Adam Audio S5H Active Studio Monitor

Dual-woofer, 3-way active reference monitor

$9,999.99

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12-Month Special Financing**

SKU: ADAS5H Categories: , Tag Brand:

Description

ADAM Audio S5H Reference Monitor

adam-audio-s5h-main-studio-monitor-3

The ADAM S5H is a horizontally oriented, 3-way reference monitor, custom-designed for world-class music production and post-production facilities

When you work at the highest levels of music and film, you have to compete with award-winning productions. To do so, you need monitors with a level of accuracy and sound reproduction that enable you to make well-informed creative decisions. And regardless of what Fletcher and Munson say, real-world mixing demands monitors that enable marathon sessions without loss of perspective. The ADAM S5H is just such a monitor. To overcome these seemingly insurmountable goals, ADAM took their most innovative technologies and miraculously improved what was already benchmark performance. The S5H is an horizontally oriented monitor with custom-designed, dual 10″ Extended Linear Excursion bass drivers. It also features the latest incarnation of ADAM’s world-beating folded ribbon tweeter, the S-ART tweeter, as well as a hybrid midrange driver that gives you incredible transparency in the critical midrange. And with a frequency range down to 22Hz, the only reason you’d need a sub is to show off your deep pockets. If your goal is to capture a Grammy, or an Oscar for best sound, the ADAM S5H brings you one step closer.

The ADAM S5H reference monitor in one take:

  • Handmade, precision S-ART folded ribbon tweeter
  • High-frequency and midrange waveguides (HPS & MPS)
  • 2 x 10″ Extended Linear Excursion (ELE) woofer (Hexacone)
  • 4″ Dome/Cone Hybrid (DCH) midrange driver with MPS Waveguide
  • Four separate Class D power amps: 700W woofers, 300W mid driver, 100W tweeter
  • Ultra wide frequency response for in-band phase coherency; 22Hz-50kHz
  • Maximum SPL per pair at 1 m: ≥131dB
  • AES3 digital inputs and various expansion options

 

adam-audio-hps-waveguide-768x512S-ART tweeter, handmade in Berlin and manufactured to the tightest tolerances in ADAM Audio’s history

The S-ART treble driver is the evolution of ADAM’s renowned X-ART folded ribbon tweeter. The S-ART tweeter is typified by its precise transient response and ability to reproduce the subtlest high-frequency detail free of distortion with greater in-band realism and dynamics. When combined with ADAM’s high-frequency propagation waveguide, which surrounds the tweeter, the result is a present, yet non-fatiguing sound, with a dramatic sense of depth. In addition, the tweeter’s flat response out to 50kHz is responsible for significantly improved phase coherency in the audible spectrum, as opposed to designs band-limited to 20kHz, which can show significant phase shift at 10kHz.

High- and mid-frequency propagation system (HPS & MPS) waveguides

When you’re mixing, it’s not always possible to stay in the sweet spot, particularly if you’re working at a large-format console or control surface. As such, the off-axis response of the treble and midrange drivers is crucial. To maintain extreme accuracy off-axis, both drivers are surrounded by ADAM Audio’s high-frequency and mid-range propagation systems (HPS and MPS), which are waveguides milled from blocks of solid aluminum, designed with the latest computer modeling techniques. The HPS and MPS waveguides direct the dispersion of the drivers with an even consistency across a wide horizontal field, yet tightly focused vertically.

The HPS waveguide on the S-ART tweeter minimizes reflections from horizontal surfaces, ensures imaging remains constant, and creates a wide, well-controlled, stable sweet spot, even at high output levels. This ensures that teams of mixers can work in the S5H’s sweet spot simultaneously in large control rooms.

adam-audio-ele-woofer-768x512Custom-built Extended Linear Excursion (ELE) bass drivers

If you’re going to improve the performance of tweeters and midrange drivers, it follows that woofers have to be addressed as well. Enter ADAM’s Extended Linear Excursion (ELE) bass drivers, a custom design created to be used in conjunction with the S-series cabinet and bass reflex system. With enough low-end response to bring about an Extinction Level Event, ELE guarantees extremely accurate, high-resolution reproduction at high sound pressure levels. ELE achieves this by the precise relationship between its low weight, optimized inner damping, and highly rigid honeycomb cone, all acting in conjunction with a basket developed to eliminate unwanted resonance and distortion.

