I thought I'd post a few initial thoughts on my new ADM40s, but first a bit about what I’m moving from. Hopefully my history of posting here and clear evidence of the other systems that I had/developed/invested in over quite a period of time will be sufficient to avoid being accused of being a troll, or an AVI lacky. If you don’t want my life story then skip to paragraph 7 (not including this one).
I was using Naim-based system comprising of a Sonos ZP90, Naim CDX2, Naim SuperNait + Hi-Cap2 amp and Neat Momentum 3i speakers (At full current retail prices, well over £10k worth). I liked this system, and I was pretty happy with it. The only things that I didn’t like about the sound were the fact that I always suffered with bass-boom in my lounge, which try as I might, I could never entirely eliminate without bunging the speaker ports, which killed the ‘life’ and energy of the music. Also when I turned the volume up the sound changed and became a little brittle and fatiguing. Generally though I was happy. However I had this ever-present itch. The itch was what led to me buying the CDX2 (2nd hand I might add) when I already had the Sonos and what led to me buying the Hi-Cap2 to go with the amp. Big sums of money. I could hear the improvements, but I have to be honest and say that I never really thought about the value for money of those upgrades – the option was there and I was compelled to take it. The same itch had me eying up an XPS2 power supply to go with the CDX2…I was looking at £1400ish for a second hand one. If I did that, then no doubt I would have been eying up a CDS3 before long, or hell, maybe I would have gone for an NDX! And then who knows what.
My wife has been very tolerant and understanding of my ‘hobby’, in fact more so than I ever expected her to be. To be honest she has always seemed to take the view that if it’s something that I derive pleasure from then she’s going to do her best to be interested in it and supportive of me. But us getting married really started to put things in perspective. We live a pretty comfortable existence, but we’re certainly not rich. We want to start a family soon and we need to be saving up to move to a bigger place, at least by the time our first-born is getting to the age of 3 or so. I realised that I simply cannot be diverting all my spare income into saving for the next upgrade all the time. There really is more to life. We were on our honeymoon when I started really reflecting on this and realising that I had to get off the merry-go-round. I owed my wife that much for all her indulgence so far.
There were other factors nagging at me as well, such as the knowledge when we do have kids, and they get to toddling age, then all those little green lights on every dial and button were going to be irresistible (as seemed to be the case with any visiting kids) and top-heavy speakers on stands were going to be mighty risky.
I knew of the ADMs mainly from seeing what a stir they’d caused on the forums here. The main impression I had was that you rarely saw anyone who’d actually tried them saying that they were anything less than deeply impressed, and you never saw anyone who’d tried them slagging them off. So I joined the HDD forum to find out a bit more and found that the AVI design philosophy really struck a chord. Also, and I quote (perhaps paraphrased slightly) “Just plug them in to any available mains socket with the supplied leads, plug your Sonos in with the supplied optical cable (or any cheap one from a reputable ‘pro’ retailer if you need a longer one) and you’re away” – imagine that, it hardly seems feasible does it!?
If what I was reading was to be believed then the ADM40s, would not only address all of my practical needs, but represent an upgrade over what I had now, and crucially, not have any available (and therefore implied as necessary) upgrade path. Not only that, but after selling all the existing kit I’d make a tidy profit all-in. Too good to be true? I pondered long and hard and scoured the web for every review of the ADM40s that I could find. Everyone seemed delighted with them, even when moving from much more expensive 'separates' set-ups. So after much mulling and musing I decided to go for it.
Now believe it or not given what I said above, my wife was not easily convinced that this was the right thing to do – I had clearly made the financial case, and she was pretty indifferent to my ‘geeky’ explanations of why they ought to be better than what we had currently, but she was just deeply sceptical that I could live without all the tweaking, ‘geeking’ and upgrading etc. and she wasn’t up for dropping £3k on ‘just another upgrade’. Anyway, I persisted and convinced her I was a changed man and ordered myself a pair of Cherry ADM40s.
So now I have them up and running, so how do they compare to the old system? Well they are better, absolutely no doubt about that. I would go so far as to say significantly better. However the ADMs certainly do not disgrace the old system. The old system (either playing back on the Sonos or the CDX2) was very capable, outstanding in some areas), it just wasn’t as good as the ADMs fed by the Sonos are (the Sonos is the only piece that I kept out of the stuff listed above). So I’m certainly not going to deride Naim – in fact, for reasons not entirely clear even to me, I may always have a certain affection for Naim gear. However what I can say is that next to the ADMs the old system looks like extraordinarily bad value for money. In fact it has really put things in perspective for me – it is, frankly, ludicrous to think that I could have spent the same amount of money as I spent on these active speakers (or should I call it an ‘active system’) buying just a Naim power supply to incrementally improve my amp or CD player!
