The ADM40's have been merrily singing on in my house for a month, so I thought it's time to write up a bit for you folks still looking into buying some, maybe.
If you want to skip straight to the actual review of the ADM40, go to POINT 2, if you want to know my path that led to them, read on..
My first notable Hi-Fi equipment was a pair of Yamaha HS50M's, with the HS10W sub, all XLR interconnects and coming from a Cambridge DacMagic, with an Airport Express as source. I used a Pro-Ject Pre Box as a pre-amp with remote control.
Whole setup costing under 1500 euro, it was a very good bang for buck thing. I can say that the HS50M sounds very clear and neutral, in no way colouring like comparable priced passives. A relatively flat response curve was what got me into them. The HS10 cut-off was set to 80Hz and the HS50 also, the sound was like a big 3-way speaker, with lots of room control options, because it's normally used as a studio nearfield that needs to be calibrated for room errors. I had the HS10 volume set to only one blip, so it never boomed in my room (4X3). As room control I used -2dB on the high trim, because the tweeter is very bright (seems to be a Yamaha thing). One can say the sweet spot is rather small on these, but that makes sense as they're nearfield monitors.
I would have never changed a thing, but I got bored and thought it would be fun to do some DIY, and decided to build my own DAC. Twisted Pear offer a very good DAC kit called the Buffalo III ([url]http://twistedpearaudio.com/digital/buffalo8.aspx[/url]), which pairs nicely with their line stage called the IVY III, with balanced or unbalanced out, very clean, extremely low distortion. I also bought a remote control kit to have a motor run the digital volume of the DAC ([url]http://electronics.dantimax.dk/Kits/Control_boards/10861343142.html[/url]). The DAC has shunt regulated power supplies, so the dynamic range of the DAC/Pre-amp is fantastic. Whole thing cost me about 900euros, and it's nice and flexible because I can add inputs or outputs as much as I like. Hooked it up to the Yammies and it did sound really great, better than the DacMagic/Pro-ject combo. Also it was a one-box solution with volume control :D
But what was still missing here was big sound and big stage.. Maybe it was the rather thin mid range of the HS50, or the piercing high end, or the fact that everything below 80Hz came from one point instead of two, and it had to carry the music too much. So a solution could be to get decent floorstanders with a good reach in the low end.
The problem was that I wasn't sure I knew what real high quality undistorted full range music sounded like. You can't easily compare speakers directly to a live performance and memory of sound is a tricky thing, at most you can maybe say "yes, this sounds like they're sitting in front of me".
But are you then sure of the details, or does a bamboo xylophone really sound like that?
My idea was to buy the best headphones in the world and hook them up to the Buffalo DAC and see what that sounds like.
Narrowed it down to the Sennheiser HD800 and the Beyerdynamic T1. The T1 was the more natural of the two, and precision of instrument placement is it's power. Room reflections wouldn't be a problem and with the almost zero output impedance of the IVY into the 600 Ohms of the T1 gives a massive damping factor of over 30.000 ([url]http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/discuss/feedback/newsletter/2011/12/2/0-ohm-headphone-amplifier-sonic-advantages-low-impedance-headphone-amp[/url]) so the bass is as tight as a strippers ass. Upon hearing these, a whole new world opened up to me, this is what the artist meant for us to hear, that instrument in the background is there, and they planned it like that, it belongs to the song, what a shame if you can't hear it! What kind of room the song was recorded in (or sometimes that the instruments were recorded somewhere else and later edited in), hearing all the bad editing or over- gained instruments, or marvelling at very good recordings made me feel closer to the artists, like a more private room where not many people get to go, with a personal handshake with the guys from Pink Floyd.
The Yammies just couldn't deliver that shiver of the spine, I ended up mostly listening to the T1.
I started looking at a set for around 5000 euro, so was fishing in the waters of KEF R900, Monitor Audio GX300, Klipsch RF-7 II and others.. I found a hi-fi shop here in Vienna that had them all, so took a demo with a friend of mine. My initial interest after months of forum research went out to the KEF R900, but at the shop that immediately waned for the GX300 which sounded much fuller and involving if I could use vague audiophile terms. Now the next question was how on earth do I find out what's the best amp to pair them with... And that's a hard thing to find out, because the shop doesn't have them all and doesn't feel like moving them around all that much if you're not a definitive buyer. More research on the internet didn't help too much and I already feared it would be a long and winding road full of obstacles and shedding bucks like a cat loosing hair after winter...
