I was unable to do it on a pair of L570s, L630s, L810s, and a few more so it caught me off guard with the 1230s. But like I said, an amp swap rectified it and have not had an issue since.

I've talked to aDs former employees about it and the contemplation over it has been anything possibly from old age to abuse to spider sag.


In the end I've found the aDs to be good performers however, and greatly prefer them to many others. They retain a cult following, and were respected enough to be used as monitors for big recording studios like TelArc and the like L(980, L910 and L1530).

Overall I gotta say, if I follow my gut, it's more an issue of design whereas the driver hits it's limits when asked to perform at brutal levels.

Keep the volume civilized and use adequate (and quality) amplification with them and there shouldn't be an issue.

I'd not run my Dahlquists or Thiels that rough either.

The old beater Cerwin Vegas I had, another story. Handled abuse well. Unfortunately lacked the refined sound I desired.

I'm gonna say it was the L1090/1290/1590 models that had a revised driver- able to keep better composure when pushed to abusive levels.

But for whatever reason, they weren't as pleasant as the L1230/1530s in sound (just my opinion and my aDs friends/former employees opinions).