ESP Speakers


I am looking for some information on ESP speakers from people who have actually owned them. 

I recently purchased a pair of ESP Bodhran speakers on Ebay and currently am waiting for their delivery.

I have never heard those speakers before but listened, under what I think were suboptimal conditions, to the older version of the ESP Concert Grands (3 woofers). These auditions left me quite puzzled. At times the speakers sounded great, even amazing. At other times they sounded quite awful. My feeling was that there was great potential with these speakers, but as I didn't have the opportunity to fiddle with the conditions under which they were offered, I have decided to look elsewhere.

Then one day I saw on Ebay a used pair of the Bodhran SE at a good price and decided to take the risk and purchase them. I would say that I did it out of curiosity, if not of anything else.    

Now the version of the Bodhran that I bought came out about 10 years after the first CG, and at the time cost more or less the same (16,000$). What I am interested to know is, first, how do the ESP Bodhran SE compare to the older ESP speakers?  I know that some drivers were changed, probably the crossovers, but I have no idea what change was made that justified an increase of 10,000$ from the first version?

Another thing I am curious to know is what people think in general about the brand. Today one can hardly find any information about ESP which is less than 10 years old. It would seem that very few people kept them long from new, and those who did eventually decided to get rid of them at very low prices.
This makes one wonder: has the fashion changed or are there really better offerings today than 10 and 20 years ago that justify such an expensive change? Or perhaps, there was something inherently wrong with the speakers after all?   
 ESP past and present owners, I would appreciate your comments.  
  
taviran

Showing 5 responses by rhljazz

I have the Bodhran SE which I purchased after hearing them at RMAF 2007.  I took delivery in the spring of 2008.  So, I've owned them for over nine years.  
What initially attracted me to investigate these was they had to be tube amp friendly and non ported bass.  The unusual styling was also a plus over the typical monkey box.
IME, the speakers are very picky as far as room setup and connected components.  The speakers must be biwired.  My favorite amp so far is the BAT vk 55 which is heat generating class A triode which the other responder also found the speakers like class A triode power.  Due to my location in the desert southwest, the speakers are my winter system.
I hope to have them setup again in a couple of weeks.  In my room I prefer a live end dead end setup with the speaker end being the live end.  The speakers have side firing tweeters so need a bit of a reverberant field.  
I place them about 25 inches from the front wall to the back of the cabinet which places the leading edge about 42 inches into the room.  The speakers are designed to be parallel to the side walls resulting in a 45 degree toe angle.  I like a bit of toe out, approximately half an inch which gives about a 37 degree toe angle. M
Crap, I bumped the post button.  So anyway, my listening position is about 9 feet away.
I never could really achieve the bass impact I was looking for so my solution turned out to be a pair of Gallo subs.  I'm used to full bass from my summer N802's.  I now have plenty of mid bass Punch and slam with response down to 25 hz.

So, how do they sound?  Like real music, real instruments especially anything acoustic piano, drums, cello, bass fiddle and voices.  I can pretty much play anything I want.  Both of my systems offer a lot of pleasure but the winter system is my favorite.

 I can't think of another speaker on the market today that would serve my needs any better.
Here's a list of questions for you:
Did you get the factory supplied spiked footer, and are you using them?  They are pretty much a must.

Do you have the speakers biwired?  This also a must.

What amp are you using?

FYI the extra tweeter fires out the side, not the back.  If one isn't working that is a problem for sure.  Since the speakers are designed to fire at a 45 degree angle into the room the sides of the speakers will be parallel with the room side wall.  Some toe out may help.  I measure a 1/2 inch difference closer to the sidewall at the front of the speaker which reduces the toe in to about 37 degrees.

I should have some contact info if you need a tweeter.

Where are you located?
Just curious, what size is your room?  What type of placement did you end up with?
Glad to hear the driver problem was a simple fix.
Email for Sean, the designer: espsean@gmail.com
phone +44 1803 226 173
or
Mike Verretto phone +81 3 6425 9375
Hope that will get you what you need.