ADAM Audio · The Portal · Wapping
Mix on a pair of ADAM Audio A77H for £50 an hour
A pair of A77H costs about £2,222. We have a pair, properly placed, in a treated room, fed from a Focusrite Scarlett. You can book an hour on them for £50 and hear exactly what is in your track, including the part you have been guessing at.
What the A77H actually is
It is a three-way midfield studio monitor. Most monitors are two-way: one driver for the bass and middle, one for the treble, and a crossover point sitting awkwardly somewhere in the middle of the human voice. The A77H splits the job three ways instead, with a dedicated 3.5-inch midrange driver covering the band your ears are most sensitive to, crossing over at 400 Hz and 3 kHz so neither handover lands on top of a vocal.
Underneath that sit two 7-inch woofers in a dual front-ported cabinet, and above it ADAM Audio's X-ART tweeter, a hand-made folded-ribbon design in a rotatable waveguide. The result is a measured frequency response of 34 Hz to 45 kHz at -6 dB, which in practical terms means you can hear the bottom of an 808 rather than inferring it from the way the speaker cone is moving.
"Midfield" means they are designed to be listened to from a little further back than a typical small monitor, and they have the output to do it: 340 W of amplification across the three drivers and a peak of 106 dB SPL per speaker at one metre. They do not run out of headroom when a mix gets dense.
Why this is the thing that matters
Monitoring is the part people get wrong
Almost everyone who makes music spends their money in the wrong order. The interface gets upgraded, the plugin folder grows, the microphone collection expands, and the mix still falls apart the moment it leaves the room it was made in. The reason is almost always the same: you cannot fix what you cannot hear.
On small monitors or headphones, the bottom two octaves are a rumour. You guess at the kick. You guess at the sub. You compensate for something you half-hear and you overdo it, and then the track arrives on a club system with twice the low end you intended, or on a phone with none at all. The same thing happens at the top, where a two-way crossover lands in the middle of a vocal and you spend an hour EQ-ing a problem that belongs to the speaker rather than the song.
A monitor like the A77H does not make your music better. It makes your music audible, which is the thing that lets you make it better. That is why rooms that cost ten times ours use monitors in this class, and it is why we bought them rather than something cheaper and less revealing.
The signal chain
What these are plugged into
Good monitors fed badly are just expensive monitors. In The Portal the whole path is made by companies inside Focusrite Group, specified to work together, and wired once by us so you never have to think about it.
01 · In
Your microphone, instrument or line source, into a Focusrite Scarlett.
02 · Play
A Novation 61SL MkIII keyboard and Circuit sampler if you want to play parts in rather than draw them.
03 · Your laptop
One USB-C cable. You record into your own software and the session leaves with you.
04 · Out
Balanced XLR from the Scarlett's main outputs into the A77H pair. Nothing in between to colour it.
Three brands, one group, one room. Focusrite, Novation and ADAM Audio are all part of Focusrite Group, and all three are in The Portal. See the full equipment list.
An offer nobody else in London makes
Thinking of buying a pair? Come and listen first
A pair of A77H is around £2,222 including VAT at UK retail. That is a lot of money to spend on something you have only read about, and the honest truth is that most dealers cannot give you a proper listen: a shop floor is the wrong acoustic, the placement is wrong, and you get fifteen self-conscious minutes with a demo track somebody else chose.
So book an hour here instead. £50 gets you the room, the pair, and your own music. Bring the reference tracks you know inside out and the mix you are currently stuck on. Sit in the listening position. Play the things you actually listen to. You will learn more about whether these are the monitors for you in forty minutes than in any amount of reading.
We are not a dealer, we do not sell monitors and we make nothing on the decision either way. If you listen and decide they are not for you, that is a genuinely useful result and it cost you £50 instead of £2,222. If you listen and love them, you now know, and you also know where there is a pair you can book whenever you need them.
Mention "A77H listening session" when you book and we will make sure the room is set up for listening rather than recording, with the chair in the right place.
What people actually use them for here
Finishing a mix
The most common one. You wrote and produced it on headphones at home, and you book two hours here to find out what is really going on in the low end before you call it done.
Checking a master
A full-range listen on something trustworthy before release. Not a substitute for a mastering room, but far better than making the decision on a laptop.
Writing and producing
Four hours with the Scarlett, the Novation and these, and you leave with something that already sounds like a record rather than a demo.
Playback for clients
Playing a finished track to a label, a manager or a brand client in a room that makes it sound like what it is. A surprising amount of business is done this way.
Reference listening before you buy
An hour with your own music on a pair you are considering owning. See the section above.
Sound for picture
Mixing dialogue, music and effects for a film or a brand campaign, with a midrange that tells the truth about the voice.
Being straight with you
What the A77H is not, and what it will not fix
Every page like this on the internet tells you the equipment is perfect. Here is the part that is usually left out, because knowing it before you book is worth more to you than another paragraph of praise.
They are honest, which can be uncomfortable
A revealing monitor does not flatter. If your mix has a problem, you are going to hear it, possibly for the first time. That is the point, but people occasionally arrive expecting their track to sound better here and leave having learned it needs more work. That is a good outcome. It does not always feel like one on the day.
