Clear, crisp, realistic sound reproduction

The 8” drivers are hungry so bass is not there at very low volumes. I bought these new and wanted the 1590’s but couldn’t do the extra $ but I have enjoyed these ever since. I rebuilt them after overdriving them and they are now even better. Also I have since bought a pair of 1590’s and man they sound richer with their 10” drivers, but that’s expected. Over the years, I have compared the 1290 with other speakers to see if I am missing something and found that I’m not. To equal their performance, I would need to spend $5k. These baby’s rock as do the 1590’s. I have not seen a review on the 15’s but I agree with the reviews here on the 1290’s. If you can find a used pair of these or the 15’s, grab them! You won’t be disappointed. Sure speaker technology has improved, but the cost to get equal sound quality is too great. Components in a used pair can be replaced or rebuilt getting them up to date and able to handle higher power levels. I am driving them with a NAD 218 amp at 225 watts/ channel, love that too. After 20 or so years of enjoying these ( and now the 1590’s), I still cant wait to get home on a Friday and hear them just like when they were new.

L1290/2 Excellent sound from these towers that love to be fed current. Bi-amp them especially if you have the A/D/S C2000 active crossover. Feed them and they will rock - I melted my Parasound HCA 2200 Mk1 amps. They were up to the task. Headed towards class D for the bottom to once again have my 6 mono-block system. Love the Parasounds but they significantly raise my electric bill and will heat the room -

Sub-woofer helps cover the lower registers but if you have enough amperage into the woofers in Bi-amp they flat thunder -

As a former Audio Store manager in SoCal where we sold the ADS line, here is my overall impression of the L1290 and L1590. BRIGHT, very forward upper midrange. Actually quite pleasant at lower volumes, but the domes are horrible at louder levels . When compared to cones, which can easily achieve higher dynamic levels, the domes fail outright when pushed too hard. Now the above may lead you to believe that I don't like these speakers. Well that's not true at all. When played with a solid, high current amp, the L1290/1590's can sing. As I mentioned before, they are bright. But not in a negative way, but definitely not laid back in the upper ranges. Due to this fact, the 1590 with the fuller bottom end , does have better balance , but BOTH really do need a nice sub to truly sound their best and reign in that top end sizzle. If you want a more balanced , less bright speaker with better dynamics, the M12 and M15 really were much better sounding. When side by side, the L series tended to sound more strident in the upper ranges, especially with digital recordings, The M series were far more accurate, and packed more punch. When directly comparing them, I had NO one tell me the L series were better. ONLY previous owners who had NOT directly compared them tried to tell me that the L series were better. Once I had them sit down and listen, their argument ended. Every one of these L series owners agreed that when they actually sat down and compared them side by side, there was an obvious improvement with the M series over the L. I even had one older gent, tell me that the L series were "More shouty" compared to the M series ! Love his term, shouty ! While his audio vernacular may have been a bit crude in his description, it was very on point and a good assessment of the L series.If you are someone who prefers a softer listening setup, and especially someone who prefers to amble about while listening, the L series are a fine choice. The one advantage the dome did have over the cone was a wider spread to the sound stage. A bit more diffused as a result, but it still had solid imaging. The M series were more precise and focused, giving a better sense of depth to the soundstage. Definitely better for those who prefer to listen in a fixed position, and not bouncing about the room . So if your tastes tend to prefer softer listening levels, and better off axis presentation, the L series is a good choice. If you prefer to raise the roof from time to time, and prefer a more precise, accurate and detailed image, the M series is the better option. Now for those of you that are thinking, this guy must own a pair of M series ! Actually no. I have owned the L 1590's. I sold these a while back to purchase a pair of B&W Matrix 804 series II towers. While the ADS were very nice for their time, they just weren't as good as many others. Not that they aren't good speakers, but time had passed them by. Put it this way. If ADS were able to compete and fair well by selling the older designs, they would have kept making them, but that was just not the case. The L series were becoming less attractive , and while the M series did help to revive their sales for a short time, they just weren't as competitive with the offerings from other companies. During the last two years we literally had to discount the L sereis dramatically. Not as much for the 1290 & 1590, but the 990/690 tower, and the bookshelves from the 570 on down, were very hard to sale in the last year of production. The simple reason, PRICE ! Here's an example. The small mini speaker, the 300i's had a retail of $479.00 ! Compare that to any number of full sized speakers from Canton, B&W, Kef, Thiel, Vanderstein ..., the list goes on. ADS simply priced themselves out of the market. Now, buying these ADS speakers on the used market is a great way to score a wonderfully made, and fine sounding pair of speakers at a good price. Maybe they were a bit too pricey when new, but they did make a fine speaker nonetheless. Keep in mind, that every speaker owner will beat the drum for their favorite brand, and ADS owners are as loyal as they come. But do yourself a favor, just sit down and listen. No one brand, or legendary obscure model is right for everyone. Tastes vary, and the only right choice is to buy what you like, no matter what anyone else has to say about the matter.

