ADAM Audio: P11-A active monitor

The first thing you notice when listening to ADAM P11-A bi-amped monitors is the incredible detail. These aren't overly bright, thumping speakers with smiley-face frequency response curves-the midrange is very clear and very defined. The top end is accurate without being harsh, and the stereo imaging (in terms of both soundstage width and depth) is simply a notch above other speakers I've heard in this price and spec range. The low end is the only place these speakers don't shine-that's not surprising as each speaker is only equipped with one 7'' paper-coned woofer. The lows could get a bit muddy and loose sounding at times, but this never masked any serious problems; things behaved predictably. The first time I heard the P11-A was when I used a pair to engineer a radio broadcast of a mellow, six-piece band playing live. When setting up, I was guessing that mixing would be hairy (lots of equipment, not much time to soundcheck), but the added clarity of these speakers helped everything turn out fine. I was especially pleased at how well the mix translated to other systems. Like its much costlier brother the S3-A, the P11-A is equipped with an ART tweeter and has similar controls for trimming its in-room response. Frequency response is stated as 48 Hz - 35 kHz (+/-3 dB). These are great powered monitors, and using them was a blast! ($1700, www.adam-audio.com)