ADS L1290: We Must, Musn't We?

@Finjima,

I'm the guy that Ed built the crossovers for. First, let me say I do not consider myself an audiophile by any stretch, however, I'll give you an idea of the before and after to me. They started as a really nice sounding pair I picked up locally from craigslist. Vocals were good,sounded really nice..bass was good but not what I remembered from the set a friend's dad had in the 80's. I liked mine so much I wanted to boost the performance, if I could. I had Richard So redo the tweets and mids along with the crossovers done by Ed. The result is a SUPER clear set of speakers. Separation of instruments in crowded passages is first rate, magnitudes better than before. The bass is way tighter and deeper. The overall sound is just as unified as before. However, everything, and I mean everything, is way more precise. It did not make them fatiguing in the slightest. Was it worth it? Well, it wasn't cheap, but these are lifetime speakers for me. I am sure there is better out there, but I really love that ADS sound, and Ed did it right. I'm sure if I'd put the original crossovers in them they would have been good, but, I wanted that vintage set from my youth that I couldn't afford, taken to the extreme. I'm beyond happy with the results, and in the end, that's all that counts.

Dave
 
That was a very good assessment of your restoration/upgrade and that is the results I'm looking for for my 1230's. I'm very happy with how the speaker works for me space wise and I see how ed did your cross overs plus he used a iron core coil for the woofers in the complete rebuild of the cross over. Club ADS here needs examples like you who braves the pricey storm of rebuilding these fine speakers to such a fine level so those who wish to brave these waters too can find hope that they too will find the next level these speakers can go to. So how about some pics for the kids here in Club ADS.
 
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Its good to see how a total rebuild can work and keep everything compact with out having to build a separate board very good work
 
I added inserts and spikes. The spikes set into a cup to protect hard floors. I understand there was an factory option for a base but have not seen one as of yet.
My goal always is to keep the crossover as trim as possible but sometimes that's not possible. Sure it would have been much easer to just lay it all out on a board. This way if ever the crossover dose need to be serviced it can be removed as easily as the stock unit. I always keep serviceability in mind when laying out a rebuild. .
 
I added inserts and spikes. The spikes set into a cup to protect hard floors. I understand there was an factory option for a base but have not seen one as of yet.
My goal always is to keep the crossover as trim as possible but sometimes that's not possible. Sure it would have been much easer to just lay it all out on a board. This way if ever the crossover dose need to be serviced it can be removed as easily as the stock unit. I always keep serviceability in mind when laying out a rebuild. .
The factory bases look like the 1590 bases. Adds a nice finishing touch!
 
In the above link the crossover is set at 2200 or some such mark but it reads we can contact them if we want them t set it at another Hz so I did, I asked if they can set it at 550 hz (intended for 1230) this is their reply "we can do it according to your request
but you have to leave us message when you place the order
regards
Vivian :)"
how nice! so one option has opened up it seems for crossovers.
 
A pair of L630 [$50](Silver letters on Black badge) on my iMac/Marantz system. A pair of mint 400 [ Black letters on silver badge (large D)] on my shop system, found for free at the local "Take it or Leave it" [Dump] square corner walnut cabs.
No idea of the vintage of either, but both sets are staying where they are.

[ SpeakerLab 6's on my Tube powered system, those are staying as well.... and also free!]
 
No idea of the vintage of either, but both sets are staying where they are.

The L400 is in a 1984 price list and a 1986 price list. The Orion guide, not known for accuracy, shows the L630 as 77-84 or so.

You really have done well with keeper speaker 'purchases', just gas, tires, oil and time.
 
since all 4 woofers are the same and match other pics i'll go on and say they are original spec'd for this speaker.
I know they are huge, heavy and look awesome in the back of the garage, when you walk into the garage all you see is those 12 inch woofers. these were totl too. for a RTR
If they say radio shack on them they are not the original drivers that were built and spec’d by RTR. The top woofer was different from the bottom woofer as it was mass loaded to correct phase imbalance at the crossover point. They had 2” voice coils in them and they were wound on a very lightweight former with advanced adhesive designed by Rtr. They had a very lightweight cone and a extremely compliment suspension. They rolled of naturally as their was no filters between the drivers and the binding posts. They were designed to flawlessly integrate with the dome mods at the x over point. These speakers are amazing if you have the proprietary Rtr woofers. If you don’t they will never sound right, even if you have a driver of better quality. The cone material itself was also developed by Rtr
 
Um, think you might have posted that in the wrong thread... nothing going on here that involves RTR.

John
 
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