Adam Monitors
T
he S Series is Adam’s
fl agship monitor
range and it’s recently
received a major
overhaul. For review I
have the S2V, and
this is the smallest in
the range. It’s built around a newly
developed 7” woofer with Adam’s
latest S-ART ribbon handling tweeter
duties. Onboard amplifi cation is a
combination of Class D (woofer) and
Class A/B (tweeter) and the
crossover, volume, time delay and
EQ settings are handled by onboard
DSP, accessed via a menu driven
OLED on the back. Here you’ll also
fi nd an analogue input via XLR, a
pair of AES3 digital connectors (you
can daisy chain two monitors from
one digital input), USB input (for
use with the S-Control application),
and an expansion slot for future
options. As mentioned, both drivers
are new or improved designs. The
Extended Linear Excursion (ELE)
woofer design uses a new Hexacone-
based profi le alongside a custom-
designed Symmetrical Magnet
Assembly (SMA), considerably
improving the voice coil travel
characteristics. Meanwhile, the
tweeter includes a new waveguide
milled from solid aluminium,
improving the horizontal dispersion
for a broad sweet spot.
surprise are the low/low-mid
frequencies. These are incredibly
well defi ned and you get an excellent
sense of the frequency pockets,
particularly when tackling bass
sounds and the body of kicks and
snares. What’s more, with a forward
rather than rear-facing bass port,
there’s less reason to reach for the
EQ to resolve bass build up.
Any gripes? First up, the rear
panel LCD isn’t as convenient as
front panel controls, and changes via
USB are not instantaneous, like a
plugin. Plus, it’d be nice to see a
combined XLR and TRS jack for the
analogue inputs. Nevertheless, these
monitors sound fantastic and offer
great customisation scope. That’s
what you’re paying top dollar for.
The decision to move away from
physical front panel controls has not
only made the S2V look less
cluttered but has also allowed them
to shrink the cabinet height and
redesign the front facing bass ports.
Overall, the S2V looks incredibly
slick and compact.
Setup is straightforward. All
settings, including volume, source
and delay (0ms to 5ms), are made
via the menu-based OLED or via
USB using the app. EQ settings
reside in two factory and three
user-editable presets. The factory
options are fl at (Pure) and subtly
enhanced (UNR), while each user
preset provides six fully parametric
bands with additional high and low
shelves (all +/-12dB). Powerful stuff.
Adjustments can also be made using
the S Control application (Windows
and OS X), and presets can be saved
to desktop as well as written back to
the monitors – handy. Even so, the
app uses a manual store-and-read
system rather than real time
plugin-style adjustment, and on
balance I found it no simpler than
reaching round the back.
The S2V sounds mighty fi ne, and
I was impressed by the broad sweet
spot, even though the sweet spot is
narrow vertically, so sitting height is
important for mid-to-high frequency
delivery. For me, though, the biggest
THE PROS & CONS
+
Excellent balanced
delivery with broad
horizontal sweet spot
Pretty compact given
the 7” woofer size
Very powerful
onboard EQ with
handy preset system
Digital inputs
as standard
-
Seriously expensive
Rear-mounted
controls not
particularly
convenient
FM VERDICT
8.6
Quality components and
sonics in a compact near
fi eld. Dear? Yes. But for
critical monitoring in smaller
rooms it’s a fi ne choice
Adam Audio S2V | Reviews
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FMU331.rev_adam.indd 95 18/04/2018 15:54