Gear Hunter

Adam S3X-V Active Monitor

Description

STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGY
ADAM Audio monitors have earned a worldwide reputation as the preeminent tool for sound engineers based on technological innovations that we’ve established in the field of loudspeaker technology.

X-ART Tweeter
ADAM Audio has improved upon the Air Motion Transformer utilizing superior geometries and materials to achieve unprecedented audio fidelity.
Learn more

X-ART Driver
A groundbreaking technological innovation with easily discernible superior performance and no technical flaws, the X-ART driver is clearly unequalled

A/B Amplifier
We designed our own high frequency power amp to allow the new high frequency unit to live up to its unique talents.

Woofer

HexaCone woofers are an integral component in most of ADAM’s monitors/speakers. The core is a honeycomb Nomex structure that makes them both extremely light and very stiff. The front and back of the cone have been coated with Kevlar, one of the most advanced synthetic materials available. Kevlar withstands elongation by a force factor greater than 1000 times that of steel, enabling the cone to resist deformation.

No break-up resonances
HexaCone woofers are far more rigid than paper, polypropylene or aluminum devices of similar dimensions. Due to this rigidity, break up resonances in the diaphragm cone are prevented. The effective length and diameter of the voice coils in conjunction with the size of the magnets and the available cabinet volume are all precisely aligned for a musically optimal low frequency reproduction.

Authenticity instead of inadequate pressure levels
Another general problem observed frequently in many so-called reference monitors is a disproportionate low frequency volume. With massive woofers (and frequently inadequate acoustic pressure levels!), the average listener is supposed to be impressed. However, this approach results in an inaccurate representation of the overall sound quality. ADAM woofers have been designed to reproduce the given sound material with the highest possible authenticity, guaranteeing ideal translation to the widest range of systems and environments.

PWM – Pulse Width Modulation
In recent years amplifier technology experienced its second big change after going from tubes to transistors some 40 years ago. You can still find semiconductors in this new generation of amplifiers, but the signals to be amplified are treated in a completely new and different way.

Pulse Width Modulation
PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) – sometimes referred to as Class D amplification, sometimes called Switching Amp Technology – converts the incoming signal to a series of rectangular waveforms of equal height. The width of the rectangles varies in time and the relation of the width of the rectangles represents the musical signal. This waveform can be amplified much more simply, as the transistors are not modulated anymore; instead they are used as switches that only turn the power supply voltage on and off.

It is possible that a very fast mechanical switch could do the job, but power transistors are a better choice for the task, so PWM amplifiers still work pretty much like conventional Class AB designs. It is important to note there are no bits and bytes involved, so “Digital Amplifier” is a misleading and inaccurate term.

Advantages of PWM
The main advantage of PWM amplifiers is their extremely high efficiency (>90%). As a consequence the heat to be dissipated is only one fifth of earlier designs, leading to much lower temperatures within the amps and making the use of heat sinks obsolete.

This principle has been known for decades, but time was needed to develop units that perform at the leading edge in sonic reproduction quality and yet still maintain the high efficiency mentioned previously. The ADAM units use the new technology for both the amp and the power supply section (i.e. no more transformers) combined with state of the art input and filter sections to achieve the best in multi-channel active studio monitoring.