Then I heard of the AVI ADM40's. So I already had actives, and liked the tight clear sound they can make, but I was a bit scared to buy anything without hearing them, and England is far away for just a quick demo of only one speaker without comparison...
A friend of mine has the 9T with sub, so I decided to take a good listen to the sound they make. What impressed most was how loud they can go without distorting, how little the sub actually is needed for music and how they sing like clear crystal glasses without ever sounding harsh. It's like my HS50's with sub, but more grown up. Everything is bigger, faster, smoother (silk dome?) and the music fits better together, no part is jumping forward more than the other. We did an AB comparison of my Buffalo DAC on the analog input of the 9T's vs the internal Wolfsons. People say the Buffalo is as good as it gets and compares to the Weiss DAC2 or most DACs costing around 4-8K. We both thought the Buffalo was a bit smoother in the high, and the bass a bit less pronounced, but it could have been bias, or not being dB leveled or any other factor.
So I thought if everything they say about the ADM40's is true, being the same sound as the 9's but even bigger and better, it must be just what I was looking for. Impressed by the AVI electronics and product as a whole, I now had it narrowed down to the GX300 vs the ADM40.
But I couldn't compare GX300 directly to ADM40. It took another month or two of endless scrolling down forums till I got fed-up by it all and just wanted to pull the trigger.
Then it hit me, I already was listening to my Beyerdynamic T1 headphone through the Buffalo 3 most of the time, because it was the best sound I had ever heard, and people kept writing that the ADM40's compare most to high end headphones, so I thought, what could be wrong about that, let's do it. My reference would be the Beyerdynamic T1. The worst that could happen was that it wouldn't blow my mind, then I could act as a demo house for AVI enthusiasts and just sell them on for a bit of loss.
POINT 2
Hit the buy button and couldn't sleep for a week in anticipation.
Looks & ergonomics:
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On getting them I was surprised how professionally they are crafted, details are sturdy and precise, the veneer is much nicer than it looks on the photo's. First I thought I wanted them in piano black so 'black ash' was a compromise, but to be honest the black ash is beautiful and much less sensitive to dust. The veneer finish and speaker design fits to almost any interior and doesn't shout out like a gel haired Italian dandy with ray-bans, it's more decent and resembles an intellectual English gentleman who just came from the barber shop.
I left the grills on because even if the Scanspeaks look bad-ass, the grills give the ADM40's a very classy distinguished look, and the sound seems to come from nowhere which adds to the imaginative soundstage experience, just my philosophy.
The base is broad so the speakers stand sturdy. The bottom is smooth so moving them around on a smooth surface to find the right spot is easy and fun in a way. At first I was convinced I would add spikes, but that's a really controversial thema, read this if you're interested: ([url]http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/121662-purpose-speaker-spikes.html[/url]) I decided not to. The remote is just as solid as the rest, and the buttons feel like they will last for ever. The attenuation scale is endless so it's easy to find the exact volume to fit the mood.
Sound:
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I use Spotify premium through an ATV3. Never could tell the difference between 192kHz vs 44.1, read ([url]http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html[/url]) if you still think you need 192kHz.
Bass:
Comparing them to the GX300 or R900 or so wouldn't be all fair because I never heard them together in the same room, but I do remember that the demo room at the hifi shop was professionally treated, it sounded almost like an anechoic chamber, yet still the bass of the GX300 was massive and always humming along with the music, something I never have with my T1's. The ADM40 has a bass more like the T1, tight like a tiger. Testing with James Blake and Massive Attack revealed that every bass note is there, the roll off is slow and only one or two notes are a bit softer than the rest, but that is impressive for a two way floor stander with 7" drivers. It goes just as low as my HS10W, but much more controlled, and coming in stereo vs mono is a huge difference in the realism of the stage. If I would have got the GX300 I'm sure I would have a big problem with my room, like a friend of mine with passive ELAC's says he needs to stuff socks in the ports and still the house is shaking on its foundation.. I prefer a tight realistic bass, it's easier to deal with in real life living rooms.
