Adam Audio a5x or Yamaha HS5

Fowleri

Fowleri

Inspired
Based on my room size, I have come to these 2 options. I plan on buying an FM3 eventually, but I need some monitors now, so I can use with my Neural DSP plugins.

The Yamaha HS5 pair are $400 on Amazon. The lowest I find the A5X are $700 new for pair, is it worth it when it comes to using it with fractal modelers?

I know the Yamaha are made in Indonesia while the Adam are made in Germany?

I'd rather have the Adam cause they look cooler, have the knobs, and is german technology
 
The HS5's will have a mid push, while the A5X will have a flatter response. The A5X will also have higher treble extension with the HEIL tweeter. Personally, I'd go with the Adam's.

EDIT: For monitoring the FM3, you may find the bass response from a 5" woofer a little lacking. I'd look at the A7X's or on the bargain side, the Kali LP6's. I have A5X's as my near field monitors for mixing, but use a set of LP6's to monitor the Axe III and they translate to FOH PA system's perfectly.
 
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I moved from the HS5's to a pair of Adam A5X's - huge improvement in sound and tone IMO.

If you can get them, I'd strongly recommend the A5X's over the HS5's. It's not that the HS5's are 'bad' - it's more that the A5X's are so good.
 
My only advise is to try out monitors yourself. I bought the A7X base on all great reviews but did not like them in my (untreated) room. Replaced them by the HS7 that work better for me. I only use them for playing, not for any mixing.
 
My humble opinion:

5's can't display the lows that good and if you force them to do it has consequences for the mids that get displayed from the same cone. Pro producers allow no compromises there, they don't allow the lows to get amplified there and mess up the mids. They expect you to add a subwoofer if you need lows. Consider the Adam 5's as pro level stuff, which means they did not make any compromise to built the 5s the way to also display full lows, that range is reserved for the subwoofer and they recommend adding one.
Consumer stuff is different, they don't care. Long throw speakers display a nice bass there, which comes at a price in the mids.
So what are the alternatives? Buy pro 5's but consider adding a sub later. Buy pro 7's or pro 8's. Buy consumer 5's.
 
I'm a big fan of the Focal Shape series. I'm using a pair of 40's as the mains for a 72" TV in a 20x20 room and they sound great.

The sealed enclosure produces tight low end which is great for rock tracks. Maybe not as good for EDM.

The 40's will run you about $1,200 for the pair new. Maybe there are some used ones out there.

I've run the AX7 and I'd choose the Shape 40's over them any time.
 
I love the Adam A5X, and for guitar, in a reasonable sounding room, they are kind of better than I can need. (Only 10' x 15' room though.) For me, they cover enough low end for anything I need to hear from a recorded guitar tone.

A couple of people have mentioned a lack of very low end, which is true for full band monitoring or bass guitar. In a relatively small-medium space I'd recommend still going with A5X, and save for a sub-woofer so that you have the benefit of a crossover and independent volume for low passed bass frequencies. I used A5X on their own for a couple of years, but this year supplemented them with an Adam Sub8. I was glad I went that way rather than 7", as having low bass from the same driver that is mainly expected to reproduce mids is quite a big compromise. Unless you have quite a big room, the bass is always compromised by room resonance, even with full treatment.

I have the advantage of an exceptional sounding listening room for its size (purpose built, comprehensively soundproofed and fully treated). The sound quality from Adams is phenomenal, great for setting up guitar tones, monitoring, can even use them for listening to my favourite albums without excessive aural fatigue. A friend recently visited and spent a couple of hours listening to CDs of bands we have loved over the years. He was surprised just how much in the background of dynamic response and stereo image he had never actually heard before.

Liam
 
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LiamH said:
I love the Adam A5X, and for guitar, in a reasonable sounding room, they are kind of better than I can need. (Only 10' x 15' room though.) For me, they cover enough low end for anything I need to hear from a recorded guitar tone.

A couple of people have mentioned a lack of very low end, which is true for full band monitoring or bass guitar. In a relatively small-medium space I'd recommend still going with A5X, and save for a sub-woofer so that you have the benefit of a crossover and independent volume for low passed bass frequencies. I used A5X on their own for a couple of years, but this year supplemented them with an Adam Sub8. I was glad I went that way rather than 7", as having low bass from the same driver that is mainly expected to reproduce mids is quite a big compromise. Unless you have quite a big room, the bass is always compromised by room resonance, even with full treatment.

