SOME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE ADS L1530. IT APPEARS OXIDATION BETWEEN THE CROSSOVER BOARD AND THE CONNECTING POSTS WAS A MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR TO A TOTAL LACK OF BASS. I BENCH MARKED EVERY COMPONENT FROM THE POSTS TO THE BOARD CONNECTIONS. OXIDATION AND A TIN/NICKEL WASHER IN THE SIGNAL PATH WERE THE CULPRITS. I HAVE TWEAKED THIS SYSTEM SINCE I PURCHASED IT ON AUDIOGON IN 2004. FIRST WIRING THEM WITH ANALYSIS PLUS CLEAR OVAL THEN TO OCC AG AND CU FROM VH AUDIO. ALTHOUGH THERE WAS A MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN PERFORMANCE, I FELT COMPELLED TO ELIMINATE THE POSTS SO I COULD REALLY HEAR THE SUPERIOR WIRE DOWNSTREAM. REPLACING THE POSTS WITH WBT0708S AND THE CONNECTION TO THE BOARD WITH OCC CU WIRE MADE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT OF ANY TWEAK I'VE DONE. NOW THESE SPEAKERS ARE THUMP MONSTERS WITH A STAGE THAT MAKES THESE ONE OF A KIND. |
Sounds like an interesting speaker w/ those 14" woofers.
Yes, a/d/s was great at providing outstanding mids & highs.
The company also made great car audio speakers as well.
Those, too, were not known for their bass properties.
I would never alter the original design- rare and valuable speakers indeed. |
Irvrobinson, do you go thru threads to make these comments? Do you own ADS speakers? I don't see your name anywhere in this thread outside of this entry. Aren't you going to correct Doug99 as well? I suppose you have Fisher speakers too. |
I'm pretty sure Michael Kelly of Aerial Acoustics built the 2030 speakers. I know he was one of the main designers of ADS speakers in the 80s. |
Do you realize how old this thread is? |
Andrew et al:
I have a pair of L1530s and had a similiar problem with lack of bass but it turned out the problem was upstream. My digital source was the culprit. Believe it or not it was a very old fuse in my digital front end. I replaced it with a hi-fi tuning silver star fuse. After this change the speaker's bass felt like an assault. Huge improvement. I also rewired the speakers with Analysis Plus clear oval which improved the overall sound as well.
klccharter |
Sorry, screen name listed in previous post was typo'd...if you have any pricing info I requested and contact me thru my eBay screen name, it's "maNwholovedwomen". Thank you. |
I concur that placement of L2030's is key. A good deal of experimentation is necessary to get the lows in that sweet spot of your listening room. When placement is right, you should have the perfect amount of bass, tracking nicely with your volume adjustments. I also have a pair of ADS L2030 spkrs, and may consider selling them. I have done 98 (all positive) electronic and speaker transactions on my eBay screen name "mamwholovedwomen", but have yet to do any sales on Audiogon. I've sold L1230's on eBay, as well as a beautiful pair of ADS studio 910's. My 2030's are also nice, and as rare as they're getting to be, I'm expecting they should bring $2000.00. I've never seen any L2030's sell on Audiogon, although occassional 1230 and 1530's pop up pretty often. Pricing help? Thanks. |
I am using a Velodyne 15" sub with my L2030's and the system sounds great. I bypass the subs electronic crossover by feeding the ADS speakers and the Velodyne directly from the preamp. The velodyne has an adjustable crossover frequency and slope which I have set to 60 HZ at 12 dB/Octave. Speaker placement is very critical for optimum bass performance. I prefer placing the speakers with the mids and tweeter on the outside rather than the usual inside position. I toe the speakers in to align the mids and tweeter with the listening position. This produces the cleanest low end bass and also widens the sound stage by having the mids and high end farther apart. |
Dear Andrew and Ron: Take a look here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vdone&1115433273
The quality sound reproduction of my L2030 are really great and I'm very satisfied with it and with any single up-grade that I alredy do on its.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
I own a pair of ADS L2030's and can't imagine someone not getting enough bass out of them. Perhaps you are not using enough current. I use an old SAE P500 which delivers a stable 500 watts per channel. A high current ampifier should really wake those speakers up. Also, about 2-months ago I had to re-glue the surround to the speaker basket. When I removed the woofer (for the 1st time since I have owned them) I noticed that the wire to the drivers was extremely light-weight, no more than an inexpensive bargain quality 16 gauge wire. It mad me laugh. You may want to contact some of the senior engineers at ADS and see if there is a history of anyone ever improving performance by re-wiring. I was thinking about calling myself, but I am so satisfied with my speakers that it became a low priority. One of the electronic reps told me that SAE had upgraded the electronic crossovers after their original lifespan and drastically improved perfomance. I was going to call Karen Metros, the national sales rep and find out the details, but because I never biamp the speakers, it once again became a low priority. I know she has left the company, but someone there must know about this update. Good Luck! |
Hello there,
I have a C2000 already, but if I didn't I would have contacted you immediately. Thank you for your offer though.
Andrew |
Dear Andrew: where are you?
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Dear Andrew: I have to tell you that I own the C2000 ADS dedicated electronic crossover for the L 2030. I'm not using it, if you are interested please let me know.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Dear Andrew: I agree with Ed. I'm a proudly owner of a pair L 2030, take a look to " my system ".
+++++ " but I love the mids and highs.. " +++++
These are too one of the reasons " I love " these speakers: nothing that I heard can really beat it at any price.
Feel free to ask any thing about.
Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul. |
Thank you for your responses. I thought about the things you are saying, the number are variables that would upset the balance seem too great. Of course, I would have only modified the speakers so that they could be returned to normal, but perhaps this isn't the way to go.
I hesitated at adding subwoofers because of the already large size of the 2030s and my belief that with the proper drivers, they wouldn't be needed.
But I will reconsider this. But I can't see any a/d/s sub or single subwoofer being able to outperform or take over the duties of 4 14" drivers. So if I'm going to get subwoofers, they are going to have to be quite powerful.
Thanks
Andrew |
Bad idear the crossover would never match the new wooflers, you will wind up with a uneven tonal curve. What I would do is put in a vandersteen 2w music sub to take over the lows or I also have a A/D/S sub I can sell you for chep I think it is a ms4u no longer made but would match thoes speakers nice. email me if intrested audiogon@programmergeek.com |
Ed_sawyer is correct in his assessment and it is truly not prudent to modify unless the experimentation can be done so that the mods can be removed and the speaker restored to original.
Why not experiment by adding a sub-woofer to meet your bass requirements. |
This is thoroughly a bad idea. These speakers are somewhat rare and uncommon (and hence valuable, to the right person). You are better off selling them (I'd be interested!), and buying something you like better. Modifying them would not only be a crime from an aesthetic and sonic standpoint but also would destroy their value and very likely make them sound worse, not better.
-Ed |
