Review Column Mk3 by enjoythemusic.com

Berlin, November 9, 2011

It is the very first review of the Column Mk3 home speaker from the United States: Rick Jensen (Enjoythemusic.com/superioraudio) has checked out the passive version of one of the most popular of all ADAM home speakers.

Almost from the first seconds, the Columns painted a picture of great clarity, as though each sound was highlighted. […] I put on “Lady Be Good” from Jazz at the Pawnshop (OK, laugh at me now, but it is a fine recording…). The club noise, the glasses clinking – never better; you are really in the club. The sax solo comes through utterly without strain and with the greatest ease, and I noted the vibes were “almost perfect”. […]

What the Columns really did was to cause me to question my baseline notions of what sounded “right” and “true” from the upper midrange on up. And it is not only from the upper midrange on up, although the highs contribute so notably to the impression of transparency. From top to bottom, the Columns are exceedingly clear; they make many other dynamic speakers sound sluggish in comparison. […] One additional note that underlines just how revealing these speakers are: pitch variation and warps were very clearly audible, whereas usually those defects do not bother me much at all.

Blue Sky
The Columns are startlingly transparent speakers, with a speed that is unusual for a unit that is mostly dynamic – the big exception being that X-ART tweeter. They caused me to recalibrate my idea of what sounds right. I still believe that, compared to speakers costing much more, the Columns in passive form give up the last ounce of bass extension. At their price of $7000, they are a bargain due to representing a window on “truth” in reproduced sound that is usually reserved to all-out assaults on the state of the art at far higher pricing. Anyone interested in the Columns might do well to listen to the active version, where the amplifier is optimized to the speaker. In either case, paired with components that are both suitably revealing and musically coherent, the Columns can be counted among the excellent choices in a very competitive category. One wonders just how good ADAM’s more ambitious speakers can be – I can’t wait to hear them.

Rick Jensen, Enjoythemusic.com, 11/2011

The original review at full length can be found here (Enjoythemusic-website).