Couple shots of an ADS 910 recap

[pjrey]

After experimenting with some option, I found Clarity Cap worked nicely on the tweeter. Clear but not harsh.

The one mod I decided on was halving the value to the resistors on High Frequency Cut 1. Takes the edge off without sounding dull or loosing any of the airiness.

 

[Finjima]

GW will be by later to take a look at this. He adores his 910's

 

[Drugolf]

Thanks, cool.

 

[GD70]

Interesting and nice work. Are your mids and tweeters original? I ask because did you feel the 910's were lacking in the high end? I've never felt that with mine.
Regardless, fantastic speakers!

 

[bd1886]

Congrats on owning those. Incredible speakers that easily beat up on a lot of more talked about speaks. (Rare!)

 

[Blue Shadow]

Clarity caps are nice caps. Good upgrade

 

[pjrey]

Interesting and nice work. Are your mids and tweeters original? I ask because did you feel the 910's were lacking in the high end? I've never felt that with mine.
Regardless, fantastic speakers!

Oh, quite the opposite. I find them too be a little to bright without using the "High Frequency Cut 1" switch. However, I found that circuit cut the signal to the tweeter too much, so I settled for something in the middle.

Could just be an artifact of my setup. They're driven by a Parasound Halo integrated. Small acoustically treated room.

They are all original drivers.

 

[pjrey]

Also, fwiw, I've worked on about a dozen pair of ADS L series speakers. Some things I've noted:

The electrolytics that bleed the woofer are crappy. Bass always tightens up with a recap.

The original mylar caps are pretty good. Similar in sound to Solen caps.

Dayton caps improved precision, spatial immersion a bit. Clarity caps and Mundorf a bit more. The Mundorfs are a little edgier though and can make some of the brighter ADS models a bit harsh.

 

[Porkloin]

The electrolytics that bleed the woofer are crappy. Bass always tightens up with a recap..

Are you saying that there's a particular electrolytic that bleeds the woofer, or electrolytics in general? I noted a woofer tightening just replacing an old electrolytic with a new electrolytic.The old electrolytic didn't measure bad in the capacitance department, but had a little higher ESR.

 

[Blue Shadow]

I believe he was talking about the lytics in ADS speakers he has worked on and replacing them tightened the bass. The only lytics in the ADS that are on the Crossover pages I have are the ones for the woofer. If the cap was 10µF or lower it seems ADS used a film cap. On the crossover under discussion the only lytic was the 100µF one across the top that was replaced with what appears to be a Mundorf lytic. Hard to easily put a 100µF film cap in there without some external mounting or something.

 

[pjrey]

Are you saying that there's a particular electrolytic that bleeds the woofer, or electrolytics in general? I noted a woofer tightening just replacing an old electrolytic with a new electrolytic.The old electrolytic didn't measure bad in the capacitance department, but had a little higher ESR.

View attachment 912850

I believe he was talking about the lytics in ADS speakers he has worked on and replacing them tightened the bass. The only lytics in the ADS that are on the Crossover pages I have are the ones for the woofer. If the cap was 10µF or lower it seems ADS used a film cap. On the crossover under discussion the only lytic was the 100µF one across the top that was replaced with what appears to be a Mundorf lytic. Hard to easily put a 100µF film cap in there without some external mounting or something.

Exactly. As far as I've seen, the only electrolytic caps in the ADS crossover designs of that era are high uF ones used to bleed high frequencies from the signal going to the woofer.

I've modified ADS crossovers to accommodate large poly caps for the woofer before. The difference is noticeable compared to a new electrolytic but marginal and probably doesn't justify the expense, imo.

 

[GD70]

Oh, quite the opposite. I find them too be a little to bright without using the "High Frequency Cut 1" switch. However, I found that circuit cut the signal to the tweeter too much, so I settled for something in the middle.

Could just be an artifact of my setup. They're driven by a Parasound Halo integrated. Small acoustically treated room.

They are all original drivers.

