X’s ultra-high frequency response is, however the accuracy of the sound justifies Adam’s strategy.

Transients are reproduced with unimaginable readability, creating a particularly detailed, exact sound. Imaging can be critically spectacular, making it straightforward to position sounds across the stereo field.

The principle criticism of the A7s was that the tweeters had been a little vivid, to the purpose of being fatiguing to some listeners however merely a bit too outstanding for others.

The highs are noticeably much less vivid on the A7Xs, albeit nonetheless exceptionally detailed and revealing. The crossover frequency has been raised from 2.2kHz to 2.5kHz and the transition from mid-woofer to the tweeter is virtually unnoticeable.

We did not just like the mid-range of the larger A8X mannequin once we reviewed it again in March, however, the A7X would not undergo from the identical drawback – the mids are correct and revealing, with none of the hi-fi smoothness of their greater brother.

On the very backside finish, we would be fairly glad to work on the A7Xs and not using a subwoofer. Testing with some synth bass sounds, the frequency response prolonged comfortably all the way down to around 50Hz earlier than rolling off.

The mid-range monitor market is extraordinarily aggressive, however to our ears the Adams is simply nearly as good as any of their rivals and we would be tempted to decide on them over the rest in an analogous value vary.

Whether or not you go for the A7X or one thing just like the Dynaudio BM5As or Genelec 8030As will in all probability come down to private style, however, the A7X is a high-quality monitor that improves on what was already a terrific design.