VincentH

Hi there, I think you really should listen to the ADM's before you buy them, or at least ensure that you have a good return option. The AVI's are good within their limitations, but they are sonically *very* different from Adam's. I have had the AVI ADM 9.1's for a month now in my seconday system. In my main system I have the Focal Twin 6Be, which I compared (more than a year ago) side-by-side for 2 weeks to Adam's monitors that have the same tweeter as the one in the A7. For me the main difference is in the highs. Both Adams (with their ribbon tweeter) and Focal (with their beryllium tweeter) have exceptional highs, they are sonically much more close to each other than to the AVI's that have a more traditional tweeter. I do think that the AVI's are very good at vocals and mid-range. If you are looking for ease of use (less boxes and cables due to the built-in DAC in the 9.1) they still are an optimal solution, IF the sonic character agrees with your taste. However, if you don't mind a separate DAC there may be better upgrade options out there. Hth, Vincent

Hi There, I had a similar issue with my RME FireFace 400 on Windows 7. The solution was to install the Windows 7 'legacy' firewire driver. From the RME forum: Windows 7 seems to include at least three different FireWire drivers. As reported in other forums to make the Fireface (and others) run under W7 you just have to change from the incompatible default driver to the compatible one. - Go to Device Manager, FireWire Contoller. - Choose Driver, Update Driver Software - A list pops up that (on our systems) showed three entries: OHCI-compliant 1394 Host controller OHCI-compliant 1394 Host controller (legacy) OHCI-compliant Texas Instruments 1394-Host controller - From these three select 'OHCI-compliant 1394 Host controller (legacy)' Try that; there's no harm, if it doesn't work you simply change the driver back to the default one.

Hi there, I've been using Windows 7 64 since it went RC (several months now). Not a single BSOD. I use Foobar with ASIO plugin to play through RME FireFace 400 external firewire DAC. I play lots of hires stuff, most 24/96. Works fine. This should be bitperfect; I can verify that in part by the sample rate reported back by the FireFace drivers. When I play a song with a different sample rate from FooBar I can see the fireface change to the same sample rate on the fly. In theory this still leaves the possibility open that bits are modified without changing the sample rate, then again in theory Asio should not be affected by Windows at all. I started out using the WASAPI bitperfect plugin for Foobar, since that worked perfectly for me on Vista 32 bits. However I found that - in contrast to Vista - certain programs still can break in on the sound channel, with weird effects due to mismatched sample rates. It seems like in Windows 7 RC the WASAPI implementation picked up some defects when compared to Vista. That may have been fixed in the final Windows 7 release, though. I plan on upgrading to RTM and then doing some more testing. Anyway, in my several months of experience (I use Windows 7 all day, 5-6 days a week) I never encountered a single BSOD. I guess that all depends on whether you have any bad device drivers installed.

I'm also interested to see how the DAC of the ULN-8 compares to the Weiss DAC2 (sonically). When reading the ULN-8 specs I was disappointed to see that the drivers are Mac only. the Weiss has a big plus there with Mac and Windows support.

I once had a similar issue, but had the good fortune to have paid via credit card. I was getting nowhere with various emails to the seller unanswered. Fortunately my credit card company offers as a service to mediate for you and get you a refund, all it took was one phone call and forwarding my email history to the Credit Card company, and sure enough the refund came through. People tend to listen when a credit card company comes knocking on the door :-) So now I always buy online with credit card, it's like an insurance. Maybe Paypal has a similar service, have you contacted them yet? Good luck!

[Rant] I love Chesky records, they produce some of the best sounding recordings I know of. So when I Just received an email from Chesky, stating that I can buy some 192/24 recordings I get interested, even though I do not know the albums offered. So I went to the Chesky web site, only to discover Chesky dropped the ball three different ways at once: No (lo-quality) preview on the site. I won't buy if I do not know I like the album. Other Hi-Res sites such as HDTracks do this much better No download, mail order only. In many countries in the world broadband is common for years now; I have just an average connection, common for households in the Netherlands, and I routinely download multiple DVDs. And most important: Only available in the USA. What in the world is that for? Why send me an email (note: domain ends in .NL) when you don't want to sell me anything? Is it really too much trouble to stick a foreign address on a DVD and maybe charge some extra shipping costs? E.g. Reference Recordings HRx ships their hires DVDs worldwide, no problems at all, sir! Now I'm disappointed in Chesky, I was under the impression that they were an innovative company. I hope someone at Chesky wakes up and realizes the global Internet age has arrived quite some time ago. There. That feels better already :-) [/Rant] Update: Some of these recordings are available as download through HDTracks in lesser (but still hires) quality: 24/96 Flac. People interested in listening to a sample can do that there e.g. for The Good Life.