Pros:
Large, sealed floor standing speakers. Dual 8" drivers with mid and tweet. Excellent build and cabinetry. Smooth refined "New England" sound at it's best. Beautiful to listen to and beautiful to see with a high WAF. While sturdy, not terribly heavy, easy to move around. Bi-wireable and has tuning switch for the tweet. Not the best speaker I've ever owned but close. Can be bought relatively cheap on the bay.

Cons:
Orphan speaker from and orphan company. Does NOT have modern drivers so one must be careful. The Audessy self calibration routine on my Onkyo 905 receiver blew the left from tweet soooo, be careful.

Da Worfster

Tight bass. Midrange is powerful and not overbearing.

Relatively big. Low wife acceptance factor.

These were my Dad's speakers. Boght new in the mid 80s. They were lightly used, and highly lusted by me throughout the 80s and 90s. When my parents decided they wanted to get rid of them, I jumped at the chance! I have the 1290/2 versions. They were run for many years on a Carver 'The Receiver'- the 200 watts/ch version with Sonic Halography. With the right source, quite the magical combination. I sold the Carver on eBay and kept the 1290s. What a pair of speakers! We are in the process of buying a new home and I will finally have a room dedicated to audio. I can't wait. For HT, these speakers could use a bit of help on the lowest octave ( <40hz), but for music, these things are simply amazing. Smooth, open, non-fatiguing. Ran them with an NAD 7140 receiver and within the power of the receiver, they were great, but they really prefer more power. I am currently running them biamped off a dbx BX3mkII amp (125x4) and they sing. Dynamic range is a bit narrow on the low end, but more power could solve that. All in all, a great pair of speakers that I will never part with.

~ bass response - tight, accurate, extended, tuneful. ~ Overall freq. resp. more accurate than its peers at the time.

~ A bit inefficient (what sealed-box design isn't?). ~ The dome midrange unit tends to beam more than many cone mids, narrowing the best listening zone. ~ Infamous A/D/S metal grilles always got dented and bent, and the mounting posts were troublesome.

Review for the L990 floor-stander. same as larger L1590, but with 1 10" woofer instead of 2. Very good sounding speaker, with excellent bass response for its size. These, like most all A/D/S', are on the less efficient side, so you'll need some fairly substantial amplification. At the time I owned the L990's I had an original Adcom GFA-555 amp. Plenty of power, but the 990's brought out the grain and dryness of the 555. Once I switched to the B&K Sonata M200 monoblocks, things got much better. One of the better 80's era speakers. A real shame A/D/S left the home audio market.

Similar Products Used:

Martin-Logan, Apogee, Magnepan, Quad L-series, Mission, KEF, B&W, JBL, Boston Acoustics, etc.

The sound period especially if you all replace the capacitors with the SOLEN Mettalized Polypropylene Caps through PARTS EXPRESS 1-800-338-0531 or www.partsexpress.com.You will need for each L810. 1 ea. 6.8 uF part# 027-560. 3 ea. 4.7 uF part# 027-552 and 1 ea. 100 uF #027-616. These are all the same values as the cappacitors in the L810 but have a 5% tolerance and 400 vdc handeling.Also I possible get hold of the Polk LSI Tweeters made by Vifa.These are often sold on eBay.Polk/Vifa # XT25TG-26. This is the same as the Vifa #XT25TG30-04 sold at Parts express. This Tweeter is the Same Tweeter Used in Krell Audio Loudspeakers that sell for $10,000 for there Sat's and $38,000 for their floor standing. This really Speaks for the performance of this tweeter.These tweeter can also handle gobs more power than the ADS tweeters try 400 watts long term and 900 watts peak.

Low Freq. output at high volume levels. Do your self a big favor and add a good quality sub with fast transtient capabiliy and treet you sell to the best oud for under a $3000.00

