I switched to A7 and the mids were gone, I could hear bass and highs but the vocals were less apparent which made it sound very dark. It sounds very full compared to A5, I'm not used to this sound. I want music to sound open, clean and transparent which comes from rolled off frequency extremes. K1000 had only midrange driver, it gave me the best sound for my 192 kbps mp3's, together with Valhalla headphone cable it sounded like real life. But the A7 doesn't sound like real life, it sounds too dark, A5 is much closer to real life than A7, I need to burn it in a few thousand hours to find out if the midrange resolution is better. One thing I don't like with the A5 are the grilles in front of the drivers, the A7 don't have any grilles.

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Without any tweaks the A7 sounds better than A5 because the harshness in the mids and highs become more apparent if the bass is gone from A5, people like the warmer sound from A7 more. A5 sounded like cheap desktop speakers because they were so cold and edgy, but K1000 sounded like that too because they revealed problems in the audio system. Instead of adding warmth with bigger drivers you can add smoothness with tweaks, it makes the midrange more realistic. I believe A7 will sound much muddier with lower resolution than A5 after I have completed tweaking.

Also, the A5 draws less power than A7 which gives better sound based on my experiments. I was using dCS Elgar Plus DAC but overall I get better sound from EMU0404 USB because of less wattage draw.

I picked up Adam A7 on the other side of the city with subway. I took some teasing pics of me undressing them.

Sell the A5's, cause those A7's looks a lot nicer (imo). Black over white color...

adding adam angled stands to a5 or a7 will make much better auditory trajectory

I switched the stock interconnects into Valhalla and it fixed the midrange problem of A7.

I invited my girlfriend over and she sat down in the corner on top of my Hello Kitty bed spread. She was wearing pigtails, pink shirt and Hello Kitty lipgloss which I purchased for her a few days earlier. I turned on the music with Adam A5 and then I switched to Adam A7, she said the A7 sounded better. While she was doing her homework for a few hours I was tweaking my Valhalla cable on the floor (soldering etc), the music was turned on the whole time so she got used to the sound. Then she went to the toilet and I switched the stock interconnect into Valhalla while she was gone. When she came back I asked her if it sounds different, she said "It sounds sharper". Then she asked me stuff about where to buy the Valhalla cable etc. My girlfriend likes Valhalla cable!

First impressions Valhalla for Adam A7: Midrange is alive and it sounds very clean, fast, open and transparent. Highs are crazy fast and clear with the smooth whiteness signature of Valhalla. Bass is tighter and more controlled! There is more detail everywhere, I hear sounds I didn't hear before!

I am using Dual Filament 16awg Valhalla as interconnects, I sliced them out from Valhalla power cord, they are like unshielded Odin but cheaper. They are too thick as interconnects but they are surprisingly good! The sound is both colder and smoother, Valhalla flavor is amazing!

I tried Magix for A7 and there is less than 1mm margin to make Magix fit under them. But I couldn't hear huge improvements in resolution like with K1000. Then I mass dampened the A7 and the background got quieter. I tried Magix under EMU and laptop and the improvement wasn't as big as I hoped.

I don't think Adam A7 needs Magix and ERS Paper, it already sounds good without them because A7 are resolution limited. Synergy is great with all the detail and speed tweaks; Synapses2 power cables, Judge power cable, Valhalla interconnect, crazy speed!

/\ I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world

I let my EMU warm-up a few days and tried the Magix tweak again. Magix under the Adam A7 made the transients smoother. When I removed Magix it sounded bright and fatiguing, I got a headache.
Then I put Magix under my EMU and got smoother transients and more depth.

Also, maybe the Adam A7 drivers aren't resolution limited, maybe my hearing is. I switched from K1000 to ER4P and adapted my hearing to edgy sound, now I need to adapt back to smoother sound. I was in the bathtub playing with the water, it sounded very smooth and liquid, I couldn't hear transients in the splattering water, it sounded too smooth, I didn't like it. I wished I had Valhalla cable with me in the bathtub which makes the water more edgy and fresh.

