Wolf,
Yesterday came across this ADS ad in a 1975 issue of Audio Magazine. Didn't remember these speakers go back so many years. Interestingly the connection with Braun is mentioned in the ad. The L810 model upfront isn't that the one you have? Nice 2" dome mid, reminds me the similar one used on some British ATC monitors...
I have bigger ones than in that ad .. L-1290 ?Originally Posted by RMC
IF you follow the link below , there are pics that show the rear compartment for adding the energizer amp to power the bottom LF driver.
https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/...ing-condition/
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles
Sea,
OH! Have bigger. Like in the bigger the better, or build back bigger...
Nice box pics and of the beautiful dome mid. Plus woofers having what looks like rubber surrounds then they'll last a very long time.
However, don't know what your ADS are doing out West, in West Coast sound territory. ADS is from Cambridge, Mass. the land of the East Coast sound i happen to like. Your pair is either a fugitive on the run or was abducted!
I could help bring these back East, where they belong to. Won't charge you since i know you. But you know that in the Far West its practically a crime to have these, you could be cancelled anytime just for having those, not by me though!
the cabs were made in Germany by a furniture company, actually have 8 sides , not 4 , since the corners are mitered off, making 4 little 1 inch sides too. (where corners s/b) ..visible in that pic above.Sea,
OH! Have bigger. Like in the bigger the better, or build back bigger...
Nice box pics and of the beautiful dome mid. Plus woofers having what looks like rubber surrounds then they'll last a very long time. you could be cancelled anytime just for having those, not by me though!
2 sets of binding posts .. still had speaker wire attached when I bought, but wrong posts. 1 set is for if you have the optional energizer and other for normal , powering both woofers. mid & hf drivers are sticky to the touch , had to carefully remove paper that had attached its'self to 1 mid, but they are very musical.
They replaced some AR PS428 towers I have that do have 125w amps built in .. great for HT, but not very musical.
have other a/d/s & braun ... always fine sounding.
I was cancelled years ago.
OBTW: I walked in to a thrift and saw them b4 fully in the store. No grilles , but I found some that work well. The store wanted 40 for the pair, but I made sure they applied my senior discount, so they were 32.
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles
Wolf,
Mid & hf drivers must have some kind of sticky compound or dope to damp a resonance and/or smooth out response i guess.
Very musical & always fine sounding that's nice to hear, it means their implementation of a larger dome for the critical mid sound must have been a good idea.
Since you have other a/d/s & braun, based on the ones you have, do you confirm, as per the ad, that they share same drivers between ADS and Braun, or looks like they do?
OH! cancelled years ago. LOL
They were 32. Thirty two bucks!!...
Btw they seem to have a large dustcap vs woofer size?
yes, I've had braun's also , identical. As I recall, a/d/s made drivers and shipped to Germany. Not sure what the stickyness is about , it is factory and other pairs have it too.Wolf,
Mid & hf drivers must have some kind of sticky compound or dope to damp a resonance and/or smooth out response i guess.
Very musical & always fine sounding that's nice to hear, it means their implementation of a larger dome for the critical mid sound must have been a good idea.
Since you have other a/d/s & braun, based on the ones you have, do you confirm, as per the ad, that they share same drivers between ADS and Braun, or looks like they do?
OH! cancelled years ago. LOL
They were 32. Thirty two bucks!!...
Btw they seem to have a large dustcap vs woofer size?
The rear surround speakers are a/d/s L-300's and center is an expensive DefTech with it's own 8in. sub and amp.
here's pics of my dustcaps, don't know why big ?
also , the grilles that I found for them. the stack is a black passive sub, a/d/s's & JBL 18ti's on top (for headboard system) ... the a/d/s's are shared between the music system and the HT system thru a switchbox.
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles
I have very high regards for ADS speakers. I was impressed by them back in the day and was shocked and thrilled when I found a complete functioning pair of L910s sitting curbside with a “Free” placard on them in my neighborhood while out for a walk a number of years ago. In my research to fully restore them I found a fellow on eBay who used to work at ADS. He has a large inventory of replacement drivers and recone kits. He is also a knowledgeable source if you have ADS speakers that you want to repair.
The L910s were in my main system for a few years being replaced by the 1400 Arrays. I probably should have kept the big ADS speakers, but real estate being what it is, they had to go when the Everests arrived.
Here is a representative image of the L910s.
Widget
looks like the 910's may have had the same MF & HF drivers that my 1290's do ?
IMHO .. they are a sweet combo.
what is the square covered area to the top left (in pic) ??? energizer compartment ?
I really like that German cabinetry
MORE:
As for ADS' critical acclaim, there were numerous reviews on the various models (up through and including the Unison series) in most of the major magazines. Nearly all of the reviews were extremely flattering and favorable to ADS, with many exclamations from renowned critics such as Julian Hirsch saying about the L1290, "...the widest and flattest response we can recall measuring from a speaker with our current test procedures." Another reference to the 1290, "the woofer distortion was perhaps the lowest we have yet measured." Hans Fantel in The New York Times said, "...the L1590 is widely regarded as one of the finest loudspeakers ever made." Ovation magazine reviewed the L1090 and gave it very high marks; High Fidelity gave high marks to the single-woofer L990 as did Digital Audio magazine. Hirsch also reviewed the L780 and gave it the same type of excellent review as he did the 1290.
https://community.classicspeakerpage...429-ads-l1590/
The actual industrial design was from Braun Design in Germany. One interesting tidbit is that the cabinets were manufactured by a German furniture company named Hados, and sent to the USA for installation of the ADS-made drivers. This is a complete reversal of the typical loudspeaker company practice of building ones own cabinets and stuffing them with drivers built elsewhere.
