Nowadays, you are truly spoiled for choice when kitting out your home studio. With so many brands making high-quality gear at an affordable price, it’s easy to feel paralysed by all the options. Despite some fierce competition, a few brands have built a reputation so firm that they continue to stay at the forefront. ADAM Audio is one of those brands. Boasting decades of technological innovation and widespread acclaim, ADAM Audio studio monitors continue to be a top choice for countless professional engineers, producers and artists across the globe. With a pair of ADAMs in your studio, you can count on exceptional audio quality and a clear representation of your music.
Transparent Sound For Everyone
The ADAM Audio A Series is the best the Berlin-based company has to offer outside of the flagship S series. The A Series succeeds the award-winning AX Series, one of our best-selling active studio monitor ranges. Every monitor in this new lineup benefits from advances in technology, components and manufacturing over the last thirteen years. The result is an immersive and customisable listening experience at an attainable price point. Whilst the superb S series is beyond the budget of most except world-class recording studios, the A Series is a more accessible way to experience highly accurate and truly transparent sound in your professional or home studio. ADAM Audio present the A Series in five models that cover a wide range of sizes. Whether you want a compact monitor for a bedroom studio or a 3-way midfield monitor for a large control room, there’s something in the A Series range for you.
New A Control Software
Recently, ADAM Audio launched their A Control software. This revolutionary free software gives you real-time and remote control of the advanced DSP within each A Series monitor. With A Control, you can intuitively tailor your A Series monitors to your studio space. There are plenty of room adaptation and voicing options at your disposal. Any changes you make in A Control can be experienced in real time so you can instantly hear the difference between the calibrated and uncalibrated audio.
In addition, A Control lets you upload and store your Sonarworks SoundID calibration profiles directly to the DSP. This saves you from having to run the separate SoundID reference app or additional DAW plugin. Not only does this make things more convenient, but it also lightens the CPU load and reduces latency. Once your SoundID Reference calibration has been transferred to the monitor, you’re all set! No software or network cables are needed.
If you own an ADAM Audio A Series studio monitor, you can access an extended 60-day trial of SoundID Reference and explore this powerful functionality. Simply register it in the MyAdam area of the ADAM Audio website. The ADAM Audio team will then email you a license. It’s important that you get ahold of a measurement microphone, as it’s required to create a calibration profile in SoundID reference.
Interview with Kevin Bent – ADAM Audio
To celebrate the launch of A Control we had a chat with the wonderful Kevin Bent. Kevin’s been a proud member of the ADAM Audio family for over two decades and is currently the UK Sales Manager at ADAM Audio. Who better to take you through the A Series than a true ADAM Audio expert? If anyone knows about the intricacies of studio monitors and setting them up, it’s Kevin. In fact, he’s advised leading artists and customers alike on how to create the best setup for their studio. In the interview, we discuss Kevin’s history with ADAM and his favourite aspects of the A Series.
How did you become part of Adam Audio?
I first heard a pair of ADAMs back when I was working in pro audio retail. They were the since discontinued P22As, and instantly I fell in love with the sound. Not only did they just sound great, which made me initially want to make music, but the mix always translated well on them.
I am proud to say I have now represented one of the most popular monitor brands in the UK for the past 21 years.
After the success of AX, why did you decide to make the A Series?
The AX Series came into existence 13 years ago, and while they are still standout monitors, there have since been new technical innovations, manufacturing processes, materials, and components. All of which we were not utilising. This is the primary reason the A Series was designed, and something that has been 8 years in the making.
What’s new about the ADAM Audio A Series?
A lot…
We have kept the well-loved X-Art tweeter from the AX Series, however, we have leveraged the waveguide from the flagship S Series range. This has allowed the top end to become more directional, giving an overall superior stereo image.
The multi-layer mineral (MLM) woofer is also new, constructed from nine layers of mineral stone fibres, meaning that it is both light, strong and capable of producing high output with minimal distortion.
The list goes on. HPS waveguide technology, DSP (Digital Signal Processing), newly designed cabinets and bass ports, new back panel adaption…
Who’s the A Series made for?
Simply put, everyone who wants to listen to audio. If you look at what a speaker is, it’s a cabinet full of transducers. What’s the difference between a hi-fi speaker and a monitor then? It’s all in the tuning. Where a hi-fi speaker is meant to sound flattering to your ears, a studio monitor is brutally honest.
The same can of course be said for any monitors from the A Series range, therefore they can be all used in a wide range of scenarios in which a brutally honest sound is desired: broadcast, gaming audio, sound design, recording studios, bedroom studios, Dolby Atmos, etc.
What’s your favourite new feature?
It has to be the DSP. The monitors themselves are brilliant, but the DSP allows you to be the architect of your own sound or recording space. You can make the monitors sound exactly as you want them to, with six full bandwidth parametric EQs, low and high-pass filters, and delays, all controlled with the brand new A Control software. Within this, you also have Sonarworks integration, IP networking control, improved latency, and a user-friendly GUI.
What’s your favourite model in the range?
It’s a tough question, as they all are on an equal pedestal in my eyes. However, if I had to choose a personal favourite it would be the A7V. It’s sufficient for project studios and home recording, as well as being a great near-field monitor for larger studios.
Every model has its own benefits and use cases. The A44H, for example, is a new concept with two four-inch woofers, low distortion, and full mid-range. It’s perfect for post-production and project studios that desire that wider stereo image.
There is also the flagship monitor from the range – the A8H. This is a three-way system with a dome cone and hybrid mid-range. Great for those that need that low-end emphasis.
Every model can be used in a wide variety of settings, and none are limited to one specific size of studio or type of room. There’s something for everyone here.