I will let my ears adapt to smoother sound and try if more Magix are needed. However, I'm worried of putting Magix under the speakers because my girlfriend will bring cats and dogs over and maybe they will start swinging the speakers, they stand too loose on top of Magix, I tried mass damping them by stacking stuff on top of them, but it just looked more dangerous.
Also, how will I protect my Judge power cable from getting chewed on?

smear or spray judge with anti-pet gel, this also provides good dampening characteristics, similar to all brass clamps

they will remember the unpleasant taste after the first nibble and wont return to the judge again!

BTW are you getting a cutout at all on the A-series? i mean to say, that after either a while or a low input to the speakers, the sound will cut out until the volume is raised substantially to 'awaken' it?

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I suddenly feel the urge of wrapping everything with ERS Paper again. When girlfriend asks "What is all that ugly paper for?" I will say "They are to protect your pets from electrocution". Good plan yes?

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I haven't heard this. I am using 10 o'clock on the EMU and 4 clicks up on the Adam A7, I tried lowest volume on Adam and higher on EMU but it sounded bad.

My girlfriend brought a CD which she got from school (Blood Music - Don Quite), I put it inside my laptop and it was vibrating like crazy and the table was humming loud from resonance.
Next time I took out Feet of Silence from my bag, she asked "what are those?", I did not respond. Then I put them under my laptop and started the CD again, she said "it sounds pretty now". Then I put Feet of Silence under the Adam A7 speakers and we listened to the CD again, I asked if she can hear a difference, she said no. However, we were lying down in bed and she was feeding me chips and licking my ear so the improvements were difficult to hear. I couldn't hear that well because my left ear was resting against a pillow, but even then I could hear an improvement in clarity and depth. The realism was so scary it gave me adrenaline in my chest. I could hear more ambient space and body. Everything was faster and more detailed. It gave me a headache.

I remember when I first got Feet of Silence a few years ago, the increase in speed gave me a headache for 2 months. Feet of Silence are similar to Valhalla analog cable which improves the low-level detail while boosting up the whiteness and blackness in the sound which makes it sound more realistic.

Magix sound warm and flat with more resolution, Feet of Silence sound round and edgy with fake blackness and clarity. But perhaps Feet of Silence is a better synergy match with the warm Adam A7.

I did some upgrades!

1) I did vibration isolation in multiple steps with Feet of Silence + Magix + mass damping on top of the laptop. I got crazy improvement in low-level detail while still sounding like the Feet of Silence signature, but more true and neutral. Mass damping made it very black with clear details. It was better than best of both worlds!

2) My laptop fan has failed and sounds very loud. Instead of replacing the fan I purchased Asrock nettop ion 330. It sounded too warm, dry and annoying, the blackness and clarity was gone but there was more low-level detail. I remember my old ERS Paper experiments for my computer, with ERS Paper it was better and more neutral but I never liked the dry sound, I wanted my transport to be jittery to give fake realism.

Now my nettop is nude and still sounds warm. It's because of lower wattage (this confirms my findings that low wattage transport gives more smoothness and resolution). To further test it I underclocked the nettop to the lowest voltages possible, I also disabled everything I could in BIOS. I listened and it sounded CRAZY warm with more low-level detail! I further compared Windows XP + Foobar vs Ubuntu + Amarok. The Ubuntu sounded a little warmer, but not much.

At this point it was unbearable to listen. I also have a problem, with the nettop I can't get 2560x1600, the highest I get is 1280x800. Perhaps that also gives better sound because of lower wattage.

3) I switched the Adam A7 into Adam A5 and it sounded clear and tight! The synergy is much better! Low-level detail is at least as good as A7. The resolution and speed appears better but it might be fake because there is harshness added on top of the music (the A5 aren't burned in yet).

I'm lucky nobody bought the A5 from me, now I put the A5 back and get great audio!

4) My girlfriend was sad and said I like my cables more than I like her, I said no I don't, she said yes you do, I said nothing and continued tweaking. Maybe I'm pushing it but it is ERS Paper time!