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ADS speakers and their growing popularity in 2025

When I saw that YouTube video praising the 810’s, I thought “ wait a minute/ I thought the 1230’s were better?”
 
They are. And the 1530's are better than the 1230's.
And the 2030s are too big to move into a house, needing the room to be built around the speaker. 14” dual woofers.

Not really, new, expensive, high end speakers can weigh in the 300-400 pound range and need a crew to set them up.
 
Love my ADS speakers but wish folks would just stfu about how good they are! Harder to find and demand driving prices up.

To my ear the majority of ADS speakers from the Wilmington MA have a signature sound that i can't put a finger on. Its a very similar thing to Martin guitars. Ive no idea how they do it but a Martin always sounds like a Martin. Same with ADS.

Hopefully this thread can dissappear and folks forget everything it said.

Ive said too much already.
 
And the 2030s are too big to move into a house, needing the room to be built around the speaker. 14” dual woofers.

Not really, new, expensive, high end speakers can weigh in the 300-400 pound range and need a crew to set them up.
No need for all that; one ak member had his 2030's in an apartment here in Ct. 2nd floor if memory serves correct.
 
Th

The 1230 are a bit rare , 1530 are rare and the 2030 super rare.
Problem with 1530 is they are bigger than many people have room for. I almost trashed my back moving those 1230’s!
Comeon now; I've carried 1230's and 1530's up and back down the stairs inside my house. They're not that bad to move. Now Bozak Concert Grands those are horrible speakers to move even with 2 people.
 
Th

The 1230 are a bit rare , 1530 are rare and the 2030 super rare.
Problem with 1530 is they are bigger than many people have room for. I almost trashed my back moving those 1230’s!

I got my L1230s out of my van but couldn't get them in the house. Went to HD and bought a 2 wheeler. Sure, I might have been able to muscle them in but im a big believer in working smarter, not harder. Actually, not sure im a believer of working at all.

I keep them on a set of dollys for fine tuning or experimenting with placement.
 
I manhandled my L980s down two flights of stairs and into my truck, then out of the truck and into their current location at home, each speaker weighs 64 pounds... wearing a back brace helped.
 
I won’t be popular but I’ve had 570,s, 710’s 810, and 910’s. They were all “nice” speakers but none are here anymore. If you love yours - enjoy. As much as I enjoyed the 910s, I’ve also had Jbl 590s at half the cost, not even close according to my ears. The 910s might maybe possibly have more impactful bass at very high volume, but in every other way, the 590s best them.
 
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I won’t be popular
I’ve moved on from home ads but still have a car full of it. I’ve had at least 7 pair, from 420 to 1590/2 and like em but bested by Dahlquist, Magneplanar and the 1590 did not play nice enough with very low damping factor tube amps of proper power to drive them.

Very well built, sound nice and I’ll always buy em when under-priced.
 
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I’ve moved on from home ads but still have a car full of it. I’ve had at least 7 pair, from 420 to 1590/2 and like em but bested by Dahlquist, Magnaplanar and the 1590 did not play nice enough with very low damping factor tube amps of proper power to drive them.

Very well built, sound nice and I’ll always buy em when unpriced.

They do run better with some muscle behind them.

Ive got a pair of CM6 monitors and theyre hungry little things. Weigh a ton too.
 
They do run better with some muscle behind them
The brand is generally playing louder for the power than many other brands, low 90s sensitivity, but dual 10” woofers are not well controlled with a16 damping factor amplifier and the bass is floppy. I’m keeping the amps, they work wonderfully with the DQ-10s.
 
I’ve moved on from home ads but still have a car full of it. I’ve had at least 7 pair, from 420 to 1590/2 and like em but bested by Dahlquist, Magneplanar and the 1590 did not play nice enough with very low damping factor tube amps of proper power to drive them.

Very well built, sound nice and I’ll always buy em when under-priced.
Our paths may not be all that dis-similar. From my 910's I went to a stacked pair of DQ-10's then to Magnepan 1.7's then on to some Infinities and now these JBL's.


I had had some DQ-10's back in the 80's and some Magnepan II's. So I kinda had a second round of them in the 2000's.
 
Our paths may not be all that dis-similar
Sold Bose, Advent, Epicure, Dahlquist, Magnepan, DCM. Had stacked Advents a couple times. Got Time Windows before leaving the store and used them for decades. Bought MG-I and used em as downpayment on a car back then, too.

This century have picked up 901s, MG-IIIa, DQ-10s, three times, Time Windows a few times Boston Acoustics A-200 and of course, aDs of different sizes and others.

Keepers are the 10s, Magneplanars and Time Windows. They just sound right with 50 watts of tube or 185-200 watts of ss power and appropriate subs for the job. The recap of the mostly electrolytic capped early DQ-10s made them very smooth and evenly voiced bottom to top and with the subs they rock with the Lux tube amps. The boys keep coming over for gigs so I guess my rig doesn’t suck.
 
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