Modifications to My Vintage ADS L300 Speakers

[BR549]

I bought a pair of vintage ADS L300 bookshelf speakers for $30. I think these sold new for around $600. They are sealed, 4 Ohm, with 1" dome tweeters and 5" woofers. Looks like someone had painted them red. I plan on spray painting them black.



The previous owner is into vintage audio and knew these were good speakers. But they only sounded good in the mids with his top of the line vintage amp. The highs were muted and the bass muddled. Fortunately he was not into DIY audio, and I am.

I hooked them up to my $10 vintage Emerson MC1010 amp ($300 new). The highs were still muted, the bass muddled, and overall they didn't sound as good on my amp. Speakers positioned 2 feet apart on a dresser, as pictured. Next project is to build a pair of speaker stands.

After some online DIY research, I decided to paint Mod Podge on the front of the woofers between the surrounds and dust caps. The first coat was full strength Mod Podge, and the second was mixed with 1/3 water. The second coat was much easier to paint. I should have used 1/3 water for the first coat. The result looks good. But the sound is too focused in the high frequencies, a lot of clarity but also harshness. And the mids and bass are not good and are out of balance with the highs.

So next I removed the woofers and found the boxes stuffed with yellow fiberglass-like material (for damping). I took all of it out, fluffed it up, and put back about 60% of it, filling about 40% of the volume of the boxes. And just as I had predicted and hoped, this made the speakers louder, opened up the mids and bass with clarity, and put these frequencies in a very nice balance with the highs. The sound is lively with great presence, nice imaging with easy placement. Done.

Ideally I would cross them over with a subwoofer, but no need for my uses. I wouldn't trade these speakers for any of a dozen other speakers I've owned in the past and many more that I've auditioned. Thanks DIY community.

[BR549]

An update. The sound has changed slightly and unfavorably. I think the Mod Podge has cured and stiffened the woofers more than yesterday. So without any rhyme or reason I put more of the dampening material back in, to about 80% of the original amount. Sounds better. I'll add more and more in a day or so to see what difference that makes. Great speakers.

[Andersonix]

Painting the cones and fluffing up the fiberglass constitutes 'DIY' nowadays? Better check your graphic equalizer settings...

[BR549]

Yes. I got these modification ideas from the DIY community, and I did it myself. Using my amp's built in EQ and loudness button does help. Thanks

[BR549]

Update:

I put a folded up crew sock behind each woofer on top of the existing dampening material, adjusted the EQ some more, and these babies really rock now. Just amazing.