2. speakers
  3. 1391382321

Life after ADS

When I first started this hobby a few years ago I was immediately drawn to vintage ADS speakers because of the performance/price ratio plus they are just flat out musical.

Many well regarded speakers have come and gone that offered an amazing hi-fi listening experience but I always kept at least one or two pair of ADS speakers around for background music and so forth.

It has taken me the better part of three years to find a mint pair of L1530's and wouldn't you know it a pair came up for sale to me locally and I grabbed them. However I am moving into a smaller house and will not be able to keep them. My first question is what would be a good modern monitor to replace them with.

I will say I listened to some Adam Audio's (not sure what model)and for the money they were very good. In fact I am thinking of getting a pair. The ribbon tweeter sounded very open and detailed without being harsh or aggressive. Before I get the Adams are there any other speakers with ribbon tweeters I should consider? Others I have been looking at are LSA Statements, Vapor, and Evolution Acoustics.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Thanks.
chrshanl37
jsbail
320 posts
 
I used ADS L880 from 1984 to 1999. I still enjoy them in my workshop. In 1999 I got Proac 3.8. Love both speakers. I am just now thinking of a change to maybe something more dynamic.
rmenergy
6 posts
 
Chrschn137, have you contemplated sending your Clef's back to Bob for a change to either his new ribbon tweeter or back to his mid 90's metal tweeter? Might be just what you're looking for.

I've personally finished a demo with the ribbon at his house & must admit that it's amazing(I also own a set of Super Clef's). Give him a call or shoot him an email, just might save you a ton of headache.
chrshanl37 OP
622 posts
 
Rmenergy....I have a pair of the original Clefs with the metal tweeter as well. I had been looking for a speaker in my smallish room and was afraid the Clefs would overload the room. Well I put them in to see how it would go and I have to say it sounds great. I have since sold off all of my other speakers except my Clef and Super Clefs. I talk to Bob regularly and I have spoken with him about the Ribbon Clefs and I am very tempted to add a pair to my collection. Nice to meet a fellow owner of these excellent under the radar speakers.
rmenergy
6 posts
 

Glad to hear that the metal dome worked out for you.

The Clef's really are wonderfully adaptive designs that seem to change attitude with the tweeter/xover changes. The ribbon version really surprised me & I'd like to see what it would be like in a TL variation.
klccharter
8 posts
 
Hi fellow ADS lovers. Thought I would share my experience with a pair of L1530s that now sound amazing, better than new. I rewired them with OCC copper and silver with gold plated brass quick-connects and WBT silver solder. I also retrofitted a set of WBT0708 connectors with 15 AWG OCC copper pigtails soldered to the circuit board. You would not believe how much louder and quieter they are. You can hear the space in the sound stage and they are 2-3 db higher in efficiency. Frequency response was also dramatically extended at the extremes (20Hz & 20kHz). This update also resolved a design flaw in the connection between the connector and the x over circuit board. With a Sonic Frontiers Power 2 these speakers can compete with some of the finest speakers available today.
More to discover