Adam a7
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I use Amphion One18 and love the mixes I do on them 
It’s a tough call without proper room treatment.
Adam Audio just announced new A-series with build in room correction via ethernet (based on sonar works). Sounds not bad! Maybe it´s time to upgrade my good old trusty A7x.
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Really digging that they made the new A-series like the intermediate to the S-series design-wise. Might have to upgrade to the A77H when they release.
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Ordered a pair of A7V’s today. I came so close to buying the A7X’s this past year, but had heard there was a update in the works. A little nervous buying monitors without hearing them, but I’m happy with my T7V’s and love the sound of the A7X’s. Guess I need to pick up a Sonarworks reference mic to use the dsp correction.
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The buildin room correction sounds promissing! Should work with other mics too! I‘ve got the beyerdynamic for room eq wizzard.
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I currently have a pair of Yamaha HS80 (my first and only monitors, bought almost 10 years ago I would say)
I recently thought of changing them for something smaller - since my room isn’t that big, and also untreated (except for a somewhat-big bass trap). Also because I’m having a custom desk built for me (with some lovely end-to-end trays for my machines) and was hoping to take my monitor stands out to make room in my small 1-bed apartment that I share with my gf.
I know having them rest on the desk is not great, but oh well - I had to compromise somewhere.
I’ve been looking for options - Adam T5v, Focal Evo 65, and others… but it’s really hard to compare them. Online opinions are endless and subjective - like a friend said to me “they just sound different, you have to hear them for yourself and pick a brand/model you like”. But then again, hearing them in radically different spaces also makes it hard to draw conclusions. Unfortunately I live in Argentina, where buying two pairs and just returning whichever I don’t like is not an option.
So far I’ve decided to stick with my HS80 - although that decision was made thinking I was going to be able to move my studio/office somewhere else… which might not be possible after all. So I might have to reconsider (having those on the desk is impossible, they’re gigantic and I would have them almost in my face).
Considering that now-uncertain scenario, I took the opportunity and bought a pair of iLoud Micros (had radically different opinions from it - from friends saying they sold Adam X series and Amphion monitors because iLouds were enough for their needs, to another friend saying they were nothing but fancy computer speakers) thinking of keeping them for jamming and some quiet mixing at home. I’ll have them with me in a week or so, hopefully I like them enough to keep them (and ideally I’ll be able to move my studio somewhere else).
Hi everyone,
Coming to get some advice, I recently had to move my “jamming/as-of-studio” area into the large living room, 80+m2, 6+m height… And I only have some Presonus Eris e4.5 (75hz min…)
Sometimes I can be near the monitors, sometimes I can be around 3 to 5 meters away, on the couch 
I plan to spend some cash on upgrading that gear (my birthday soon).
I was wondering, should I get a sub (Eris Sub8, is said designed for my current Eris pair, cheaper : 200€) , or maybe 8" speakers (Presonus R80, 400€ but could sell the Eris maybe 100€).
Not affiliated with Presonus but I like the quality/expensive ratio so I was thinking keeping in that Brand, but I could décidé otherwise.
What would you do ? I could spend 600€ max for an optimum solution but would prefer to spend less. I am not “really” mixing/mastering my stuff but I would like at least that it does not translate too badly, and I want to get some power in this large living room.
Thanks for any input 
can you tell us about your experience with the A7V?
The A7Vs have been working out well in my studio so far. It took a few days to adjust to the sound and figure out how I wanted to set up the EQ controls, but after maybe a week, I started feeling comfortable with the sound/setup. They run a little bright in the upper mids, so dropping the presence eq setting helped a lot. Adam’s A-control software is delayed, so reserving my final opinions until I try that. The A7Vs are dsp speakers and the software’s 6 band parametric eq should make a big difference in tweaking the eq to my studio.
In day to day recording and mixing, the A7Vs are a pleasure to use. I’m picking up elements in my mixes that I would have missed before (with the T7Vs). Overall very happy with my choice.
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Nobody ?
You could get some JBL 305 Mk2’s and their 10” sub for that money, get plenty loud with a ton of bass if desired.
Or rather than a sat/sub setup some larger monitors with 7” or 8” drivers… I hear the bigger Kalis are pretty good and a lot of people swear by Yamaha HS8’s.
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Also I had the Eris series before and they were pretty decent for the money, but the 305’s mentioned are considerably better. Have never tried their more expensive offerings.
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I had Eris 3.5s in my previous studio and JBL 306s in Chicago. One thing that quickly became clear is that my old Yamaha mixer is noisier than I thought. I still have the Eris - they are doing PC Speaker duty.
I went with the 306s and no sub because I live in a high rise apartment building and would like to stay here for a while. 
I also picked the 306s because I don’t feel particularly competent at evaluating speakers and the JBLs seem to have withstood the test of time and are fairly inexpensive.
It should not surprise anyone that the 306s are much larger than Eris 3.5s. Glad I went with the 306 pair + XLR cables + stands bundle (Sweetwater). I also added some velcro straps to avoid unpleasant consequences of studio clumsiness. A rubber pad between the speakers and the stand is probably a good idea too, but so far I haven’t heard any rattling.
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My Eris 3.5s (no sub) will be shipped back to Canada soon, but I have to decide whether to ship them again to Portugal, or leave them in storage and buy iLoud Micros on the other side (assuming I have a living situation where speakers make sense, it’s possible that purchase will need to be deferred). Opinions?
Micros all day.
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I don’t actually know how to compute the incremental cost of shipping anything. We’ll go over with a couple of suitcases each (I’ll have some electronics in my carry-on) and, after a while, bring some more stuff over. Might get a company to manage the boxes, might buy a fraction of a shipping container. All very vague right now. But I think you are right about the 3.5s.
An easy exercise is to eyeball the monitors and then do a mental inventory of things that you own that you would prioritize shipping over the speakers due to cost, rarity, fragility, etc. If the list is long enough, you leave them by default.
The next step would be to price out DHL / Fedex air shipment. That should give you a reasonable proxy for luggage costs as well.
Domestic shipping within the US was still extremely tight 2-3 months ago when I planned and executed my cross-country move. It looks like TEU (20’ containers) prices are still at least 3x where they were at before the plague. So costs are still likely to be higher than you expect, but not as bad as they were 3, 6 or 12 months ago.
A mistake I made in my move was ditching too much (non-music) stuff. We assumed we could re-buy everything in Chicago for cheap. We found that a good chunk of IKEA inventory is consistently out of stock or sells out rapidly. Since you can easily get the Eris again in Europe, or upgrade to the iLouds, I would plan on ditching them and only ship them if you find that you have an unexpected Eris-shaped void as you are packing.
Some good news: I packed my Erises by wrapping them in a microfiber towel (thin) and placing them in a box full of paperback books. That box was then shipped via truck, which involved at least one transfer, possibly some warehouse time, and a lot of rough handling. They survived unscathed. Robust little dudes, but I’m much happier with the JBLs. From @DonovanDwyer’s comments, the Micros are probably a big upgrade too. But 3x the cost.
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