ads L1230's - time for grill repair - 11.9.2021

[avguytx]

Funny how it works in that you sell a pair of speakers and, somehow, another pair just happens to pop up. I didn't think the deal was going to work out due to timing but it did. Over the weekend, I sold the ugly duckling Cerwin Vega VS150's and made a deal with another person on picking up a pair of ads L1230's today. I'm rather excited to get the L1230's as years ago, my dad had a pair of either these or the L1530's when they lived in Ft Collins, CO. This was maybe 1986 or so, so, it would have been about right for when this series was out. There was a stereo shop off of College Ave, I forget the name now, but it was where he would go for most things. A few years later, I remember him having a custom pair of speakers built by a place there in town called Harm's Labs. I wish he would have kept those big ol' bastards but I think those were lost in the divorce with my step-mother.

I didn't give a lot for the L1230',s and they'll need a little work, but all of the drivers are there and they are solid. The hardest part will be recovering the grills and I've read various posts about them. I'll come up with something, though.

Here's the obligatory pic of them that was NOT taken from my phone.

 

[Boston Tom]

Funny how it works in that you sell a pair of speakers and, somehow, another pair just happens to pop up. I didn't think the deal was going to work out due to timing but it did. Over the weekend, I sold the ugly duckling Cerwin Vega VS150's and made a deal with another person on picking up a pair of ads L1230's today. I'm rather excited to get the L1230's as years ago, my dad had a pair of either these or the L1530's when they lived in Ft Collins, CO. This was maybe 1986 or so, so, it would have been about right for when this series was out. There was a stereo shop off of College Ave, I forget the name now, but it was where he would go for most things. A few years later, I remember him having a custom pair of speakers built by a place there in town called Harm's Labs. I wish he would have kept those big ol' bastards but I think those were lost in the divorce with my step-mother.

I didn't give a lot for the L1230',s and they'll need a little work, but all of the drivers are there and they are solid. The hardest part will be recovering the grills and I've read various posts about them. I'll come up with something, though.

Here's the obligatory pic of them that was NOT taken from my phone.

View attachment 1938499

Congrats on these they look nice. I think there is a few post on here regarding the repair of grills for either those or the 1530’s. Welcome to the fold!

 

[avguytx]

Congrats on these they look nice. I think there is a few post on here regarding the repair of grills for either those or the 1530’s. Welcome to the fold!

Thanks! I had a pair of L810's in 2008 or so but sold them as I was getting ready to move. They were nice but someone had either replaced the original woofers with flat edge surround drivers or that was how they came. No one really knew years ago when I'd posted about them. I'll have to find a pic of those.

Edit: Found a pic. They had Polydax woofers in them that fit perfect and were soldered in.

 

[colohiker]

when they lived in Ft Collins, CO. This was maybe 1986 or so, so, it would have been about right for when this series was out. There was a stereo shop off of College Ave, I forget the name now, but it was where he would go for most things. A few years later, I remember him having a custom pair of speakers built by a place there in town called Harm's Labs.

The stereo stores I remember for that time frame were Audio Junction west of CSU and Crisman Audio about a mile south campus though I believe there was also a higher end store in downtown Ft. Collins (way out of my budget at the time). There was also a place LaBelles on the far south end of College that while a 'department" store, carried an interesting selection of stereo gear (it's where I purchased my first pair of EPI 100's and a Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel).

Harms Lab's is still in business. He quit producing speakers and focused on electronic repair when his business was flooded in 1997 but recently started making speakers again! I still have a pair of Harm's Labs III's I purchased when he was still selling speakers out of the living room of his house. While they a good speakers, they are not nearly in the league of my ADS L1530's

 

[avguytx]

The stereo stores I remember for that time frame were Audio Junction west of CSU and Crisman Audio about a mile south campus though I believe there was also a higher end store in downtown Ft. Collins (way out of my budget at the time). There was also a place LaBelles on the far south end of College that while a 'department" store, carried an interesting selection of stereo gear (it's where I purchased my first pair of EPI 100's and a Pioneer RT-707 reel-to-reel).

