Back in the spring of 2022 the long awaited replacement of Adam audio’s most successful line of monitors was announced. 

The new, revamped  A series took what was so popular about these distinctive boxes and brought them bang up to date. Available in a range of sizes from the compact three way A8H, the original new low-profile A44H and the replacement for the super-popular two way A7X, the A7V, down to the diminutive A4V. It was this smallest of the range I chose to audition for this first look at the range because while it isn’t the most impressive and probably won’t be the most popular, I suspect it might be the most important.

The model numbers of the A series follows the convention of referencing the size of the bass driver in inches and the orientation as H for horizontal or V for vertical, so the A77H has two 7” drivers in a landscape format and the A4V has a tiny 4” mid/bass driver in a portrait orientation. Of course being an Adam monitor this two way monitor has an ART folded ribbon tweeter and the two drivers are presented in a front ported cabinet replete with built in two-way amplification courtesy of a class D unit for the LF and a class AB for the HF.

So a two way active monitor with a folded ribbon tweeter, if that was the whole story it would be nice but nothing new. However there are updates and refinements to the design compared to the old AX series and the headline feature, and the thing which makes this series of monitors so interesting is the use of DSP. Not only is the crossover realised in DSP but also the extensive voicing controls which offer everything from simple, but effective, back panel controls through to speaker calibration driven by Sonarworks’ SoundID Reference.

Back Panel Controls

Rather than dive into details of the drivers, I’ll start round the back. Power is via a proper IEC, analogue input via XLR or RCA and a rotary level control detented at 12 o’clock at unity with +/-12dB in either direction. As already alluded to these new A series monitors can host speaker calibration measurements made with Sonarworks’ Sound ID Reference Measure. We’ll return to that later but you don’t have to use Sonarworks to access the built in DSP in these monitors. Speaker manufacturers have found that when comprehensive control of DSP is available on monitors, a significant proportion of users don’t use the DSP at all because they find it too complicated. The new A series offer options for everyone from the most technophobic to card-carrying nerds via three methods to access the DSP.

DSP

From the back panel, instead of fiddly dip switches the voicing controls are presented as a series of four buttons with accompanying LEDs to show the status of four EQ controls, bass and treble shelves, a presence control in the upper mids and a desk filter in the low mids. These controls offer a quick easy setup and dialling a cut with the desk filter, pulling back the top  and lifting the bass I was able to get an improvement in my room in seconds. The often frustrating backwards and forwards of working alone adjusting voicing controls from the rear panel and moving to the listening position to audition the change (maybe I just need some friends..?) Is alleviated courtesy of the free A Control software.

Connecting up A series monitors via ethernet allows remote control of the DSP. My first use of this was to toggle the back panel setting I’d just made from the listening position, very handy. But the usefulness of this software of course goes further than this. There are two other modes, Advanced , which gives manual control of the filters allowing precise setup, and of course the option to measure your A Series’ response in your space and to upload the resulting measurement to the DSP in the ADAMs. The software is intuitive and I was pleased to see that the delay (0-10ms in 0.1 ms intervals) is independent of the filter settings and isn’t bypassed when the filters are. Compensating for time of flight differences is really important in greater than stereo applications, for example delaying the sides of a 7.1.4 install in a narrow mix room. There are two ‘voicings’ available - Pure (flat) and UNR or ‘Uniform Natural Response’ a response curve which stems from a variety of ADAM Audio legacy products, including the AX series.

The Sound

Enough of the back panel. How do they sound? In a word, great. I’ve been using these monitors happily as my main pair, having put my much larger and more expensive 3 way Neumann KH310s on hiatus for the duration and I don’t feel like I’m missing much other than the bottom octave. That might sound like a deal-breaker but as long as a small speaker is doing a good job of what it can reproduce I can forgive it passing over the 60-40 Hz range. If deep bass is a priority there are options elsewhere in the A series. One thing which might be helping here is that large 2 way designs start to suffer some issues with beaming from the bass/mid driver as driver circumference rises relative to wavelength. A bass/mid driver which is only 4” doesn’t suffer these issues in the same way. A small 2 way will probably have better dispersion characteristics than a larger one. The midrange is together and revealing, and the folded ribbon is very clean, giving an impression of headroom despite only 20W powering it. The HF driver is the same size as those found on other ADAM monitors. If you’re not familiar with them, to illustrate how small these monitors are below is a picture of the A4V next to an SM58.

