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calling all ADS guys... need guidance on my 1090 refers project.

Seaneman

Seaneman

Member
Picked up a pair of 1090's in 'meh' condition on CL for 150$. The guy bought them new in, I think, 1994. My mint condition L7's are my favorite, everyday use speakers, so I was going to leave the 1090's as-is and just see if I liked them. Wellllllll... now I can't stop thinking about getting the 1090's to be as minty as my L7's, so I think I'm going to go ahead and give them a full restoration. The cabinets are sun faded, and one has a water stain on top, but I'm (imho) a very good finish guy. I think I can lightly sand them without burning through the veneer, stain, lacquer, wax, and they'll look awesome. Looks like Richard So has a package deal to referb the Tweets and Mids, so I'll likely go ahead with that. (the domes are covered in cat hair and sawdust... not great). I believe the 4 woofers are in great shape, so I'm not planning on doing anything with those, unless a problem arrises.
Here's a few starter questions for you guys with experience"
1. Any advice on labeling components I remove before working on the cabinets, so everything goes back together smoothly?
2. When the low end drivers go back in, do they need to be in the same configuration they came out? Is there anything I should look for on those drivers that could have failed/be failing. (they all function now)
3. How about the crossovers? At this age, I would hope Caps would not be an issue, but I only know enough about it to get myself in trouble. What do I need to know?
4, I've seen several threads about the grills and cloth, and I have all the parts, but some of the pins are pulled out of the cabinets and I'll need to try to get all that sorted, any do's or do-not's?

Thanks for any help.

(I've been seeing a bunch of ThriftStore ADS scores lately.... and you are pissing me off.)
 
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Seaneman said:
1. Any advice on labeling components I remove before working on the cabinets, so everything goes back together smoothly?
2. When the low end drivers go back in, do they need to be in the same configuration they came out? Is there anything I should look for on those drivers that could have failed/be failing. (they all function now)
3. How about the crossovers? At this age, I would hope Caps would not be an issue, but I only know enough about it to get myself in trouble. What do I need to know?
4, I've seen several threads about the grills and cloth, and I have all the parts, but some of the pins are pulled out of the cabinets and I'll need to try to get all that sorted, any do's or do-not's?

Thanks for any help.

(I've been seeing a bunch of ThriftStore ADS scores lately.... and you are pissing me off.)
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Mark the woofers with their location, orientation and lead colors and you can put them back upside down to spread the strain on the spider out over the next 25 years to make it even.
Mark the speaker wires for the mids and tweets so you know what goes where. If there are any +itive or -ative marks on the drivers, note it. Might be hard to find this info since it seems there isn't markings on the drivers that some have shown us and Richard may or may not mark the drivers, either.
Caps in the crossover, all will be non-aging except the one for the woofer, a 'lytic you can swap out.
How many pins do you have? How many pin capture rubbers do you have? If it isn't 12 and 12, might want to see how Drugolf made some for his speakers. Mashing the grilles back to straight and flat is absolutely simple. I don't use the grilles on my 1590s and that is the only speaker I don't use the grilles. Too much of a breeze above the speaker in the gap between the speaker and grille. But without knowing what you have for grilles and condition, we can put down all the dos and don'ts.
Yes, I can see why you are ticked off about Thrift Stores selling ADS speakers.
 
Congrats Sean...! Nice get. Those will be lovely when done. Be sure to post a few photos now.
As far as crossovers - more than likely they are still okay. worth an examination for sure to see if anything looks wrong. Some of us have found cold solders, loose connectins etc. All easy stuff. ADS typically used good caps so it is doubtful those need attention, but you never know. could have been run hard etc.
I would put the drivers back int eh same locations. Maybe rotate the woofers 180 if you take them out. Others may have some more specific thoughts on this.
I have a nice little remedy for the pegs if that what are missing.
 
Great info Blue, thanks. Grills are quite good. I need to do a comprehensive pin assessment, but it's all there, some have pulled the plugs out of the boxes. I have some light cloth when the time comes. Might need to prep and lacquer spray the grills before reassembly. My dog is a total hairball, so I need all the protection I can get.
I'm up for replacing the woofer caps, if it's only (2)... first time for everything.
 
Drugolf said:
Congrats Sean...! Nice get. Those will be lovely when done. Be sure to post a few photos now.
As far as crossovers - more than likely they are still okay. worth an examination for sure to see if anything looks wrong. Some of us have found cold solders, loose connectins etc. All easy stuff. ADS typically used good caps so it is doubtful those need attention, but you never know. could have been run hard etc.
I would put the drivers back int eh same locations. Maybe rotate the woofers 180 if you take them out. Others may have some more specific thoughts on this.
I have a nice little remedy for the pegs if that what are missing.
Click to expand...