A monitor cannot outrun a room
The Portal is acoustically treated and it is a genuinely good listening space, but it is not a purpose-built mastering suite and we are not going to pretend otherwise. Below about 50 Hz, every real room has an opinion. Use the A77H to make decisions you could not make at home, and still check your mix elsewhere before you release.
They are not nearfields
These are midfield monitors, designed to be listened to from a bit further back. They are also large: 531 mm wide and 17.1 kg each. If what you want is the small nearfield sound you are used to at home, these will feel different for the first twenty minutes. Give it those twenty minutes.
We have not run room correction
The A77H has onboard DSP and supports Sonarworks room correction and ADAM's own A Control software. We run them without correction applied, so what you hear is the speakers and the room as they are. Some people prefer that. If you were expecting a corrected system, now you know.
Specifications
| Type | Three-way active midfield studio monitor |
|---|---|
| Tweeter | Hand-made X-ART, with rotatable HPS waveguide |
| Midrange | 3.5" DCH driver |
| Woofers | 2 × 7" multi-layer mineral |
| Cabinet | Dual front-ported bass reflex |
| Frequency response | 37 Hz – 41 kHz at -3 dB · 34 Hz – 45 kHz at -6 dB |
| Crossover frequencies | 400 Hz and 3.0 kHz |
| Amplification | 340 W total peak · woofers 250 W peak / 200 W RMS · midrange 70 W peak / 55 W RMS · tweeter 20 W peak / 15 W RMS |
| Max peak SPL at 1 m | 106 dB SPL (sine bursts) · 118 dB SPL (IEC-weighted noise) |
| Inputs | Balanced XLR (9 kΩ) and unbalanced RCA (3.3 kΩ) |
| Max input level | +19 dBu |
| DSP and control | Onboard DSP · ethernet control via ADAM A Control (OCA over standard IP) · Sonarworks room correction supported |
| Power | 100–240 V, 50/60 Hz · 500 W rating · 220 W max consumption, 15 W idle, 3.5 W sleep |
| Dimensions (H × W × D) | 236 × 531 × 350 mm |
| Weight | 17.1 kg each |
| Approximate UK retail | £1,111 each including VAT, so roughly £2,222 for the pair |
Booking the room versus buying the pair
Worth doing the arithmetic honestly, because for some people buying genuinely is the right answer and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
| A pair of A77H, new, UK retail | About £2,222 including VAT. Plus stands, plus the room to put them in, plus treating that room, plus a neighbour who tolerates 106 dB. |
|---|---|
| An hour in The Portal | £50 excluding VAT. Includes the A77H pair, the Scarlett, the Novation keyboard and sampler, the acoustics, the power and the Wi-Fi. One-hour minimum. |
| Where the line is | If you are mixing most days and you have a room you can treat, buy them. If you work in bursts, finish two or three projects a quarter, or live somewhere you cannot play loudly, forty-four hours here costs the same as the speakers alone and comes with a room that already works. |
There is also the option almost nobody considers: do both, later. Book a few sessions, learn what these monitors tell you, and then decide. The sessions were useful work either way.
Questions people ask
Where can I hear a pair of ADAM Audio A77H in London?
In The Portal at STU 22, 8-10 Sampson Street, Wapping, London E1W 1NA. We have a pair permanently set up in a treated room and you can book an hour on them for £50 excluding VAT. Bring your own reference tracks. Mention "A77H listening session" when you book and we will set the room up for listening rather than recording.
Are the monitors included in the hourly rate?
Yes. The A77H pair is included in the £50 per hour music studio rate, along with the Focusrite Scarlett, the Novation keyboard and sampler, the acoustics, the power and the Wi-Fi. There is no equipment hire fee and nothing to add at checkout. VAT is excluded from all published rates.
What are they plugged into?
Balanced XLR from the main outputs of a Focusrite Scarlett, which connects to your laptop over a single USB-C cable. Focusrite, Novation and ADAM Audio are all part of Focusrite Group, so the whole path from your microphone to your ears is made by companies in the same group.
Can I mix a finished track here?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people book. A77H monitors reach down to 34 Hz, so you can hear the low end you have been guessing at on headphones. The Portal is acoustically treated but it is not a purpose-built mastering suite, so we would still suggest checking your mix elsewhere before release.
Do you run room correction on them?
No. The A77H supports onboard DSP room correction through Sonarworks and ADAM's A Control software, but we run them without correction applied, so what you hear is the speakers and the room as they actually are.
How loud can I play them?
Loud. Each speaker peaks at 106 dB SPL at one metre with sine bursts, and the room is soundproofed, so you are not going to disturb anyone. Please look after your hearing rather than the speakers, because the speakers will be fine.
Do you sell ADAM Audio monitors or take commission?
No. We are a studio, not a dealer. We make nothing whether you buy a pair or not, which is exactly why a listening session here is worth your time.
How do I book?
Book online through our booking form, or message us on WhatsApp and we will confirm the same day. Same-day bookings are welcome when the room is free. The Portal has a one-hour minimum.
The Portal · Wapping, East London
Hear your track properly for £50
One hour, a pair of A77H, a Focusrite Scarlett and a room that has been treated for it. Bring your own music. Same-day bookings welcome.
