Heres the best description so far of someones dissatisfaction with old fashioned hi fi, discovery of the superiority of actives and finally ADM9RS, the latest models. Ok, I guess there isnt too much point aiming this review at existing ADM owners, most of you will be very happy with what you already have and, beyond a bit of curiosity about the new tweeter, not seriously considering changing. So Ill attempt to make this useful in some way for someone who is considering a pair but cant get to hear them first. Note use of the word attempt! It would probably help to mention the kit Ive had before getting the ADMs, just to give a flavour of the type and level of kit Ive had before. Ill also attempt a sort of pros and cons of previous kit - not in any great detail though because its a number of years since I owned some of it. The 1st system I ever owned was a Marantz cdp, Kenwood amp, and Tannoy speakers. I was 17 at the time and dont remember much about the way it sounded except my Mum was always telling me to turn it down! And the speakers were shaped like a 50 pence piece. Id had to lie to my Mum about how much Id spent on it all because she wouldve no doubt marched me down to the shop with it all and demanded they give me my money back! There was then a long period were my spare money went on motorbikes, drink, and chasing girls. Ok, 1st system that I can actually remember a bit about how it sounded was a Cambridge Audio 640 cdp/amp and Wharfedale 9.1 speakers. It was pretty much the What Hifi recommended budget system, and we got it after our house was hit by lightening and everything electrical in the house blew up, including the Denon mini system we had at the time. I was knelt in front of the (switched on) TV when it happened and the bang from the TV was a bit of an attention grabber! I knew nothing about Hifi equipment and didnt even realise Hull had a Hifi shop, so it came from Richer Sounds as an insurance replacement and sounded much better than the Denon it replaced. That system was the catalyst for the fairly rapid upgradeitus that followed. Although I liked the system at the time, hindsight tells me it was lacking in a lot of areas - punch, power, dynamics, clarity, detail, pretty much everything really, but it was easy to live with. Next was a Roksan Kandy cdp/amp and Dynaudio Audience 42 speakers. Id discovered Hull had a few Hifi shops! This was a big improvement on the previous system. Again I went with the What Hifi recommended electronics, because I thought they would know much better than I would what was the best kit. I listened to them with some Monitor Audio RS6 and Kef IQ5 speakers and was probably going to go with the M.A.s until the dealer suggested a listen to the Dyns. It was the treble that sealed the deal over the others, for want of a better word it was sweet. Although I enjoyed the Audience 42s, it wasnt long before I started to wonder what spending a bit more on speakers would get me. I went out and demoed PMC DB1i, Proac Studio110, Opera Mezza (I think), and Dynaudio Focus 110. The best speaker wouldve probably been the PMCs, but I was seduced by the amount of bass on offer from the Focuss (the main failing of the Audience 42s) and the rosewood finish. So I bought them. The realisation of how much space they needed around them to keep that bass in check was a bit of a shock, but I was very happy with the change. By now though I was regularly reading What Hifis forum and, well, if you want to remain happy with your kit its probably best to stay away from Hifi forums! I was happy with the Dyns and couldnt imagine spending more on a pair of speakers (Id actually felt guilty about spending so much when there are people who have nothing, when I bought them - this obviously passed though!), so I decided to look at electronics. Although I still viewed What Hifi as the font of all knowledge, I was quite happy demonstrating kit now and my local dealer was happy to loan me kit for a weeks home demo. So I gave a Roksan Caspian cdp and a Primare i30 amp a go. Wow! Now we were talking! The Primare amp had much more power than the Kandy and got a good grip on the Dyns, and the Caspian cdp was a real step-up from the Kandy cdp. The system was coloured to hell, particularly the bass which was too strong, but was good fun. It wasnt long though before I started wondering if I could get something that sounded as good with rock, but would do a better job with gentler music. I dabbled with some Dynaudio Contour S1.4 speakers but found them very hard to live with, they were very dramatic sounding and obviously had advantages over the Focuss, but they seemed too much and were hard to relax with. Probably too big sounding for the room and I was getting fed up with speakers that needed to be so far out into the room. Luckily the dealer understood and I went back to the Focuss. Then I started reading about Moon amps. A guy on a forum reckoned they went very well with Dynaudio, and a shop in Edinburgh had an ex dem Moon i3RS going for about half price, that combined with the What Hifi review convinced me to give it a