ESS AMT4: Worth repairing?


I have a pair of these which need refoaming. Does anyone have experience with this speaker such that they might offer advice as to whether these 10" drivers are worth the repair cost, or is it smarter to just buy new units and install them? The ribbon drivers seem ok as far as I can tell. From the looks of it, the locals here want about $110 to refoam the drivers for me.

Or, if repair makes sense, does anyone have tips on a good shop to use other than our locals here in Portland (well thought of, Fred's Sound of Music btw).

What might these sell for in good shape?

thanks all,

eno
enoe5c6

Showing 1 response by iseekheils

I have a pair of ESS AMT 1 Towers that I just had rebuilt. I found a speaker builder on the Madisound website that was willing to do the work. He designed and built new crossovers and replaced the old 10" woofer with a ScanSpeak 8" mid-woofer. I also use a Velodyne HGS 15 sub, so in effect it's like a three way system. I've heard many of the top brands of speakers ranging from $5000 to $35000. I wouldn't trade my retro-fit ESS speakers for any of them. If you can find someone to do the work, it will cost you about $500 for the parts, plus the labor.
If you just want to replace the original 10" woofers, you can get them from ESS, as mentioned above. I believe that they are about $49 each, and they will have heavier magnets than the originals. I actually purchased a pair a few years ago, before I decided to try to have the system rebuilt.
Sonny