AVI ADM9/ADM9.1 10" active Subwoofer

[timbo]

...yes you are right Ashleigh, you can't measure perception So long as the boffins keep the bits streaming out in the right order it's nice to relax and just enjoy the music! There is so much music to enjoy. I can still smell dodgy roll-ups when I hear James Taylor or Joni Mitchell, I remember waking up at 6am at some festival to Pink Floyd rehearsing Meddle (weird, weird experience!) - now when I play these albums digitally I want to hear what these guys put down, warts and all. Hi-fi has for too long been the business of alchemy, trying to make the most music sound the best it can the most of the time, a laudable aim.

 

I have had equipment in my rack before that told me the truth, and I think I reacted by restricting my music consumption to just those cuts that were made by audiophiles for audiophiles, jazz, blues, classical. Today I am more democratic - apart from gansta rap I will pretty much buy anything that moves me. Whilst many of the current crop of recording engineers are busy compressing everything and turning the loudness up to sound impressive on your iPod or car radio there are still gems out there - the new Emiliana Torrini album makes me smile it is such fun, and her voice sounds so real she could be in the room. Its also fun identifying the one or two tracks out of the 64 they mixed down that they didn't mess with - sometimes the slap of drum skin is so real it makes you forget the noise they have added to fill out what they felt was a sparse backdrop! :-)

 

[darrenwm]

Tiimmy!

 

The iTouch won't be £160 just for a remote control.

 

It does everything.

 

You'll find yourself taking it out and about as it's such a handy little tablet for email and web-browsing. It works really well.

 

I would go for it. It improved my quality of life.

 

Look out in the refurb store. Ash and I found them for £135.

 

[timbo]

I succumbed :-) went online and found Amazon offer the prices all the time Apple were only doing for one day! Plus they knocked the 2.5% VAT change off without waiting for Monday - my 16Gb (I know - now I have a £200 remote control!!!) iTouch is on its way :-)

 

Just how much fun is this out and about though? Can I sit in Costa Coffee and get the Internet - or do I have to pay 'em money? Maybe if they roll out free wi-fi spots on a grander scale it could be more than just a remote? I went for the 16Gb so I can at least squeeze a bit of my music on it, I am apple lossless so I wonder will iTunes compress to a desired setting on downloading to the iPod? Can't seem to find that info anywhere although just downloaded the quick start manual so might find it in there.

 

[Ashley James]

Well done Tim!!!

 

They are fabulous! Hi fi has never been such fun. Do keep an eye out for a power supply upgrade though won't you. Some can't manage without them!

 

Ash

 

 

 

 

[david1997]

Tim I was so relieved to hear you eventually bought the Touch. A Logitech Duet controller for £180, a Sonos controller for £280 - let's face it you are never going walk down the high street listening to either of those. Not much good on the video content either. The Touch and 'One to One' (if you live near an apple store) are two of the best things to have come out of the House of Jobs lately. Hope you celebrated with an iPint !!

 

I was under strict instructions from Ashley and Martin not to even consider their sub until after Christmas. I've been told I have to give the ADM's a chance for the first two or three months so I will be a good little boy and sit on my - albeit empty wallet. I do miss the ooomph factor. Help me Darren.

 

Interesting point though. If we listened long enough to something we felt did not sound quite right, if eventually we were satisfied with the sound does that mean our ears have become educated to appreciate the 'better' sound or more tolerant of the 'worse' one ? Hey Ho!

 

David

 

[timbo]

Yes indeed if you look at it like that then the Touch is excellent value! I did consider the Duet, but didn't really want to invest in the SqueezeCenter back end (although I still use the SqueezeBox extensively for Internet radio, especially for Last.FM scrobbling - it sounds amazing through the ADM's!). Sadly I live all to close to a brand new Apple store in Exeter's new Princesshay development, and Hanna there knows all my weaknesses already - I tend to leave my wallet at home now and just take enough into town for a coffee - that should fool 'em :-)

 

