I would like to hear your opinion of the 910s versus the AMTs.
ADS-910's
- Thread starter GD70
- Start date
I would like to hear your opinion of the 910s versus the AMTs.
liteagilis
Active Member
So. I've been playing classical all day. I spun Tupelo Honey by Van Morrison once and Black Messiah by d'Angelo once. So far the word I'd use w the 910's is relaxed. It sounds confident and mellow everywhere. And you sort of can't tell where the music is coming from in the room. It also has a really big sound stage. It seems far more forgiving of placement than the amt's, particularly in reference to proximity to the rear wall. I haven't put any female vocals on yet bc I'm afraid I won't like the 910's nearly as much at the great heil.
In my estimation the great heil is the best 'tweeter' I've ever heard for female vocals. What the amt lacks is the full range in low frequencies to make it a great classical speaker. It doesn't dig deep enough for hip hop or r&b or neo soul either. The low frequencies seem pretty fast considering. They certainly sourced an amazing material for the 12" woofer at the time but I'd rather more guts down there and adding one more driver. It does electric guitar rock well but it doesn't sound like your dad's JBL's either. I always wanted to buy a pair of jbl l-200's and pretty much drop the heil on top and cross the horn to heil at like 3500hz. Another option would be doing something like the jubal w no slot tweeter and the heil on top.
But back to the 910's, so far I'm really happy and can't wait to listen to them more. Maybe give them some more power to see how controlled the bass is when they have the juice flowing.
GD70
Lunatic Member
Relaxed is not a term I would think to describe their sound. Non fatiguing, yes. Crisp detailed highs, the mid range is full sounding, the singers voice can envelope you as though they are standing in front of you, the bass, simply incredible. Give them power, the more the better.
I would suggest sending the mids and tweeters to Richard So for rebuilding. He was an ADS employee, and bought all the spare parts when ADS closed its doors. It's well worth having them rebuilt. One to improve them sonically, two, piece of mind knowing they will perform for another thirty years.
The stands for the 910's raise them 7.5 inches off the floor, which add a huge difference in their sound as well, so you may want to try raising them and see what you think.
Glenn
I would suggest sending the mids and tweeters to Richard So for rebuilding. He was an ADS employee, and bought all the spare parts when ADS closed its doors. It's well worth having them rebuilt. One to improve them sonically, two, piece of mind knowing they will perform for another thirty years.
The stands for the 910's raise them 7.5 inches off the floor, which add a huge difference in their sound as well, so you may want to try raising them and see what you think.
Glenn
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liteagilis
Active Member
Doesn't always make perfect sense but I just swapped my b&k pro10mc for this itty bitty old C-J preamp and musical enjoyment went up about a million percent. Now we're straight tube and the sound is texturally quite a bit richer. So now we are at like 25 watts a channel in pentode mode on my amps w the tube pre and I'm loving the sound from these big box speakers.
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GD70
Lunatic Member
The 910's are very addictive. I'd say I listen to them 80 percent of the time. Amplification/preamp sources can have a huge effect on sonics. I'm glad you are getting more out of the 910's, and starting to get an idea of their capabilities.
GD70
Lunatic Member
Play something live at volume, a real treat! Love them!
That describes 90% of my listening!
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Getting close. Modded the Dahlquist LP-1 to cross at 400Hz and have the amps. Just need to get around to setting it up. The xover is 6dB/octave and the speakers are 350Hz, 12dB/octave. Gonna move the crossover up to account for the difference and well I have level adjustments and bass boost as needed independently per channel. Other changes going on in the rig, too. I'll get there.
Commodore999
Member
I'm interested in the details of setting up the LP-1 for the 910s. I have two of them gathering dust at the moment. I figured there would be a way to make them work but I haven't put any research into it. If you care to share, I'd appreciate it.
Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
The OM for the LP-1 talks to the swapping of resistors, caps based on the amplifier input impedance. I just followed the instructions there to add the parts and then checked it roughly with a scope and function generator. As frequency changes, the signal goes from low output to high output. OM should be on the Yahoo Dahlquist Group.
I have mine biamped, but my SAE crossover seems to have developed a hum in one channel. It is always something! Such is life with vintage equipment I guess.
Did you notice any difference between bi-amping and passive mode?
You know, I did not notice a huge difference, but as I recall, it did sound a bit more open. Unfortunately, I have not had a lot of time listening time in biamp mode as literally the second time I went to play, one of my amps started to have an oscillation problem. That took a few months to get fixed, and then I got to enjoy the 910s for maybe two weeks and then the crossover started in with the hum. So I unplugged the 910s and have been listening to the Magnepans for a while until I can get some time to mess with the crossover and see if there is a ground problem.
I want to do a back to back to back comaparo of one amp, bi amp, and then new mids and tweets (rebuilt by Mr So). Maybe I can make that happen next week now that I have a bit of vacation. I will try to describe what I hear, but I am not the most eloquent fellow, and I tend to like everything. Maybe I can enlist my wife to provide her more discriminating opinion as well.
Porkloin
Oscar Heil Groupie
I'd be interested in a back-to-back between biamped and non-biamped as well as your impressions of the Magnapans up against the 910's. Throw in the DQ-10s while you're at it. Those (Magnepans and Dahlquists) are both speakers that I've longed to A/B against my ESS' and ADS'.
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I have been enjoying this thread from the beginning. I'm also interested in bi amped versus single amp comparisons.