This Review is for the ADS L810-2. Please bare with me on this story and I will get to why I now own a set of ADS L810"s First of all I should say that in the 1980's I owned a pair of L710-2's. I sold those to my older brother as at the time I had a Mitsubishi DA-R20 Stereo Reciever and it couldn't handle the low imp.load at high volume levels and would shut down. Anyway my brother still owns them and every time I went to his house and listended to them it reminds me what a fool I was to part with them. I should have replaced the Reciever or run a good seperates amp from the recievers Preamp outputs.Over the years I have owned dozens upon dozens of loudspeakers and auditioned hundreds. I had finally come to the conclusion that in order to have a "REAL" but affordable Audiophile Loudspeaker I would have to build it myself. Since that Conclusion I have Built many from very high quality Drivers but Because of the complexity of designing building the passive crossovers I decided to use the Rane AC-23 Active crossover with 24-db Linkwitz-Riley filters. At first only only One AC-23 X-over for stereo 3-way and then 2 two AC-23 X-overs for 4 and 5-way operation. You can imagine all the amps I needed to go five way. That would be 5 Stereo amplifiers. Yes this was going to extremes and all just to build the ultimate sound system. Needless to say I have owned many amplifiers in the past. Now the Rane AC 23's and all those amps are gone. Although I still have all my own custom designed and built Loudspeakers. I now am using a TDM 24CX-4 active crossover wit 24-db Linwitz-Riley Slopes . The TDM 24CX-4 is far more transparent than the RANE Crossovers. I really noticed this when I was using an Audio Experience Symphonies TUBE Preamp as a buffer between My Denon AVR-2801 and the TDM 24CX-4. "WOW" what a Difference. The Ranes have now been sold on ebay. I did have two of the TDM 24CX-4 X-overs but decided one TDM was enough, so I sold one TDM on eBay as well as many of my electronics I have eventually decide to part with. My System has it's own dedicated 100 amp service located just outside the wall of the system as there is no way I could the system for my standard house wiring. My Sytem Electronics Now consist of 1-Denon AVR-2802 Reciever. 1-TDM 24CX-4. 2-ATI AT-2505 Amplifiers/250 watts X 5 chanels 8 ohm and 375 watts X 5 into 4 ohms. 1 Harmon Kardon PA-2400 Amplifier. 1-SONY DVP-S9000ES DVD/SACD/CD Player. 1 JVC TD-V621 3head Cassette Player/Recorder.1-RCA F38310 38' HDTV with built in HD-Direct TV Reciever. My Speaker System is 2-KEF Q-10 centers. 2- ADS-L200E Left/Right surrounds and 2- ADS L400E Rear surrounds. And of course 2 ADS L810's as Left/Right Mains. The ADS L-810's each stand on My home brew PEERLESS XLS-12" Subwoofers with Matching 12" XLS Passive Radiators. Augumenting these subs is Dual 10" Subwoofer with two Hi Vi W10's in each.These are located in each Left and Right corner of the room. That is a total of 6 subwoofers in all, each powered by their own dedicated ATI 2505 250 watt amplifier My Room is 14 wide X 25 long with a valted ceiling. The Peerless and the Hi Vi woofers are very fast and natural sound and blend very nicely with the ADS Fast transtient capabilities. In Fact I have varied the X-vers from 60 to 160 Hz the ADS and the PEERLESS and the Blending of the two is just shy of being superb. I found that the ADS L810's weakness to be producing low bass at high volume levels. My ATI amps could easily bottom the voice coils of the 8" woofers with no effort on their part at all. But once you X-over the ADS 810's at or above 80 Hz 24db per octave you will really hear these wonderful Loudspeakers sing. If you really want to hear them sing add some Polk Audio LSI Tweeters that are you can often find the on eBay from one seller. These are made by VIFA for Polk.They have cropped edges and will fit. You will have to loosen up the Dome Mid. and get it as far over as possible. The Imp. & Sens. a perf. match.

* Bass Transients - very clean * Great dynamics (more common nowadays, but rare in pre-CD days) * Accuracy and Detail

* Image and soundstage * Lacks Home Theater Bass (explosions and the like) * Bass is sensitive to electronics

