I never thought I would say this, but these are the buggiest speakers I have ever heard.
Adam Audio released a firmware update (1.7) to address several problems. While it's reasonable to tweak standby time or add additional standby options, it's unacceptable to need software fixes for audio problems in speakers.
It's outrageous that a speaker company would release speakers that don't work properly, and worse that they haven't succeeded in fixing them.
Currently, there are three problems with these speakers:
1. There is a volume threshold after which the output volume drops significantly. This threshold varies with the combination of software volume and knob position. If you set the knob all the way to the right, the problem becomes less apparent.
2. Now that you've turned the knob all the way to the right to fix issue 1, welcome to your next problem: the high-frequency gate. For some reason, Adam Audio decided people had enough of hearing hiss or hum in their studio monitors and fought it by adding a gate that disables the tweeter if the high-frequency amplitudes are "low enough." What's "low enough" for some is "worth hearing" for others. Having the tweeter stop working because the DSP decided the highs in your content aren't worth reproducing is unacceptable. The hissing they're trying to fight is now 10 times worse because instead of being gentle background noise, you hear it cut in and out constantly.
3. A LOUD POP occurs whenever your computer goes to sleep - it's scarily loud. While I understand it's this loud because I turned the knob all the way up (to mitigate issue 1), you'd think that given how useless this DSP is (causing problems - fixing nothing), they could've at least added POP protection. But this is the least of these speakers' problems.
The actual design of these speakers is great, and the sound (ignoring the DSP-caused audio problems) is amazing - those passive radiators really work some magic.
But I cannot recommend these speakers. I'm unsure if I'm just too sensitive to volume changes, as many people seem to review them highly without reporting issues. However, many others do report problems, so I'm not sure what to think.
In conclusion: If you ever wonder how speakers running Windows would sound like, be my guest. Otherwise, don't bother.
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