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ADS L300W Speakers

Guth

Guth

Active Member
Hey All,

I have been enjoying these little ADSL300W speakers in my office system for a while now. I acquired them by way of Ebay a few years ago and eventually decided to combine them with a small 30 NAD D3030 integrated amplifier (30WPC), fed primarily by streaming digital sources. This combination sounds very nice to my ear. The resulting sound defies the fact that the music is being reproduced via two very small boxes as there is an amazing amount of depth to the music when played through this combination.

At any rate, I just finished taking a number of photos of these speakers to send to Richard So, who I learned about on this forum years ago. Richard seems to be THE go to resource when it comes to ADS speaker parts/repairs/knowledge (https://www.adsspeakersservice.com). As I had already taken the photos, I thought I would start a thread for these particular speakers as finding any information on this particular variation of the L300 has proven to be downright impossible. Other than the fact that these are L300 speakers with Walnut finished cabinets, that is all that I know about them. I have managed to locate specs for the L300e speakers, that I also own, out on the web, but nothing for the L300 specifically (regardless of the finish).

At any rate, should any of you out there happen to wind up with a pair of these, know that you are not alone. (I have also seen a video out on YouTube featuring the L300W speakers that was made a few years ago.)

All the best,
Guth

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Great post! And welcome to AK. I've never heard the 300's but have a brother set of L400's that I really love. Paired with a subwoofer to cover to low end, they are in my opinion the sleeper speakers of that size and every bit worth the price of admission.

I dont know about the 300's but assume they are part of a sub sat system like the 400's.
 
Very schveet, have so many of the Minimus 7/type speakers and their larger variants lol. They are real gems and finding the wood models always a plus. Having had many of the different brands including the almost unknown Vanco Compac 50 I'm partial to the Canton line.
 
Wow. Those 300s look great. My black 300s are connected to my KR-9400 and are used for my computer listening. These are great speakers and the Kenwood seems like a good match.
 
I've had a pair of those for probably close to 10 years; got them at AKFest.

I had a table in the upstairs Swap Room and a friend asked if I'd sell them for him; I told him I would hook them up for him as I liked ADS. Well, after listening to them for about half an hour; I bought them!!

They're wonderful little speakers which punch WAY above their weight. I've had them in my bedroom and they are perfect in there playing through a Sherwood S-7100A and a DVD player. I regularly recommend them to anyone looking for a small speaker and they honestly are on my list of speakers I'll never sell.
 
CopperWizard said:
Awesome! Which part of Oregon do you live? I really like my ADS L470/2.
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I live in Stumptown. Many times in the past I have pondered buying a set of the L570/2 or one of the smaller three-way designs that ADS released around that same timeframe.
 
Spiceman50 said:
Great post! And welcome to AK. I've never heard the 300's but have a brother set of L400's that I really love. Paired with a subwoofer to cover to low end, they are in my opinion the sleeper speakers of that size and every bit worth the price of admission.

I dont know about the 300's but assume they are part of a sub sat system like the 400's.
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Thanks. I actually signed up here almost five years ago, I just don't tend to be too active. But I've really taken greater notice of the these little ADS speakers as of late. During a few late night work sessions in my home office I have found myself somewhat mesmerized by them.

I don't use a subwoofer with these speakers. I have them set up on a shelf at ear-level and listen in a nearfield arrangement. The NAD D3020 has a bass boost setting that helps to fill in the bottom end when listening volumes are down low. When I was using my pair of L300e speakers in the past I was using a subwoofer to fill in the bottom end, but was never totally happy with the results. The more I listen to them the more I am finding these older L300W's a bit more to my liking. At some point I might switch the L300e speakers back in this system just for the sake of comparison but I am feeling no motivation to do so at this point.
 
rickl said:
Wow. Those 300s look great. My black 300s are connected to my KR-9400 and are used for my computer listening. These are great speakers and the Kenwood seems like a good match.
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Wow, talk about a legendary receiver — I really love the look of the Kenwood's from that era. That KR-9400 in particular shouldn't have any problems powering up your L300's. Nice!
 
Dswankey said:
This is a great resource of info on ADS, it's a very long thread but you might be able to glean some info

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/a-d-s-line-pecking-order.44406/
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Yes, that is an awesome thread. One that I believe I've been through in it's entirety over the course of many different viewings. There used to be a member that was active on this forum named "soundmotor" who I seem to recall previously worked for ADS. His vast knowledge of their speakers was spread all throughout that thread. The only thing he had to share about the L300W was this: These were rare even when they were being offered. ADS did not make many and the apocrypha says they were specifically for one retailer, Tweeter.

Interestingly, if you look at the shipping address of the box that my pair came in you can see that they were sent to Audio Warehouse, Inc. located in Charleston, SC. I can still remember outfits like "Pacific Stereo" and a few others back in the day but I don't know that I recall "Tweeter" stores being around where I grew up at (Illinois). Maybe Audio Warehouse was previously a Tweeter store, or more than likely this particular variation of the L300 were sold by stores other than Tweeter.
 
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Yodathedog said:
Damn, now I gotta start looking for them for myself. :cool:
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Not having found any specs on the L300 I am somewhat left in the dark on the specifics of these. Richard So informed me that they were basically the same speaker as the L300, only with the walnut veneer. This makes sense if you look at the label on the back of the speaker. I like the walnut veneer because I love the appearance of walnut (the Rega RX3 speakers in my main system are also finished in walnut as are the Fried A/3 speakers that live in my basement system). Not only for the look, but also because the walnut veneer was featured on most of the speakers that I held in such high esteem in my youth.
 
“Mesmerizing” is totally the word @Guth. Set of black L300c’s for me, paired with an A&R a60 in my bedroom. They’re kinda astonishing little things, right? I just loaned them out a couple days ago to a fellow AK’r down the street who is between speakers right now. He put’em on the stands where some old JBL pro monitors used to be. Then the texts started rolling in... “what ARE these things?” “they are doing so much right!” “holy smokes!” et cetera... Those silky mids. I’d love to try a set of L400’s at some point. I’ve read in some ways that the 300’s are more coherent- a better sum of the parts- but perhaps it’s because they inspire such surprise. They certainly surprised me when I first heard them :)
 
Yodathedog said:
Damn, now I gotta start looking for them for myself. :cool:
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@Yodathedog It looks like there is a pair of these out on Ebay right now in very nice shape. Auction ends at 12:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) today. I swear that I have absolutely no relationship to the Ebay seller. I ran across the listing when I went to go search Ebay for ADS L300 brackets as I do every once in a while (this time spurred on by my own thread).

If you were serious about looking for some, this is the first time I've seen another pair of these for sale since I bought my pair over three years ago. Back when I purchased mine, it was by dumb luck as I had no idea how hard they were to come by.
 
Guth said:
@Yodathedog It looks like there is a pair of these out on Ebay right now in very nice shape. Auction ends at 12:30 p.m. (Pacific Time) today. I swear that I have absolutely no relationship to the Ebay seller. I ran across the listing when I went to go search Ebay for ADS L300 brackets as I do every once in a while (this time spurred on by my own thread).

If you were serious about looking for some, this is the first time I've seen another pair of these for sale since I bought my pair over three years ago. Back when I purchased mine, it was by dumb luck as I had no idea how hard they were to come by.
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Thanks for the info. I'm watching them.
 
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