Harms Lab's is still in business. He quit producing speakers and focused on electronic repair when his business was flooded in 1997 but recently started making speakers again! I still have a pair of Harm's Labs III's I purchased when he was still selling speakers out of the living room of his house. While they a good speakers, they are not nearly in the league of my ADS L1530's

Yep....I remember all of those places now that you mention the names. If I remember correctly, Crisman Audio owners' name was Steve? I remember his voice and my dad, who owned radio stations at the time, saying he had a good radio voice...and was a good salesman. I think I went in Audio Junction the most as they seemed to be a more specialist dealer in car audio, which I really liked at that time. They usually talked to me as I would drive my dads BMW there which seemed to help.ha. I do remember LaBelles, too. I had moved to Ft Collins the summer before my senior year to live with my dad and step mother and also started my senior year at Poudre High and I worked at a restaurant/bar called Jefferson Street Station which I believe was in Old Town maybe on Mulberry. I had a step aunt and uncle who owned a lace called McMurtry's, I think it was, which was a plant nursery east of College somewhere. They lived out by Terry Lake...Terry Shores edition maybe? Used to go to a club called Washingtons on occasion and there were also some places I'd go with friends to see local rock bands. Good times.

I can't recall what the drivers were in those Harms Labs speakers he had but they were about 5 feet tall and maybe 16" wide and as deep or deeper than that. Seems like there were two 12" woofers in each. Big 'ol bastards. I believe he ran Adcom gear on them at that point. I'm looking forward to getting the L1230's this weekend when my daughter comes in and hopefully I'll have some time to clean them up and get them upstairs. They will be run on my (highly modified and updated) Carver C-1 preamp with BillD mods and an M-1.0t MkII Opt 002 which is an outstanding sounding amplifier.

Thanks for all that info!

 

[plugto]

Yep....I remember all of those places now that you mention the names. If I remember correctly, Crisman Audio owners' name was Steve? I remember his voice and my dad, who owned radio stations at the time, saying he had a good radio voice...and was a good salesman. I think I went in Audio Junction the most as they seemed to be a more specialist dealer in car audio, which I really liked at that time. They usually talked to me as I would drive my dads BMW there which seemed to help.ha. I do remember LaBelles, too. I had moved to Ft Collins the summer before my senior year to live with my dad and step mother and also started my senior year at Poudre High and I worked at a restaurant/bar called Jefferson Street Station which I believe was in Old Town maybe on Mulberry. I had a step aunt and uncle who owned a lace called McMurtry's, I think it was, which was a plant nursery east of College somewhere. They lived out by Terry Lake...Terry Shores edition maybe? Used to go to a club called Washingtons on occasion and there were also some places I'd go with friends to see local rock bands. Good times.

I can't recall what the drivers were in those Harms Labs speakers he had but they were about 5 feet tall and maybe 16" wide and as deep or deeper than that. Seems like there were two 12" woofers in each. Big 'ol bastards. I believe he ran Adcom gear on them at that point. I'm looking forward to getting the L1230's this weekend when my daughter comes in and hopefully I'll have some time to clean them up and get them upstairs. They will be run on my (highly modified and updated) Carver C-1 preamp with BillD mods and an M-1.0t MkII Opt 002 which is an outstanding sounding amplifier.

Thanks for all that info!

My first pair of ADS was the L1230s. They are one of the best. I chose them over the L1530s. The bass was tighter and not boomy. I have had so many different models and they are all good. But like your first girl these are just so balanced. Enjoy. Imaging is astronomical on this model as well as bass.

 

[avguytx]

I was really hoping my daughter would have gotten here yesterday from college but turns out it's going to be later this afternoon. Won't be a lot of time to tinker with them tonight since we are going to the in-laws for dinner. Fun. Oh well...I'll get them hooked up eventually.,

 

[avguytx]

@colohiker @plugto This may be a stupid question but is there a secret to getting the grills off? I don't want to break anything and they do have a couple of questionable spots already. I know they come off as he sent pictures of them off. lol

Edit: Stupid me. Lift up.

 

[avguytx]

Well, I knew for the price I got them for, there would have to be some drivers not working and it just happens to be the 206-0107 tweeters. Time to do some research and find some of these or 206-0117 it looks like. Will have to find out what the going rate is for those to be rebuilt, too, as an option. Even if there is a generic replacement, that would work for awhile as my hearing above 12khz is iffy at best.

