Members Primal Yell Posted July 26, 2008 Members Share Posted July 26, 2008 Its subjective, please advise. I cannot A/B compare where I'm at....Am I fu*king up if I make a choice like this without the side by side A/B comparison? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted July 26, 2008 Members Share Posted July 26, 2008 I have not heard the A7 monitors but I will say that I have yet to hear anyone say they are not amazing. I have heard those genelecs and I must say they sound great. However they were paired with a set of NS-10 monitors for reference so I don't know what that says about the monitors (maybe they are to pretty?). Wish I could be more help. They are the primary monitor where I intern though if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TomMartin Posted July 26, 2008 Members Share Posted July 26, 2008 I have the a7's and love them I've never heard the 8020's though, but I quite like the 30's and 40's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 26, 2008 Share Posted July 26, 2008 FWIW, I'd definitely recommend the ADAM A7's - they're outstanding speakers. I'm personally a huge ADAM lover, and not particularly wild about Genelecs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrJoshua Posted July 26, 2008 Members Share Posted July 26, 2008 See if you can't arrange to try some out before you make a final decision, but I love my A7s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Palaver Posted July 28, 2008 Members Share Posted July 28, 2008 To make things ever harder for you, Kurzweil use Genelec's for creating their sample libraries... I don't know how familiar you are with sample libraries, but in terms of workstation/keyboards, Kurzweil are on top of the game in terms of sound creation/sampling. I think that says a lot for the Genelec monitors. However, the ADAM A7s are supposedly fantastic as well. Regardless of what you pick, you'll still need to 'learn' them, and how they translate to everything else. I'd try and hunt down a MkI pair of Mackie HR624s! That's what works for me. -PB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CME Posted July 30, 2008 Members Share Posted July 30, 2008 Hey I got a quick question about the A7's. Is there some kind of HF rolloff? The reason I ask is I heard a pair in Guitar Center one day and was not impressed. It was like there was a blanket over them. They also had a pair of the new JBL's that come with the omni mic for self setting the eq's. Which sounded better, but the sub was turned up too high. And some Event ASP8's that IMO sounded best. I was thinking about picking up the A7's until I listened to them. The only thing I could figure is they had rolled off the HF driver. The bell of the ride cymbal was just dead and no air compared to the other speakers. Of course it did take the guy a couple of minutes to figure how they had routed them through the presonus central station. Just wondering what might happened that day? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Alndln2 Posted July 30, 2008 Members Share Posted July 30, 2008 I guess it depends on what type of music your doing. In that price range I went with the Dynaudio BM5a's because apart from sounding a bit fuller than the rest, they seemed to have slighty more detail and easily had the best bass reponse without the need for a sub which is crucial to me since I do a lot of reggae and hybrid reggae. If I was doing pop/rock I probably would have went with the Adam a7's since they sounded a bit more flat which is more crucial to that genre. The only Genelecs I liked were much higher than the $1000.00 range. Those 4 inch woofers did nothing for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 There are trim controls for the lows and highs (located on the back of the units). Do they have a HF rolloff when set "flat"? Nope - those ADAM ribbon tweeters go up to about 35 kHz. If they sounded like poop, it was one of three things: A really bad room / placement in the room, screwed up settings or defective / blown speaker drivers. It's also possible that they just "aren't for you", but from your "blanket over them" description, I suspect one of the other things is the cause. IMO, they're the best nearfields at anywhere near $1K / pair by a considerable margin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrJoshua Posted July 31, 2008 Members Share Posted July 31, 2008 I would use lots of phrases to describe my A7's, but "blanket over them" would never even enter my mind as a possible description. If anything, I was surprised by how present the treble was when I started listening to various albums through them to get used to them. Treating the room helped fix that, though, and now they're nice and smooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gearmike Posted July 31, 2008 Members Share Posted July 31, 2008 Remember, The best way to judge a monitor is not by what things sound like on them. It's all about how they make you work. That's why I can't work on Genelec's...they have a big hole at the cross over frequency and that "mid-suck-out" makes things too pretty too easily for me. For what its worth, the Adams make me work harder, but those mixes sound much better when we get to the mastering studio... