ADAM AudioD3V Active Desktop Monitoring System with USB-C Connection (Pair, Black)

If you're in the market for a set of desktop speakers and want to make one solid purchase and be done, look no further. These speakers are an absolute standout. I’ve spent thousands of dollars over the years on various levels of audiophile gear, and for the money, nothing comes close to what these deliver.The inclusion of a ribbon tweeter at this price point is practically unheard of—and it shows in the performance. The articulation and separation are exceptional, offering a clarity and presence that rival far more expensive setups. They fill a small space beautifully, delivering clean, balanced sound with impressive bass for their size. No, they’re not subwoofer replacements or “thumpers”—but that’s not what they’re meant for. When I want that low-end punch, I turn to a different setup.But if you’re looking to mix, enjoy your desktop environment, and hear music or audio exactly as it was intended, these are the ones. I researched for months before pulling the trigger, and I can confidently say it was a fantastic decision. In this price range, there’s simply nothing close.

These little speakers punch way above their weight in quality of sound. And they are superbly designed, from the way the included stands angle the speakers upward from a typical desk surface to the way those stands slide into the speaker bases. Their bottoms are covered with a great non-slip material. The box also includes a few strips of non-slid material you can put onto the bottoms of the speakers, and they go into well-designed grooves that are designed to fit around the stands when you use them. Every aspect of the design radiates quality.All of this is in service of sound as good as any speakers this size I've ever heard. The tweeters radiate in a tight cone, so you want to be sure you've got them pointed at your ears - if you're too far off-axis, you'll lose those crisp high ends. So if you're looking for a pair of everyday room speakers that sound fine as you walk around the room, these wouldn't be a great choice for that reason. But that's not what they were designed for - they are monitors for people sitting between them, either a musician or engineer working on music, or just a music lover who spends a lot of time in one spot, such as working at the computer. For those people, these are fabulous.Update: The original release of the speakers included two problems (the highs were diminished at low volumes, and the speakers turned off automatically after being quiet for a while, requiring you to manually turn them on again later). People complained, and the manufacturer released a software patch that resolved both issues. The patch came out for both Windows and Mac (a rarity), and it worked perfectly. I consider that really fantastic customer service. Great speakers from a great company!

The Adam Audio D3V sounds very good irregardless of size. It is very compact, but very solid. I had it hooked up to an audio interface and to my PC. I played lots of streaming music from Youtube music, and Amazon Music as well. I also watched a lot of youtube videos, and shows on Amazon prime. Very nice sound performance, a huge step up in performance from a generic USB speaker set.However there were a few minor issues. The first one was that to change modes requires you to pay attention to the color of the LED in the front so you know if the unit is in USB, analog, or muted mode. I didnt know this as a new user so spent a few minutes figuring out that you had to press the volume knob to change the color/modes. A little user unfriendly unless you intinctively what color does what.It made a pretty bad crackling sound when the PC came out of sleep, and also random crackling sounds just out of the blue, about once a day on average. I reaarranged power supplies, separated lines, all to no avail. Tech support to Adam Audio suggested to turn off the speakers when waking the PC, then turning them back on. Huh. Narrowed it down to the USB line going into the PC from the audio interface. So it's not directly tied into Adam Audio really, but it definitely affects the units performance if it's being used as a PC sound system. However I tried a competing product from another audio company and there were comparatively few problems. Go figure.Aside from the occasional annoying crackle and hiss, the sound quality was pretty outstanding. Decent bass, satisfying mids and very clear highs from the ribbon tweeter. It looks good, it fits well on a desk, and comes with desk stands. It has a new firmware update that attempts to solve user complaints from the past, especially the power off feature. I don't know if power off is really that necessary because using a watt meter, it showed the unit using 4 watts when inactive without power saving. It wouldn't be so bad if the speakers would actually turn back on like they were supposed to. So turning that feature off was a no brainer. But it would still go into that mode occasionally because I was trying to press the button, cycle through the colors, and then bam, it goes into red mode, powersaving got me again.. argh.Overall I have to give the Adam Audio D3V speakers 5 stars based on sound quality, and the way it connects to PC via USB, no bluetooth though. I found the main Volume control non-intuitive, but workable once you memorize the colors and what they stand for (minus 1/2 star). The main issue for me was the occasional crackle, about one good sharp one everyday (minus 1 star). The advice from Adams tech support to turn off the speaker, to avoid the crackling, cracked me up (plus 1/4 star).