ads speakers

[jcash1]

Does anyone know if the company ads still produces speakers, and if so where can I find them.

 

[TLS Guy]

Does anyone know if the company ads still produces speakers, and if so where can I find them.

No they don't. They have not been around for years.

 

[Seth=L]

A/D/S was previously owned by Braun within the past decade and a half A/D/S became part of DEI Holdings or Directed Electronics which also owns Definitive Technology and Polk Audio. To my knowledge DEI Holdings still owns the rights to the A/D/S (analog digital systems) trademark and brand name although they have not produced any products under the banner since the early to mid 2000's. Some of their products have remained in circulation since that time due to low demand, probably the reason they no longer produce products for the A/D/S brand. Many of the last products produced were designed for custom installation and were meant to compete with Speakercraft and other high quality custom installation manufacturers.

 

[GlocksRock]

I remember their car audio products, but that was in the mid to late 90's, it was good stuff though. Never had any experience with their home audio gear.

 

[Alex2507]

My local pawn shop has a pair of ADS 3-way bookshelves labeled CM7. They looked interesting for $125 and are crazy heavy. Any thoughts on them?

 

[Seth=L]

My local pawn shop has a pair of ADS 3-way bookshelves labeled CM7. They looked interesting for $125 and are crazy heavy. Any thoughts on them?

The cabinets of those CM7s I believe are made from a dense resin called Plasti-crete, which would explain the weight. I bet cabinet resonance isn't a major issue with those speakers.

If I saw them for that price, assuming they where in good shape and all the drivers were working and intact I'd probably buy them. I regret selling the first pair of ADS speakers I had, they were excellent.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I own a pair of ADS L620 that I need to buy tweeters for...I really need to get around to that.

 

[Swerd]

I heard a pair of ADS L1290 speakers this summer. I think they were the top of the line for ADS and were highly regarded in this 1984 review.

They are 3-way speakers with two 8" woofers, a 2" dome midrange, and a ¾" dome tweeter. Crossover points said to be 500 Hz and 5,000 Hz. I think a number ADS models shared the same dome midrange and tweeter, it may have been their "claim to fame".

The owner wanted to compare them to Salk HT2-TL speakers, so he hauled them to Dennis Murphy's house. Dennis measured their frequency response, and they had a big dip in their response, more than 5 dB, at around 5,000 Hz where the mid crossed to the tweeter. I wonder if other ADS models that have the same midrange and tweeter have the same problem?

Other than that, they were pretty good.

 

[TLS Guy]

I heard a pair of ADS L1290 speakers this summer. I think they were the top of the line for ADS and were highly regarded in this 1984 review.

They are 3-way speakers with two 8" woofers, a 2" dome midrange, and a ¾" dome tweeter. Crossover points said to be 500 Hz and 5,000 Hz. I think a number ADS models shared the same dome midrange and tweeter, it may have been their "claim to fame".

The owner wanted to compare them to Salk HT2-TL speakers, so he hauled them to Dennis Murphy's house. Dennis measured their frequency response, and they had a big dip in their response, more than 5 dB, at around 5,000 Hz where the mid crossed to the tweeter. I wonder if other ADS models that have the same midrange and tweeter have the same problem?

Other than that, they were pretty good.

Yes, that is the midrange dome.

I auditioned a set of their towers speakers around 1984. I thought it was really dreadful. That midrange dome was driven down far too low. I remember playing a CD of Elly Ameling signing Schubert Lieder. Even when playing not too loud, as soon as Ms Ameling used her generous chest register, her voice completely broke up. Even at that date I wondered why anybody managed to produce such a speaker. I'm not surprised ADS had a pretty short run.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I received my ADS's in trade...I had an old drum pedal that I wasn't going to use anymore and a friend liked it so we made a swap. I was younger and cranked them up right away and the tweeters didn't make it. (Powered them with my HK6500.)

I wonder if the 2way designs were better than the 3ways.

I also always wondered why so many people had problems with blowing the tweeters in ADS speakers. They seem very fragile. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[Alex2507]

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

No, not on that ... ... but thanks Swerd and TLS.
Now I don't have to wonder if that was the find of a lifetime.

 

[Swerd]

No, not on that ... ... but thanks Swerd and TLS.
Now I don't have to wonder if that was the find of a lifetime.

What was once wonderful yesterday, is often lackluster today. It's hard for me to believe that the 1980s, now nearly 30 years ago, seemed like the Brave New World at the time.

I wonder what other fond memories were in fact not so great in reality ?

SBF1: Those tweeters were probably too fragile. Today's dome tweeters are much better in multiple ways.

 

[TLS Guy]

I received my ADS's in trade...I had an old drum pedal that I wasn't going to use anymore and a friend liked it so we made a swap. I was younger and cranked them up right away and the tweeters didn't make it. (Powered them with my HK6500.)

I wonder if the 2way designs were better than the 3ways.

I also always wondered why so many people had problems with blowing the tweeters in ADS speakers. They seem very fragile. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I never heard a set of speakers more easy to overload then this ADS towers I auditioned. They just could not fill a space with the simplest music without sounding distressed. So it does not surprise me they were easily blown up.

In general two ways are usually better then three ways, unless you are in the esoteric stratosphere. the more crossover points you make the more problems you have to solve, and you often create some you can't solve.

And don't dismiss the full ranger crowd out of hand. Every speaker designer should be a full ranger at heart. If more were, we would have a larger number of better speakers.

 

[jcash1]

ads speaker post

Thank you for all your replies.

 

[wrunow]

I still have a pair of LS420's in the garage from my college days that I hook up from time to time. They still sound great and bring back a lot of memories.

 

[highfigh]

I received my ADS's in trade...I had an old drum pedal that I wasn't going to use anymore and a friend liked it so we made a swap. I was younger and cranked them up right away and the tweeters didn't make it. (Powered them with my HK6500.)

I wonder if the 2way designs were better than the 3ways.

I also always wondered why so many people had problems with blowing the tweeters in ADS speakers. They seem very fragile. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Their speakers weren't designed to be cranked with treble-heavy music, anyway. The tweeter (a modified Peerless KO10DT) was similar to the ones used in some early Jamo and many Polk speakers for a long time. It needs to be crossed over properly in order to handle high power, since it had fairly low max power handling capability.

They blew because of clipping mostly, or turning the treble up past it's happy place. They had a somewhat soft high end, in some cases.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Their speakers weren't designed to be cranked with treble-heavy music, anyway. The tweeter (a modified Peerless KO10DT) was similar to the ones used in some early Jamo and many Polk speakers for a long time. It needs to be crossed over properly in order to handle high power, since it had fairly low max power handling capability.

They blew because of clipping mostly, or turning the treble up past it's happy place. They had a somewhat soft high end, in some cases.

I'm sure the amp was driven into clipping. I was very used to Cerwin-Vega! at the time...