ADS L1290 II v Polk SDA 2B??

geppy1

Has anyone compared a pair of ADS L1290 IIs against a pair of Polk SDAs?? SDA 2Bs TLd to be more exact. I have heard a few folks say the bass on the 1290s can be alittle bit messy. On the other hand Some say it is great. Thoughts?/ Thanks

Dennis Gardner

I would say that both speakers compare with each other nicely. I have the ADS L1230s that have the same driver compliment with bigger cabs and I also own SDA 1Cs and they both are very equally capable speakers.

The ADS mids and highs are great together, very sweet sound. The bass on these speakers is tight and controlled until you disengage the crossover section and use an active crossover on them. With active crossovers they are a lot louder since you aren't losing any of the power through filtering. This alone makes the bass seem bloated and overtaking the mid/tweet combo. Until you get that under control and get it balanced again, the bass energy is too high. If you can find a C2000 crossover module for them it makes a great system that most any amp can drive.

geppy1

I would not be messing with the xover at all.

Dennis Gardner

geppy1 wrote: »

I would not be messing with the xover at all.

There is a switch on the connection plate that allows you to disconnect the internal crossover. This was designed into ADS' best speakers to take advantage of using their active crossover the C2000. In the active position, the binding posts feed directly to the drivers with no crossover in the path.

Anoother way to understand this is that the Bi Amp binding posts don't work on these speakers without the outboard C2000 crossover module being used. They aren't like most speakers.

cnh

I believe Russ (hoosier21) has some ADS L1230s and SDA-2Bs. Perhaps you might want to shoot him a PM?

Without looking, I don't know how the driver complement of the 1230s vs the 1290s differ.

cnh