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Life after ADS

When I first started this hobby a few years ago I was immediately drawn to vintage ADS speakers because of the performance/price ratio plus they are just flat out musical.

Many well regarded speakers have come and gone that offered an amazing hi-fi listening experience but I always kept at least one or two pair of ADS speakers around for background music and so forth.

It has taken me the better part of three years to find a mint pair of L1530's and wouldn't you know it a pair came up for sale to me locally and I grabbed them. However I am moving into a smaller house and will not be able to keep them. My first question is what would be a good modern monitor to replace them with.

I will say I listened to some Adam Audio's (not sure what model)and for the money they were very good. In fact I am thinking of getting a pair. The ribbon tweeter sounded very open and detailed without being harsh or aggressive. Before I get the Adams are there any other speakers with ribbon tweeters I should consider? Others I have been looking at are LSA Statements, Vapor, and Evolution Acoustics.

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Thanks.
chrshanl37
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,861 posts
 
Chrschan137 -

my reference is THIEL speakers- CS 2.7 or CS 3.7 depending on your listening space size. These speakers absolutely nail-down timbre (if this is your thing).

Excellent rich sound, outstanding top-end & bottom end to boot. Nothing is left out w/ these models. I was a big fan of a/d/s as well. The Aerial speakers were not to my liking.
Keep me posted and happy listening!
jsbail
368 posts
 
I used ADS L880 from 1984 to 1999. I still enjoy them in my workshop. In 1999 I got Proac 3.8. Love both speakers. I am just now thinking of a change to maybe something more dynamic.
rmenergy
7 posts
 
Chrschn137, have you contemplated sending your Clef's back to Bob for a change to either his new ribbon tweeter or back to his mid 90's metal tweeter? Might be just what you're looking for.

I've personally finished a demo with the ribbon at his house & must admit that it's amazing(I also own a set of Super Clef's). Give him a call or shoot him an email, just might save you a ton of headache.
chrshanl37 OP
835 posts
 
Rmenergy....I have a pair of the original Clefs with the metal tweeter as well. I had been looking for a speaker in my smallish room and was afraid the Clefs would overload the room. Well I put them in to see how it would go and I have to say it sounds great. I have since sold off all of my other speakers except my Clef and Super Clefs. I talk to Bob regularly and I have spoken with him about the Ribbon Clefs and I am very tempted to add a pair to my collection. Nice to meet a fellow owner of these excellent under the radar speakers.
rmenergy
7 posts
 

Glad to hear that the metal dome worked out for you.

The Clef's really are wonderfully adaptive designs that seem to change attitude with the tweeter/xover changes. The ribbon version really surprised me & I'd like to see what it would be like in a TL variation.
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