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ADS L810 Newbie is WAY unhappy! Help...

Urchinn

Urchinn

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Just picked up a beautiful pair of ADS L810's. Beautiful (and heavy) speakers no doubt about it. But...the sound is so dark/warm that I'm beginning to think that the tweeters are not connected. Even a Grieg violin concerto sounds too dark. A DTS-encoded Yello disc (Yello being the Swiss techo group) sounded similarly blah. I even slapped on some vinyl. These gorgeous speakers just sound dead. I'm really just a beginner in the world of audiophile so I'm wondering if this downbeat sound is just the "color" of these gorgeous speakers. Any tips, tests, comments?
Thanks Ya'll
 
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HMMMM- does not sound like an ADS product to me. Take a tube and put it on a selected driver, like the tweeter, the other end to you ear. Play the speaker at a reasonable level and make sure all you driver are in fact playing through. If they are not then your problem starts there.

There are some people that can rebuild the drivers or you can go to an auction site and look for replacements.

You can remove the suspected defective driver from the cabinet, hook it up directly to the speaker wires AT VERY LOW VOLUME and test them individually as well. If they play then you have a crossover culprit which might be a fuse, bad capacitor, etc.
Good luck-
DC
 
Your tweeters may not be working if they sound that dark.
When I bought my 810s one tweeter was not working. The repair was done by Richard So and they are keepers. Did you check the fuses, or remove the grills to check the drivers ?
 
Is there a seperate fuse for the tweeters? Removed the grills...everything looks freakin' mint condition. I tried removing the four screws around the tweeter but could not remove the "panel" that they actual driver is attached to. I decided for more input (hopefully) before I proceed.
Thanks
 
Mine also looked mint but it was still shot. There are two wires inside the tweeter not much bigger than a human hair. If one of these are damaged(excessive volume) they could have been melted(both tweeters). There is a strong glue behind the face plate of the tweeter, pry gently and use something as not to mar the speaker. Before you start removing them check the fuses, listen to tweeters with the grill off, the volume low, and your ear close. You may also feel some vibration if they are working. They are worth repairing if damaged.
 
Most of the time I think the fuses for the tweeters are on the panel where the speaker wires hook up. At least they were on mine. They had bad fuses and once replaced, were fine. You might also clean the contacts on the fuse holder if it has one. If not, somehow, you need to get the tweeter out of the cabinet to check it directly. You can always hook it up to the speaker wire with very little volume to see if it works. IF you do this, turn the bass control down on your amp/receiver.

And I can't say they sound dull and lifeless either. Quite the opposite actually.
 
Some use fuses, and the later, I believe, an internal "trip/breaker". My L630s use fuses, my L570 IIs use a breaker.
 
dc270 said:
...Take a tube and put it on a selected driver, like the tweeter, the other end to you ear. Play the speaker at a reasonable level and make sure all you driver are in fact playing through. If they are not then your problem starts there...
Click to expand...

Yes- a paper roll tube or a mailing tube can help you figure this out.
 
Okay...it was the fuses! On both speakers!!! I initially looked at the fuses rather quickly to see the wire was intact. Yup. Did some more farting around. Nothing was working so I pulled the fuses again and pulled out my magnifying glass. Holy smokes - both fuses had broken wires inside but the breaks were so close to the metal ends that you barely tell they were out of commission. There were no spares in the lower part of the box so I took a quick trip to the hardware store to get new fuses. Voila...they really sound sooooo different with those high frequencies. I put Ella Sings Cole Porter on the ol' Technics 1200 and, to tell you the truth, I'm in ecstasy. Wonderful sound, folks. The ADS experience is pretty powerful so far...
Thanks to one and all...
Tony
 
You can never trust a fuse where you can see the little wire going across. It all depends on where it breaks at. Glad it was an easy fix and make sure you put the correct value back in there so they do their job properly!
 
I picked up my pair cheap because the fuse was blown.Owner thought the speakers were broken.Two fuses and I was happy.Be careful though,pushed mine hard one day with a SX-1250 and blew the fuses.Keep spares on hand.
 
Congrats. I'm a big a/d/s/ fan, currently with L570 IIs, L1230s, L630s, and a good possibility some L880s soon.

Tremendous speakers indeed. Be sure to use the proper fuse ratings in them as to keep 'em happy and healthy.
 
I still have that pair of 810's I got with the odd (4) Polydax woofers in them. They were all soldered into place and would appear to be stock...who knows. The grills are not the metal versions but the cloth covered grills. They don't look anything like the L810's I used in college. They are ok but they've been stored in the closet for about 6 months.
 
Urchinn said:
Okay...it was the fuses! On both speakers!!! I initially looked at the fuses rather quickly to see the wire was intact. Yup. Did some more farting around. Nothing was working so I pulled the fuses again and pulled out my magnifying glass. Holy smokes - both fuses had broken wires inside but the breaks were so close to the metal ends that you barely tell they were out of commission. There were no spares in the lower part of the box so I took a quick trip to the hardware store to get new fuses. Voila...they really sound sooooo different with those high frequencies. I put Ella Sings Cole Porter on the ol' Technics 1200 and, to tell you the truth, I'm in ecstasy. Wonderful sound, folks. The ADS experience is pretty powerful so far...
Thanks to one and all...
Tony
Click to expand...

I had the same experiance. I was so glad to find out that it was only going to cost me a couple bucks to fix the problem. Thats a good feeling. :thmbsp:
 
I got mine from my uncle - he was a little pissed when I calmly replaced a fuse and brought his (my) speaker back to life before his very eyes.
 
I have two pair of L-810s. One pair has had the XOs redone and, in the process, we elected to bypass the fuses altogether. I'm really happy with the result. The mods have breathed some additional clarity into the highs - less splash at higher volumes.

Mike


Urchinn said:
Okay...it was the fuses! On both speakers!!! I initially looked at the fuses rather quickly to see the wire was intact. Yup. Did some more farting around. Nothing was working so I pulled the fuses again and pulled out my magnifying glass. Holy smokes - both fuses had broken wires inside but the breaks were so close to the metal ends that you barely tell they were out of commission. There were no spares in the lower part of the box so I took a quick trip to the hardware store to get new fuses. Voila...they really sound sooooo different with those high frequencies. I put Ella Sings Cole Porter on the ol' Technics 1200 and, to tell you the truth, I'm in ecstasy. Wonderful sound, folks. The ADS experience is pretty powerful so far...
Thanks to one and all...
Tony
Click to expand...
 
Clmrt...sorry for the goofy question, but who is in the picture? Looks like Ray Lamontagne to me, but...

Clmrt said:
I got mine from my uncle - he was a little pissed when I calmly replaced a fuse and brought his (my) speaker back to life before his very eyes.
Click to expand...
 
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