Recording - October 2013 - 42

BY LORENZ RYCHNER

In April 2003 I began my review of the
ADAM Audio S1-A by writing “It’s no bigger than many other nearfield monitors,
except for its price.”
Ten years later, with the A77X, it’s a case
of “It’s quite a bit bigger than other nearfield

all the way down to 38 Hz as true woofers
should, one operates as a bass speaker
going from 38 Hz to 400 Hz, while the
other crosses over on the top of its range at
3 kHz. So the total monitor system is in fact
a woofer, midrange, and X-ART tweeter.”

soundfield. The thinking here is that the
non-directional lows may as well be on
the outside, whereas the woofers that
extend up through the midrange, if placed
on the inside, will project a more solid
center image. All this presumes that you
can set them up in the usual equilateral triangle (same distance from your ears to the
speakers as from speaker to speaker).
With bass frequencies being the hardest
to tame, even in carefully treated rooms,
and with cabinet placement in the room relative to the listener’s position being more
important than any bass traps or such
devices, extra care will need to be taken to
get the most out of these cabinets. And then
there is their weight and heft to consider—
isolation from sympathetic vibrations will
become a must (luckily there are tools to
help with that—see the IsoAcoustics review
on the facing page).

ADAM Audio A77X Powered Monitors
When is a 3-way monitor not precisely a 3-way monitor?
monitors, in size and perhaps also in price.”
Then again, you get a lot more than from
other nearfields—quoting ADAM Audio,
the A77X is “...perfectly suited for both nearand midfield monitoring.” So—at this price,
can it be all things to all studios?
Full frontal
Measuring 21" wide by 9.5" tall by 11"
deep, and with two identical-looking 7"
woofers that flank two portholes and a centered ribbon tweeter, this black cabinet
looks imposing. The appearance is further
accented by the four corners of the fascia
that recede slightly, and by the green activity LED above the tweeter, between the level
adjustment knob and the on/off switch.
Around back we find an RCA and an
XLR input, the IEC power socket, and three
controls for user adjustments: high shelf eq
(> 5 kHz ±6 dB), low shelf eq (< 300 Hz
±6 dB), and tweeter gain (±4 dB). Also in
back: A label stating “Speaker A” or
“Speaker B”. Let’s investigate, shall we?
The new math: 7 + 7 = 77
The two 7" woofers, the same as in the
earlier single-woofer model A7X, are identical in construction, but not in function. As
the company website states, “The 2
woofers are not fed the same frequency
information. While both of the woofers go
42

RECORDING October 2013

So, in a somewhat unorthodox
way, this is a 3-way system.
Each woofer is powered by
its own 100 W (RMS) amp,
while the tweeter has a 50 W
(RMS) amp. It’s that tried-andproven X-ART (Accelerated
Ribbon Technology) folded-ribbon tweeter that ADAM Audio
features in its other models; it is
based on a technology known as Heil AirMotion Transformer (after Dr. Oskar Heil,
1908–1994, German electrial engineer
and inventor). That principle uses pleated
ribbons of very thin material that moves the
air at extremely high velocity, squeezing
and expanding the pleats, yielding accurate transients and smooth high-end sound.
Location, location, location
Where and how should you position these
speakers? You can’t tell the woofers apart by
looking at them. ADAM Audio points out
that old-school thinking has the tweeters on
the outside, the woofers on the inside. But
here we have two woofers, one really taking
the place, in a way, of a subwoofer, except
you can’t tell which it is by looking at them.
ADAM Audio advocates “new-school”
thinking—placing speaker A on the left,
speaker B on the right, thereby moving the
quasi-subwoofer to the outside of your

I placed the review units on individual
stands and moved them repeatedly until I
achieved a soundfield that satisfied me
throughout the full range, top to bottom. I
can’t really imagine placing these cabinets on a traditional meter bridge, due to
the reflections from the console surface—
I had to remove equipment from in front
of the cabs to eliminate the smear and
wash, which was not the cabinets’ fault,
of course. For a permanent installation, I
would have resorted to a custom arrangement, raising them up and angling them
down, to take such reflections out of the
equation and do the sonics justice.
If the right sound and balance can’t be
achieved in a given situation, the user
adjustments on the back can help—a regular screwdriver suffices, but the small
controls lack clicks and have to be eyeballed, which makes reliable matching a
bit of a gamble.