Hi Steve, I've got the FireFace 400; if you use Foobar2000 for playback you can get bitperfect playback with the ASIO plugin on XP or the WASAPI plugin on Vista, no extra steps needed to bypass kmixer. Both plugins can be downloaded here. I have no idea why you get hickups, the FireFace requires next to nothing in terms of computer performance. You could try posting your issue on the RME User Forum for the FireFace series, they have been very responsive and helpful for me. One thing the FireFace is picky about is the FireWire chip used. Many laptops (pc but eg also imac) use subpar firewire chips that do not correctly implement the firewire specification. A workaround is getting a cheap dedicated FireWire card or in some cases plugin a FireWire device that also acts as a hub (eg some external HDs do this) and then piggyback the FireFace on the other device. An expensive solution like the Lynx is not needed to get stable bitperfect output, if you have a decent firewire connection. Hth Vincent

Hi Chris, when you say the Electra 1007 Be sound better than any actives that you had in your system, does that include the AVI ADM 9.1s?<br /> <br /> I always wondered how my Focal Twin6 Be's would compare to the AVIs...

I can say from experience that the Focal Twin6 BE are great actives. I auditioned them side-by-side with Adams P33a actives, but the Focals moved me more and were better integrated. The tweeter is the star indeed. I combined the twins with the matching Focal Sub6 to get a really good full-range experience.<br /> <br /> The twins do give a soft hiss when no music is played. You have to stand very close to the speaker to hear that though, and it completely disappears when music is played (event at low volume).<br /> <br /> I'm very happy with them; see my Sig :-)

I started audiophilitus years ago with using Grado RS 1 headphones and matching explanation on headroom crossfeed. Note that there is also a link to using computers to fix headphones, quite relevant to this site :-) So I'd say, do try to give the both the Senns and the Grado's a listen, it took me years to actually find speakers that could match that level of detail and I never heard any phones with better bass or midrange. But be warned: once you have heard how much you can get out of your recordings, you may have a much harder time finding speakers that do not sound veiled or boring in comparison. Hope you enjoy you quest for sound :-)

I researched passive attenuators when I looked at the Weiss DAC2 - I came up with http://www.goldpt.com/sa1x.html (for balanced cabling, they also have unbalanced models). This is ordered with matched impedance to your amp / active monitors, and is highly regarded in pro audio circles. You still need an extra pair of interconnects though. For me the resolution loss is also relevant because I use active monitors (1200 watts total) that have no attenuation and I don't want to add a preamp in the chain. So for me normal listening levels require 40 Db attenuation, which causes bit loss in 24-bit sources. Btw very interesting the internal pot in the DAC2 - now if Weiss only would put a knob on it .... Hth Vincent

I've compared the following pro-audio DACs side-by-side for a couple of weeks: Weiss Minerva ($5000) - DAC2 is the Pro version ($3000), identical sound RME FireFace 400 ($1300) EMU 0404 USB ($180) The EMU did not sound bad, but After listening to the RME for 2 seconds I knew I would never turn the EMU on again. However with the next step up, the Weiss, the differences to the RME were much more subtle. I could only hear them on some types of music (complex classical works - better instrument separation) or when I really listened 'hard' (more power in lows, less sharpness in the highs). I stuck with the RME for reasons of functionality and price / perf. I still may upgrade to a Weiss DAC2 someday, the unit has been improved since my auditioning (output level down, digital volume control added). Hth, Vincent