go. There was less power and punch than the Primare/Dynaudio pairing, but it was better with Dolly Parton so I was happy! It was about this time that I started to get interested in DACs and computers as a source. I didnt know it yet but I was about to take a big step back! I read some very good reviews of the Cambridge Audio Dacmagic and lots of opinion about why a computer was better than a cdp for sound quality (mainly not trying to read a spinning disk in real time according to forum chatter), got a good price for the Roksan and decided to make the leap! Arrrggghhh!! What the ****!! My system was now overwhelmed with bass. I was most unhappy. The Dacmagic went on ebay and I decided to give computer audio one last shot before going back to CDs. I ordered a cheap Beresford DAC (the proper hifi shops near me still didnt sell dacs at this point). I have no idea why 2 DACs that measured more or less flat could have such a radically different tonal balance in my system, but they did. I didnt think it was as good as the Roksan cdp, but the tonal balance was restored. And I did like the convenience of browsing my iTunes library using an iPod touch as a remote, so I stuck with the computer and DAC. The amount of space the Dynaudios needed around them was still a bit of a problem though, so I started looking for something that could go nearer the rear wall. Enter ATC. I read a fair bit about ATC speakers and it seemed pretty clear they were very well regarded and, being sealed box speakers, could go near to walls. I was finding it impossible to track down somewhere nearby to demo them though. I cast my net a bit further afield and, after a very long chat with a dealer, decided to take a punt on a pair at a very good price. I now had a pair of SCM19s. Boy were these different to Dynaudio! They could go very near the rear wall - brilliant. The sound took quite a lot of adjusting to though. They were obviously radically better than the Dyns in many regards, but the tonal balance was very different and it took quite a long time to adjust to them. Looking back the main reason was Id been used to speakers which, in my room, had too much bass. I missed some of the punch my old system had had though, and, after more chats with the dealer, bought an ATC SIA 2-150 amp. A very good amp that shoved a size ten boot up the arse of the speakers. Lots of power and I got a lot of pride of ownership from it. This was quickly followed by a Chord QBD76 DAC. It was not cheap! In fact the system wouldve cost about £7k at retail prices - Id got it for about £1500 less. Truth is though that while I quite often loved the ATCs, there were times when I found them too lean. They sank or swam on the quality of the recording. Id never had a system that I could listen to for hours on end without a bit of ear fatigue or wanting to stop listening, but the ATCs probably brought this on a bit quicker - I used to put it down to being tired or whatever. In so many ways this was the best system Id had - and by a long shot, but there was something at the back of my mind. It was around this time I started trying different cables and mains conditioners… Ill not go on about cables too much, but Im very glad I eventually decided to blind test them - Id probably still be wasting my money on them now otherwise. It was around this time that Ashleys short but infamous contribution to the What Hifi forum started! So, we get to my first exposure to ADMs! Sorry its taken so long! My cousin, Chris, decided he wanted a Hifi and, to cut a long story short, was finding it hard to find something he liked. Hed started off with my old Cambridge Audio/Wharfedale system, but could hear how much better mine was so… After a bit of trial and error that included a secondhand Musical Fidelity A5 and PMC DB1is he was getting no nearer a sound he liked and wasnt happy with the amount of money hed spent. Meanwhile Id read some of Ashleys rants on What Hifi and thought, seeing as it was Chriss money, it would be a good time to find out if there was any truth to his claims about active speakers. So I talked him into ordering a pair on the basis he could send them back if he didnt like them. Chris arranged to have them delivered to my house and they came just after hed gone to his girlfriends for the weekend. No harm in comparing them to my system then! Bloody hell! Ashley wasnt lying! These ADM9Ts were very good! In a lot of ways the sound was similar to my system, but the ADMs were noticeably better in a few areas. Clarity was improved, not by massive amounts, but they made it clear the ATCs had a bit of an edge to the sound. Imaging was much sharper, close your eyes and you could point to the exact spot where an instrument was in the soundstage - to the inch! Bass was tighter and more detailed. I was very impressed, especially so given the price difference. But I decided to stick with what I had. They seemed a bit too lean in my room. Luckily Chris loved them! They also sounded bassier in his room. Everytime I went round his after that, he had music playing on them. He basically put them on when he