I'm considering to get a sub with the 40's, not to make things better, but to make things more flexible. For movies I'd turn it up to feel the FX, and for music I'd turn it off to get the lovely realistic soundstage. The buttons on the remote do this very quickly, and one can even adjust the level of the sub relative to the music, on the fly. A duo sub would be nice, but still, adding another crossover to the music is questionable in my opinion.
There's a very fine thread if you're interested on subs: ([url]http://hddaudio.net/viewtopic.php?id=5285[/url]), read it!
I'm still waiting to see if Ashley presents a new sub. To be honest, for music I don't think it'll be an upgrade, but I'm still way below the initial 5000euro budget, so why not add two subs later on to kill any spasm of upgraditis :D
Midrange:
I need less words for this. The midrange and midbass are so beautiful and real, I can hardly believe any speaker can ever do better.. What's more real than real? Because you can turn up the volume of the 40's so high until the human ear starts hurting, yet still the speaker never loses separation or clarity and there is no sign of clipping or distortion, making a live stage performance in my room is very convincing. The midrange is just as good as the T1's, and that's a very big statement, I know. The vibration on my body adds even more to the realism of i.e. Emiliana Torrini – Birds, it always draws a tear to my eye.
High's:
Here the T1 is still a bit more revealing, there is not one detail left hidden in the track. I don't know if any speaker can ever compete to a reference headphone at details, but the 40's are close, and way, way better than the Yamaha studio monitors. If I turn up the volume of the 40's until it hurts the ears, the first frequency range that hits my pain level is at the human voice band, where the ear is the most sensitive as I understand from science, not the HF. The HF of the 40's is clear and also very much attached to the rest of the music. I'd call it natural and seamless, never tiring yet always catching my attention when a new detail pops out.
Soundstage:
I'm a bit weary to use this word because I'm not very sure I'm competent enough to comment on the subject, but my understanding is that if all electronics are implemented correctly, the crossovers don't interfere, the positioning of the drivers doesn't make for time alignment errors, the soundstage should always be realistic and big. But I also understand that room reflections can really break up that image no matter how good the speakers are. Maybe I'm wrong about some things, but that's my general understanding of the subject. All I can say is the 40's do it all perfectly fine, my room is treated moderately well, lots of couches, carpets hung to the walls, pillows behind my ears, the speakers slightly toe'd in, firing directly into the couch, standing almost 1.2 meters from the wall and forming a perfect equilateral triangle with my position.
What I notice is that even on tracks where instruments are supposed to be behind me, like in binaural recordings (Ottmar Liebert – Up Close), it sounds really convincing!
Conclusion:
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My knowledge is too limited and my experience with other speakers not vast enough to say anything more of value, so I'll leave the rest to the experts. But let me finish with a little amateur audiophile conclusion.
I had 5000 euros, I listened to a few flagships of big names, I read the important forums for over a year till my head started spinning, my philosophy is science wins over voodoo, and the 40's deliver the most convincing theory, the most complete package and value for money, the amp/speaker matching is done and that saves you lots of headache and money, the drivers are as good as is gets nowadays and lots of over the top speaker designs are using them ([url]http://hddaudio.net/viewtopic.php?id=4390[/url]), the electronics are also well implemented so nothing more can be improved there now I guess, if you want to know how they sound, listen to some reference headphones like the T1, you'll probably stop reading forums because there's really nothing to comment on the 40's, there's just no flaws I can detect worth bugging about and they're really easy on your room. I don't believe spending another 10-20k on a system with multiple drivers and crossovers will make it more realistic, maybe it can make it louder, but that also means more room errors and time alignment errors will occur if I'm correct? So if you're an average bloke with an average room and 4000 euros to spare, I don't believe you'll ever need anything more than these. My Spotify starred playlist is growing exponentially since the arrival of the 40's, everything just sounds so beautifully right! I feel lucky for having arrived here so soon, and possibly saving dangerous amounts of money.
Thanks to Ashley and his team for investing so much time and effort in making these, now I can start concentrating on the music instead of the gear!
So you made it all the way through :) thanks for reading!
Cheers, Hugo