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members IsildursBane Posted August 1, 2008 Members Share Posted August 1, 2008 I would use lots of phrases to describe my A7's, but "blanket over them" would never even enter my mind as a possible description. If anything, I was surprised by how present the treble was when I started listening to various albums through them to get used to them. Treating the room helped fix that, though, and now they're nice and smooth. The Adam ribbon tweeters don't sound as pretty up top as some other brands, but I would not descrbe them as having a blanket over them, either. That said, this part of why I like them - I have a tendency to put not enough high-end in my mixes and the Adams make me work for it a bit more to get it right. -Dan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted August 1, 2008 Members Share Posted August 1, 2008 They are very different speakers, which is why some like ADAMs and some like Genelecs. Personally, I really love the ADAM "sound," or more properly, LACK of sound. ADAMs don't always sound as "pretty" as other speakers, but what you mix or master on them translates superbly to other systems, which is what is most important to me. Believe it or not I master on ADAM A7s, which you'd think wouldn't be well-suited to that task. The Recoil Stabilizers help Still, there's no denying that my clients have been EXTREMELY happy with the masters when played over multiple systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 I hear something similar to what Mike described with Gennies - they're very pretty, but they lack in the midrange. Sitting next to them, the ADAM's could sound too "forward" in the mids to some people... but to me, that midrange is a lot more accurate on the ADAM's, while it seems too soft and dipped on the Genelecs for my tastes. For rock music, and even for jazz... heck, for mixing music in general, I want to hear those mids. Not pushed, not soft, but accurate. My A7's (which I use as nearfields) give me that. I find the top end of ADAMs to be very nice too. They're very detailed; the stereo imaging and the transient response are outstanding, and those folded ribbon tweeters come across as a lot less "harsh and grating" to me than a lot of other tweeters do. Fatigue is much less of an issue for me when working on them for long periods of time than it is on say, my JBL's. Or heaven forbid, NS10's. Since we've covered the top and the mids, I guess I should mention the bottom. It's not missing on the A7's at all - they go down surprisingly low, and sound much "fuller" than their relatively small size would suggest. I've had several engineers comment about that when I've first played the A7's for them. They don't pump out quite as much bottom as my JBL's (Mike seems to like my 4412s... ), but those have been worked over and modded a bit, and they are soffit mounted, so they have a lot of bottom - they're actually a little "forward" in the ~100 Hz range. Of course, if I really want the world on a platter, I switch over to my midfields - my ADAM S3A's. I've had them for a few years now, so the "honeymoon period" is long over, but man I love those speakers! I consider them to be possibly the best gear purchasing decision I've ever made. Look, speaker preference is one of the most subjective and "personal" things in the recording world; people have different needs, tastes and preferences, so no one set of speakers is going to be right for everyone. I know you can't really do this Primal Yell, but it really is the best way IMO - my advice is to try to arrange to listen to the two or three models you've narrowed it down to in YOUR room. Balance their levels and listen to some CD's you know really well (your recordings as well as all your favorite albums), and evaluate them. Switch between them and listen. Take notes. Track and mix some stuff on all of them, burn some roughs and see how they translate. Hear what you like and see what works best for you, then go with that. Failing that, try to listen to them elsewhere. If possible, side by side. If you can't pull that off for some reason, try to at least buy from a dealer who will let you exchange whatever speakers you decide upon for something else if you decide they're not right for you. I've done all of that at one time or another. I have also owned dozens of speakers over the past 30 years in what seemed like an endless search for "what works for me"... but that's been over for a few years now... What works for me are ADAMs. (And a few disclaimers for the record... While this post may sound like I'm shilling for ADAM, I have no financial interest in the company. The ADAM magazine ads I appeared in were uncompensated, and I paid for my ADAMs. They use my endorsement - and they're the only company I officially "endorse" - and can quote me as they see fit. I love these speakers, and trust the people who run that company, that much. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kyle DiSanto Posted August 3, 2008 Members Share Posted August 3, 2008 I love my A7 s .. When I switched to them I immediatley heard the difference. Effects were clearer and more defined. I couldn't agree more with anderton about their "sound" ... I'm always amazed at how my mixes translate so well with these. I also use the adam sub 8 in conjunction with them because I like to hear the full range. If you go with th adams you won't be dissapointed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CME Posted August 7, 2008 Members Share Posted August 7, 2008 Sorry I haven't replied. Got sick and been away from the pc. Anyways I was def suprised by the low end. Very tight and deep. I was just so disappointed in the high end I couldn't get past it. I feel better now. There was def something wrong with those. I'll see if I can find some more somewhere to listen to. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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