Anyone familiar with folded ribbons will know how well they work and whether you like them or not ultimately is a personal choice. Having tried products from ADAM’s classy S series I know exactly how good this style of tweeter can sound and they certainly don’t disappoint. The 120x70 degree (HxV) waveguide is rotatable allowing horizontal use or, more interestingly, use upside down so when monitors are installed inverted you don’t have to look at an upside down logo for the rest of time! The drivers cross over at 3KHz. Amplification is via a 110W class D unit for the bass and a 20W class A/B for the tweeter.

The 4” bass driver is truly tiny and to expect deep bass from such a small box isn’t being realistic but things are very respectably handled down to 60Hz and the experience of listening to them is in no way lightweight. They create far more bass than a little driver like that has any business creating but as already mentioned, if you want deep bass there are more suitable options in this range. Given the issues surrounding the reproduction of deep bass in small, poorly treated studios there is much to be said for leaving the very bottom of the bottom end alone during the production phase and saving low end decisions until you can accurately judge them in a proper, treated space, or for that matter defer to a mastering engineer.

How Loud Is The A4V?

As far as level is concerned, that is probably more important than bass extension as I see a lot of the usefulness of this particular model as being part of multichannel systems and while bandwidth can be supported through the use of bass management with a subwoofer, a speaker which isn’t loud enough at the required listening distance can’t be helped. With a max SPL of 100dB at 1m these little speakers are impressively loud and would suit a small Atmos monitoring install in combination with other elements of the new A series brilliantly. Aided significantly by the aforementioned on-speaker DSP and remote control and calibration via the new A Control software.

A Control Software

The software is a free download for registered users. It’s simple in use and there is a detailed video on the setup of the monitors and the procedure for uploading calibration data from Sonarworks below.

In use it is intuitive and once the speakers are recognised by the system you can tweak your settings. My only slight disappointment was that switching between settings briefly interrupted playback some of the time, only for a second or so but when ABing tweaks which are often subtle a seamless transition would have been nice. Not a problem but something I’d have enjoyed if it were available.

Who Will Buy The A4V?

As I said at the beginning. The A4V isn’t likely to be the most popular model of the range, I suspect that will be the A7V, which would be a natural choice for someone working in stereo who wants the sweet spot between performance and value. However the reason I said I suspected the A4V would be the most important of this new range is that having a compact, DSP-controlled monitor which, courtesy of the A Control software can be easily incorporated into, and tuned as part of an immersive monitoring system, which has the performance to match such a demanding application is key to ADAM’s A series being a natural choice for people moving into Atmos.

The principal barriers to entry into Atmos are the cost of the required number of speakers, something addressed by the keen pricing of the A4V at about $450 per channel, and the complexity of setting up and tuning of such a system, something made considerably less complex with the incorporation of Sonarworks into A Control. A series customers get access to an extended 60 day demo of Sonarworks so just factor in the cost of a measurement mic and you’re good to go. We’ve covered the effectiveness of Sonarworks in some detail in the past on this site so suffice it to say that Sonarworks ' guided setup process is foolproof and the results, depending on the environment can be anywhere from helpful to transformational. It won’t make a bad room good but it can make it less bad, however it can make a good room great and matching between speakers becomes more and more important as channel counts rise in immersive setups.

Cons?

My only concern was that there were no apparent mounting facilities for the A4V and for a speaker which I see as having an important role as part of immersive setups this seemed like a major omission. It was only when (after an embarrassingly long time) I picked up the monitors and looked on the bottom I found 4 reassuringly chunky threaded inserts. Suitable mounting hardware is available courtesy of Powerdrive. I also wondered whether there was a limit to how many speakers can be controlled from A Control. I was told by ADAM that the upper limit was so high that it wasn’t going to be an issue for any real world users, effectively unlimited. If I have a criticism I’d say that the cabinet construction feels less ‘pro’ than the rest of the package, being relatively lightweight, though similar to other products at this price point. However expecting S series cabinets for A series money isn’t realistic. The bass performance is restricted but the speakers are small and lightweight. These two things are inherently linked so I couldn’t call that a con, more a consequence.

The new A series is going to be popular, of that I have no doubt. They sound good, are flexible and are attractively priced. The interesting thing is going to be how many new applications these monitors find themselves in now that the tools are available for them to be used in more complex applications. I’ll watch with interest.