I too am under instruction from Ashley not to go seeking a sub for a few months, although I am not rushing anyway as it's about the only upgrade I can look forward to now!! With the B&W stands I can safely say I am not missing any depth or gravitas - it all depends on the room size and the floor etc probably. When I buy a new bit of hi-fi I also tend to do the awfully dangerous thing and put the old stuff back in for a listen once I am acclimatised to the new sound - that tends to rule out the 'placebo' effect of the 'new' must sound better than the 'old'! The Meridian equipment sounds terrific, but I had already tried new speakers (as the Ruarks I think were the weak link here) up to £3k and although the top end improved dramatically, the last pair I tried (Kudos C20's) were heavy and bloated in the low end. The ADM 9.1's were a bargain in comparison, and the fact they made the rest of the equipment redundant was actually almost a side issue - although I really like the elegance of this minimalist solution :-)

 

Ashley, you will know me if you see me in Costa's with my iPod Touch - I shall be the one with huge pair of GRADO SR225 headphones on my head, with the iTouch plugged in to a Russ Andrews power block via whopping great Kimber cable power Kords...he he :-)

 

[GazD]

Tim, thanks for this.

Had never heard of before and now been enjoying all weekend.

 

[Tog]

here lies my problem.....

 

I too am suspicious of audiphile voodoo where 000's are spent to achieve nirvana. I haven't spent that much but slowly built up a Cyrus based system with macbook pro front end as a recent replacement for my CD player. It sounds great through my prize Dac X... but it would seem that these speakers could replace my power amps, pre X and Dac X in one blink of an eye....

 

Don't get me wrong .. I love the simplicity ...my wife would love the lack of kit ... but it is quite a leap to take..

 

Three questions

 

Are they really this good Ashley?

 

Is their DAC as good as my Cyrus X?

 

Are my Power Amps redundant?

 

 

 

[radar2886]

Oh crap they make an externel supply for the touch and iphone I need to get one of those. Tim you will love the touch I have an iPhone and the last thing I use it for is the phone as these devices can do so many other cool things. I would recommend Simplify Media a free program from the apps store to anyone with a touch or iPhone. It allows you to stream your iTunes library to your phone or touch as long as the files are lossless or smaller. And guys do not listen to Ashley (I think he getting RF poisoning from his Touch) go out and get a sub now. I had to return mine I was borrowing from my dealer two weeks ago and I am missing it. While the 9s do not need it to sound good it really does bring them into another league.

 

[Purite Audio]

Ask a dealer for a loan pair, it really is best to hear speakers in your room,.

 

[david1997]

You have to hand it to Ashley. Although he sometimes sounds like he is an Apple majority shareholder, when it comes to removing a lot of the dross that has been written about, and served up, in the name of HiFi - Russ Andrews and Kimber being classic examples, then he is definitely the man.

 

I'll have to give that Simplify Media app a try. The one minor problem I have with my Touch remote is that it only shows the artwork for 1 in 6 tracks when using appletv in the front room. The tv shows the pics no problem but not the Touch, yet when I use it directly with my Mac Mini in the bedroom it works a treat. I'm Lossless (and at a loss!) rather than AIFF but I can't think that this could be the reason.

 

I'd still be interested in anybody else's views re. long term listening. I am also tempted to ignore advice and audition the AVI 10". Being SW London, the problem will be finding one to try out.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

David - Have you updated iTunes, the iPod Touch software, and your Apple TV? There is a new version of one of these things available that was supposed to solve the Apple TV artwork issue.

 

[GazD]

Only you can answer this question.

Others can only give you their opinion.

 

 

 

[david1997]

Hey Chris!. Spot on, as always. Both Touch and Atv took on updates 3 days ago but only now am I trying both together. Works a treat. Thankyou.

 

[Ashley James]

Tog

 

I'm certain there'd be a substantial improvement on your present Cyrus system and I say that because we've had quite a few Cyrus owners switch and all have said the same. In fact one chap with £6.5K's worth said as much on What Hi Fi's Forum over a year ago.

 

The biggest improvement will come from the electronic crossover; They are very intrusive in passive designs and account for about 100 times as much distortion as a properly configured active. Also our amps will be more powerful and have less distortion.

 

I understand that the Cyrus DAC is okay but that it may not have been designed for use with computers so may work less well where with a potentially more jittery source. Therefore it's possible ours is better, it certainly won't be worse.

 

For years and years hi fi has been sold on being "musical" "musically Involving" and a whole list of other daft expressions which allow the unscientific to be offered alongside the scientific on the basis that measurements mean nothing and your ears will tell you all you want to know. Thank heavens this tripe is gradually being consigned to history and more respect is being shown to good design and proper value for money, which ADM9.1s are.