Recording - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2013

Recording - October 2013
Fade In.
Contents
Talkback.
Fast Forward.
AEA R88 mk2 Stereo Ribbon Microphone.
Live In The Studio.
The Mixing Workshop: Spectral Balancing.
Apogee Symphony I/O 8x8 + 8 MP and Symphony 64 | ThunderBridge.
Radial Engineering Gold Digger and Cherry Picker.
Echo Digital Audio Echo2.
Gear Shootouts—A Home-Brewed Personal Guide.
Twenty Questions On Mics And Miking: A Chat With Shure’s John Born.
ADAM Audio A77X Powered Monitors.
Plug-In Outlet: Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors.
From Room To Studio.
iOS Music Tools: iMusicAlbum Audio Mastering Studio.
Talking Acoustics With Peter D’Antonio.
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 22: Compression—Part 1.
How To Edit.
Readers’ Tapes.
Advertiser Index.
Fade Out.
Recording - October 2013 - Recording - October 2013
Recording - October 2013 - Cover2
Recording - October 2013 - 1
Recording - October 2013 - 2
Recording - October 2013 - 3
Recording - October 2013 - Fade In.
Recording - October 2013 - 5
Recording - October 2013 - Contents
Recording - October 2013 - 7
Recording - October 2013 - Talkback.
Recording - October 2013 - 9
Recording - October 2013 - Fast Forward.
Recording - October 2013 - 11
Recording - October 2013 - 12
Recording - October 2013 - 13
Recording - October 2013 - AEA R88 mk2 Stereo Ribbon Microphone.
Recording - October 2013 - 15
Recording - October 2013 - Live In The Studio.
Recording - October 2013 - 17
Recording - October 2013 - 18
Recording - October 2013 - 19
Recording - October 2013 - 20
Recording - October 2013 - 21
Recording - October 2013 - The Mixing Workshop: Spectral Balancing.
Recording - October 2013 - 23
Recording - October 2013 - 24
Recording - October 2013 - 25
Recording - October 2013 - Apogee Symphony I/O 8x8 + 8 MP and Symphony 64 | ThunderBridge.
Recording - October 2013 - 27
Recording - October 2013 - 28
Recording - October 2013 - 29
Recording - October 2013 - Radial Engineering Gold Digger and Cherry Picker.
Recording - October 2013 - 31
Recording - October 2013 - Echo Digital Audio Echo2.
Recording - October 2013 - 33
Recording - October 2013 - Gear Shootouts—A Home-Brewed Personal Guide.
Recording - October 2013 - 35
Recording - October 2013 - 36
Recording - October 2013 - 37
Recording - October 2013 - 38
Recording - October 2013 - 39
Recording - October 2013 - Twenty Questions On Mics And Miking: A Chat With Shure’s John Born.
Recording - October 2013 - 41
Recording - October 2013 - ADAM Audio A77X Powered Monitors.
Recording - October 2013 - 43
Recording - October 2013 - Plug-In Outlet: Slate Digital Virtual Buss Compressors.
Recording - October 2013 - 45
Recording - October 2013 - From Room To Studio.
Recording - October 2013 - 47
Recording - October 2013 - iOS Music Tools: iMusicAlbum Audio Mastering Studio.
Recording - October 2013 - 49
Recording - October 2013 - Talking Acoustics With Peter D’Antonio.
Recording - October 2013 - 51
Recording - October 2013 - 52
Recording - October 2013 - 53
Recording - October 2013 - 54
Recording - October 2013 - 55
Recording - October 2013 - 56
Recording - October 2013 - 57
Recording - October 2013 - 58
Recording - October 2013 - 59
Recording - October 2013 - 60
Recording - October 2013 - 61
Recording - October 2013 - 62
Recording - October 2013 - 63
Recording - October 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 22: Compression—Part 1.
Recording - October 2013 - 65
Recording - October 2013 - 66
Recording - October 2013 - 67
Recording - October 2013 - How To Edit.
Recording - October 2013 - 69
Recording - October 2013 - 70
Recording - October 2013 - 71
Recording - October 2013 - Readers’ Tapes.
Recording - October 2013 - Advertiser Index.
Recording - October 2013 - 74
Recording - October 2013 - 75
Recording - October 2013 - 76
Recording - October 2013 - 77
Recording - October 2013 - 78
Recording - October 2013 - 79
Recording - October 2013 - Fade Out.
Recording - October 2013 - Cover3
Recording - October 2013 - Cover4
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