I still think it would have been awesome to have had these beauties as actives instead.
If only for me.
[/url] photo upload[/IMG]
Make them active,it's not difficult to do a reasonable job, particularly if you understand the existing crossovers.
AVI ADM40's then...
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Make them active,it's not difficult to do a reasonable job, particularly if you understand the existing crossovers.
ultrawomble
Sith Lord
I still think it would have been awesome to have had these beauties as actives instead.
If only for me.
[/url] photo upload[/IMG]
Is that a BK MXF amp at the bottom right of the picture? If so, what model and any modifications?
Lo Joe.
Naturally those are kept in the main room, proudly on show, displayed in diamante cabinets.
Muddy and Simon, really I can't possibly underestimate my electronical skills.
Generally I'm ok with anything that can benefit from a hammer blow.
Anything smaller always looks it has so benefited.
Still
he said his naim was ralph
Those literally blew you out of your boots!
DSJR
Between us and them
Ashley said earlier on this thread -
"We're doing especially well when you consider that I'm an independently wealthy, sixty six year old and can retire when I please and Martin's design skills are much in demand, so he has no worries either."
It's obvious therefore that Ash is doing this business now mainly for fun, rather than hunger for income to survive, as most others in this industry are doing. I think, with the greatest respect for he and Martin, that this explains his attitude as, when I had ample funds for a short while, I tended to think, "Why do I need or have to put up with this sh*t?"
Bottom line for me on the ADM40's is this -
The drive units are very good and specs and application notes are published by the manufacturer.
It would take a total numpty to ruin the basic performance of these drive units [edit] - see below, and in fairness to Martin Grindrod, he's a great amp designer and has good reasons why he does things. A shame that he personally doesn't explain things since I'm sure aspects get lost with Ash and his keyboard as buffer.
The "sagging power supplies" as reported on the ADM9 are really as much for long term bass-mid drive unit protection as anything else I suspect, because replacements for older "9" ones are no longer available, as reported by someone on AVI's forum who had a blown driver (accidental misuse I believe rather than failure) and despite the previous "T" model stocks being run out at the time, he had to buy two new "red spot" ones for £75 each as no spares of the outgoing model were available for replacement. The ADM40's appear to take far more, and the amp packs have been upgraded accordingly to take advantage of this.
Replacement drivers for the 40's should be available for a good while yet - as long as they remain in production, which hopefully should be many years.
Finally, it seems that ADM40's will primarily sell to delighted ADM9 owners eager for an upgrade and able to afford it, so no further proof will be needed of their abilities, especially since the new owners have come back to say how very pleased they are, even over ADM9T's with sub and not really needing the sub any more. The amp packs seem very well put together and the important bits should be easily serviceable in decades to come.
P.S. I'm not shilling for AVI at all here and in fact have been chastised severely by Ash for making waves about the creative exaggerations he's often posted on his forum, together with his unfounded attacks on Harbeth, their long back-ordered and highly successful products being negatively regarded as re-hashed 1970's models. I've argued vociferously that this is grossly unfair, since a considerable amount of proper research has gone onto the main drive units they make themselves, the cabinets which bear little resemblance to the resonant shells that they and Spendor made in the 70's and early 80's and also into simplifying the crossovers to make for a far friendlier load as seen by the amp. I believe that when you design your own drivers, any characteristics in the crossover can be balanced in the drive units - my current view anyway.... In the same way, there's very little indeed in current ATC models that was there in their models of the mid 90's, as all the drive units have been developed and the current active amp packs appear to have been completely redesigned, at least on the input and crossover areas.
"We're doing especially well when you consider that I'm an independently wealthy, sixty six year old and can retire when I please and Martin's design skills are much in demand, so he has no worries either."
It's obvious therefore that Ash is doing this business now mainly for fun, rather than hunger for income to survive, as most others in this industry are doing. I think, with the greatest respect for he and Martin, that this explains his attitude as, when I had ample funds for a short while, I tended to think, "Why do I need or have to put up with this sh*t?"
Bottom line for me on the ADM40's is this -
The drive units are very good and specs and application notes are published by the manufacturer.
It would take a total numpty to ruin the basic performance of these drive units [edit] - see below, and in fairness to Martin Grindrod, he's a great amp designer and has good reasons why he does things. A shame that he personally doesn't explain things since I'm sure aspects get lost with Ash and his keyboard as buffer.
