Adam ARTist actives

[rab9090]

Has anyone heard a pair of speakers from this range?

I'd be quite interested in the 5s with a DAC at the other end for volume control and all the inputs.

Doesn't look like theres been much on here about them, but thanks in advance if anyone can comment on these.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

I've heard the smallest of the Adam Artisit Actives, and thought it pretty good, certainly better than the Yamaha I compared it with but not as good as the Dynaudios - not unexpected, twice the size and price!

To be honest, I didn't think small actives had much if any benefit over amp/passives, but haven't heard the larger actives.

 

[davedotco]

The Artist 3 and 5 models are a fairly expensive way of buying entry level Adam monitors. You are paying a substantial premium for the look and finish and for the onboard usb dac. If the looks and/or the dac are important to you then fair enough, but if not the 'pro' A3x and A5x offer similar performance for less money.

Unlike Al in the earlier post, I think that such speakers are more than a match for coventional passive components at this price level, but then I am an active speaker user and Al is not, make of that what you will.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

Are you really sure the pro Adam series are the same as the Artists? Their website says not.

Perhaps hold back on the jumping to conclusions, DDC, for that and your assumptions about whether I owned actives. I did. Not equal to the non-actives I replaced them with.

 

[steve_1979]

Has anyone heard a pair of speakers from this range?

I haven't heard any speakers from the Artist range but I have heard a few from both their mid-range and expensive pro audio monitors. They all seemed pretty good to me.

 

[davedotco]

Are you really sure the pro Adam series are the same as the Artists? Their website says not.

Perhaps hold back on the jumping to conclusions, DDC, for that and your assumptions about whether I owned actives. I did. Not equal to the non-actives I replaced them with.

You really could start an argument in an empty room.

Firstly I did not say that the Artist and the A series were the same, read the post.

Secondly I am currently an active speaker user and you are not, that is all, no assumptions, no agenda.

 

[John Duncan]

Oh stop it the lot of you.

 

[altruistic.lemon]

OK JD. Post deleted.

 

[Dave_]

The Artist 3 and 5 models are a fairly expensive way of buying entry level Adam monitors. You are paying a substantial premium for the look and finish and for the onboard usb dac. If the looks and/or the dac are important to you then fair enough, but if not the 'pro' A3x and A5x offer similar performance for less money.

Unlike Al in the earlier post, I think that such speakers are more than a match for coventional passive components at this price level, but then I am an active speaker user and Al is not, make of that what you will.

Um - as I said, the website says different.

The website refers to the older non x models not the AXs DDC is referring to, which funnily enough have the same X-Art tweeters as the Artists..

 

[altruistic.lemon]

Um -that quote and the rest of my post I deleted. Any chance you could do the same?

 

[matt49]

Well, I'm getting a pair of Adam ARTist 3s on demo next week because I want something small for my office desk.

The premium you pay for the ARTist 3s over the AX-3s is about £170 (from memory). That pays for the built-in DAC and nicer finish, as far as I can see.

I'll report back if anyone's vaguely interested.

 

[davedotco]

The Artist 3 and 5 models are a fairly expensive way of buying entry level Adam monitors. You are paying a substantial premium for the look and finish and for the onboard usb dac. If the looks and/or the dac are important to you then fair enough, but if not the 'pro' A3x and A5x offer similar performance for less money.

Unlike Al in the earlier post, I think that such speakers are more than a match for coventional passive components at this price level, but then I am an active speaker user and Al is not, make of that what you will.

Um - as I said, the website says different.

The website refers to the older non x models not the AXs DDC is referring to, which funnily enough have the same X-Art tweeters as the Artists..

There are some suggestions in some quarters that the Artist series offer a slightly more relaxed presentation than the A series, if this is true then it is not something that I have noticed, though I have not done a direct comparison.

For this reason I chose the word similar, which apparantly means 'the same as' in some language or another, though not of course in English.

For what it is worth, the later 'x' models have been recieved well in the 'pro' area, generally considered to be a little more refined than their predecessors. I usually have a problem with any of the variants of the 'Air Motion Transformer' style of folded diaphragm tweeters but recent Adam designs have pretty much solved this problem for me.

For desktop use I think a small bass driver is sufficient if you are to avoid over doing the bass end. I have recently been trying the A3x as an upgrade to my Seiwins and they are superb on the desktop, particularly when used with the rubber wedge style stands. I f you wanr something to run directly off a computer the Artist 3 may be the answer, but if like me, you prefer an outboard dac the A3x is the better value.

 

[ID.]

Well, I'm getting a pair of Adam ARTist 3s on demo next week because I want something small for my office desk.

The premium you pay for the ARTist 3s over the AX-3s is about £170 (from memory). That pays for the built-in DAC and nicer finish, as far as I can see.

I'll report back if anyone's vaguely interested.

Although the Japanese distributor doesn't seem to carry the ARTist range, I'd still be very interested in your impressions. The lack of grills and wooden finishes does put me off professional monitors a bit and it is something I'd pay a premium for. I'd certainly be looking at the ARTist range if I move back to Australia. Currently contemplating A7Xs, but trying to postpone any auditions for various reasons.