Proprietary Symmetrical Magnet Assembly

Like the LF ELE units on all models in the S series, the woofers feature ADAM Audio’s proprietary Symmetrical Magnet Assembly (SMA), which extends the maximum possible excursion of the electromagnetic voice coil by a factor of three, as compared to previous designs. The extended travel of the voice coil ensures linear operation, displaces a greater volume of air, and produces higher maximum output. To prevent warming of the custom voice coils, which compromises low-frequency reproduction, ADAM designed an ingenious ventilation system that reduces the effects of power compression below the threshold of audibility.

To prevent unwanted modulation of the driver’s magnetic field, the S2V, S3H and S3V’s employ parabolic pole pieces that drastically reduce non-linear second-order distortion. There are also demodulation rings that help the magnetic field remain symmetrical while minimizing non-linear third-order distortion. The S5H and S5V at the top of the range, have an additional refinement, which is another magnet of opposing polarity fitted on top of the elongated pole piece. This refinement further improved the symmetry of the magnetic field lines, thus ensuring that the movement of the voice coil remains linear, keeping distortion at a minimum, even at high volume.

Dome/Cone Hybrid (DCH) midrange driver

Designed exclusively for the S Series, the 4″ midrange driver, known by the initials, DCH, is part cone and part dome. Combining the advantages of both, it offers the clean decay and linear frequency response of a dome driver with the high-excursion advantages of a cone driver. This combination audibly increases transparency in the all-to critical midrange, with distortion-free sound at high output levels. Completely “wobble-free,” thanks to proper control of large-scale excursion, the DCH output extends an octave below competing mid-range drivers (as far as 200Hz), ensuring a clean and consistent dispersion without tonal coloration.

Along with the use of several features found in the ELE drivers, the solid construction of the DCH allows it to be positioned closer to the S-ART tweeter. As such, the pair act as a more coherent sound source throughout the critical mid and upper midragne, with wider overall dispersion and greater accuracy. Like the low-frequency driver, highly dynamic, fine detail is reproduced without coloration or filtering.

Highly efficient, ICEpower amplifiers

The low- and mid-range drivers are powered by distortion-free Class-D ICEpower amplifiers. ICEpower are a patented PWM (pulse-width modulation) amplifier made by a Danish company (Bang & Olufsen ) who specializes in high-efficiency Class D amplifiers. Remarkably 90% efficient, these amps minimize energy waste, are lighter in weight, and far more robust with a longer working life than traditional Class A/B amplifiers.

So why does ADAM use an A/B design for the S-ART tweeter? Class A/B amplifiers offer more bandwidth and certain tonal advantages when used for high-frequency reproduction by tweeters. When you factor in the S-ART’s linear response to 50kHz, it all begins to make sense.

To power the S-ART tweeter, ADAM developed a special 50W, low-noise Class A/B power amp, which is linear up to 300kHz, to drive the tweeter on the S2V, S3H and S3V. However, to accommodate the greater power requirements of the larger monitors in the S range, S5H and S5V use the very latest generation of extremely powerful Class-D ICEpower amplifiers to drive their S-ARTs.

 

adam-audio-dsp-module-768x512Custom DSP engine

Yet another unique feature of the S series is its custom DSP, which optimizes the crossovers for linear response across the entire frequency spectrum. It provides user-adjustable equalization, as well as tuning/voicing functions to accommodate individual room characteristics. The DSP is also responsible for handles limiter-based, high-frequency driver protection, which processes signals from the AES3 digital inputs. Future updates will include various expansion options, for which firmware updates can be easily done via USB port, which also enables control of the speakers’ DSP functions via computer.

Acoustically optimized and weightily constructed cabinets

  • Reduction of susceptibility to vibrations and unwanted edge-diffraction effect

2-year warranty with optional extension to 3 years with the registration of the product

  • Full repair service if required for 5 years

When your goal is to immerse your listeners in larger-than-life sound, you need monitors that reflect every nuance captured in the studio or sound stage—you need the ADAM S5H reference monitor. For more information, or to schedule a listening session, call or chat online with your Westlake Pro Sales Consultant today.

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