sid42 Posted August 14, 2019 Report Share Posted August 14, 2019 Hi to all of you ADS speaker lovers! I've been reading your comments on various topics about the speakers over the years. Thought I might give you all some of my insights. 1. I have owned many of ADS speakers, starting in the 70's and currently own the 1590-2, 1290-2, L400w with metal grilles. One of my fav's was the 1530, but due to room sizes, sold them to my sister. 2. I have experimented with biamping the 1590's, using the ADS C2000 x-over as well as the PA-1's. I contacted ADS back in the day to find out how to modify the C2000 to work with the 1590's, and there were two resisters that had to be removed and all switches on the back of the unit to be in the "down" position. I used two McIntosh 7200 amps, 200 wpc @ 8 ohms. To be quite honest, the only improvement I heard was increased bass, which I could also duplicate with a Velodyne F-1500R sub and no biamping. The PA-1's were a disappointment for me and just didn't cut it. I sold them soon after. My conclusion came to be that just using a single quality amp and a sub did everything I needed and didn't involve the extra amp, wiring, and the x-over. I still use the same combo to this day and am totally blown away by their sound. I agree with TT, if not done right, biamping is not the way to go. 3. Their was some discussion about the ferro-fluid on the tweeter/midrange speakers. Here's my experience with this. When I bought the current 1590-2's ( this is my 2nd pair ) when I unpacked them there was some styrofoam stuck to one of the mids. I contacted Richard So, who sold me a new one he had re-built ( #206-0214 ) and I stuck this in and put away the damaged mid for 13 years. However, the left speaker was always a bit louder than the right one, and even tho I was able to balance the sound somewhat with my preamp, it never sounded quite right. I also have two sets of grilles for the 1590-2's, one original in looks, and the other pair I removed the felt-type backing so I could see the drivers. Last week I decided to put the modified grilles on for a change, and noticed that the mid on the left side was not shiny like the others. I do remember Richard telling me that he no longer used the ferro-fluid on the outside of the speaker, but only on the inside. So I got out the original damaged mid, only to discover that the styrofoam had melted off and completely disappeared! So, I put the old mid back in and lo and behold the sound completely had changed! Now the speakers sound balanced, and separation is on a level I never heard before in these speakers! The only conclusion I can come to is that the modified mid by Richard somehow must have a higher output than my original, even tho the serial numbers are the same. Maybe TT might have some ideas on this one. I certainly have enjoyed ADS speakers ever since I bought my first pair of L710's back in the seventies, and can say I've enjoyed the 1590-2's as much as any of them. I bought my first pair of 1590's in 1985, and have owned some variation of their speakers ever since. Too bad they aren't still in business today, at least in the way we used to know them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid42 Posted August 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2019 Oops, I mistakenly talked about "ferro-fluid" when I actually was talking about the damping compound used to dampen the speaker. Sorry for the confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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