Too bad the tweeters from L300C won't work in them; I have a pair of those.

 

[StimpyWan]

Don't they have tweeters fuses on back? Maybe they just need replacing?

 

[avguytx]

Don't they have tweeters fuses on back? Maybe they just need replacing?

Definitely the tweeters as one of them was apparently a botched attempt at a repair plus neither read continuity or resistance on the Fluke. I checked fuses before I ever hooked them up.

 

[avguytx]

I emailed Richard So last night and got a response back for the tweeters being rebuilt so I will get those on the road in the next couple of days. I need to check the mids and all the woofers out more in-depth as I have a feeling a woofer or two might have an issue besides dented dust caps. They do need some work but they are not the worst I've ever had. Grills won't be that bad to recover, the backs will need repainting, some new bases built, and the wood cleaned up some. And as usual, there are drink glass marks on the top of one of them. Stupid people.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Of course, you have downloaded the OM from the index of a/d/s/ on Njord's sportsbil site, haven't you? Something to read while you wait for the tweets to be rebuilt. Hurry I hear Richard has quick turnarounds.

 

[avguytx]

Of course, you have downloaded the OM from the index of a/d/s/ on Njord's sportsbil site, haven't you? Something to read while you wait for the tweets to be rebuilt. Hurry I hear Richard has quick turnarounds.

Yep. I had downloaded that and read over it a couple of weeks ago when I was pondering them. After my daughter and her bf went and picked them up, I went over it more. I'm going to try and get these tweeters on the road tomorrow.

Do the L1230's use the same 8" woofer as the L810 which is the 206-317 or is it the 206-0332? Just saw one of those for sale on e b a y.

 

[avguytx]

1.6A/3AG fuses for the tweeters, huh? Anyone use 1.5A or something else close? I see that Littlefuse makes the 1.6A and sells through DIgikey for $0.29 each and then $8 bucks for shipping probably. I believe they would need to be fast blow.

I'll be sending out the tweeters to RIchard So tomorrow or Wednesday and I'm going to pull the mids and woofers and check resistance on those and see if they are still in good order. Hoping for the best and preparing for the worst I guess. I did get sound from them but not anywhere near what they should.

 

[avguytx]

So far, so good on the 4 woofers and 2 mids; they are measure at 6-ohm and are in good shape. Three of the woofers date codes are Feb 9, 1981 and the other is Feb 3rd.

I'll redo the screws on the mids, or find new ones, to get rid of the rust ad that would drive me nuts. I'll try to get the tweeters shipped off tomorrow and if time allows tomorrow, I'll pull the crossovers and check their parts. I'll order new caps for them, nothing too crazy, and rewire them with some 16ga or 12ga wire internally since its so easy with the terminals on the crossovers.

One of the tweeters is dead and the other has a botched repair of some sort so off to be rebuilt.



Woofers all good...just need to clean them up.

 

[Blue Shadow]

Send Digikey a check, add state sales tax if your state collects it and Digikey ships on their dime. They are helping the little guy out. In the terms under shipping for US and Canada. Yes fast blow. Since you are sending stuff out, put a stamp on an envelop and get the free shipping.

I use 1.6A fuses and any aker that doesn't should immediately lose his OCD members card.

 

[avguytx]

They would do that for under 5 bucks worth of fuses? Not a bad deal. Otherwise, I'd either try a couple of the local electrical supply places that are close that the city buys things from or I'll order the $10 kit on Amazon that has an assortment and take my chances on how many are good or not. haha. Yeah, I'm kind of OCD on some things like that...unless it's capacitors where I'm good with a 5% tolerance. lol

 

[Blue Shadow]

They do it for a 10¢ resistor.

bottom of the front page>Terms & Conditions>2/3 of the way down the page to Shipping Charges.

Got a check, Stamp and Envelop?

Otherwise, First Class mail shipping is 5 bucks.

 

[avguytx]

Not a bad deal. I'll probably order fuses when I order new capacitors for the crossovers and take care of it in one shot. Hopefully.