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Thought you guys might be interested in another view point on the Adel MAMs, and another set of measurements, and some first hand experience.
I purchased a set of U6's through the KS - so these aren't review samples, I own them, and I'll be reviewing them pretty soon.
The reason I haven't reviewed them yet (or should I say the reason I haven't posted anything yet) is that I was waiting for the MAMs to complete the review. Unfortunately I don't have my case or other accessories either - but I'm pretty sure it'll get resolved at some stage - the one thing I've really enjoyed with Vitaliy and his crew is that their level of customer service is really good. They can sometimes be a little slow with the replies - but they've been a great company to deal with.
Anyway - Alex (Twister6) and I were talking, and he mentioned he was getting a set of prototype MAMs, and gave me Steve Keeley's (Canyon Runner) address. I contacted him, and asked if it was possible to get an early trial of the MAMs as well, so a little over a week ago I got a pair, and could finally put them to the test.
I spent pretty much the first day trying to get to that sweet spot, and trying to notice a difference. I was worried at one stage that maybe my hearing wasn't sensitive enough - because I was noticing no change at all between open and 3/4 closed, and it was only in the last quarter that the bass got stronger, but very little else changed. So I reached out to Steve and Alex, described what was happening and asked for advice. Steve suggested I keep testing, and see what I could measure.
So using Veritas and ARTA I measured at various positions, and sure enough - very little change.
I again talked to Steve about it, and he suggested that I may not have closed the modules enough - they can be quite stiff. So I reset the tests, and this time measured from open to closed, then pushed a little more through the "hard to turn" barrier. The bass response jumped, so I measured again from closed to open. Yowsa! This time the changes were noticeable (on the way back to open), and I was surprised at how different the measurements were. Had I somehow activated the module by pushing it that little bit further?
I closed it again, gave it the extra quarter turn, marked the module cog, and prepared to remeasure when i noticed all of a sudden the resistance was gone. Ooops ! Yep - broken it. Now the measurements don't change at all. I've relayed this all to Steve, and they're going to take adjustments to make sure this can't happen with the final modules.
Anyway - I still had the left hand module to measure, so I repeated the process, taking a lot more care. Once again I measured, and the good thing is that my measurements are repeatable - so I'm pretty sure this is how they are supposed to change.
First up - the U6 with the automatic modules - and just a simple test to assess channel matching
As you can see, they are pretty darn amazing - and credit to the 1964ears team for making something with BA's that matches this well.
Next up is the MAMs and the difference between totally closed, totally open, and the automatic module sitting in between:
Now the kicker - the next one shows just the MAMs, but shows the difference between fully closed, one full turn toward open, then another 1/2 turn, and a third 1/2 turn
There are some quite big changes there, and I could reproduce them remeasuring.
The sound changes are audible with the U6, but really hard to describe because I only have the one working module. Steve is going to send me a new pair, and next time I can remeasure again, and see if another pair of modules shows the same changes. At that stage I can also assess the sound in stereo - and complete my review.
I purchased a set of U6's through the KS - so these aren't review samples, I own them, and I'll be reviewing them pretty soon.
The reason I haven't reviewed them yet (or should I say the reason I haven't posted anything yet) is that I was waiting for the MAMs to complete the review. Unfortunately I don't have my case or other accessories either - but I'm pretty sure it'll get resolved at some stage - the one thing I've really enjoyed with Vitaliy and his crew is that their level of customer service is really good. They can sometimes be a little slow with the replies - but they've been a great company to deal with.
Anyway - Alex (Twister6) and I were talking, and he mentioned he was getting a set of prototype MAMs, and gave me Steve Keeley's (Canyon Runner) address. I contacted him, and asked if it was possible to get an early trial of the MAMs as well, so a little over a week ago I got a pair, and could finally put them to the test.
I spent pretty much the first day trying to get to that sweet spot, and trying to notice a difference. I was worried at one stage that maybe my hearing wasn't sensitive enough - because I was noticing no change at all between open and 3/4 closed, and it was only in the last quarter that the bass got stronger, but very little else changed. So I reached out to Steve and Alex, described what was happening and asked for advice. Steve suggested I keep testing, and see what I could measure.
So using Veritas and ARTA I measured at various positions, and sure enough - very little change.
I again talked to Steve about it, and he suggested that I may not have closed the modules enough - they can be quite stiff. So I reset the tests, and this time measured from open to closed, then pushed a little more through the "hard to turn" barrier. The bass response jumped, so I measured again from closed to open. Yowsa! This time the changes were noticeable (on the way back to open), and I was surprised at how different the measurements were. Had I somehow activated the module by pushing it that little bit further?
I closed it again, gave it the extra quarter turn, marked the module cog, and prepared to remeasure when i noticed all of a sudden the resistance was gone. Ooops ! Yep - broken it. Now the measurements don't change at all. I've relayed this all to Steve, and they're going to take adjustments to make sure this can't happen with the final modules.
Anyway - I still had the left hand module to measure, so I repeated the process, taking a lot more care. Once again I measured, and the good thing is that my measurements are repeatable - so I'm pretty sure this is how they are supposed to change.
First up - the U6 with the automatic modules - and just a simple test to assess channel matching
As you can see, they are pretty darn amazing - and credit to the 1964ears team for making something with BA's that matches this well.
Next up is the MAMs and the difference between totally closed, totally open, and the automatic module sitting in between:
Now the kicker - the next one shows just the MAMs, but shows the difference between fully closed, one full turn toward open, then another 1/2 turn, and a third 1/2 turn
There are some quite big changes there, and I could reproduce them remeasuring.
The sound changes are audible with the U6, but really hard to describe because I only have the one working module. Steve is going to send me a new pair, and next time I can remeasure again, and see if another pair of modules shows the same changes. At that stage I can also assess the sound in stereo - and complete my review.