Why Buy From US

From beginning song writer to post production house, we are your digital audio solution!

This page is meant as an introduction to who we are and what we do.
As our popularity for Digital Audio Workstation's and associated products grew, navigation became difficult and required us to launch ADK Pro Audio in 2001. ADK Pro Audio is a spin off of Advanced Design of Kentucky, which is our first web site started in 1998.

Customer Service: We believe in customer service before, during, and after the sale. Our best advertising is you, a satisfied customer. When you call us you will not get phone prompts and answering systems, instead you get friendly knowledgeable sales staff who can assist you with your purchase by answering your questions concerning both computer technology and Pro Audio hardware and software. Our email is answered very quickly and with as much information we can give you. The system configurators on our web site are meant as a tool for you to see what we sell as well as give you a feel for pricing. We do not expect you to (or want you to) order from the web, but rather call to discuss your needs so we can be sure we are matching your needs with the right system and software.

Technology: We stay on top of bleeding edge technology and amongst our competitors we are always first to market with new technology. We don't do this lightly and run off half-cocked, but thoroughly test prior to adding a new system on our website. We test the new systems with all major audio interfaces and sequencing software, as well as many samples and effects.

Experience:We have been in business building computers since 1998. Our employees range from Music Major, to MCSE and computer geeks.
5 of us are Musicians, 4 have home studios (Chris, Mike, Dave and Jay), plus we (Scott) have 2 instore DAW's. So you know your computer is being built for Audio by Audio guys who actually use the products. Scott took 7 years of classical piano and still can't play!
One of our competitors claims "Over two decades of workstation design", funny they used to only sell Macs and only started selling PC a couple of years ago. Last time I checked Macs were "designed" by Apple.
We are the oldest Audio systems designer in business today in the U.S.

Building/Testing:
There are many things we do to your computer prior to shipping it to you.
We braid and wire tie all your cables; we cut your IDE and floppy cables in 4-5 strips of cable and then tie them up so they are only 1/4-3/8 square. This is the same idea as round cables and far less rigid and therefore allow us to tie them up in a much cleaner fashion.
We also braid your power supply cables.
There are 2 reasons we do this, the first is it looks good secondly and more importantly since we use very quiet fans this allows for better airflow to keep your computer cool and quiet.

We always use Arctic Silver thermal paste on all CPUs
We replace all the fans in the case with 8db quiet fans.

We then tweak your BIOS for the best performance while ensuring stability within your audio software, including turning off any unnecessary items to give you the most IRQs possible without any conflicts or resource sharing.

Next we test and burn in the entire system (pre-Windows) with a program that checks everything including USB and firewire.

Next we load windows and do about 50 tweaks specifically for audio. We also download all the latest Windows updates audio card updates and software updates

As if that were not enough, you can send us your audio hardware and software (even if you didn't buy them from us) and we will install and tweak them for you for free! (up to 3 items for free)
We then record and play back audio to ensure everything is running correctly.
The idea is to give you a full turnkey system.

we then benchmark your system's record/playback/effects/samples ability to ensure its performance is at or above what we expect the system's abilites to be.

After all that hoopla, we then double box your computer using packing techniques designed with consultation and advice from FedEx shipping engineers to help insure the safety of your shipment.
We also take full responsibility for your products arriving in safe condition. If you end up with a damaged package from shipping we will fix or replace at our expense and take it up with the shipping company ourselves.
**Note you MUST notify us on damage with in 10 days of receipt, or there is nothing we can do for you.
Read the competitors warranty/policies on this... most will not honor shipping damage.

Warranty:
Our minumum warranty (free) is 1 year parts and labor (you pay shipping both directions) with lifetime tech support.
We also have a 2 year parts and labor warranty with lifetime tech support($65)
Our default warranty ($150) is:

2 year Warranty Parts and Labor with 1 yr Express pick up:
If for some reason your system needs to come back to us for repair, We will pay shipping (3 Day Air, or ground if close enough) both directions.
All parts and labor are covered. You are given PRIORITY over anyone else and are put on the bench the day it gets here.
Your system will generally ship back to you the following day. what this means is no cost to you for repairs.
We also warranty your audio gear (if you bought it from us). Unlike some of our competitors who will tell you to call the manufacturer for support/Service/Warranty, we fell your first call should be to us.
If we determine you have a bad unit we will either ship you another or assist you in obtaining an advance RMA from the manufacturer.
Rarely are you stuck where you have to ship your unit back to them and be down. (generally older or discontinued items)

Some parts that do not qualify for shipping the system back to us are but not limited to: Memory, secondary hard drives, optical drives (CD/DVD), floppy drives, monitors. These items would be shipped to you 2 Day Air (or ground if close enough) for you to replace with our help over the phone. We will also include a shipping label for you to return the bad part to us.
This warranty is good for 1 year, there after you have unlimited tech support, and parts replacement at wholesale price for as long as you own the computer.
This warranty is available for up to 2 years.