Also A/B comparisons of the 910's compared to other large quality speakers. All I can say is when I have time to sit down and really listen to music, I go to the room with the 910's. The other room has my HH Scott tube amp and Econowaved Large Advents also rotated with KLH model Fives.
Wishing all you music lovers and collectors a Happy Holidays
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Porkloin
Oscar Heil Groupie
I've been doing the AMT-vs-Sticky Dome comparison on a more skewed scale: my newly refurbished L780/2's against my heavily modified AMT3's. A sealed single 8" driver is not going to fill the room like a pair of 10" woofers with over 3 pounds of magnet on the back, but I think I'm smart enough to sort out the range commonality for comparison.
Some here have demoted the AMT to a supertweeter on top of their existing systems, which is a mistake. They're denying themselves some of the great things that the AMT does down to 2000 Hz AND the AMT starts to peter out well before it gets to 20 KHz. Even my industrial damaged hearing can detect the ADS tweeter putting out the higher material at higher levels than the ESS
Which, as far as my personal preferences are concerned, may be the problem. It could be the higher high end that make the ADS' more harsh and mechanical by comparison. They don't seem to have the organic flow of the AMT. The natural nuance of a given performance becomes more pronounced with the mylar pleats. Those bits of humanity that grab at the subconscious seems to happen more often. Either that, or I'm turning into the parents that I badmouthed for preferring their console stereo that cranked out a range of 250 to 1750 Hz.
If stereo imaging is defined as the ability of the loudspeaker to place the individual performers and instruments in the correct location and maintain that placement more steadily, ADS definitely has the edge there. The tick of the tip of a drum stick on a cymbal is more pronounced. The front man is a bit more forward on the sound stage. A pair of subwoofers tuned a little high would render them as capable of filling the room as the larger Rock Monitors.
But in the end, I can't resist the smooth charm of Oskar Heil's brainchild. They still remain my reference speaker.
Some here have demoted the AMT to a supertweeter on top of their existing systems, which is a mistake. They're denying themselves some of the great things that the AMT does down to 2000 Hz AND the AMT starts to peter out well before it gets to 20 KHz. Even my industrial damaged hearing can detect the ADS tweeter putting out the higher material at higher levels than the ESS
Which, as far as my personal preferences are concerned, may be the problem. It could be the higher high end that make the ADS' more harsh and mechanical by comparison. They don't seem to have the organic flow of the AMT. The natural nuance of a given performance becomes more pronounced with the mylar pleats. Those bits of humanity that grab at the subconscious seems to happen more often. Either that, or I'm turning into the parents that I badmouthed for preferring their console stereo that cranked out a range of 250 to 1750 Hz.
If stereo imaging is defined as the ability of the loudspeaker to place the individual performers and instruments in the correct location and maintain that placement more steadily, ADS definitely has the edge there. The tick of the tip of a drum stick on a cymbal is more pronounced. The front man is a bit more forward on the sound stage. A pair of subwoofers tuned a little high would render them as capable of filling the room as the larger Rock Monitors.
But in the end, I can't resist the smooth charm of Oskar Heil's brainchild. They still remain my reference speaker.
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Blue Shadow
Waiting for Vintage Gear from this century
Now that one poster, a porkloin, no less, has stated he prefers a pair of hot rodded ESS AMT3 (about 870/pr) speakers to his newly refinished L780/2 (about 700/pr), I'm wondering if the ADS top models the 910, 2030 and 1590s are really that good. There is a post here in speakers looking for the best under $1000 speaker (2030 need not apply) that won't need a sub or a super tweeter and there isn't a single mention of the ADS. Maybe they are not all that. Other than the AR-3a the op in that thread has there are mentions of the following:
Magnepan
Martin Logan
Acoustat
Vandersteen
Thiel CS3.5/3.6
Horn Shoppe Horns
Infinity Kappa 9 or RS II
Old Snells.
Ohm Walsh 4
NHT 2.9/3.3
b&w DM/8xx
AR-9LSi
KEF R107
Polk SDA SRS
A number of VMPS
Mcintosh ML-1c,
yes there is always a McIntosh loyalist throwing out a contender but the rest seem like viable candidates. Not that the McIntosh isn't, it is just not a brand of speakers I see mentioned all the time. Glenn, this post is in your thread because you have been waving the L910 flag so vigorously for so long, 700 posts, that I believe it has kept you from seeing that other thread (posted in Sept but still current) and making a response or you have a better under 1k speaker that does it all. Curious. How good are these ADS if they can't crack that thread. This is a nice list, I know 11 of them deserve being on the list, having heard a number of those but don't know about some of them.
Magnepan
Martin Logan
Acoustat
Vandersteen
Thiel CS3.5/3.6
Horn Shoppe Horns
Infinity Kappa 9 or RS II
Old Snells.
Ohm Walsh 4
NHT 2.9/3.3
b&w DM/8xx
AR-9LSi
KEF R107
Polk SDA SRS
A number of VMPS
Mcintosh ML-1c,
yes there is always a McIntosh loyalist throwing out a contender but the rest seem like viable candidates. Not that the McIntosh isn't, it is just not a brand of speakers I see mentioned all the time. Glenn, this post is in your thread because you have been waving the L910 flag so vigorously for so long, 700 posts, that I believe it has kept you from seeing that other thread (posted in Sept but still current) and making a response or you have a better under 1k speaker that does it all. Curious. How good are these ADS if they can't crack that thread. This is a nice list, I know 11 of them deserve being on the list, having heard a number of those but don't know about some of them.
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