User Manual

ADAM Monitors
For many problems in loudspeaker technologies, ADAM has found
solutions and/or improvements which mark a true evolution
compared to conventional approaches. With the ART tweeter and
midrange, ADAM presents a proprietary transducer technology that
drastically improves the driver-air-ratio. This is a progress that is not
just about marginal aspects but lies at the very core of the matter:
the musical reproduction.
With this progress and improvements in monitoring quality, a growing
number of the most famous and prestigious studios own and use
ADAM monitors – Abbey Road, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Onkio Haus,
20th Century Fox, Blackbird Studios, Masterfonics, Circle House
and Soundelux, to name a few. Elliott Scheiner, Chuck Ainlay, Kevin
Killen, Peter Cobbin and many more of the great masters working in
professional audio have chosen ADAM products as their reference
monitors. Also, some of the best audio gear designers such as
Rupert Neve, Malcolm Toft and the engineers at Manley Electronics
use ADAM monitors to test their equipment.
Loudspeaker technology - an overview
The dynamic transducers used in more than 99% of all loudspeakers
today generate sound waves by using a voice coil which is mechanically
connected to a stiff cone or dome. The preferred dome materials are
fabric, polyamide, or aluminum. The unavoidable shortcomings of
this design are the relatively high mass of the membrane/voice coil
assembly and the tendency of the assembly to lose stiffness over
time. The former constrains the upper frequency range, and the
latter progressively degrades the overall sonic performance.
All conventional loudspeaker drive units (regardless of whether they
are voice coil-driven, ribbons, electrostatic, piezo or magnetostatic)
act like a piston, moving air in a 1:1 ratio with regard to the motion
of the driver. This develops a problem in that the specific weight of
air is much lower than that of the driving mechanism. As a result, the
air does not couple effectively with the transducer. In electrical
terms, this would be described as bad impedance matching between
source and load. In both cases (acoustical and electrical), the result
is less-than-optimal power transfer: usually, loudspeakers have a
degree of efficiency of a mere 1-2%.
A relatively early attempt to solve these problems was the ribbon
tweeter, in which current is passed through a small aluminum
ribbon located in a strong magnetic field; however, problems with
this design included limited efficiency and dynamics. In addition,
the very low impedance of these early units necessitated an extra
transformer to drive them. Their viability as a general replacement
for dynamic tweeters was further reduced by the fact that these
tweeters typically could only be used for frequencies above 5 kHz,
consequently missing a great deal of critical timbral information.
Within the last 20 years or so, magnetostatic designs have superseded
the original aluminum ribbons. In this method of construction, the
aluminum ribbon was used in conjunction with a Kapton™ foil. These
designs achieved normal impedances, and therefore eliminated
the need for the extra transformer. Nevertheless, the problems of
unacceptably high crossover frequencies and serious limitations
concerning the dynamics remained unsolved.
Advanced Dynamic Audio Monitors
...all electronics is being assembled and tested. S7Mk2 & S3X-H installation at “Fayez AlSaeed Sound” Studio, Dubai (UAE)
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