 

[davedotco]

Well, I'm getting a pair of Adam ARTist 3s on demo next week because I want something small for my office desk.

The premium you pay for the ARTist 3s over the AX-3s is about £170 (from memory). That pays for the built-in DAC and nicer finish, as far as I can see.

I'll report back if anyone's vaguely interested.

Although the Japanese distributor doesn't seem to carry the ARTist range, I'd still be very interested in your impressions. The lack of grills and wooden finishes does put me off professional monitors a bit and it is something I'd pay a premium for. I'd certainly be looking at the ARTist range if I move back to Australia. Currently contemplating A7Xs, but trying to postpone any auditions for various reasons.

For what it is worth, the Adam A series occasionally appears in high gloss black finishes, though the sculpted front and lack of grill may still rule them out. At the moment Thomann have this....

http://www.thomann.de/gb/adam_a7x_glossy_black.htm

I have recently tried the tiny A3x as a replacement for my similarly sized Seiwins, mounted on my AudioEngine rubber stands they were cracking, could not really want for more on a desktop. Probably not going down that route but they were impressive.

For Computer speakers the usb equipped Artist 3 would be a very tidy option but I like an outboard dac/headamp so I can use headphones.

 

[rab9090]

Thanks for all the replies.

Matt, I'd be interested to hear what you think of the 3s too. I had thought about getting them for a desktop but they seemed a bit too big and expensive. I have the Monitor Audio WS100 instead now.

 

[davedotco]

Thanks for all the replies.

Matt, I'd be interested to hear what you think of the 3s too. I had thought about getting them for a desktop but they seemed a bit too big and expensive. I have the Monitor Audio WS100 instead now.

A3x's are tiny, much smller than they look in the photos, front dimensions are just 10 by 6 inches, hard to imagine anything much smaller that would be worth listening too. Essentially the same size as my ultra cheap Studiospares/Seiwins, slightly different proportions though.

how a re you planning to drive them?

 

[rab9090]

I was thinking something like the Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus, so that I have the volume control and a headphone amp too.

Also, could the stereolink outputs be used to add a subwoofer? My BK has RCA inputs so I don't see why that wouldn't work.

 

[davedotco]

I was thinking something like the Cambridge Audio DacMagic Plus, so that I have the volume control and a headphone amp too.

Also, could the stereolink outputs be used to add a subwoofer? My BK has RCA inputs so I don't see why that wouldn't work.

No. The stereo link is purely so that you can use the level control on one spreaker to control both. it is not a line output.

On the other hand, the phono and XLR inputs are usually just wired in series, there is a fair chance that you can use them as a 'link through'. Never actually tried it on this model so check if you are going down this route.

Of course the Dacmagic Plus has both balanced XLR and phono outputs, so connection to A3xs via XLR and to your sub by phono could not be easier.

 

[rab9090]

Oh I see, I thought it might have been an alternative to using the XLR and phono outputs on the Dac.

 

[rab9090]

Are the Artist 5s often used in a stereo/more hi-fi setup too? Most of the other info I've seen about them has them being used as desktop monitors.

 

[matt49]

Are the Artist 5s often used in a stereo/more hi-fi setup too? Most of the other info I've seen about them has them being used as desktop monitors.

I don't see why they shouldn't work well in a domestic context. For my money, they're rather large to sit on an actual desk and look much better suited to bookshelf use. I haven't heard them though.

I'm expecting the ARTist 3s to arrive tomorrow.

 

[davedotco]

Are the Artist 5s often used in a stereo/more hi-fi setup too? Most of the other info I've seen about them has them being used as desktop monitors.

They are an attemt by Adam to produce speakers that are aestheticaly more pleasing than the 'hewn from solid' look of their pro monitors.

The Artist 3 and 5 have built in usb dacs, so quite clearly, they make a simple desktop solution for playing music from a computer, for me the 5 is too large and powerful for the desktop (though it is still pretty small), proper stands are required.

The rather stylish floorstanding Artist 6 does not have a dac, possibly the smallest most friendly active floor stander available.

In the UK at least very few high st dealers carry these speakers, in fact few carry active speakers at all so they are rarely used for hi-fi.

 

[steve_1979]

Has anyone on this forum heard the Artist 6 speakers? I have to admit that they look absolutely georgous. Possibly even the best looking active speakers available.

 

[davedotco]

Has anyone on this forum heard the Artist 6 speakers? I have to admit that they look absolutely georgous. Possibly even the best looking active speakers available.

Yes briefly and in less than ideal circumstances, the usual tight, slightly dry Adam signature but on this occasion the high frequencies were rather exposed. I put that down to my usual dislike of AMT based tweeters.

Further experience with the smaller model 5 suggests that this was probably a setup issue, I had no problen getting them to sound really well balanced and would expect to be able to do the same with the 6s.

The latest X-ART tweeter is excellent, at least as good as Elac's JET tweeter as fitted to their remarkable CL330 models, and capable of much higher levels.

 

[byakuya83]

They do look nice and shiny - ideal domestic, active speaker.

http://www.adam-audio.com/en/multimedia/products/artist-6/technical-data

Surprised the amps are more powerful though.