I have the advantage of an exceptional sounding listening room for its size (purpose built, comprehensively soundproofed and fully treated). The sound quality from Adams is phenomenal, great for setting up guitar tones, monitoring, can even use them for listening to my favourite albums without excessive aural fatigue. A friend recently visited and spent a couple of hours listening to CDs of bands we have loved over the years. He was surprised just how much in the background of dynamic response and stereo image he had never actually heard before.

Liam
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Thanks Liam

Could tell me more how you treated your room and what you used like what brands or models

My room is 13x12 but my bathroom is inside the room with just an accordion door so it doesnt block any noise

The bathroom is 7.9 feet x 6.5
 
Fowleri said:
Thanks Liam

Could tell me more how you treated your room and what you used like what brands or models

My room is 13x12 but my bathroom is inside the room with just an accordion door so it doesnt block any noise

The bathroom is 7.9 feet x 6.5
Click to expand...
I didn't do it myself, as the room is part of a small purpose built studio suite that I had built into an outbuilding last year. The control room was quite a bit bigger before soundproofing and treatment. Leaving sound-proofing for now, as that is a whole other game, and takes a lot of wall thickness up...

The acoustic treatment is largely slabs of 100 mm thick rockwool acoustic insulation, in 2 different densities, hidden behind fabric walls that secure into built out tracks. There are substantial triangular full height bass traps in all 4 corners of the room (maybe 18" wide), and the studio builder had a trick that I seem to recall was higher density rockwool as a "skin", then lower density rockwool filling the space behind. The ceiling is also treated in the same way as the walls, and fabric covered. The floor is Quick-Step laminate flooring, over hardboard, over 25mm Jablite, which is essentially expanded polystyrene foam slab as far as I can work out. Solid, and doesn't make footsteps too loud, so all good!

We spent some time moving the rockwool around to find the best dampening of first reflection points in the walls and ceiling, and ended up with a little less damping than I expected. I wanted it to sound crisp, but not dead, which we achieved.

There are absolutely no special brands, models or materials used for most of the treatment. (Not true of the whole of the rest of the studio, as the doors, door locks, seals and a few other bit were pretty special. But most of it comes down to the knowledge, experience and ability of someone that has done this before, and done it a lot, so they know what works and what goes wrong.)

The rockwool is just rockwool, I think they used a mix of 60kg/m^3 and 45kg/m^3, but there may have been some that was even lower density. The wall fabric was Cara by Camira, but I never found out where the plastic tracking that it slots into came from. Everything else for acoustic treatment just standard building materials, used intelligently by someone with a load of experience.

Hope that helps.

Liam
 
Fowleri said:
Thanks Liam

Could tell me more how you treated your room and what you used like what brands or models

My room is 13x12 but my bathroom is inside the room with just an accordion door so it doesnt block any noise

The bathroom is 7.9 feet desk is at the end of your bed, and there is a bathroom in the room.
Click to expand...
Fowleri said:
Thanks Liam

Could tell me more how you treated your room and what you used like what brands or models

My room is 13x12 but my bathroom is inside the room with just an accordion door so it doesnt block any noise

The bathroom is 7.9 feet x 6.5
Click to expand...
I'm having trouble picturing this setup. Your desk is at the end of your bed in a room that also contains a bathroom. You want clean looks but there must be wires everywhere. Maybe you should upload pictures or a floor plan if you really want help. Sounds like you live in a RV.
 
fractalz said:
I'm having trouble picturing this setup. Your desk is at the end of your bed in a room that also contains a bathroom. You want clean looks but there must be wires everywhere. Maybe you should upload pictures or a floor plan if you really want help. Sounds like you live in a RV.
Click to expand...

Ill post pictures later. My room is 13x12

When you enter the entry door is on front left, the walk in closet is on front left, walkin bathroom on rear left, my bed is on middle rear, the window on the center right, my desk is on the front right, my tv is on the front center wall

So basically my desk is in front of my bed. My desk is 47.2 wide and 24” deep space. I could put a 30” desk and be fine but anything more than would look bad and the chair would barely fit

Ill probably go with the gatorframeworks elite desk which 30” deep and 47.2 wide
 

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