ADS L1090 Value?

aloutah

Member
I recently acquired a pair of ADS L1090's. They are in very nice condition. They are the black finish. I am new to ADS, this is my first pair, and was curious what they originally sold for and what a current value might be? I have checked craiglook, audigon and eBay completed listings, but haven't really found much info. Are these rare speakers or just haven't come up for sale much recently?
 
I was eying a set of L1090's local to me for $200, which seemed like a very reasonable price based on what I'd learned. But unfortunately I was too slow on the draw. I'd read up a bit on ADS speakers and a few AK'ers have given a thumbs up to the L1090. Where'd you get yours from?
 
The 1090 is supposedly the sweet spot of that ADS line. Depending on color and whether it is a series 1 or 2 prices vary from $200-450. As with everything nice condition of cabinets, grills (no bends, rust, etc) and clean drivers push up the price. If you have some nice gear to use those with I suspect you will never sell them.
 
I got them for an estate sale. It was an old lady who obviously hadnt used them much. Maybe they were her husbands or something, anyway, they even had the little protector caps on one speaker still. The drivers all do have some lint stuck on them though, and one tweeter is slightly wrinkled. They are the black finish. They are L1090 not the L1090-2. Although, they are 8ohm, which I read somehwere meant they were later production. The first l1090's being 4 or 6 ohm. I have just started to read up on them, so total ADS newbie here. the grills are slightly bent, but no rust. They sound great. Im using my yamaha mx-1000u.
 
Right, you are right Dave. I have to say that except the Vandy 2c not much comes close to my ADS. At a risk to be laughed at I would say I even like mine (the 1530 and the 910) better than my Thiel cs 3.5...
 
Right, you are right Dave. I have to say that except the Vandy 2c not much comes close to my ADS. At a risk to be laughed at I would say I even like mine (the 1530 and the 910) better than my Thiel cs 3.5...
Laz:

Well I have to say, whenever you decide to part with your 1530's, I'll be back at your house. Those were truly amazing! And yes, your Vandy setup is just luscious.

Oh yeah, if you ever need a novice to pilot that "Por-shah" around a track, drop me a line! I'd love a critique of my braking/heel-toe corner entry technique. It's been (quite) a few years, but I'd love a chance to do some technical driving. :thmbsp:

Dave
 
Dave
I will be at Monticello Oct 2-3. I can take you out for few laps...

IF I decide to seriously upgrade (big ProAc, Totem Wind, Vandy 2CE Signature ii, or Audio Physic Virgo) I will let you know.
 
Does anyone have any other info, opinion, experience etc with the L1090's? Also, 200-450 is a pretty wide gap. Based on my brief description, what would you say a pair of that nature would be worth.
 
Mayhaps I can shed some light on this subject. L1090's will go easily for +/- $500 depending on condition. They are absolutely marvelous speakers, but they are rare these days. I took a very long sebatical from the ADS game on the order of some 12 years, the last pair I had were 1290's in medium oak finish. My 1090's came up in a trade deal and I could not resist. To make a long story short I had a couple of amps floating around and made an even swap.

Although I do not run them stock, but instead run them capacitor shunted HF-UHF and actively crossed over as a 2-way setup, the factory crossovers at 24dB/octave are very nice. My pair are in black. Yes, the doping compound on the domes is very sticky and will collect dust, cat/dog hair, and anything else in the vecinity of them, but should not affect the sound. These are very inefficent speakers and the drivers are very hard to come by. If you haven't removed the plastic cover from that driver yet, I suggest you do so. They were for shipping only and were supposed to be removed at set-up time.

Also, The drivers were manufactured in Germany by Braun, and Cantons use the same drivers, so ADS and Canton are essentially the same with some slight differences in crossover and cabinet design.

Also, beware they are too inefficient for single ended triodes unless you keep it WAY DOWN. The speakers are AMAZING to the point where I dug out a pair of Perreaux 2150's to drive them. A funny thing about the ADS L-Series is they are way inefficent, and they can't handle alot of power. You have a ballpark figure or a "Happy Window". Give them too much power and they self-destruct. Give them too little power and they will sound stifled and possibly be destroyed from a badly behaving amplifier and out-of-bandwidth secondary harmonics.

My strongest recommendation I can give is be gentle with them. They are very fragile and replacement drivers are about as easy to find as hens' teeth.

Hope this helps...

-A
 
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A picture is worth a thousand words. Several pictures would be better, so we could see what you mean by slightly bent, and very nice condition. If you want a narrower price range, you need to give us more to work with.

These are used speakers and the prices paid for used gear vary greatly, even without considering condition and rarity, but those factors will matter a lot if you find an informed buyer.

That Yamaha amp ought to be a nice match for them.
 
You do realize the OP question was from September 2010? Tubeage has just resurrected this thread and a couple of others on related topics...

John
 
If the tweeters aren't working, there is a fuse under the speaker by the binding posts. Take the cap off and you'll see it. I ran them without the tweets running when I was young and it took me awhile to figure out what was wrong.
 
Reviving an older thread here, but I think it could yield some useful info for posterity. I'm looking at a pair of ADS L1090 speakers locally and I'm wondering 1) what a good price is and 2) whether something appears to be wrong with a couple of the woofers.

Regarding #1, I'll attach some images for your review. The speakers are in completely functional condition according to the owner. Also, he mentions that the speakers come with an ADS amp that "may need servicing". I have no information on the amp other than this so far.

Regarding #2, if you look in the first attached image (top left), you'll see some sort of bubbling in the top speaker in the image. This also appears to be noticeable on one of the woofers on the other speaker in the pair (this image is not included). Is this normal? Does it affect the sound?
 

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Obviously, these are not in good condition. The cabinets can be refinished, but the grills are in bad shape. They're made of metal and these are bent. They're pretty much impossible to reshape into their original condition. From the front view, it almost looks like pressure was applied to the front and the pegs that hold the grill resisted and pushed the grills outwards where the pegs are. But maybe it could just be the lighting. The other thing about the pegs is they tend to get loose and some break, making it hard to keep the grills on. I had a pair where they would sometimes fall off with music playing.

The woofers look fine, maybe just some fuzz on the dust cap. The mid and tweeter are sticky. Over time they all collect dust. This is most likely what you're referring to that looks like bubbling. I never noticed any difference. I don't believe there is a fix to removing the dust. I sold my pair in similar condition a few years ago for around $150.

The sound is fantastic. It's whether or not you can deal with the cosmetics and the grill issue.
 
The bubbling on the dust cap is probably from humidity but I feel certain it won't affect the sound in any way. IMHO, anything under $400 is a bargain.
 
The drivers look fine to me , but check them out and make sure that they are all working. Cabinet and grills have some issues. Has the seller set a price or is he looking for offers?
 
The dust caps don't look right, the cabs are beaters etc. I wouldn't pay over $200 for that pair, and I'm a big ADS fan. Those will take a lot of work to make right, and the resale value just doesn't justify unless you get them really cheap.
 
Thanks for the replies guys; very helpful.

The seller is asking $335 and is open to offers. I was going to offer him something in the $200s, but wanted to check in here first. I'd also have to rent a car from Brooklyn for at least $30 and pay pretty expensive tolls, so I'm not really sold on these given the feedback I'm hearing from everyone here. I guess one thing to keep in mind though is that prices seem to be quite a bit higher for stuff like this where I live than the majority of the country.

There are actually a bunch of ADS speakers locally at the moment, including some L500 for $100, L520 for $140, L810 for $300 etc. so maybe i'll look into some of those. I hear such great things about the L1090 though, and they don't seem very common so it's a tough choice.
 
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