new gear day - adam p11a

Fragle

Member
Jul 27, 2005
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Germany
hi folks,

so, as i already mentioned in my other thread i'm looking for a monitor upgrade....well, here it is

476074_800.jpg


i just got them today, so it's not quite the time to give a final review, but first impression is GREAT.

i a/b'd them against genelec 8030/8040, dynaudio bm5a, adam a7 (with and without sub, sub10 to be precise), krk vxt 6, focal cms 50, adam s2x, kh o110, and of course my old monitors, the yamaha hs80m.

my main gripe with the yammies was lack of transient detail, stereo image, and perceived depth (reverb and the likes).
having that said, right now i feel that the adams were exactly what i was looking for. there's way more detail, great stereo image, very forward upper midrange...overall very analytical sounding. the bottom end is tight, but does not really go all the way into the subs...below 50hz is more felt than heard. still, i think it's enough for mixing (mastering might be another thing). mixing speakers aren't supposed to be bottom heavy anyways, and the clarity in the mids and highs is great really.

- genelec 8030: pretty nice, great stereo image and depth, but the mids felt like cardboard.
- genelec 8040: now were talking. still great stereo image etc, way better mids, just a tad hyped in the lows. also, i felt the higher mids were not as present as i'd like.....there's a lot of talk about gennies sugar coating things, and i can definitely see where it's coming from. they sounded great, but more in a hifi way unfortunately. still, those had almost the best stereo image out of the bunch. really amazing.
advantage of those would have been that they're not as aggressive sounding, so they're less fateguing i suppose.
- dynaudio bm5a: great speakers, too. slightly hyped bottom end, but overall they were too similar to the hs80m, i didn't feel like there was enough of an upgrade really.
-adam a7: MIDRANGE!! very detailed, very revealing, also very unforgiving. unforunately there's next to nothing going on below like 70hz or sth. with a sub it was better, really good sounding actually, but the fact that a pair of a7 plus sub is around the same as the p11a's made the decision rather easy.
-krk vxt6: even more lows than the genelecs. great hifi speakers, not so great for mixing. next.
-focal cms 50: fuck those are tiny. still there's a lot of bottom end coming out of them....too much actually. once again these would be great listening speakers imho....there was a LOT of detail in the highs and mids, very cool. the hyped bottom end ruined it for me though....i didn't feel as if i could make informed adjustments with that kind of low end information.
-kh o110. didn't check them out very intensely to be honest....but first impression was that i'm not blown away. they're over my budget anyways, so, next.
-adam s2x. FUCK. AWESOME. seriously, these speakers are MINDBLOWING. crystal clear, tight bottom end that goes pretty deep, great highs, mids, awesome stereo image and depth. unfortunately they're twice as much as the p11a and way over my budget.....but once i'll have to upgrade again i sure know where to look. these are GREAT monitors. i can only imagine what the s3x sound like.

tbh it was a pretty close call between the dynaudios, the 8040, and the p11a, but as i said, dynaudio didn't feel like a huge upgrade, genelec were sugar coating, hence i went for the p11a....basically, they sound like a7's with bass, haha.

well, time will tell if they are translating well, which would make them a keeper. so far it feels like a HUGE improvement over the yammies though (they better be at three times the price ^^) . it's great to actually HEAR what the reverb sounds like, what compression does to the tracks, and most importantly i can finally hear even minor eq changes, unlike the yammies....makes me think that i was doing major guesswork back then.

anyways, i'm currently working on a mix that i've recently done on the yammies, too. i'll post something in the rate my mix section on wednesday i think!

to make a long story short, anyone who's into the adam sound but thinks the a7's lack bottom end, check out the p11a!


edit: btw, stabbing the drama, the great cold distance, and clayman sound like the most awesome albums ever on those speakers. STD sounded great on the yammies too, tgcd and clayman were almost boring though.....fuck, how wrong!. but esp. STD is absolutely unbelievable.
behemoth demigod is a huge letdown though....the plastic drums are really slapping you in your face on the adams.
 
great choice. ive worked on those loads before and loved them. Hence i use a7's and a sub!
 
Adam a7 + sub 8 here. I bought the Adams first but really missed the lowend below 70hz so I ordered the sub as well. It took me a lot of time to get used to them, though. They really are unforgiving in the midrange so a lot of my mixes ended up almost scooped. My previous monitors had a very different voicing. I think I'm finally happy with how things end up sounding.
 
so, why did you chose a7+sub instead of just the p11a? money wise it's basically the same.....the reason why i went for the p11 was that i felt they had an even better stereo image; also, placing a sub and calibrating it can be a real pita, whereas the p11a don't need a sub really.
 
I didn't have enough money. In fact I had to borrow money to buy the A7s and the British pound was really cheap at that time so I bought them for just 590 euro. It took me 5 months to save up for the Sub 8. Even if I had bought them at once it would have cost me around 1100 euro whereas the P11s seem to be around 1350 euro. There's also the benefit that the subwoofer's design is specifically dedicated to the accurate reproduction of low frequencies, and it's more flexible as well. You can easily adjust its volume, for example you can crank it up so you can hear all the crap you need to cut out of the mix.
 
alright, here's the mix i talked about in the OP:

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/rate-my-mix-tone-threads/554394-first-mix-new-adams.html

feel free to check it out & rip apart ;)

after a few days with the adams i still think they are exactly what i was looking for. as i said in my other thread, my main issues with the yammies was lack of imaging and transient detail - the adams fix both of them. frequency wise they're quite similar actually, with the yammies having more cardboard sounding mids though. but regarding lows/highs they seem to range equally wide i guess. the adams are much tighter in the bottom octave though, as well as clearer in the high range. very recommended!
i have to say, the genelec 8040 were superb too. their imaging was even better, rivaling some of the rather high end speakers like adam s series and kh o110. i still wonder how mixing on them would be like though....they really sounded sooo nice, even a not so mindblowing mix kicked ass on them, that's why i went for the adams. but still, that imaging, sweet jesus ;)
 
fyi, i just hooked up the old yammies again (i'm going to sell them tonight). being more familiar with the p11a now, i thought i might update my review a little.

well, first thing i noticed when i hooked the yammies up again is that they're closer to the p11a frequency wise as i had thought. the overall response is quite similar. the yammies go a little deeper, but that's the 8" woofer for ya.
however, upon further listening it really dawned on me how much the yammies hide. i tried to listen for some imaging stuff i had grown to love on the adams, and i could barely make it out. also, stuff like different vocal levels is much harder to make out than on the adams. they also seem to compress quite a lot in contrast to the adams, guess that's causing the lack of transient detail. on the yamahas individual mix elements seem to smear together, whereas on the adams you can clearly make out e.g. how/where the bass is sitting.
i listened back to some mixes i did last night, which on the adams all sounded vastly different...the hs80m made them sound more alike than i thought.

but still, overall they're damn similar...the adams are just infinitely more revealing and accurate.
on a budget, i suppose the hs80m are damn fine monitors with quite a flat response and good translation. they're not so good for judging (the ever so important...) details of a mix. especially stuff like panning, reverb tails, delays, and small EQ changes.