Now I’m going to attempt to describe how they sound, and this is inevitably going to make me sound a) like I’m listening to the gear and not the music, and b) a bit pretentious, so please excuse me, and I assure you I’m not guilty on either count, but I find describing how music being reproduced sounds very difficult.
The first thing that struck me about the sound from the ADMs was how much tonal colour and flavour they had. It was like watching TV in black and white and then upgrading to colour. I don’t think I’ve described that very well, but anyway, it was quite striking. I also noticed how revealing they are of recording and production quality – playing through a few songs there is a really noticeable shift in the character of the sound each time. Not always good or bad changes, often just different, but a reminder of how revealing they are. They have a much ‘warmer’ and relaxed sound than the old system. I think the warmth comes from having the richer presentation mentioned above, but they are noticeably less ‘forward’. Voices sit further back in the mix, which again takes a bit of getting used to, but at the same time things are more detailed throughout the frequency range. All the threads and layers of the music are presented in a more revealing and coherent way and on some tracks I’ve been able to literally hear more notes being played then I realised were there, or hear whole instruments for the first time!
The bass is worth a review all of it’s own. It’s deeper than with the old system, but also tighter, more tuneful and there is absolutely no boom, which is a blessed relief. There is so much detail and character to be heard in the bass that I just didn’t realise was there.
But if I had to sum it up and highlight one main thing that characterises the ADMs, it’s their clarity. Everything is just crystal clear, but not pushed at you and never harsh, regardless of volume, it really is easy to just forget about the gear and just listen to the music.
So as you can probably gather, I’m very pleased with them. Now I can just listen to music and not even think about Hi-Fi, or accessories, or tweaks, or upgrades, and my money can go on far more worthwhile things! I don’t begrudge the money I’ve spent on Hi-Fi up to this point, but I will just say I’m glad I got out when I did.
Part of the deal with the Mrs to convince her that I was going to get off the hi-fi hamster-wheel was to stop going on the forums so much (I volunteered this before anyone gets the wrong idea), so I’ll stick around for a while to see the responses here, and no doubt soak up a bit of abuse, and then I’ll be off to forget about Hi-Fi and enjoy the music!
I also reckon they look pretty good too - and I just love the new, strealined system!
Cheers
Dan
I was using Naim-based system comprising of a Sonos ZP90, Naim CDX2, Naim SuperNait + Hi-Cap2 amp and Neat Momentum 3i speakers (At full current retail prices, well over £10k worth). I liked this system, and I was pretty happy with it. The only things that I didn’t like about the sound were the fact that I always suffered with bass-boom in my lounge, which try as I might, I could never entirely eliminate without bunging the speaker ports, which killed the ‘life’ and energy of the music. Also when I turned the volume up the sound changed and became a little brittle and fatiguing. Generally though I was happy. However I had this ever-present itch. The itch was what led to me buying the CDX2 (2nd hand I might add) when I already had the Sonos and what led to me buying the Hi-Cap2 to go with the amp. Big sums of money. I could hear the improvements, but I have to be honest and say that I never really thought about the value for money of those upgrades – the option was there and I was compelled to take it. The same itch had me eying up an XPS2 power supply to go with the CDX2…I was looking at £1400ish for a second hand one. If I did that, then no doubt I would have been eying up a CDS3 before long, or hell, maybe I would have gone for an NDX! And then who knows what.
My wife has been very tolerant and understanding of my ‘hobby’, in fact more so than I ever expected her to be. To be honest she has always seemed to take the view that if it’s something that I derive pleasure from then she’s going to do her best to be interested in it and supportive of me. But us getting married really started to put things in perspective. We live a pretty comfortable existence, but we’re certainly not rich. We want to start a family soon and we need to be saving up to move to a bigger place, at least by the time our first-born is getting to the age of 3 or so. I realised that I simply cannot be diverting all my spare income into saving for the next upgrade all the time. There really is more to life. We were on our honeymoon when I started really reflecting on this and realising that I had to get off the merry-go-round. I owed my wife that much for all her indulgence so far.
There were other factors nagging at me as well, such as the knowledge when we do have kids, and they get to toddling age, then all those little green lights on every dial and button were going to be irresistible (as seemed to be the case with any visiting kids) and top-heavy speakers on stands were going to be mighty risky.