Quiet:
We use only the quietest products available. There is no magic to this so any website that does not disclose all the products they use while claiming to be quiet makes me question the motive. Sales hype or verifiable fact?
In fact there are a few "DAW Builders" claiming 21-25 db quiet. This is NOT possible with standard components! Noise cancelling case lining must be used to accomplish this along with the right components.
while most items can be quieted to 20 db or lower the last remaining "loud" item is the hard drive.

Seagate: often considered the quietest has an advertised noise level of 2.5-2.8 Bels, this is equal to 25-28 DB and this is in IDLE mode, In seek mode Seagate used to be every bit as loud as the competition. Seagate Data Sheet
Now in seek mode they have quieted their drives down to 30DB.
Warranty is 5 years and performance at the time of writing this was above the rest when using the Perpendicular technology.
They are also quieter than any other we have tested including the new Western Digital 500G. Their failure rate is extremely low as well, making it our drive of choice.

Western Digital: Were considered the most reliable with a no quibble 3-5 year warranty (Seagate now beats them) advertises their DB level at 28db idle mode WD SPec

Maxtor: has now been bought by seagate and discontinued.

Samsung drives have a advertised noise level of 2.3 bels in idle and 2.7 bels seek. in our tests the Samsung was no quieter than the Seagates in seek (use) and with their pathetic 1 year warranty we will pass on these drives.

To advertise a 21DB system you would have to use noise cancelling case lining at minimum and possibly use noise dampening drive bays as well. (adds heat to the drives)
Yes a drive in side a case will be muffled, and depeding on the distant from the computer you take a DB level you may actually get 21 db
While I know it may seem 5-8 db is not a big jump we will not fall into the advertising "hype" game. 28- 29db is as quiet as it gets with standard quieting components until you add the case lining noise insulation. There is only one other vendor besides us who offers this.

Our standard CPU fan is (now un-disclosed) which is a 17 db fan, Our case fans are 8 db.

Power supply: The power supply plays an important roll in quieting a DAW. However whats far more important is the total real wattage and quality of the power supply.
The power supply is often the most overlooked part, while being one of the most crucial ones. Cheap power supplies will have a rating of 500W but in reality only output 350W
You can have the fastest everything else but if you are underpowered it will cause system instability as well as component failure in short time. It is also the most difficult to trouble shoot causing you to think its numerous other things instead of the power supply. Finding a Quality power supply that outputs wattage equal to its supposed rating is not easy. Add to that finding one that is quiet and has longevity narrows the field greatly.
In our opinion the minimum power supply should be a 550W. It would seem some of our competition does not share the same ideology.
We do have one exception to this - the Antec 500W fanless power supply. It has proven itself over time powering numerous dual core dual Opteron rigs with mulitple hard drives.

Cases: There is no such thing as a quiet case! Don't be fooled by marketing, for the most part cases have little to do with quiet. Cases will have various abilities to allow or reduce vibratory noise, Thin cheap cases can introduce vibratory noise far more than a thicker steel case, all cases can allow for a little vibratory noise. Tower vs rackmount is irrelevant.
Our cases are all well built thicker metal, however there are things that can be done to address this. A heavier built rack will be quieter, use of rubber grommets for the hard drives, power supply and case fan vibration dampener kits also assist in quieting your system down.
Other options to quiet your computer would be removing the northbridge fan and replacing with a heat sink, and the use of noise reducing hard drive bays. (however, this makes the hard drives run hotter, which increases the chances of early drive failure).
We also offer for any system; noise damping material added to it. As you can see we take "custom built DAW" to mean exactly that.

Price:
We challenge you to look at our competition; look at quality, price, warranty, ability to customize to suit your needs, knowledge of Audio, ease of contact and service. Are they able to support everything? Computer, Pro audio hardware and software? If you find someone doing better than us we would love to know as we are always looking to improve our products and customer service.