[Patrick82]

I had an ad running for half a year and then I gave up and bought a new pair of A5 and they were shipped to me, then a few hours later I got a response to my ad and someone wants to sell me A7 for the same price I bought my A5 new. I received my A5 a couple hours ago and in 3 hours I will go and meet the guy who wants to sell me the A7.
What will I do? I will sell my Adam A5 and lose money?

 

[Patrick82]

I took one of them out from the box and took pictures. Should I purchase a TV and use the A5 for that? But I never watch TV.

 

[Patrick82]

Does anyone think that new Adam A5 could sound better than used Adam A7? He said they are 1.5 years old and he hasn't used them much.

 

[leveller1642]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Does anyone think that new Adam A5 could sound better than used Adam A7? He said they are 1.5 years old and he hasn't used them much.

No way. The A5 sound great and although i haven't heard the A7, but with the A7's twice as much power, bass extension etc, they would have to be superior.

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leveller1642 /img/forum/go_quote.gif No way. The A5 sound great and although i haven't heard the A7, but with the A7's twice as much power, bass extension etc, they would have to be superior.

How about when listening at the lowest volume? I have the A7 on my desk now and I used the lowest -60dB gain on the speakers and it sounded weird. Then I reduced the volume on my EMU0404 and used higher gain on the speakers and it sounds better. I guess I need to try the A5 to hear it for myself, but then I can't sell them for "brand new" price anymore.

 

[Patrick82]

First impressions A7: Bass is too big, the lower end is too warm and the higher end too cold, but I'm not using all of my tweaks so the highs will become silky after I have finished tweaking, but those tweaks will also make the bass even bigger and warmer, I'm worried that it won't sound good then. Maybe A5 are better for me. I sit 50 cm from the speakers and I don't need so much power.

 

[Patrick82]

First impressions A5: I switched to A5, these are not burned in so the comparison is messed up, but I will do it anyway.

The bass is missing and it sounds very incomplete. It sounds like cheap desktop gaming speakers. The lower end is missing which makes the mid bass more emphasized along with the higher frequencies, it sounds very clean and cold. This sounds similar to K1000 which is the sound I'm used to, that's why I like the A5 more than A7. Perhaps I need to get used to the fullness of the A7?

 

[Patrick82]

Now I placed the A5 on top of A7 to A/B better. The A5 have more bass when they are placed higher than my ears, I think it's because the bigger driver now is closer than the tweeter. When I stand up from the chair I hear more emphasis of higher frequencies.

 

[Patrick82]

Now it is past 11 pm so I have decreased the volume 3 dB in Foobar. The music is now lower than the fan noise from my laptop.

I was not impressed of either speaker, nothing happened. But then I connected my stack of nine RGC-24 Ground Conditioners and got a HUGE improvement in high frequency resolution, it sounds very silky with crazy transients! OMG!

 

[Patrick82]

The longer I listen the harder it is to decide which of these speakers I will keep and which I will sell. The difference between the performance of speakers isn't big...like with sources and amps I just hear big side stepping into different flavors. The tweaks are what gives the real improvements.

 

[SethSil]

and to think that all it took was an 800 dollar "ground conditioner" to make some 500 dollar speakers sound acceptable.

 

[Patrick82]

With A5 I can use higher volume at night without disturbing neighbors since the bass doesn't go as low as A7. Maybe I will keep both of them, A5 for the night and A7 for the day. Is it a good idea?

I was going to buy a bed with the money but I will keep both speakers instead of buying a bed. Right now I'm sleeping on the floor, I rather spend the money on audio.

 

[leveller1642]

I find my A5s sound better at lower volumes. When I crank them up they sound a little congested. I got an Adam Sub7 a few weeks ago and it has helped somewhat when I turn the sub's crossover to 150 Hz. I was using a Apogee Duet, but just got a Cambridge Dacmagic, which seems better matched than the Duet. I am using RCA cables now but will get balanced XLR cables soon, so hopefully i will see a further slight improvement.

I run my setup off a good quality sinewave inverter that is feed by a bank of batteries, so I don't have any power quality issues.

 

[koven]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SethSil /img/forum/go_quote.gif and to think that all it took was an 800 dollar "ground conditioner" to make some 500 dollar speakers sound acceptable.

lmao

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by leveller1642 /img/forum/go_quote.gif I find my A5s sound better at lower volumes. When I crank them up they sound a little congested. I got an Adam Sub7 a few weeks ago and it has helped somewhat when I turn the sub's crossover to 150 Hz. I was using a Apogee Duet, but just got a Cambridge Dacmagic, which seems better matched than the Duet. I am using RCA cables now but will get balanced XLR cables soon, so hopefully i will see a further slight improvement. I run my setup off a good quality sinewave inverter that is feed by a bank of batteries, so I don't have any power quality issues.

Maybe A5 could be better than A7 in midrange resolution since they use smaller drivers? I don't want to sacrifice the mids for a few Hz lower bass.

The tweeters of both speakers are identical (?) but they sound different because A5 aren't burned in yet...resolution of A5 keeps improving the whole time I listen to them. They sound like K1000 but without the rolled off highs.

BTW. Do you also hear hiss from the tweeters when the music is paused? I hear the hiss from both A5 and A7 and I'm using stock RCA cables now.