ADS L810 LACK LUSTER !!

[boybuick85]

I love my ads L810' s

But recently one of the speakers has had a slight fuzzy or Fade Out in the base with a little distortion.
they both don't sound as Crispin clear detailed as I would imagine they should be. What is typical maintenance that needs to be done on these and is it difficult to do? ??
Mine is the one that has the fuses in the back that you can access. Is it just me or are these just not super detailed .

 

[GD70]

I love my ads L810' s

But recently one of the speakers has had a slight fuzzy or Fade Out in the base with a little distortion.
they both don't sound as Crispin clear detailed as I would imagine they should be. What is typical maintenance that needs to be done on these and is it difficult to do? ??
Mine is the one that has the fuses in the back that you can access. Is it just me or are these just not super detailed .

When you say crisp and clear, that sounds like your mids and tweeters. You may want to consider sending the mids and tweeters to Richard So for rebuilding. He bough all the parts inventory when ADS closed its doors, and is the only source for rebuilt drivers with original parts. For bass, you may also want to replace the lyric caps on the crossovers, which many do. The remaining caps are film and usually don't need to be replaced.

 

[Porkloin]

I can personally vouch for "Curly's" recommendations. My ADS' sounded pretty good to begin with, but a quick paper towel tube listening test revealed one of the tweeters to be good and daid. It checked out OK on the ohm meter and the crossover checked out OK. There was also a slightly weak woofer. All the drivers got rebuilt by Richard So and now sound clean and new.
And while one wouldn't instinctively think that the electrolytic cap paralleling the woofer would make that much of a difference, it actually did. Finding a radial cap with a 10% tolerance may prove difficult, but one can always turn a more readily available axial cap sideways.

Below: Ancient 810 crossover. Below that: Slightly less ancient ADS crossover.

 

[boybuick85]

When you say crisp and clear, that sounds like your mids and tweeters. You may want to consider sending the mids and tweeters to Richard So for rebuilding. He bough all the parts inventory when ADS closed its doors, and is the only source for rebuilt drivers with original parts. For bass, you may also want to replace the lyric caps on the crossovers, which many do. The remaining caps are film and usually don't need to be replaced.

How would I go about getting in contact with him. I'm still double-checking everything trying different amps but so far it does seem that one speaker is not all there. I tried the paper towel tube test but still it's a little hard to tell which driver it is. Im going to try again but its looking like maybe the mid and . I'm guessing the roofers are good because there's no rattling or anything like that. They just sound very weak

 

[malden]

I love my ads L810' s

But recently one of the speakers has had a slight fuzzy or Fade Out in the base with a little distortion.
they both don't sound as Crispin clear detailed as I would imagine they should be. What is typical maintenance that needs to be done on these and is it difficult to do? ??
Mine is the one that has the fuses in the back that you can access. Is it just me or are these just not super detailed .

What amp are you using with them?

 

[GD70]

How would I go about getting in contact with him. I'm still double-checking everything trying different amps but so far it does seem that one speaker is not all there. I tried the paper towel tube test but still it's a little hard to tell which driver it is. Im going to try again but its looking like maybe the mid and . I'm guessing the roofers are good because there's no rattling or anything like that. They just sound very weak

Google ADS Speaker service.

 

[LesE]

If you haven't already done so, you may want to take a quick look at the DCR at the speaker terminals. I've been noticing that with my 810's, one speaker was clearly dominating. Today, I checked the DCR and one measured 4 ohms while the other was over 8 ohms. I pulled the lower woofers to access the crossovers and found that the two screws which secure the speaker connectors weren't very tight. After tightening them down and reinstalling the woofers, the DCR was now identical on both speakers at 3.2 ohms and the sound is now balanced.

Les.

 

[boybuick85]

What amp are you using with them?

Well a shitty one apparently . It was a rotel ra970BX but it needs some repair because channels would fade out and just didnt sound right. Ill go through it with some deoxit and try that one later. Hooked it back up to a clean pioneer 535 and it sounded much better i stripped the speaker wire down and re cut it since the old ends where looking really grimmy . Turned up some base heavy materal and one of th speakers was definitely coming in and out with the bass. Going from really light to...holy cow!!! is that what its supposed to sound like lol. My next question is would this all be more of a crossover problem caps or something like that

 

[boybuick85]

Google ADS Speaker service.

