Adam Audio A7 or Dynaudio BM5A

get the bm5a mkii

cifani090 , yeah mate, Ive had the same dilemma for the past 5- months. At this stage am thinking between Adam A7 X (X series was just released a month ago), Dynaaudio BKMii and Focal CMS 50. Apparentley A7X have had smokin reviews and hailed to be much better than A7 ( due to which A7 can be had for $100-$150 cheaper).

However, my biggest dilemma has been that I am looking for these expensive studio monitors JUST for music playback/listening and none whatsoever for music production. Dunno what to do?

Will be going for an audition soon and will fill you in.    

Best to hear them both before making a decision. The adams are not everyone's cup of tea.

The real problem after getting either one of these monitors is getting a proper volume controller, unless you don't mind controlling the left and right channels separately. Doing it that way is a huge PITA since it's extremely difficult, not to mention frustrating, to match both volume levels every time you change the volume.

Most of the cheaper passive solutions out there such as the sm pro patch/nht etc. generally suck, with channel imbalance at low volumes, basically all the issues you face with a cheap volume potentiometer solution. Some feel that passive attenuators are good because there are no active electronics to mess around with the signal so in theory the signal should be more pure, then there are also those who prefer an active approach. I had a passive TC electronics level pilot attenuator and that thing was horrible. I sold that away, got an active preamp and it's a lot better.

Sorry if i'm going OT, cos i felt this is something most people who get active studio monitors for desktop music listening tend to overlook. Unless your active studio monitors have a single volume control to control both L/R together, which is not exactly common.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noinimod 

Best to hear them both before making a decision. The adams are not everyone's cup of tea.

The real problem after getting either one of these monitors is getting a proper volume controller, unless you don't mind controlling the left and right channels separately. Doing it that way is a huge PITA since it's extremely difficult, not to mention frustrating, to match both volume levels every time you change the volume.

 

Most of the cheaper passive solutions out there such as the sm pro patch/nht etc. generally suck, with channel imbalance at low volumes, basically all the issues you face with a cheap volume potentiometer solution. Some feel that passive attenuators are good because there are no active electronics to mess around with the signal so in theory the signal should be more pure, then there are also those who prefer an active approach. I had a passive TC electronics level pilot attenuator and that thing was horrible. I sold that away, got an active preamp and it's a lot better.

 

Sorry if i'm going OT, cos i felt this is something most people who get active studio monitors for desktop music listening tend to overlook. Unless your active studio monitors have a single volume control to control both L/R together, which is not exactly common.

Right, if you own a headphone amp with pre-amp out the problem is fixed but the smaller new adam have the Stereolink tech that let you control the volume of the two with only one knob.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega17TheTrue 

Right, if you own a headphone amp with pre-amp out the problem is fixed but the smaller new adam have the Stereolink tech that let you control the volume of the two with only one knob.

Yea some headamps come with a pre function also, but how well that works vis-a-vis a stand-alone preamp is another thing altogether. If you're looking at Adam/Dynaudio/Focal, you probably care enough about fidelity not to cheap out on a lousy (read: most headamps) pre.

That stereolink tech is pretty neat, it's nice to see Adam taking it in the right direction.
 

I was in the same boat for my desktop system.  My ears liked the Dynaudios over the Adams.  Just sounded a bit more natural to me.  But in the end went an entirely different route.  Passive monitors with a very good sounding amp.  Less money than the active setup I really wanted (Focal CMS 65, very nice sounding).  But I could live with the Dyns if they were a bit lower in cost.