ADS M12 'Magic'

[David_NC]

I've had a pair of these for a couple years now. Originally, I had them in a space that was really just not big enough for them; they are fairly large towers, after all. A pair of L1090's now work much better in that smaller space.
These M12's have been in a much larger room now that we use primarily as a home theater, and they do very nicely. I power them with a QSC 3350 @ 300 WPC into 4 ohms, as the Yamaha AVR would go into protect mode every so often when there was a pretty high peak.
Every so often, when the housemates are out of town, a couple friends and I will have music night. I switch things up a bit and use a vintage Sony TA-2000 preamp with the QSC power amp and add a dbx crossover to allow me to use the subwoofer with the preamp. I used a FiiO DAC and iPad with Amazon HD to keep it simple.
These speakers are only about 8' apart - too close for the sitting distance. They are limited to that at present due to other furniture. Still, from the moment the music started, it was like the room just expanded. I was hearing distinct sounds at 9:00 and 3:00, relative to the left and right speakers. Sounds came from up high, and a couple times, seemed to come from behind me. A couple times, I'd replay a track after we'd agreed that we had each heard sounds coming from areas nowhere near or between the speakers, like up in the air to the left or right of a speaker.
I'm very familiar with the ADS 'house sound'; after all, I've got several sets of them and listen to L880/2s or L1090/2s daily. They all have a really rich midrange due, I'm sure, to those big domes. The M12's have a cone midrange instead, and it crosses over from the woofers at 200Hz vs the 650 or so of the domes. I'm not sure if that's the reason, but something about the later big ADS towers is just magic. Granted, the tracks I'd chosen were ones that are recorded well and that I know sound really good; a couple that friends chose weren't as impressive... garbage in, garbage out, I suppose.
The M's don't get the same love as the earlier L series, and perhaps it's because of the change from soft domes to cones and some sort of hard dome tweeter. I'd also suspect a bit better longevity from not having the sticky domes, too. I'd be curious if other have had similar experiences with the M12 / 15 models. I'm not sure if I'd choose M12's or the L1290's that they seemed to replace, but I just might stick with the M's. I really need to find a better matching center channel than what I have now. If in the market and a pair pop up, I'd highly recommend checking them out.
(generic pic but identical to mine)

 

[SteveWig]

I've had a pair of these for a couple years now. Originally, I had them in a space that was really just not big enough for them; they are fairly large towers, after all. A pair of L1090's now work much better in that smaller space.
These M12's have been in a much larger room now that we use primarily as a home theater, and they do very nicely. I power them with a QSC 3350 @ 300 WPC into 4 ohms, as the Yamaha AVR would go into protect mode every so often when there was a pretty high peak.
Every so often, when the housemates are out of town, a couple friends and I will have music night. I switch things up a bit and use a vintage Sony TA-2000 preamp with the QSC power amp and add a dbx crossover to allow me to use the subwoofer with the preamp. I used a FiiO DAC and iPad with Amazon HD to keep it simple.
These speakers are only about 8' apart - too close for the sitting distance. They are limited to that at present due to other furniture. Still, from the moment the music started, it was like the room just expanded. I was hearing distinct sounds at 9:00 and 3:00, relative to the left and right speakers. Sounds came from up high, and a couple times, seemed to come from behind me. A couple times, I'd replay a track after we'd agreed that we had each heard sounds coming from areas nowhere near or between the speakers, like up in the air to the left or right of a speaker.
I'm very familiar with the ADS 'house sound'; after all, I've got several sets of them and listen to L880/2s or L1090/2s daily. They all have a really rich midrange due, I'm sure, to those big domes. The M12's have a cone midrange instead, and it crosses over from the woofers at 200Hz vs the 650 or so of the domes. I'm not sure if that's the reason, but something about the later big ADS towers is just magic. Granted, the tracks I'd chosen were ones that are recorded well and that I know sound really good; a couple that friends chose weren't as impressive... garbage in, garbage out, I suppose.
The M's don't get the same love as the earlier L series, and perhaps it's because of the change from soft domes to cones and some sort of hard dome tweeter. I'd also suspect a bit better longevity from not having the sticky domes, too. I'd be curious if other have had similar experiences with the M12 / 15 models. I'm not sure if I'd choose M12's or the L1290's that they seemed to replace, but I just might stick with the M's. I really need to find a better matching center channel than what I have now. If in the market and a pair pop up, I'd highly recommend checking them out.
(generic pic but identical to mine)
View attachment 2651378

 

[SteveWig]

+1 on the M12’s.
I’ve had a pair since new but they were sitting in storage for 10 years while I was thinking my B&W home theater set up was all that. Brought them out of the garage a few years ago to see if they were worth using and was shocked at how good they were. Had Richard So redo the tweets and mids. They are really good with a sub. I also have a pair of L1590/2’s share the room. Different sound but both are just excellent.

 

[David_NC]

+1 on the M12’s.
I’ve had a pair since new but they were sitting in storage for 10 years while I was thinking my B&W home theater set up was all that. Brought them out of the garage a few years ago to see if they were worth using and was shocked at how good they were. Had Richard So redo the tweets and mids. They are really good with a sub. I also have a pair of L1590/2’s share the room. Different sound but both are just excellent.

We had a get together a couple years ago and had my M12's biamped and a pair of L1590/2's. With a sub, the low end was pretty much comparable, as expected. We A/B'ed them a few times. The were different, but I won't say that one was better than the other. Like you said, "...both are just excellent."
FWIW, both sets had received Mr. So's magic. I'll do a comparison between the L1090/2's and M12/s sometime in the next couple months for fun.

 

[SteveWig]

The M12’s don’t get as much love as the L series. There is a black pair on my local CL that look to be in good shape and seller is asking $320.
That is a lot of speaker for the money.
Add a sub to the M12 in a medium sized room and you will get SQ that rivals anything you can buy new for 10X the price.
I’m driving the both ADS towers with a Mac 7270, have never noticed the bass dropping out of the M12 at higher volumes without the sub as was reported by some users on the early M towers.
Gratuitas pic of the M12 and 1590…

 

[David_NC]

The M12’s don’t get as much love as the L series. There is a black pair on my local CL that look to be in good shape and seller is asking $320.
That is a lot of speaker for the money.
Add a sub to the M12 in a medium sized room and you will get SQ that rivals anything you can buy new for 10X the price.
I’m driving the both ADS towers with a Mac 7270, have never noticed the bass dropping out of the M12 at higher volumes without the sub as was reported by some users on the early M towers.
Gratuitas pic of the M12 and 1590…View attachment 2652500

That's been my experience with the bass as well. I use them with a sub primarily because it's a large room that benefits from it, not to cover up saturation of the chokes and subsequent distortion, which I think is the supposed issue. That, and with a surround system, a sub really is needed for the .1 channel.
As big as the M12's seem on their own or compared to the smaller L1090's, they are almost dwarfed by the 1590's! I can bear hug an M12 to move it, but a 1090 can be put on my shoulder and easily carried. The 1590's really benefit from two people or a wheeled dolly to move very far.
Listening to my M12's last night and comparing them to the L880's (which seem to be basically a single woofer bookshelf version of a 1590) and to 1090's, I think I'd say that the biggest difference I notice is that the domes in the M's sound a bit 'crisper' than the soft domes in the L series... crisp not as in exaggerated highs or the harshness of many horns, but with more clarity than the soft domes. That clarity may be why they seem to have what I'd describe as more precise imaging.