Monitors sound different

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Picardster
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Monitors sound different

Post by Picardster » Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:13 am

Hi Fellow Passengers,

in issue I discovered yesterday with my ADAM A7X monitors
At first my left monitor had slight scratching noises, kind of artifacts when I was trying to tweak a guitar track. First I thought its on the track. Then I dived deeper.

Switched the Master Channel to Mono and listened to what came out of the monitors. The scratches went away, but when I swapped the monitors, the low-end in the one was much more present than in the other one. A doublecheck with my earphones showed both channels are the same.

The scratches are gone, I'd say, but there must be something wrong with one of them.

Has anybody ever had that problem?

I mailed ADAM support. Lets see what they say. Bad thing I can't work under these circumstances :-(

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by lesmac » Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:32 am

Have you checked the connections? When you said you swapped them did you disconnect them and swap them? In which case you did reconnect I guess.

I'd look at all four connection points. Sometimes I get a loss in volume due to connections becoming loose. Scratchiness/distortion could be a faulty driver?

I'd put some sine sweeps through them individually, really test them out.

Hope you get it sorted quickly and easily, best case scenario. :)
Last edited by lesmac on Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by cosmicdolphin » Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:36 am

I have the original A7s but not had any such problem in the 10 years or so I've had them.

It's possible it could be another part of the signal path as well, I've had a switchbox go all crackly on me and audio interface connectors can get dirty or fail too. Sounds intermittent whatever it is.

Maybe for now just swap the L & R speaker connection and see if the issue jumps to the other speaker or not , then you'll know if it's the Adams or something else. It's a process of elimination at this stage.

Mark

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by Picardster » Mon Jun 07, 2021 5:55 am

lesmac wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:32 am
Have you checked the connections? When you said you swapped them did you disconnect them and swap them? In which case you did reconnect I guess.

I'd look at all four connection points. Sometimes I get a loss in volume due to connections becoming loose. Scratchiness/distortion could be a faulty driver?

I'd put some sine sweeps through them individually, really test them out.

Hope you get it sorted quickly and easily, best case scenario. :)
Cheers.

I disconnected them and swapped them L/R. When the distorted monitor is on the other side, it still sounds the same. So I exclude driver/cable/interface - issues. Or did I miss anything else?

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by Picardster » Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:01 am

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 3:36 am
I have the original A7s but not had any such problem in the 10 years or so I've had them.

It's possible it could be another part of the signal path as well, I've had a switchbox go all crackly on me and audio interface connectors can get dirty or fail too. Sounds intermittent whatever it is.

Maybe for now just swap the L & R speaker connection and see if the issue jumps to the other speaker or not , then you'll know if it's the Adams or something else. It's a process of elimination at this stage.

Mark
Thats what I did - and the result was that the problem went to the other side....so, most likely it is the monitor. I contacted ADAM support - waiting for the answer.

In the meantime I bought a pair of . ILoud MTMs.
A friend, who is a pro in the film industry in LA, recommended these to me. They have a adapt to your room. That could save me from using sonar works, which causes a lot of latency since these speakers don't charge the CPU.

Fixing the ADAM problem supposedly will take them time with sending the defective speaker to them a.s.o. I don't want to wait for weeks and months to get it fixed.

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by cosmicdolphin » Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:25 pm

Picardster wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:01 am
Thats what I did - and the result was that the problem went to the other side....so, most likely it is the monitor.
No, that would mean it's most likely NOT the monitors and something else in the signal chain before the speakers

Anyway, be interesting to know how you get along with the iLoud speakers Vs A7's with Sonarworks. I use Sonarworks as well but it would be nice if it didn't need to use the PC to do room correction

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by Picardster » Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:55 pm

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:25 pm
Picardster wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:01 am
Thats what I did - and the result was that the problem went to the other side....so, most likely it is the monitor.
No, that would mean it's most likely NOT the monitors and something else in the signal chain before the speakers

Anyway, be interesting to know how you get along with the iLoud speakers Vs A7's with Sonarworks. I use Sonarworks as well but it would be nice if it didn't need to use the PC to do room correction
Frankly, I don't understand the logic behind what you say.

When I put the plug the left speaker to the cable on the right where the no prob-monitor was connected, and the speaker has the same problems on either side, why do you think it is not the monitor which is defective? I just don't get it :?

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by cosmicdolphin » Mon Jun 07, 2021 2:31 pm

Picardster wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:55 pm
cosmicdolphin wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:25 pm
Picardster wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:01 am
Thats what I did - and the result was that the problem went to the other side....so, most likely it is the monitor.
No, that would mean it's most likely NOT the monitors and something else in the signal chain before the speakers

Anyway, be interesting to know how you get along with the iLoud speakers Vs A7's with Sonarworks. I use Sonarworks as well but it would be nice if it didn't need to use the PC to do room correction
Frankly, I don't understand the logic behind what you say.

When I put the plug the left speaker to the cable on the right where the no prob-monitor was connected, and the speaker has the same problems on either side, why do you think it is not the monitor which is defective? I just don't get it :?
OK I thnk we are getting confused as to what's being plugged where

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by Picardster » Tue Jun 08, 2021 12:25 am

cosmicdolphin wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 2:31 pm
Picardster wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:55 pm
cosmicdolphin wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:25 pm


No, that would mean it's most likely NOT the monitors and something else in the signal chain before the speakers

Anyway, be interesting to know how you get along with the iLoud speakers Vs A7's with Sonarworks. I use Sonarworks as well but it would be nice if it didn't need to use the PC to do room correction
Frankly, I don't understand the logic behind what you say.

When I put the plug the left speaker to the cable on the right where the no prob-monitor was connected, and the speaker has the same problems on either side, why do you think it is not the monitor which is defective? I just don't get it :?
OK I thnk we are getting confused as to what's being plugged where
The ADAM support has replied and asked me to send them the monitor which I'll do. They'll check it and give me an estimate of cost. Then we'll see. :-)

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Re: Monitors sound different

Post by Picardster » Mon Jun 14, 2021 2:04 pm

The complete amplifier module is defective. Costs about 280 EUR - about half the price of one monitor....what can I do.

Now I'll have two sets of speakers as monitors: the MTMs and the A7X. Different characters. Hopefully that will improve my results :-)

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