I’ve owned the L810 since 1982, bought them used for about half price. I’m a 3rd row symphony type of guy, and the 810 does a great job with dynamics, micro detail, and instrument separation. I actually listen to all types of music, as well as home theater, and they do a great job. I added a Klipsch corner-horn subwoofer a while back, but I still occasionally play the L810 by itself; some music benefits from the great L810 bass transients when there is not too much demand 40 Hz or so (yes, the L810 makes the corner-horn sound a bit tubby!). I extensively auditioned speakers up to $2500/pair in the early 80’s (KEF, B&W, Boston, Dalhquist, Vanderstien, Monitor Audio, etc.) and I kept coming back to the L810. I grew up with KLH-9+subwoofer as my reference system, and the L810 did a great job of approaching the pristine dynamics of my reference electrostatics. I was overjoyed to find them used. In the first 10 years, it was almost impossible to find anything that was a significant improvement without paying $4000+ (I really liked the KEF 104.2 and even took them home, but ended up returning them because it was not enough improvement for the price). I thought I’d throw in a few more details for people who are considering buying older ADS speakers. The L810 has the same drivers as the 1290’s, but the non-mirrored bookshelf design does not provide as good as of a soundstage. Interestingly enough, despite the smaller cabinets, I prefer L810 bass over the 1290 – perhaps it was just setup (I compared them at three different dealers though), but the 810 seemed to have better transients. If I had found the 1290 used, I would have bought it instead, but the L810 was very close. There is an older 810 that I don’t recommend as highly (pre-1980) – you can tell because it has a 1” dome tweeter; whereas the new L810 (and 1290) have a 3/4" dome tweeter (I think they also don’t use Stiffilite woofers). The L710 is also a nice speaker, but the bass depth is noticeably weak. The L810 is very accurate to below 50 Hz, and is fairly efficient – 94db/1meter/1watt as I recall (strong magnets and lightweight drivers). Over the years I’ve heard big differences from a variety of electronics – perhaps aggravated by the dips below the nominal 6 ohm rating. I’ve also suspected the dual woofers and the cross-over might have something to do with it too. By contrast I (and my golden ear friends) have heard very little difference in cables - despite long term in home comparisons. I’m auditioning new speakers for a dedicated home theater – I plan on leaving the L810 in a music-only set-up. Imaging was never a L810 strong point, and the speakers I’ve auditioned have gotten even better (Audio Physic, Polk Lsi, Snell, ML, Usher). Accurate bass transients are more common than they used to be, but the L810 still holds it own here. Same goes for treble reproduction. Associated Equipment Pre: Lexicon DC1, Marantz EC-500, Yamaha A1000, etc. Amp: Accuphase, Carver, Yamaha A1000, etc. Sub: Klipsch Corner-Horn (cross-over 80Hz through Lexicon) Cables: Monster (?), etc.

Similar Products Used:

KEF (better image, much more expensive for comprable sound) B&W (see KEF) Boston (a warmer midrange, and bass did not compare) Polk (80's era had muddy bass, and inferior treble) Dahlquist (first

famous a/d/s/ high end clarity; tight, true low end without any hint of boominess or muddiness (It actually takes some listening time to get acclimated to such clean bass free of listner-fatiguing aritifacts. The bass hits only when real, low-frequency program material presents itself); strong stereo separation

ineffecient; somewhat laid-back sound (vocals appear recessed in the soundstage, compared to the forward presentation of my B&W speakers); Although they have a clear top end, it is sometimes too bright (even with the tweeter control attenuated). Speaker wire binding posts are on the bottom of the speaker, making it difficult to use large, snake-like wire (e.g. my MIT Terminator 4 wire is too large in diameter to fit through the slit in the optional bottom base)

I have always used a/d/s/ speakers, starting in 1980 with 300/i plate speakers and a Powerplate 100 amp (mobile audio products--a/d/s/ was one of the first manufacturer of true high-fidelity car audio products.). They have always been the benchmark for good, affordable and realistic sound. Since then I have used a/d/s/ speakers in all my cars, but have never had any in my home. Recently I purchased a used pair of L1290's. The previous owner had miswired them, powering just the woofers in the bi-amp mode with a cheap JVC amp. Of course they sounded terrible. Yet, when I wired them in the full-range mode and auditioned them with the "Blue Man Audio Group" CD (the best naturally produced percussive musical experience ever conceived), they sounded good: ultra-clean high end, articulate midrange and very tight, natural bass. I bought them.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 602S3 Vandersteen 2ce Signature

famous a/d/s/ high end clarity; tight, true low end without any hint of boominess or muddiness (It actually takes some listening time to get acclimated to such clean bass free of listner-fatiguing aritifacts. The bass hits only when real, low-frequency program material presents itself); strong stereo separation

ineffecient; somewhat laid-back sound (vocals appear recessed in the soundstage, compared to the forward presentation of my B&W speakers); Although they have a clear top end, it is sometimes too bright (even with the tweeter control attenuated). Speaker wire binding posts are on the bottom of the speaker, making it difficult to use large, snake-like wire (e.g. my MIT Terminator 4 wire is too large in diameter to fit through the slit in the optional bottom base)

I have always used a/d/s/ speakers, starting in 1980 with 300/i plate speakers and a Powerplate 100 amp (mobile audio products--a/d/s/ was one of the first manufacturer of true high-fidelity car audio products.). They have always been the benchmark for good, affordable and realistic sound. Since then I have used a/d/s/ speakers in all my cars, but have never had any in my home. Recently I purchased a used pair of L1290's. The previous owner had miswired them, powering just the woofers in the bi-amp mode with a cheap JVC amp. Of course they sounded terrible. Yet, when I wired them in the full-range mode and auditioned them with the "Blue Man Audio Group" CD (the best naturally produced percussive musical experience ever conceived), they sounded good: ultra-clean high end, articulate midrange and very tight, natural bass. I bought them.

Similar Products Used:

B&W 602S3 Vandersteen 2ce Signature