We’re big fans of the original Adam A7s, released back in 2006. With a 6.5-inch mid-woofer and excellent ribbon tweeter, the A7s lend themselves particularly well to electronic music.

Not content to rest on their laurels, Adam have been hard at work updating their product line over the last year or so. We didn’t think there was much wrong with the original model, but the A7 has now been replaced with the A7X, so we were very keen to see how it sounded.

“Imaging is also seriously impressive, making it easy to place sounds around the stereo field.”

Updates

On the surface, the A7Xs appear broadly similar to the originals but closer inspection reveals that almost every element has been redesigned.

The main update focuses on the high end: Adam’s ART (Accelerating Ribbon Technology) folded ribbon tweeter has been upgraded to the X-ART, which offers a flat-frequency response all the way up to 50kHz (the X stands for eXtended).

The concept of ultra-high frequency response isn’t anything new – as far back as the 1960s speaker manufacturers were using ‘super tweeters’ to carry out a similar job – but it’s an unusual approach in the pro audio world. The 7-inch mid-woofer has also been redesigned with a larger voice coil.

Elsewhere, the changes are smaller but still significant. At the front, the baffle has been redesigned with two ports rather than the original one.

Round the back things are broadly similar to the original model, with XLR and RCA inputs, plus controls for tweeter level and high and low shelf filters.

Inside, the A7′s 50W PWM amps have been replaced by a 50W class A/B design for the highs and 100W PWM for the lows.

Sounds

Critically listening to a mixture of mastered tracks and unmixed sources, the first thing that stands out is the exceptional detail.

Given that human hearing only extends to around 20kHz at best, you may wonder what the point of the A7X’s ultra-high frequency response is, but the accuracy of the sound justifies Adam’s approach.

Transients are reproduced with incredible clarity, creating an extremely detailed, precise sound. Imaging is also seriously impressive, making it easy to place sounds around the stereo field.

The main criticism of the A7s was that the tweeters were a little bright, to the point of being fatiguing to some listeners but simply a bit too prominent for others.

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

We didn’t like the mid-range of the bigger A8X model when we reviewed it back in March, but the A7X doesn’t suffer from the same problem – the mids are accurate and revealing, with none of the hi-fi smoothness of their bigger brother.

At the very bottom end, we’d be quite happy to work on the A7Xs without a subwoofer. Testing with some synth bass sounds, the frequency response extended comfortably down to around 50Hz before rolling off.

The mid-range monitor market is extremely competitive, but to our ears the Adams are easily as good as any of their rivals and we’d be tempted to choose them over anything else in a similar price range.

Whether you go for the A7X or something like the Dynaudio BM5As or Genelec 8030As will probably come down to personal taste, but the A7X is a top quality monitor that improves on what was already a great design.

Read more about Adam Audio A7X Active Monitors at MusicRadar.com

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German monitor manufacturer ADAM Audio has built itself a solid reputation with its range of active monitors, all of which feature its very own ART Ribbon tweeters and midrange units.

“Where previous incarnations have felt a little overblown, to us these are just right.”

The new AX and SX ranges feature the X-ART, a further development of this design.

DAM well-made

The A8X is the biggest of the AX range and is intended as a near or midfield monitor. It is a two-way system with an 8.5″ bass driver and ribbon tweeter and the cabinet is a twin-ported design, which looks calmly professional and well put together.

Our one surprise on taking them out of the box was that they felt much lighter than we expected. If you’re going to be moving these around a lot, it could be of great benefit but somehow we expected them to be heavier.

Aside from the front-mounted power switch and master level knob all connectors and controls are situated on the back panel. ADAM has sensibly given the option of balanced and unbalanced audio inputs accessed via XLRs or phonos.

We connected using XLRs fed from our SPL monitor controller, and the first thing we noticed was that in comparison to our other monitors the overall level felt a bit low.

Even with the front-panel level controls set full they still came out a fair deal quieter than our Bryston powered KRK 7000Bs and our Sonodyne 100s. A few more dBs of gain wouldn’t go amiss for those of us trying to balance between several pairs of speakers.

Mission control

There are three back-panel controls to help you tailor the sound to your own personal taste and to the needs of your room.

These consist of a high and low shelf with variations of +/- 6dB and a separate tweeter level control with +/- 4dB to work with.

The crossover point is at 2.5kHz so the tweeter level gives an all but linear control of the frequencies above this point.

The high and low shelves are set at 5kHz and 300Hz respectively so between the three controls, you have a fair amount of variation to suit your room and taste.

High to low

Our first impression of the A8Xs was positive. We’ve used ADAMs in studios before and were always a bit suspicious of the high-end response, finding it too extreme and a little unreal, especially in the very high frequencies.

But these new X-ART tweeters sound stunning. Smooth and clear with fantastic detail and great imaging. Where previous incarnations have felt a little overblown, to us these are just right.

However, with every style of music we put through them, we kept coming back to the same conclusion. While the top sang out with beautiful detail, the mids and lows never really came into balance.

We particularly felt that the mid-range really lacked any presence or bite. In comparison to all the other speakers we heard them against, they just didn’t have enough detail in the 150Hz to 2kHz range.

The result is that, although very pleasant to listen to, everything comes out sounding very smooth and hi-fi. Balancing and EQing on them therefore proved to be hard work and in certain circumstances a little confusing.

It felt to us that the extended low end that that 8.5-inch bass driver delivered and the bigger cabinet space somehow tipped the balance for the mids.

With the crossover set at 2.5k the bass driver needs to have a very good mid response and maybe it’s just being asked to do too much. But those tweeters do sound great!

We’ve loved the smaller units in the new AX range and they represent great value too but this big well-built two-way is all about the treble and bass.

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