CEDIA 2011

You Won't Know 'Em From Adam

Rob Sabin  |  Sep 12, 2011

Adam Audio is a virtual unknown in the home theater world, but their monitors grace a good many recording studios across the land. The company came to CEDIA with their new GTC (Grand Theatre Components) speaker line, which features an unusual modular construction. Look closely at the picture and you'll see that the driver pods are modular and on their own screw-down plates. This allows the mid/tweeter cluster to be reoriented for L/R or center channel duties, insuring that the proprietary Heil-style ART (Accelerating Ribbon Technology) planar tweeter is always optimal for the application. The design also allows the plate to be physically moved from the top of the speaker to the center location for center channel use. Likewise, in situations where the speakers are mounted into a faux wall (as they are here) or behind wall fabric, the mid/tweeter can be repositioned to better ensure ear-level placement. The three models are all ported cabinet designs but only the top two, the GTC77 and GTC88 (just a bigger versioin of the 77) feature the modular construction. All three cabinets average about a foot deep. The GTC77, with an X-ART tweeter, 4-inch midwoofer and two 7-inch subwoofers is expected to start shipping soon at around $1,500 to $2,000 retail.

COMMENTS
K.Reid's picture
Submitted by K.Reid on September 12, 2011 - 2:52pm

I had an audition at CSA Audio in Montclair, NJ of the Classic Column Mk3. The highs and mids were pristine and very transparent. Female vocals in particular had a noticeable realism. The salesman told me that the engineers at the company worked directly with Dr. Heil in the development of the X-ART tweeter and midrange.

In their upper end products, they use compressed sand to damp vibrations. Build quality is impressive.

I encourage anyone to listen to products from this company. I was impressed...very impressed.

K.Reid's picture
Submitted by K.Reid on September 12, 2011 - 2:54pm

By the way, Scott Wilkinson wrote a profile on this company when writing online for UltimateAV.

Scott Wilkinson's picture
Submitted by Scott Wilkinson on September 12, 2011 - 3:13pm

I'm gratified you recall that story! Here's the link:

http://www.hometheater.com/content/adam-audio-olympus-sound-system

Stephen Trask's picture
Submitted by Stephen Trask on September 13, 2011 - 4:32am

I was wondering when Adam would get into this business. I run Adams in both of my studios and have mixed and recorded a lot of music with them. They excel at sounding great in not so great spaces which makes there entrance into home audio particularly welcome.

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