Skip to main content

ADS L690 Tower Speakers

Yep, tower speakers or rather they have their own "built in" speaker stands.  They are essentially the tower speakers of the ever popular ADS L570 bookshelf speakers.  They are a two way featuring an 8" woofer with rubber surrounds and 0.75" soft dome (sticky) tweeter.  All wrapped in real oak veneer cabinet.  They also had a metal grill which looks awful in the picture but a lot better in person.  Maybe it's time to get a better lens to take better pictures of "black grills!"

I don't know the ADS and Braun connection but these are all Braun drivers.  Braun is a German company which still exist, for those who have Braun electric shavers.  However, these were built in the USA. 

These are great drivers.  If you're not familiar with German made speakers or how they sound they're quite distinctive.  I've had heard several German speakers like Canton, Braun, Magnat, Isophon, RFT, etc. and they all have similar characteristics in their presentation, which oddly enough is sometimes called "German characteristics" that it's detailed, precise, neutral, clean and punchy.  Think of all those German Classical Composers or even German Conductors and you'll understand.  If not, think of the German army marching through the streets, haha, or something like that.

These ADS L690 is just like that, it's punchy with impressive bass, clean treble, excellent mids that it does sound bigger than it's size with clean and precise rhythm.  That's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to speakers.  They're quite accurate for what they're are and very clean sounding.  Not to mention the added stands probably helps to control the bass due to the bigger cabinet.

They're a great sounding pair of speakers but they're some cosmetic flaws, they have the usual nicks and scratches, the grill does have some dents.  But, the most annoying issues are those sticky soft dome tweeters and how the grills on top does not cover the entire tweeter (design flaw).  Why?  Dust has gotten stuck onto them.  I've put a cover on top to prevent it even further but, the previous owner did not, so as you can see there's a bit of dust accumulation on top!  So, I think they're in relatively good shape.  I've also reconditioned the rubber surrounds.

Some quick dimensions: 9.5" W x 31.25" H x 10.5" D



Popular posts from this blog

Yamaha YP-66 Turntable

The rosewood vinyl wrapped twin sibling of the Yamaha YP-221, they are the exactly the same other than the colour of the plinth and instead of silver plastic bits on the YP-221 the YP-66 has black bits. This is your typical belt drive turntable of the mid to late 70s.  It's a 2-speed with automatic return (semi-automatic).  It's a nice entry level turntable with all the decent built quality that you find on majority of the Japanese made tables of that era.  It has a good sized motor and a decent weight.  Yamaha tables are like Sony tables, they always have decent quality components and they always look nice to the eyes.  The slight smoked dustcover and the rosewood plinth makes it quite unique to look at. Sadly, the antiskate weight on our isn't original.  It was missing when we got it.  After a bit of research we found the appropriate weight and found an appropriate weight to retrofit into our table.  We found a nice brass weight to fit with ...

Micro Seiki MR-622 Turntable

This is one of my greatest prize possessions, well for turntables.  The Micro Seiki MR-622 is a fabulous turntable, and definitely has been one of my favourite tables that I had the pleasure of owning. Everything about this turntable screams quality.  Even the 45rpm adapter seemed to be milled aluminum.  It has adjustable feet, a side pocket for accessories , a nice heavy die cast platter and even the top part of the plinth is cast.  All wrapped in a beautiful smoked dustcover and real wood sides. The Micro Seiki MR-622 is a fully manual, 2-speed, direct drive turntable.  This means, it's low maintenance and high reliability as there is less moving parts within the turntable.  It's just a huge motor, speed controls and Micro Seiki MA-202 tone arm, placed in a overly built plinth just like what one would expect from Micro Seiki. The MA-202 tone arm is a S-shaped tone arm with excellent tracking ability.  It has an adjustable counterweight and the...

Energy Encore 2 Speakers

My family were the original owners of these speakers. We actually had the entire Energy Encore 5.1 surround set, minus the integrated stands. Slowly, the rear speakers were sold. I kept the subwoofer to use with my sound bar, and the center channel broke. All that remained were these little guys sitting on the same shelving unit for the past 15ish years. I used them for a bit for my computer setup but, opted to use my Mirage Omni 350 instead. While these are considered "big box store" speakers, they are still great little speakers. These were made in Canada. Used their hyperdome aluminum tweeter that made Energy famous from the Pro22 days (thank you Burhoe!). A super nice black piano finish and sealed box, with a 4" long throw woofer. Some Specifications that I took from the web: System Type: Magnetically shielded acoustic suspension satellite Tweeter: 1" (28mm) Aluminum dome with cloth suspension Woofers: 4" (112mm) Multi-laminated aluminum polycarbonate c...