Thanks much appreciated !!

 

[boybuick85]

If you haven't already done so, you may want to take a quick look at the DCR at the speaker terminals. I've been noticing that with my 810's, one speaker was clearly dominating. Today, I checked the DCR and one measured 4 ohms while the other was over 8 ohms. I pulled the lower woofers to access the crossovers and found that the two screws which secure the speaker connectors weren't very tight. After tightening them down and reinstalling the woofers, the DCR was now identical on both speakers at 3.2 ohms and the sound is now balanced.

Les.

Ahhhh ok . This does happen with mine a little where one will sound a little more dominant . Especially with the bass.

 

[Tiver]

Ahhhh ok . This does happen with mine a little where one will sound a little more dominant . Especially with the bass.

Have you resolved your issue?

 

[baco99]

FYI, ADS L810 are usually 4 ohm speakers. Running them on an amp that doesn't like a 4 ohm load may cause what you are describing. But some of the other remedies mentioned above also apply. The Rotel, if working properly, should be a good match for these speakers. The Pioneer, even on a good day, probably is not a good match. Not enough power and a finicky 8 ohm only situation.

My 2 cents.

 

[boybuick85]

Have you resolved your issue?

Well after much mixing and matching and deoxing . Alot of my up stream equipment was having problems . Sold my 535 probably selling the rotel aswell if i cant get it sound ing clear in the one channel also have a rotel cd player i love but its have the same issue with one channel . Other wise im using an hk a402 which helped . Havent had a chance to test them again since i had a set of audio physics come into rotation. They where working well with the new amp but i am putting them back in rotation soon for more thorough listening

 

[LexDM3]

One other possibility is that the ferrofluid in the tweeters may be dried out or has perhaps become thicker than it should be. That can happen after 30+ years.

I heard lower output from tweeters on a couple of pairs of ADS speakers and fixed it by cleaning out the old ferrofluid and replacing it with new fluid. Even though the tweeters were working, their reduced volume made the speakers sound dull. The new fluid got them sounding right again.

 

[Blue Shadow]

One other possibility is that the ferrofluid in the tweeters may be dried out

This is true for drivers that use ferrofluid but the early ADS do not have that fluid in their drivers. The brochure talks about air cooled being better than fluid cooled of other manufacturers tweeters.

 

[LexDM3]

I believe you are correct, Blue Shadow and thanks for pointing that out. The 2-3 sets of ADS tweeters that needed new fluid were all later than the 810.

 

[Crang]

Like others said- dried out ferrofluid has been the case in a couple of my ADS tweeters.

 

[Tiver]

Just checking a couple things. If you have done these then carry on with what you are doing.

Since you seem to have identified the issue to one of the speakers, you can verify this easily by physically swapping the speaker wires from left to right. If the problem moves with the wires, it's not the speaker. If the problem stays with the same speaker, then move forward to remedy that speaker.

You know they have fuses. Remove, inspect and reinstall or replace. Even the physical removal of a good fuse can affect the contact points. Unlikely, but possible that could fix it.

Isolating the drivers with a paper tube or by blocking surrounding drivers with foam or whatever can help identify a problem component. Even if a particular driver seems suspect, there may be a simple connection issue at the root.

Pulling the woofers from the cabinet would be a step further. They are going to be "stuck" on, so use care to pry them off. Once off, you can do a visual inspection of their physical connections. The component (speaker) connections are likely soldered so if you have any experience in identifying cold or weak solder joints, these can be easily repaired at this stage. If you make any simple solder repairs it's easy to screw the woofers back in and test again.

If you have done all of the simple, physical examinations described and you think you have a specific driver as the culprit, then you decide if you want to have it rebuilt or replaced.

 

[GuyNoir]

I love my ads L810' s

But recently one of the speakers has had a slight fuzzy or Fade Out in the base with a little distortion...

Sounds like you're describing two separate issues - let me address the bass distortion. Prior to my current L810 pair, I had some early L810 in which the woofer spiders had started to sag, causing intermittent bass and/or distortion. You can try unscrewing the woofers and rotating them in the baffles 180 degrees. If spider sag is indeed the trouble, this should clear up the issue for some time to come.