The "sagging power supplies" as reported on the ADM9 are really as much for long term bass-mid drive unit protection as anything else I suspect, because replacements for older "9" ones are no longer available, as reported by someone on AVI's forum who had a blown driver (accidental misuse I believe rather than failure) and despite the previous "T" model stocks being run out at the time, he had to buy two new "red spot" ones for £75 each as no spares of the outgoing model were available for replacement. The ADM40's appear to take far more, and the amp packs have been upgraded accordingly to take advantage of this.
Replacement drivers for the 40's should be available for a good while yet - as long as they remain in production, which hopefully should be many years.
Finally, it seems that ADM40's will primarily sell to delighted ADM9 owners eager for an upgrade and able to afford it, so no further proof will be needed of their abilities, especially since the new owners have come back to say how very pleased they are, even over ADM9T's with sub and not really needing the sub any more. The amp packs seem very well put together and the important bits should be easily serviceable in decades to come.
P.S. I'm not shilling for AVI at all here and in fact have been chastised severely by Ash for making waves about the creative exaggerations he's often posted on his forum, together with his unfounded attacks on Harbeth, their long back-ordered and highly successful products being negatively regarded as re-hashed 1970's models. I've argued vociferously that this is grossly unfair, since a considerable amount of proper research has gone onto the main drive units they make themselves, the cabinets which bear little resemblance to the resonant shells that they and Spendor made in the 70's and early 80's and also into simplifying the crossovers to make for a far friendlier load as seen by the amp. I believe that when you design your own drivers, any characteristics in the crossover can be balanced in the drive units - my current view anyway.... In the same way, there's very little indeed in current ATC models that was there in their models of the mid 90's, as all the drive units have been developed and the current active amp packs appear to have been completely redesigned, at least on the input and crossover areas.
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
There's more to it than that, the midbass unit is particularly tricky to get right.
Surely £3.25k for a modest 2 way in a square box is poor value? At this price the lack of a bass driver is going to hurt midrange and bass performance, the absence of a waveguide to aid power response, symmetrically placed tweeter,... This does not look like a high performance £3k speaker and this would seem to be confirmed by the marketing approach which is high on dubious promotional waffle and low on technical content. I wouldn't be surprised if cheap Behringer speakers at 1/10th the price matched or even outperformed it in blind tests if not sighted tests. But then again how are we to know one way or the other?
DSJR
Between us and them
It's a two way in an eighteen litre enclosure, the box taken down to the floor, so full range to all but the most seriously afflicted of "us" and no foo stands are required. The price includes a dedicated pair of amp packs plus preamp and DAC and all you need is a source, either digital or analogue, to drive it with.
Whatever I think of Ash's sales tactics, they're excellent value for money, as are the ADM9's in all fairness and perfect for those not into gear swapping ("we" are down to a very few nowadays) IMO. Those bass-mid units are around £500 the pair if bought retail and the tweeters around £80 the pair IIRC.
Whatever I think of Ash's sales tactics, they're excellent value for money, as are the ADM9's in all fairness and perfect for those not into gear swapping ("we" are down to a very few nowadays) IMO. Those bass-mid units are around £500 the pair if bought retail and the tweeters around £80 the pair IIRC.
Cereal Killer
432
The electronics are nothing special, AVI claim all competent amps and DAC's sound the same. The amps also only use 2 output devices per speaker. So won’t have massive current delivery. The 18L internal volume is tiny for a floor standing speaker... They are rather basic IMHO, and I'd imagine many pro speakers below £2-3k would be a safer bet, at least you'd have years of serviceability.
AVI have proven to us all that the DAC is best left out of the speaker or at least it would be best as plug-in module; there has been 6 versions of the ADM9’s in 5 years, only the latest has a modification in the speaker design. Till now all the variants have been DAC updates and none have been upgradeable. I feel anyone who buys ADM40’s who find that next year, there 3.5K investment has become ‘legacy’ or ‘last seasons’ speakers, will be rather pissed if it’s not an upgradable mod, and looking at the gripes of AVI re shipping costs I’d imagine it’s all going to go pair shaped.
..... Just my 2p worth
Yank
Bulbous Also Tapered
Then more respect and kudos to Martin then
So you've seen the graphs then, or at least heard them?
They cannot possibly be described as good value when the same product exists at 1/10th the price. The best that can be hoped is that they are a good luxury version of the product. But are they a good luxury version? It isn't going to be on technical performance grounds given the absence of the features one would expect at this price point like bass drivers, dispersion control, etc... Perhaps it is on life-style grounds in the manner of, say, B&O?
DSJR
Between us and them
I've seen the pdf specs and graphs available on the Scan website.
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