ADS L500 opinions

[Swampfox77]

I recently gave my daughter my set of ADS L1's for her first house.  I had not used them in a while and thought I would not miss them.  But when I sat them up in her house, I was immediately taken by how good they sounded.  I was trusting in the karma gods that by me making room something else would take there place.  Well just as i hoped, a set of mint ADS L500's popped up on craigslist for a super low price almost immediately.  I picked them up from the original owner and was very pleased by how well they had been taken care of.  They are the cloth cover with the big D in the ADS logo.  I am really shocked how nice they are,  even the sticky tweeters are dust free.  I hooked them up temporarily to my Yamaha CR 2020 for some testing.  Really nice clean sound, good bass and excellent highs. But at the moment they are in less than ideal listening positions.  They are sitting on either side of the receiver high on my record shelf.  So it will be interesting to get them on some nice stands with some separation.  They wood veneer is perfect as are the fabric grills.  Until I can get around to arranging them, what is the general thoughts on these? I see some L520 reviews, but not L500s.  Where did they fall in the ADS lineup?  Why do I not see more about them on the webs?  What can I expect of them and with what power?  Would an Adcom 535 gfa amplifier be a good match?  How are these compared to my L1's that i gave the daughter? Any thoughts on these matters would be great.

[LesE]

I've owned my L500's for roughly six years and I think they are exceptional for a smaller two-way speaker.  The L500 shares the same 206-0100 tweeter as higher end ADS models and I suspect that it's 8" woofer (206-0316) may be a 4 ohm version of the 206-0317 8 ohm woofer used in the L810.

The bass may not be floor shaking but it is solid to around 45 Hz and very clean.  Add a decent powered  sub and you may be surprised at how good the result can be.

Despite being rated at 4 ohms, I find them relatively easy to drive.  In fact, I'm currently running my pair from a little Sherwood S-7100 receiver.  

Although ADS is fairly scarce in my area,  I was fortunate enough to find a pair of ADS 810's which have greater bass extension and are more detailed through the midrange region.

As far as where the fit into the ADS lineup at the time, I  believe it went something like this:

L910
L810
L710
L700
L500
L400

(Note: I'm not sure if the L910 was introduced before or after the the L500 was replaced by the the L520).

I don't know much about the L1's but they seem to be a fairly scarce model .  They appear to use the same tweeter as the L470/570 (206-0116) and the same woofer as the L520 (206-0323).  These are rated at 6 ohms nominal with a 100W maximum power rating and like most ADS speakers, I would expect them to be fine performers.  

Here are some brochures and a test report that may be of interest.

http://sportsbil.com/ads/l-500_fm_guide_11-1975.pdf

http://sportsbil.com/ads/ads-500-brochure.pdf

http://sportsbil.com/ads/braun_l-500a_l-700a-brochure.pdf

Les.

[Swampfox77]

Thanks LesE for the response.  I have been using these guys for random listening in a smaller room powered like you by a Sherwood 7100A.  They really seem to be paired well with the little Sherwood.  That same receiver sounded brittle and harsh matched with a pair of Polk monitor 5jr's.  But it is a completely different story with the L500's.  Super tight bass and nice mellow midrange and highs.  I really enjoy how the ADS tweeters get high but remain delicate.  I am excited to get some nice stands and try them properly with my Yamaha CR-2020.   Does Luxman match well with vintage ADS speakers?  I recently matched the L500's with a NAD 7150 that was not being used.  Seemed somewhat edgy with bloated bass.  The bass had to be turned way below flat setting before it seemed pleasant again.  This was not the case with the Yamaha or Sherwood matching.  Always fun