mondie Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 (edited) ADAM Tensor Alpha fully active 5-way speaker system Location: Aberdeenshire, Scotland Price: now £11,750 were £12,750. (~A$20k) R.R.P was £36,000 or US$50,000. Item Condition: Very near mint, close to as good as new. Reason for selling: downscaling due to relocation Payment Method: Pickup - Cash Extra Info: one owner, bought in 2010 so 7 years old **** Note this is a cross post of my for sale posting in the UK. I am an Aussie and I bought these speakers from PMG originally bnefore moving to the UK in 2012. They could be imported back into Oz with no GST I believe. Sea freight on these would be <$1000 so with the strong A$ they are good value. **** These are about the best speaker’s l have ever heard and have given me years of pure enjoyment. These loudspeakers are simply breath-taking with tremendous scale and dynamics and not to put too finer point on it, bucket loads of controlled bass! I am only selling because it is time to downsize necessitated by a move to NW Wales. Priorities change and while music is still a valuable part of my leisure time, I am ready for a more modest system. The realism and sheer dynamic scale these are capable of his mind blowing, its addictive and fun and probably something I will seldom experience again once they are gone. ADAM is a German company that has rapidly gained a hallowed position in the Professional audio market and is now considered to be one of the top 1 or 2 pro audio manufacturers. ADAM moved into home audio about ten years ago and is now building the same reputation for beautifully engineered and sounding speakers for home audio. All systems are made in Germany so the quality of build and finish is impeccable. The Alpha is a two-box design separated by sand filled pouches. The upper cabinet is of double wall construction with the void between the inner and outer cabinet walls sand filled. The front baffle is made from an ultra stiff acoustically dead Aluminium honeycomb to which all drivers are mounted for improved coupling. ADAM are the only manufacturer l am aware of that goes to such extremes in inert cabinet construction. The upper section is fully sealed, the bass cabinet is vented and handles frequencies only below 85hz with twin 13.5" drivers, one facing rearward for force cancellation and to reduce their overall height. The bass and mid-bass drivers are Eton Hexa-Cones with huge magnets and Honeycomb/Nomex cones. Two 13.5" drivers, one front and rear, has its own dedicated 500w amp and parametric Eq built in so you can tame room response anomalies in situ. Each of the two 9" Eton mid bass woofers has a dedicated 250w amp, and the pair of X-ART upper mids share a 250w amp with a further 250w amp to run the X-ART tweeter. That's 2,000w of onboard amplification per speaker! There is full adjustment over all the driver sections. The X-ART drivers ADAM claims, are the best of all their inventions and really are superb, the mids and tops are just sublime and approach horns for lifelike sound. X-ART drivers are made in house by ADAM and are a further development of the Heil Air Motion Transformer (AMT), there use in both upper mids and tweeter ensure consistent voicing across the full treble range. These speakers measure flat to 20Hz in my room, I don't have test tones to measure them any lower! The speakers provide a wide dispersion in the horizontal plane and a narrower dispersion in the vertical plane, thereby reducing reflections from the ceiling or the floor. Controlled reflections leads to superior imaging and better localisation of phantom sources. Neutral, extended, dynamic, vast soundstage and full range sum up their core qualities. Included in the sale are high-quality German made HMS Energia-SL power cables of approx 3m length, ADAM supplied spikes with adjustment nuts, sandbags, gloves, original brochure and users manual. I will also include two sets of XLR speaker leads; one set of expensive WSS-Kabel (3.5m long) and the other a pair made by Furutech (3.0m long). I have all the double-boxed packaging for the speakers which is superbly designed and protects the speakers against shipping knocks. For those interested, I can email PDF’s of both the user’s manual and the original sales brochure. Prefer buyer to pick up or arrange your own freight. I am willing to assist where I can here and depending on buyer location, I may be able to assist with transport. Cheers, Simon ADAM publish the following specifications: 5-ways bass reflex loudspeaker - fully active 2000 watts on board active amplification per speaker Woofer - 2 x 13.5 "/ 331 mm. Cone material HexaCone ® Mid-Woofer - 2 x 9 "/ 228 mm. Cone material HexaCone ® X-ART midrange x 2 Velocity transform. ratio 3.5:1 Diaphragm weight 0.7 g X-ART Tweeter x 1 Velocity transform. ratio 4:1 Diaphragm weight 0.17 g Bass level control ± 6 dB Frequency response 20 Hz - 50 kHz Crossover Frequencies 50/80/800/2.800 Hz Impedance 10k ohms Height x Width x Depth 1645 x 430 x 600 mm Weight 154 kg (340 pounds) Input XLR (Balanced) AC Voltage 220-240V 50 Cost new - £36,000.00 See the link to ADAM's website :- https://www.adam-audio.com/en/archived-products/tensor-alpha/ The Tensor range is discontinued and I am not aware of any company making full range active five-way speaker systems of this quality. Sadly, even ADAM could not prove making such ambitious and exotic systems are commercially viable. Edited April 7, 2017 by mondie 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 15, 2017 Author Share Posted March 