I knew of the ADMs mainly from seeing what a stir they’d caused on the forums here. The main impression I had was that you rarely saw anyone who’d actually tried them saying that they were anything less than deeply impressed, and you never saw anyone who’d tried them slagging them off. So I joined the HDD forum to find out a bit more and found that the AVI design philosophy really struck a chord. Also, and I quote (perhaps paraphrased slightly) “Just plug them in to any available mains socket with the supplied leads, plug your Sonos in with the supplied optical cable (or any cheap one from a reputable ‘pro’ retailer if you need a longer one) and you’re away” – imagine that, it hardly seems feasible does it!?
If what I was reading was to be believed then the ADM40s, would not only address all of my practical needs, but represent an upgrade over what I had now, and crucially, not have any available (and therefore implied as necessary) upgrade path. Not only that, but after selling all the existing kit I’d make a tidy profit all-in. Too good to be true? I pondered long and hard and scoured the web for every review of the ADM40s that I could find. Everyone seemed delighted with them, even when moving from much more expensive 'separates' set-ups. So after much mulling and musing I decided to go for it.
Now believe it or not given what I said above, my wife was not easily convinced that this was the right thing to do – I had clearly made the financial case, and she was pretty indifferent to my ‘geeky’ explanations of why they ought to be better than what we had currently, but she was just deeply sceptical that I could live without all the tweaking, ‘geeking’ and upgrading etc. and she wasn’t up for dropping £3k on ‘just another upgrade’. Anyway, I persisted and convinced her I was a changed man and ordered myself a pair of Cherry ADM40s.
So now I have them up and running, so how do they compare to the old system? Well they are better, absolutely no doubt about that. I would go so far as to say significantly better. However the ADMs certainly do not disgrace the old system. The old system (either playing back on the Sonos or the CDX2) was very capable, outstanding in some areas), it just wasn’t as good as the ADMs fed by the Sonos are (the Sonos is the only piece that I kept out of the stuff listed above). So I’m certainly not going to deride Naim – in fact, for reasons not entirely clear even to me, I may always have a certain affection for Naim gear. However what I can say is that next to the ADMs the old system looks like extraordinarily bad value for money. In fact it has really put things in perspective for me – it is, frankly, ludicrous to think that I could have spent the same amount of money as I spent on these active speakers (or should I call it an ‘active system’) buying just a Naim power supply to incrementally improve my amp or CD player!
Now I’m going to attempt to describe how they sound, and this is inevitably going to make me sound a) like I’m listening to the gear and not the music, and b) a bit pretentious, so please excuse me, and I assure you I’m not guilty on either count, but I find describing how music being reproduced sounds very difficult.
The first thing that struck me about the sound from the ADMs was how much tonal colour and flavour they had. It was like watching TV in black and white and then upgrading to colour. I don’t think I’ve described that very well, but anyway, it was quite striking. I also noticed how revealing they are of recording and production quality – playing through a few songs there is a really noticeable shift in the character of the sound each time. Not always good or bad changes, often just different, but a reminder of how revealing they are. They have a much ‘warmer’ and relaxed sound than the old system. I think the warmth comes from having the richer presentation mentioned above, but they are noticeably less ‘forward’. Voices sit further back in the mix, which again takes a bit of getting used to, but at the same time things are more detailed throughout the frequency range. All the threads and layers of the music are presented in a more revealing and coherent way and on some tracks I’ve been able to literally hear more notes being played then I realised were there, or hear whole instruments for the first time!
The bass is worth a review all of it’s own. It’s deeper than with the old system, but also tighter, more tuneful and there is absolutely no boom, which is a blessed relief. There is so much detail and character to be heard in the bass that I just didn’t realise was there.
But if I had to sum it up and highlight one main thing that characterises the ADMs, it’s their clarity. Everything is just crystal clear, but not pushed at you and never harsh, regardless of volume, it really is easy to just forget about the gear and just listen to the music.
So as you can probably gather, I’m very pleased with them. Now I can just listen to music and not even think about Hi-Fi, or accessories, or tweaks, or upgrades, and my money can go on far more worthwhile things! I don’t begrudge the money I’ve spent on Hi-Fi up to this point, but I will just say I’m glad I got out when I did.
Part of the deal with the Mrs to convince her that I was going to get off the hi-fi hamster-wheel was to stop going on the forums so much (I volunteered this before anyone gets the wrong idea), so I’ll stick around for a while to see the responses here, and no doubt soak up a bit of abuse, and then I’ll be off to forget about Hi-Fi and enjoy the music!
I also reckon they look pretty good too - and I just love the new, strealined system!
Cheers
Dan
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