A nice set of ADS 810s on the right stands has always stood out for me. A well re-done set of Dahlquist DQ-10s are still hard to beat for the price, if you can stand the noise of a (I believe) Phillips piezo tweeter. That was when I was doing a lot of listening (couldn't afford to buy anything!)and there were lots of decent shops. So much of the 70's stuff, like the large Advents, AR's, etc., which was also really nice, had rolled off highs as part of their design, often beginning at 11K, with 13k and up just MIA. The Dahlquist and ADS of that era had nice, tight bass and (more)extended highs. They didn't "build down" to filter out signal to noise issues from poor recordings, gross solid state, etc. I'm sure there are a ton of other good ones, but these stick in mind 35 years later. I like Lowthers too. They've been on the market for about 50 years, but I wouldn't put old SS in front of them: the mid-range issues are painful to imagine. Maybe Tannoy (too costly), but with a subdued treble (still?). REmember, this was the era of (Boston v. West Coast) distictive voicings and JBL L-100s and so forth, so you can find some real "interesting" and amusical noisemakers in a box. No, I'm not the guy selling the 810 set here on Agon. |
Another vote for the ADS L-810. I had a pair as well as the later column version with similar drivers, the L-1090, and they had a very similar sound; the 810 may have had the advantage on bass response. The 1970's-'80s ADS speakers anticipated how speakers are made today, with better, more inert cabinets and high quality drivers built to very close tolerances, and made to last. They're a bit pricier, but deliver. There are currently a couple of pairs available on A-gon, and a pair at this Seattle audio store, which also has L-730s and L-780s. The L-810 may be the best deal of the bunch, though. It would taked doubled-up Advents to approach what the L-810s did, and by then you're spending the same money. The ADS had far better driver and build quality. The ESS AMT 1b or 1c would be a good match, as they'd be an easy load for a 70 wpc receiver to drive, but they're hard to find and usually need some repair. Definitely the woofers and passive radiators would need re-foaming, and you'd hope the AMT units would be fine. Even harder to find would be their battleship grey Evaluator monitor, which I particularly liked at the time (I sold audio in 1975-6). If I were putting together a vintage system, it would be a good 1970s DD turntable such as Marantz 6300 or period-correct Thorens, a Marantz or Luxman integrated amp, and the L-810s. That would have been a sort of statement system at the time. Not all-out SOTA, but definitely respectable and even admired. |
