AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 22) ALISTAIR McGHEE finds himself victim to a syndrome that no Doctor can cure. Not that he’d want to be cured, in any case. W hen you get to my age it’s hard work not to start every review with “Many years ago ”, and on this occasion I’m not even going to try to resist that temptation. Many years ago when I worked in hi-fi, I came across a a pair of loudspeakers featuring the revolutionary Heil air transformer tweeters. I remember a fine top end, but not much else about the sound. I do remember how the technology worked – air is squeezed from between the on-board amp, and a gain trim. Personally I’d like a full range volume control, but you can’t have everything. The first test of any new speaker is: does it produce NMS? NMS (or New Monitor Syndrome) is vital – when you drop in a new speaker it should always excite you in a musical way. By that, I mean you can’t wait to listen to your Travis Barker remix, or Californication, or Between the Buttons, ADAM S2A Studio Monitors the accordian-like folds of the Heil driver, the folds provide a large increase in surface area, which in turn results in an increase in driver efficiency. I think they were expensive imports back in the early s and never really made a big impression in the crowded UK hi-fi market. Maybe integrating the tweeter with conventional woofers was a problem. or all of them at once. New speakers should entice you to remix the last thing you were working on and the first thing you ever mixed. You should be digging through your hard disk back ups looking for that tune on which you never quite got the balance right. Of course NMS doesn’t mean the speakers are great, but no NMS means they almost certainly aren’t. One good measure is how long does NMS lasts – if you’re still digging out mixes after a couple of weeks, then you’re on to something. THE REVIEWER ALISTAIR McGHEE began audio life in Hi-Fi before joining the BBC as an audio engineer. After ten years in radio and TV, he moved to production. When BBC Choice started, he pioneered personal digital production in television. Alistair is now Assistant Editor, BBC Radio Wales, but is allowed out occasionally. A couple of years ago I had a pleasant surprise coming across Heil-equipped monitors at Sahara Studios, and I made a note at the time to look up ADAM loudspeakers. I haven’t exactly been quick off the mark, but better late than never. Unity Audio (the UK distributor) kindly supplied me with a pair of ADAM S A monitors, representing the middle of their high quality range of near fields, if you see what I mean. To look at, the S A are quite the business in black with some neat cabinet work around the Heil driver. At the bottom of the front panel are some EQ settings for S ahara Surprise The other dimension I find key is the whole issue of the top end. I can forgive much below but very little above k. For me it’s about how tiring a speaker is. Everyone knows that a speaker with a hot top end will sound extra detailed on a quick listen and will jump out of the line up in an ABC demo, but you pay for that when you spend hour after hour in front of your Tak ing I t From The Top THE headphone company PRO HFI DJ & 22 AUDIO MEDIA DECEMBER 2008 http://www.ultrasone.com http://www.ultrasone.com
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