15, 2017 (edited) ignore, got my pics to work now. Edited March 15, 2017 by mondie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrocks Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 Mondie Best speakers I have ever heard. Sad to see you letting them go. A really great buy at the price All the best with the move to Wales. Cheers Adam 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky500 Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 (edited) That is some serious looking speakers there. The sort you could build a room around. The best thing, is no high end amplifiers are needed, as they are already built in! GLWTS and move. Edited March 22, 2017 by rocky500 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumpy Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 (edited) The most immersive sound that l have ever heard was from these giants at Mondies Adelaide home. Had the sweet spot for Floyds 'Comfortably Numb' and l was a blubbery mess at the end of the track and l think l mumbled " wow! who needs drugs" Good luck with the sale and the move Simon Edited March 16, 2017 by Grumpy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hensa Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 I remember listening to the Tensor Alphas at the Hong Kong Hifi Show in a large room and their sheer scale and authority was extraordinary. There would have been 30+ people in the room and when I looked around, most jaws were just hanging open! Must be a difficult decision to let these go, Mondie. Best wishes for the move to Wales! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 Wow Simon, I remember these very fondly as well. Though, in contrast to Grumpy, on these my heart belongs to Bowies' "Let's Dance". Superb things. Good luck mate. BTW I'm living just around the corner from your old place now, on Onkaparinga rd! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 15, 2017 Author Share Posted March 15, 2017 (edited) Hi Anthony, its funny to think you just live the next road over. We still have our house so we are neighbours in some kind of parallel reality Lets Dance on SACD is superb, I own that album now on US RL mastered vinyl and it is even more awesome now. 8 hours ago, adrocks said: Mondie Best speakers I have ever heard. Sad to see you letting them go. A really great buy at the price All the best with the move to Wales. Cheers Adam Hi Adam, Great to hear from you mate. I hope WA is treating you well and good to see you still post around these parts. Take care 1 hour ago, Hensa said: I remember listening to the Tensor Alphas at the Hong Kong Hifi Show in a large room and their sheer scale and authority was extraordinary. There would have been 30+ people in the room and when I looked around, most jaws were just hanging open! Must be a difficult decision to let these go, Mondie. Best wishes for the move to Wales! It is a hard call but ever since moving to the UK I knew their days were numbered. Up until now we have been fortunate to find houses equivalent to what we had in Oz so the ADAM's kept getting a reprieve, I think this move to Llandudno will be the end of the line for them though hence the pre-emptive sale. 7 hours ago, Grumpy said: The most immersive sound that l have ever heard was from these giants at Mondies Adelaide home. Had the sweet spot for Floyds 'Comfotabley Numb' and l was a blubbery mess at the end of the track and l think l mumbed " wow! who needs drugs" Good luck with the sale and the move Simon Thanks Grumps, I remember that day well. They certainly fo Floyd very well. The Wall still gives me goosebumps as much as it did when I first heard it as a teenager. Rocky, thanks for sorting my photos. This new software proved to be tricky for a numpty like me but I got it sorted just now. Cheers all. Edited March 15, 2017 by mondie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren69 Posted March 15, 2017 Share Posted March 15, 2017 Damn this money system, those are gorgeous speakers! GLWTS Brother Mon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willco Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Wow Mondie--GLWTS!--moving to Llandudno !--I know that area well having spent 4 UK summer stints up there--Pwellheli/PortMeiron--you must visit the PM village( Location for the Bergman/ Donat Inn of the Sixth Happiness Movie)--wonderful-- they also shot the Cult TVseries The Prisoner #6 with Patrick McGoohan there ----the Choo Choo up the mountain--the Elvers migrating up the Rivers--the scenery --enjoy! Indeed The Adams are superb speaker --good luck again Willco 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 Thanks Willco. We know Portmeirion very well and my wife is a huge fan of The Prisoner. And let's not forget iron Maidens song The Prisoner with a nice intro sample from the TV show. Llandudno is a gorgeous place, we are super excited that we could base ourselves in such a scenic area. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffK Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 (edited) Llandudno is a favourite of mine, been there twice. Glad I'm writing it and not saying it. Have you got work there? After extensive travel throughout the UK since 2009 I still feel I haven't explored eastern central and northern Wales adequately yet. It's on the list for next time. GLWTS - shame you cannot take them with you. I can just imagine visitors to the Great Orme or the pier cocking their ears and saying, "where's that music coming from?" Edited March 16, 2017 by JeffK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peter the Greek Posted March 16, 2017 Share Posted March 16, 2017 Drooool....good luck with the sale, beautiful speakers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Willco Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, mondie said: Thanks Willco. We know Portmeirion very well and my wife is a huge fan of The Prisoner. And let's not forget iron Maidens song The Prisoner with a nice intro sample from the TV show. Llandudno is a gorgeous place, we are super excited that we could base ourselves in such a scenic area. Aha!