got in from work and listened to music until he went to bed. Every single night. And because I went round his a lot (were probably more like brothers than cousins) I also heard them a lot. And they always sounded good. There was no escaping the fact they were an easier listen than my system was. But they were just a bit too lean sounding in my room. And then Darren (from this forum) wrote a little review of some active studio monitors hed bought. And was now selling. I asked him some questions about how they compared to his ADM9Ts and AVI sub, and liked the answers. I now had some Event Opals! I set the Opals up with my DAC and the ATC amp acting as a pre-amp, and put some music on. I decided to sell my Chord and ATC kit within about 10 seconds. Oh My God!!! I simply could not believe how good these were. They were so much better than anything Id ever heard, it beggared belief. I was a total convert to actives. The value was on another level to traditional hifi kit too. Ugly as sin but the sound! Bass was a bit strong but they had built-in eq so I could adjust that to suit, and what an amazing mid-range, so natural and realistic. The clarity and dynamics! Oh My God!!! And the bass wasnt just detailed, textured, tight and powerful - it was deep too! Real deep! I was blown away by them and kept them for about 2 and a half years (by far the longest Id kept a system), partnered with a Benchmark DAC1 HDR. At new prices it wouldve cost about £4k but it bettered anything else Id heard, didnt matter what it cost. The only hifi I heard that could get close was a Naim and B&W system that wouldve cost about £30k and one that had some massive Quad electrostatic panels - again, a stupid money system. I wasnt alone in thinking the Opals were sensational, plenty of other audiophiles were just as impressed. But. They still werent quite as easy to listen to for long periods as Chriss ADMs. By now he had the AVI sub so bass depth was close to the same between my and his system, but his just had a more relaxed sound. When Chris travelled half way round the world (or so it seemed) to collect his sub from Ash, I went with him so I could hear the new ADM40s and 9RSS that Ash was very excited about. I could hear the improvements the 9RSS had over the 9T, more bass, better clarity, airier more detailed treble. But I really liked the 40s. In fact I loved them. But I delayed saving the cash and suddenly that was it, they werent going to make the 40s anymore. Sales had slowed and AVI were concentrating on a new product. B**tard!! So I sulked for a bit, and then took a deep breath and decided to settle for a pair of the 9RSS and would get the sub if I missed the deep bass too much. This time though, because the house and car had conspired to empty my bank account, I had to sell before buying. I worried over this quite a lot because I knew what I was giving up in the Opals. In the end I went for it, if it didnt work out I could always bite the bullet and buy another pair. And then Ash tells me theyre changing the 9RSS, getting rid of the Scanspeak option. What? Why? Because they can now get a brand new tweeter that is better and cheaper. Great. But I havent heard this version! What to do? In the end I think of all the things Ive read Ash write, some of it quite controversial at the time, but pretty much all of it can be backed up by non-AVI sources (superiority of the active design, cables and other foo being b/s, lots of audiophile claims not passing a blind test), and also how it has tallied with my actual experiences - like comparing my £3000 DAC to the one in Chriss ADMs and knowing they were too close to tell apart. Do I want the red pill or the blue pill? I decide to trust him. Best decision Ive made in my hifi dealings. Seriously. The new 9RS with the new tweeter are superb. So far Im not really missing the bass extension of the Opals, these have enough for probably 95% of my music. They have a lovely, easy to listen to clarity to them. They can soothe and caress and make you feel warm and cuddly. They can make you jump out of the chair with a sudden crescendo. Im not going to bother going on about detail, or soundstage, or dynamics. They have oodles of all of that stuff. Instead Ill just say these are the most enjoyable speakers (except theyre not, theyre an almost complete system) Ive had, the smoothness and warmth is delightful, they make me WANT to play music - all the time, I get no sense of wanting to turn them off, Ive sat and listened to these for 10 hours straight and only stopped because I had to get up in the morning. Even my other half listens to music on them when Im out, that has never happened before, usually she would listen to radio through the tv speakers or Spotify through her laptop speakers. Now she uses Airplay and listens through these, and she has known how to use Airplay for the last couple of years - but hasnt bothered. Thanks Ash, these are brilliant and Im glad I decided to trust you. I love them.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 07:21:51 +0000
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