 

I think you'd prefer them, 95% of sales are to people who buy without even seeing them and, as you can see if you scour the Internet, everybody who has a pair and has said so, loves them. Those that really hate them haven't heard them, except at the Bristol which they visited to do a hatchet job and who coincidentally own what is perhaps the most "alternative" of the alternatives available.

 

If you're in the UK, you're most welcome to visit as did Tim, Darren and Gaz, but if you like real music and massive stereo with enormous amounts of smooth (but not analytical) detail, then I'm sure you'll be another happy customer.

 

Having said all this and being all too aware that AVI has hi-jacked a huge chunk the the most important Audio Forum on the net, I have to say to Chris that he should remove this post without conscience if he feels I've overstepped the mark and taken too much advantage of his extraordinary hospitality. There are other forums where mere mention of AVI produces howls of protest and accusations of viral marketing.

 

I'm hoping the view taken is that the half owner of a company that's doing rather well at the moment with a products he feels is the most exciting of his lifetime that he's been involved in, is bound to demonstrate strong bias and that they can factor it out of any judgement made.

 

I apologise for being nearly as enthusiastic about Apple, but my accounts computer is a Dell running XP and sage and now our retarded Government has told us to knock 2.5% off Vat! What use is it to anyone, especially as anything non UK sourced has risen by 25%! And I've got to correct it on a PC!

 

Ashley

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

"...I have to say to Chris that he should remove this post without conscience if he feels I've overstepped the mark..."

 

 

 

No worries here, this site is laid back. Your enthusiastic comments about your own products are totally cool with me.

 

[Ashley James]

Chris

 

I really appreciate that and understand that any other manufacturer is likely to do the same, which is entirely fair. All have something to contribute over and above obvious bias.

 

I must say this is a wonderful Forum with a nice bunch of people on it too.

 

Ash

 

[darrenwm]

RE: Cyrus DAC X -

 

It's very good. The DAC X and XP are probably my favourite products of theirs. The sound is very detailed but without being harsh like the 8X.

 

I was previously an owner of a lot of Cyrus but upgraded into other brands eventually, and finally settled with the ADM9s as I thought personally they sounded better.

 

[shenzi]

As it happens, I'm hoping to hear a pair of these during a trip to Birmingham this week. It's pure curiosity (the dealer is aware of this).

 

In the hope of restoring a semblence of balance to this forum, I will do my best to hate them. I'll report back Friday.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

"In the hope of restoring a semblence of balance to this forum, I will do my best to hate them. I'll report back Friday."

 

You can't beat that attitude!!!

 

Love it :-)

 

[GazD]

I remember when we first had children, friends of ours who were expecting their first asked us what a must buy was in respect of the baby.

 

I said Sky+ in jest but quickly realised that it was true.

 

Now with all due respect to Ashley and Martin the ADM9.1's are not quite in that league of functionality but they have revitalised my interest in music. From playing old favourites to discovering new stuff my current set up is just so easy to use and the ADM9.1's are at the center of this.

 

Add to this that they sound great and in my current set of circumstances I have my perfect system.

 

[Ashley James]

Gaz

 

You're right! The market is being driven first by TV and then by computers as they merge with it. Hi fi is not a stand alone hobby for most people now.

 

I was forcefully told this by a dealer the other day. His turnover is three times many specialist hi fi shops and he understands his customers. The problem with the specialists is that they don't or they haven't wanted to admit to themselves that nobody else loves hi fi as much as they do any more, or not enough for them to make a living from.

 

I don't think it's sad though, for me hi fi has never been more fun.

 

Ash

 

 

 

 

[david1997]

In fact Gaz for me it is getting better and better. The Touch re-awakened my love of all things music, the ADM's have now taken that pleasure up a couple of notches, 5 more cd's have just landed on my mat from amazon to help fill my, still very empty, NAS and next week my Humax Foxsat PVR arrives so no more Rupert Murdoch......or will I just wake up and find it was all just a dream?

 

[timbo]

Ashley - you might want to set-up another VAT code in Sage (say T5 at 15%) and leave the T1 for 17.5% as its only a temporary move. That way you can still see historical tax data in your reports on the T1 code at the rate it has always been.

 

Oops...thread hijack :-)

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when we discuss UK Tax strategies! Nothing makes my system sound better than VAT Chat. Only kidding of course. No worries, carry on gentlemen :-)