--great!--Don't forget Holyhead ferry trips to Dublin --if you haven't been, its a cultural experience-- once again I worked two years in the Republic -one of the most enjoyable times of my working life-- Where does on start-- the Pubs/ Castles/ Scenery/Folklore--and the finest coffee in the isles--Bewleys on Grafton--ha! Good times! Willco Edited March 17, 2017 by Willco 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bammo Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 Sorry, did you finish what u expect shipping to be? Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 17, 2017 Author Share Posted March 17, 2017 Bammo, I dont think so. It was just a quick note to state that international shipping is not prohibitive via seafreight. There probably is not another pair of Alphas in Australasia. 12 hours ago, Willco said: Aha!--great!--Don't forget Holyhead ferry trips to Dublin --if you haven't been, its a cultural experience-- once again I worked two years in the Republic -one of the most enjoyable times of my working life-- Where does on start-- the Pubs/ Castles/ Scenery/Folklore--and the finest coffee in the isles--Bewleys on Grafton--ha! Good times! Willco Yeah it is fantastic, so much to discover. Ferry to Dublin, the OIM or even Liverpool all offer some interesting short trips. The castles along the NW coast are incredible fortifications and the reason Wales has been tied to England since the 1200's. Snowdonia 10 miles up the road Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metal beat Posted March 17, 2017 Share Posted March 17, 2017 And Mondie will install them for you Good excuse to come home 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony M Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 Extraordinarily competent speakers with superb build quality - it would be impossible not to be deeply impressed. They shine with anything you throw at them and could fill any room with world class sound. When you factor in the built-in amplification, they actually fall into bargain territory. It's just a shame that in the main only the SA mob got to experience them while they were here, because it was an experience that just can't be forgotten. They command respect and admiration more convincingly than any other speakers in my memory. GLWTS, mate. I know anyone that seizes this opportunity to get their end-game speakers (and amps!) will never regret it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 22, 2017 Author Share Posted March 22, 2017 I am about to list the speakers on eBay for wider exposure and found some more good photos so thought I would upload them here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kensell21 Posted March 23, 2017 Share Posted March 23, 2017 Simon,Finally you've made sense and done the right thing of giving up the dream of Cornwall! And a good place your moving to..I've enjoyed my visits to Snowdonia over the years.. And it's not because my last name is one of the most well known welsh one either... And it's not because there's so many historical railways so close together either... Not to mention the best fish and chips I've tasted in Bangor.. the beautiful mountains, walking trails etc..And the best and last, some of the best people I known. Don't forget to learn the local lingo as it has a nice lilt to it... although they seem to stutter as there a lot of Ll in their place names...Oh one other thing.. now I've got a place to stay when I'm there next![emoji1]Good luck with the move..PS those last pics certainly look familiar.. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 26, 2017 Author Share Posted March 26, 2017 Hi Andrew, you certainly would be most welcome if you ever find yourself poking around north Wales in the future. This move is by no means us giving up on Cornwall, but it certainly moves us a lot closer to it and gives us many of the things we like about that county plus Snowdonia etc on our doorstep. Lovely pic from the National Park, I am looking forward to getting to know that area better. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren69 Posted March 28, 2017 Share Posted March 28, 2017 Yairsss, you all keep talking about the old dart until I can afford these. Then I shall start rowing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juicester Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Mondie - how would international shipping and duties be sorted? I am genuinely interested. And may be able stump up cash before Darren arrives in his row boat. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mondie Posted March 29, 2017 Author Share Posted March 29, 2017 I will drop you a PM Juicester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren69 Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 If I fall like a grey furball onto a pebbly Scottish beach from my weathered-white rowboat and find they are gone... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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