On the topic of RFI, on some systems I can clearly hear any action from my mobile phone. E.g. in my car if my mobile phone is close to my radio, I can hear when I receive an SMS or phone call as a series of clicks and crackles. The same sounds I can hear clearly in my listening room, it seems my home setup picks this up even more than my car stereo (maybe due to 1200 watts of amp working on anything analogue that enters my active monitors, any RFI on analogue line-in gets amplified to the max). This is not in the noise floor range but plain and loud interference. I Guess it all depends on how well your equipment and cabling is shielded against RFI. Shielding in this case is based on sound electronics principles, i.e. a faraday cage. I have no idea whether RFI from wifi has the same potential or whether it has the same audio signature (crackles and ticks), I would just turn any suspected RFI source on/off while you are listening. Apart from removing the source of interference, you can simply move the source further away (RFI level is proportional to square of distance) or shield the (analog) elements in the audio chain that act as RFI receiver with some sort of faraday cage. Balanced cables are also a way to eliminate RFI. E.g. see here: "A balanced cable has two inner conductors (often referred to as hot and cold). These carry the same audio signal which is in anti-phase, as well as a ground wire and/or a separate braided screen which acts as a shield. The braided screen is grounded, but unlike the unbalanced cable, the screen is not a part of the signal path. Thus any interference that makes it to the screen will not affect the signal directly, and if it is going to externally influence the signal, it will be cancelled out. Balanced interconnects use an XLR plug and will only work with equipment that accepts this type of plug." Cheers, VincentH

As far as active monitors goes I only tested Focals and Adams. I'll try to summarize what else I listened to; maybe this will help illustrate what they sound like by comparison. When I started my search my reference sound was from my Grado RS 1 & RA 1 headphone & amp. This headphone excels in details in the high and compelling mids; in comparison I found other top model headphones (e.g. Sennheiser's best) clinical and/or boring. So I went for speakers that could give me comparable mid's and highs to the RS 1 and more low extension, plus of course the ability to share the listening experience with my friends. I started out listening to traditional speakers in various hi-end shops. Most speakers lacked the details in the high in a big way for me and were plain boring. Dynaudio speakers with their special Esotec-2 model tweeter were reasonable but not compelling (the cheaper model 1 tweeter I found very veiled). I listened to many brands of speakers (in the range to $4K / pair) but the best I heard just could not give me what the RS 1 did. The few that stood out only were a reasonable second to the Grado sound. So I read up about a lot of active monitors and selected a few based on special tweeter techniques and online reviews: Adams P33A's because of their special ribbon tweeters and Focal Twin 6 Be's because of their beryllium tweeters. Both are MDM designs with two identical mid/low drivers, where one driver receives both mid and low and the other only low (apparently this eliminates certain phase problems). Both are designed for near-to mid field listening and have front-mounted bass ports to allow placement close to the rear wall. I had those two 30 days on trial at home, side-by-side. Here are the similarities and differences I heard: Both Focal and Adams DID deliver the details in the high and the extension I was lookin for; this was on a par or even better than the RS 1 highs; no comparison to the hifi speakers I heard before. Based on the highs alone I could not choose; I could hear *everything* in the music on both Adams and Focals. The Adams extended lower and had more texture in the lows (even though their enclosure was a bit smaller). The Focals seemed to have better integration; when listening to the Focals I heard the music more as a whole, where on the Adams I found I was more listening to lows / mids / highs. The Focals had more compelling mid's; for me the deciding factor was that when listening to female solo singers, the Focals moved me more than the Adam's did. I cannot describe the sonic quality that causes this, but the effect was very clear to me - the Adams sounded more clinical / engineered to me in the mids. The Focals particularly excel in acoustic string instruments, cymbal work and solo voices. I did miss the low extension so I added the matching Focal Sub6 - again way better low (definition, extension) than I heard from Hifi speakers before :-) So it boils down to selecting some models based on technical specs and reviews, and then listening at home with the music you prefer and see what it does to you. Specs cannot tell what sounds best to you, they just serve as a preselection. I recently experienced something that illustrates that the choice of music for auditioning is very important: a friend of mine introduced me to some music styles that are new (to me) - amongst wich was music from Orlande de Lassus (masses from the 1500s). On his system (a Creative card to NAD amp to B&W speakers) this really moved me, but on my system there was a sharp 'saw' like quality when two male voices were singing notes that came really close to one another. His system also did DSP; I do not know whether the 'saw' edge was the recording, my DAC or the Be tweeters, but it clearly illustrates that when one style of music sounds great, other styles may not. As Chris often says: Let your ears decide! Cheers, Vincent

My understanding is that monitors such as Dynaudio Air and Genelec DSP have built-in room correction features, based on DSP. Since this is done in the digital domain, all analog input to the monitor must me converted to digital, processed digitally and then converted back again to analog. So offering a digital input on the monitor is very logical since it allows to bypass the A-D conversion if you already have a digital source. If you would use a DAC to feed such a monitor an analog signal, you simply have added two unnecessary conversions in your audio chain! Cheers, Vincent