Recording - October 2013 - 43

The lowdown—oh what a high!
First impression—these guys are loud. Immediate second impression—the bass is
intense. To break them in, I hooked the cabinets up to a CD/DVD player that lets me
play DVD Audio and SACD in loop mode. I simply connected line out to RCA line in
(no attenuator needed since the A77X has the volume knob on the front). I quickly had
to adjust the levels downward, wishing the knob had more clicks or finer visual calibration for reliably accurate and matched adjustement.
Once I had the acceptable level of around 85 dB from both cabinets, I marveled at
the bass extension. As it happened, the first track began with an acoustic bass playing an ostinato on a low F. Yes, it was that low! A quick A/B/C with two other monitors made it sound like adding and subtracting the lowest pipes on an organ—not all
monitors have the A77X’s low-end reach! No hype, no conflict among the parallel
woofers, and definitely no need for an added “real” subwoofer here!
To check how the bass extends into the midrange and above I used our friend
Jerome Gilmer’s solo piano CD Remember Well (see our interview in the August 2013
issue); it amply proved that there is no smearing, no noticeable handing over of frequency ranges, no crossover points standing out. And when the only vocal on the disk
came in, the subtleties of projection of Beth Avedis’ gorgeous voice were astounding.
For stylistic contrast, Gathering Around by Steve Hufstetter’s Big Band (high-res disc
on AIX Records) and guitarist George Marinelli’s recent Believe served to highlight the
power of these cabinets. Some of my own material reinforced my early impression—
the doubling up of woofers in the A77X doesn’t overwhelm the ribbon tweeter, and
transients are not compromised by the dual-woofer setup.
... all said and done
Is this too much monitor for a personal studio, especially with the two woofers parallelling each other to about 400 Hz? That was my first thought, and it didn’t take long
for that notion to go away. The A77X doesn’t have to play loud to satisfy, but it can
get very loud and still be pure and accurate.
I could see this take the place of the old-school soffited “mains” for room-filling playback when needed. In any case, if you afford yourself this monitor, I would recommend
A/B-comparing your work constantly with a no-frills small box (Auratone, Radio Shack,
etc.) to wean yourself off the luxurious tones and power of the A77X and remind yourself of the need for translation from the sublime to the... well, not so sublime.
Price: $1099 each ($2198/pair) • More from: ADAM Audio, www.adam-audio.com

IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R430 Speaker Stand
When you suspect that your speaker cabinet transmits vibrations where there shouldn’t be any interaction, or when your instrument amp coaxes the floorboards into
unwanted acoustic participation, this nifty
device might just be what you need.
IsoAcoustics (www.isoacoustics.com) makes
a number of models in sizes to suit varying
monitors and cabinets. At 17" x 9", the ISOL8R430 ($109.99 each) is large enough to
accommodate the ADAM Audio A77X, elevating the speakers by 5". It’s also intended
for isolating guitar and bass amps to
improve their tone by decoupling them from
the floor, whether on stage or in the studio.
It consists of a base unit and an upper
frame on which you set the speakers. More to
the point—the speaker sits on six top isolators

(four on smaller models) that rise up from the
frame. The isolators themselves are hollow
on the underside, and the user inserts 4"long posts that connect to their respective
holes in the isolator elements of the base
plate. There is a rubbery, somewhat springy
compound in those isolators that absorbs
energy and reduces the transmission of
vibrational energy to whatever surface the
stand rests on.
As a bonus, the units come with small
inserts of two different sizes that allow a
slanting of the speakers or instrument
amps, backward or forward, for better
aim towards the listener, for example in
situations where the tweeters can’t be at
ear level. That’s it... simple and (to my
ears) quite effective!—LzR
RECORDING October 2013

http://www.mojaveaudio.com http://www.adam-audio.com http://www.isoacoustics.com http://www.mojaveaudio.com

Recording - October 2013

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