JH's review : http://sportsbil.com/ads/l-1290-review.pdf
Kind of a cool story here.
The founder, Godehard Gunther, was a NASA guy and subordinate of Werner Von Braun. If there was a relationship
between Von Braun and Braun hifi, I am not aware of it but who knows?
ADS was however dependent on Braun hifi only for material to resell. They were not owned by them or even German. ADS was a US company from the beginning. The founder however was indeed German.
GG began importing Braun in the late 1960's into the US under the Braun Aria name. Some of the first items were the LV1020 active/triamplified studio monitor (All active in 1970!) and the TG1000 reel to reel deck. He also brought in many of the passive loudspeakers.
Importing wooden boxes was prohibitively expensive though. GG left NASA and opened ADS Aria in Huntsville, AL ~1972 and then moved to MA the next year.
In ~1974, manufacturing began with US sourced cabinets using
Braun drivers and crossovers.
Starting in 1975, the first manufacture of US made copies of the Braun drivers began.
In 1981, Gillette approached GG and sold the hifi division of Braun to ADS. This relationship lasted until 1990 when the hifi division was sold back to Gillette. It was never profitable but the marriage brought some interesting products into the US.
The usage of notable industrial designers should also be mentioned. Braun used Dieter Rams for their hifi products until the early 1980's and then Peter Hartwein picked up the ball. ADS used Hartmut Esslinger of FROG Design in Berkeley, CA. Esslinger did the first Macintosh. Rams & Hartwein did so many classic Braun consumer products that you would have to be the Unabomber not to recognize them.
Another side note are where some of the people at a/d/s/ went. Michael Kelly (Pres., Aerial Acoustics), Chris Browder (Pres. B&W USA) are alum's as well as a list of others too lengthy to go into here.
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles
Yes, the original L910 were a rebadge of a similar Braun design. I assume the driver compliment was very similar to the 1290, though they did have a couple of versions of the L910 with the tweeters changing along the way.looks like the 910's may have had the same MF & HF drivers that my 1290's do ?
IMHO .. they are a sweet combo.
what is the square covered area to the top left (in pic) ??? energizer compartment ?
I really like that German cabinetry
The panel provides access to a compartment that is also accessible from the rear. There were two options for this speaker, one was an LED power indicator (you can see the vertical hole array) and it also could accept a biamplifier. (electronic crossover with two channels of amplification).
A very forward design that is actually still a very respectable design... it is larger in room than the photos make it out to be. I wish I had kept them, but I just didn't have the room.
Widget
RE "...I found a complete functioning pair of L910s sitting curbside with a “Free” placard on them..."
What's the matter with American folks letting go beautiful ADS for nothing or so?
I can only dream finding such nice pair with a $32 price tag or a free sign on them...
Its the “big brown box” problem. Almost no one wants to have a big brown box in their homes these days. From their perspective why have that when a wireless or Bluetooth speaker is just as good and doesn’t need all the rest of the wires and mess.
That said, I was shocked to see such high end speakers curbside. A pair of Advents or something similar is not that uncommon, but typically a pair of L300s or these high end ADSs are usually not just tossed.
Widget
To Wolf:
Thanks for the "insider info" and the ADS review from Stereo Review. Impressive. I seem to remember that some recording studios might have used the ADS as monitors?
To Widget:
Thanks for the “big brown box” syndrome insight. Sad, but it is what it is today...
RE LIBRARY ANNEX SECTION
Thanks for posting the 1986 JBL/Urei price list.
Don't have a habit of going this far down the list of subjects and threads since there's ususally little action down there. Basically saw this by luck.
Tried to reply there but it didn't work for me (hence the post here), so that section may be reserved to site Administrators to post, or i'm dumb?
MIGHT HAVE A 90's CROWN DEALER PRICE LIST
I think i have (say 90% confident) a US Crown dealer price list from the 90's in my audio papers. Have an idea where it may be. If my memory is correct, it says confidential and shows dealer costs? Since its old and i'm not a dealer i don't feel overly binded by the possible confidential mention addressed to dealers, unless it would be copyrighted but i don't think it is, need to see...
Let me know if there's any interest in such price list, considering Crown and JBL often go together. I'll try to dig it out...
Haven't found yet my 90's Crown dealer price list, still trying to figure where it may be...
However, did find the US price lists i have for BGW and Crest Audio amps. Crown's hasn't surfaced because that's the one i'm looking for. If i didn't need it would have seen it right away...
First post the Crest Audio list with retail prices. As well as a table of their amps features. In 2000 Crest was purchased by Peavey and things changed... sniff
Next post will be the longer BGW price list with retail AND dealer costs based on "volume" plus discount for early payment.
* Please don't repost these pics on other web site(s).
Richard
you know , those pix can be made almost readable ??
Some kind of happiness is measured out in miles
Me know? Na, not a software artist as you are, sorry. Don't have a teacher that shows me how, wife even worst than me, lol. IT self learner, basic skills, enough to get by i guess...
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