Thanks man. Pics soon, I'll try to post a running update. I'll definitely get back to you when I'm sussing out the pins.
 
Welcome to the ADS club! You started off with a great set!
You're on the right track. Richard does great work.
Take lots of pics of the wiring before you separate the wires from the drivers, and I marked wire colors by the tabs on my drivers before I sent them to Richard.
Glenn
 
Crossovers:
Small black round capacitors - replace them. Most of the ADS crossovers I've seen don't have the electrolytic caps in them (except for the woofer leg of the circuit). Mine did in the midrange leg. The box capacitors are film and generally don't need replacement. If there's any doubt, sent them the Richard So. He charges $65 bucks a piece to "refurbish" them - he's got a battery of tests that determine whether caps are in need of replacement and he has the radial box caps to replace them with. You could burn a lot of time locating the caps yourself, but as time is money (we in the hobby have to remind ourselves of that all of the time), $65 is a bargain.
You may decide to recap as a precautionary measure, and why not? If you're able to locate radial box caps of the right value, they're actually pretty inexpensive. Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't think of replacing stock film caps with the high-falootin' poly caps. Although I could tell a difference in mine between stock electrolytic in the midrange, I could hear no difference between an $9.50 poly-cap and a $2.15 box cap in the tweeter.

I believe yours is more like the one on the left. The only electrolytic there is the one for the woofer circuit. I'm not sure why I snapped the photo with an axial cap on top of the stock radial cap, which by the way, is hard to come by with the stock specs. the axial turned sideways was the way to go in that case.

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When you say Meh condition you mean the cabinets and the domes being dirty? Other wise they a seem to be in good working order? You seem to be on the right track by getting the mids and domes refurbed, so forget about trying to get that junk off of them,he(richard so) replaces them anyway, so basically they come back like new.
One thing I can recommend, is taking the time to package the sets very tight and well protected, mine became loose in the packaging in transit and were scuffed up a bit, but they came back sounding great.
The 1090 has a great reputation, and should offer you a rewarding listening experience. By all means give them your best shot on the refurb. Its part of the fun of ownership,
 
here's some pics. You can clearly see the water and sun damage, the pulled out pin plugs, and the junk stuck to the domes. Everything else is looking pretty good. Grills are nice and flat, veneer is only got a few skid marks where the grill corners rubbed.

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Of interest, after what Blue Shadow said about moving air at the top and bottom of the grills. The fit is much tighter on the L7's than on the 1090's. I wonder if that is related. IMG_2697.jpgIMG_2698.jpg
 
Seaneman said:
here's some pics. You can clearly see the water and sun damage, the pulled out pin plugs, and the junk stuck to the domes. Everything else is looking pretty good. Grills are nice and flat, veneer is only got a few skid marks where the grill corners rubbed.

View attachment 847268 View attachment 847269 View attachment 847271 View attachment 847272 View attachment 847273 View attachment 847274 View attachment 847275 View attachment 847265
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They look great! I'd be very happy with those!
I would sand the top finish to the veneer, and refinish. Those stains should mostly dissapear.
 
I agree with GD70, those 1090's look pretty darn good to my (untrained) eyes. I wouldn't even try to do much of anything with the stuff stuck on the sticky domes- I think you'll do more harm than good trying to get that stuff off. Unless you go with replacements from Richard So...
 
The domes are fine as is if working. Use non-magnetic tweezers to remove the big chunks and ignore the rest. It is an aesthetic issue not a sonic one.

For the crossovers, the speakers are old enough that the electrolytics could benefit with change. The black ones as stated should be replaced with value-for-value parts. You can upgrade the film caps if you like but they were good quality to begin with an don't degrade the way electrolytics do.

The grille grommets are just press-fit into the speaker baffles. Pull them off the pins and reseat them in the holes with a drop of RTV.

Lastly, your L1090s are Series I and use fuses. You should check all of them and be sure they are the right value and rating. The tweeters should be 1.5/1.6A fast-blow and the mid-ranges IIRC, 2.5A fast-blow. If they aren't marked as fast-blow or you aren't sure of the markings, replace them with new ones that are marked fast-blow. If you use anything else you risk damaging the drivers if they get pushed.
 
Thanks soundmotor, I had fuses on my list of things to figure out. That's exactly the info I needed...
Well, now I'm on the fence about what to send out, and what to live with. I actually have a better condition-mid dome I got on the Bay for 45$. Maybe I'll replace the worse of the two, and pull the hairs off of the tweets and see how it sounds. That way I'd have the cash to send the crossovers to Richard and get them up to snuff for another 30yrs. Seems like the crossovers are more mission critical for safety and longevity, in this instance? I'm just having trouble getting my head around being 600$ into these when they're done, if I send everything but the woofers off. On Richard's price list 3-way crossovers are 155$ a pair and the package deal on the tweets and mids is 235$.
 
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