Your ears must be more sensitive than mine, though I don't like overly bright speakers. I never felt the 910's were overly bright. I will say the L980's are slightly more detailed in the highs than the 910's, which may be considered a brighter sound? I attribute this simply to later driver design. Crossovers are original in both, though the mids and tweeters in the 910's were rebuilt by Richard So.

 

[Porkloin]

I believe he was talking about the lytics in ADS speakers he has worked on and replacing them tightened the bass. The only lytics in the ADS that are on the Crossover pages I have are the ones for the woofer. If the cap was 10µF or lower it seems ADS used a film cap. On the crossover under discussion the only lytic was the 100µF one across the top that was replaced with what appears to be a Mundorf lytic. Hard to easily put a 100µF film cap in there without some external mounting or something.

Exactly. As far as I've seen, the only electrolytic caps in the ADS crossover designs of that era are high uF ones used to bleed high frequencies from the signal going to the woofer.

I've modified ADS crossovers to accommodate large poly caps for the woofer before. The difference is noticeable compared to a new electrolytic but marginal and probably doesn't justify the expense, imo.

I had electrolytics in the band-pass leg of my /2 crossover, plust, as mentioned, the woofer leg. I preferred the sound of poly caps for the midrange and had mode provisions on the new board for those big honking polycaps for the woofer, but I was pleasantly surprised what a fresh electrolytic in that spot did.

(L to R) Custom crossover, original L780 /2 crossover and L780 (first generation) crossover.

 

[Porkloin]

Your ears must be more sensitive than mine, though I don't like overly bright speakers. I never felt the 910's were overly bright. I will say the L980's are slightly more detailed in the highs than the 910's, which may be considered a brighter sound? I attribute this simply to later driver design. Crossovers are original in both, though the mids and tweeters in the 910's were rebuilt by Richard So.

I'm with you on that. The 910's that I went over and listened to seem to have a balance that I preferred compared to most other speakers I've listened to. We A/B/C'd them against a pair of Martin Logans and a pair of 1290's. I was alone in my preference for the 910's, which I suppose is good anecdotal evidence supporting the idea that everyone's ears have their own preferences.

 

[pjrey]

I had electrolytics in the band-pass leg of my /2 crossover, plust, as mentioned, the woofer leg. I preferred the sound of poly caps for the midrange and had mode provisions on the new board for those big honking polycaps for the woofer, but I was pleasantly surprised what a fresh electrolytic in that spot did.

(L to R) Custom crossover, original L780 /2 crossover and L780 (first generation) crossover.

View attachment 912921

Great! Thanks for these shots.

 

[pjrey]

Your ears must be more sensitive than mine, though I don't like overly bright speakers. I never felt the 910's were overly bright. I will say the L980's are slightly more detailed in the highs than the 910's, which may be considered a brighter sound? I attribute this simply to later driver design. Crossovers are original in both, though the mids and tweeters in the 910's were rebuilt by Richard So.

Yeah, probably says more about my tastes than anything else.

Interestingly, I recall the ADS lit saying one of the cuts isn't actually a cut; it's a boost.

Mids on the 910 are spectacular. The low end isn't quite as tight as some of the later series, but I only ever notice that with electronic music.

 

[ipozestu]

I need to take a peak at my 810s and see how they look. Probably should just do them any ways.

 

[GD70]

Yeah, probably says more about my tastes than anything else.

Interestingly, I recall the ADS lit saying one of the cuts isn't actually a cut; it's a boost.

Mids on the 910 are spectacular. The low end isn't quite as tight as some of the later series, but I only ever notice that with electronic music.

Low end on mine is window shattering! Not at all flabby or boomy. I'm big into Electronica, House, Funk-Sole, a lot of stuff with deep bass passages.

 

[pjrey]

Low end on mine is window shattering! Not at all flabby or boomy. I'm big into Electronica, House, Funk-Sole, a lot of stuff with deep bass passages.

What kind of amplification are you putting behind them? Maybe I have them underpowered.

 

[GD70]

What kind of amplification are you putting behind them? Maybe I have them underpowered.

JVC-M7050 Power amp with a P-L10 Pre amp. The amp puts out 210 wpc. Damping factor: 200.