I recently had the experience of listening to some of my mixes on a pair of Adam S3A’s. I was blown away by the detail, hearing things I never could on my Behringer Truth monitors in my living room studio. Of course, how can you compare a $7,000 S3A to a $200 B2030A? So when I heard about the Adam T8V, I thought, “Can I get some of that warm, ribbon magic in a $300, made in China speaker?”
I ordered the monitors from Sweetwater, and they arrived in just two days. I set them up in place of the Behringer Truth’s. Due to the rear port design, I knew I’d have to set them up a bit further from the wall, so I moved both my desk and speakers before firing them up. The speaker offers high frequency and low frequency adjustment switches which can be set to unity, +2dB or -2dB. I kept mine at unity. I started with the gain knobs on both monitors at unity. Then, whilst listening to a mix I had done recently with centered vocals, my assistant (dad) adjusted one till I felt the image was centered.
![](https://darianatwood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Adam_T8V_Arrival1-512x1024.jpg)
As expected, the Adam T8V’s outperformed my Behinger Truth B2030A’s in almost every way, with of course the biggest standout being the extended low end. The low end is tight and punchy; not flabby at all. The ribbon tweeters offer a warm yet clear vocal presence that does not fatigue.
At this point I have no cons to mention. At $300 per monitor, these nearfields are everything one could possibly ask for in a budget speaker. I would be curious to hear what these sound like when paired with the T10S sub, but for now, I have all the low end I need for accurate monitoring of my low end content. If I ever get to a point where I have the funds to upgrade I’d probably move up to the A or S series before investing in a T series Sub.
Well, that’s it for my first product review. If you own a pair of these, I’d be curious to know what you think of them.