ESS speakers "Translinear" Transstatic

Ds1058:

I love this story, especially about the speakers flying off the car roof on the freeway! This speaks to the difference in build quality compared with today's junk, which would have to be swept up instead.

I first ran across the Transtatic and Translinear in 1970 when an Oakland dealer was going out of business. He was selling both at half price, but I could not come up with the asking price then. At the time only the Infinity ServoStatic at about five times the price of the Transtatic, could outperform them among the speakers that I had heard. But the bass of the Transtatic was at the time the best I had heard, nearly causing me to wet myself!

I still remember my one and only audition of the Transtatic l speaker system at a boutique stereo store located in Santa Cruz Ca. in 1972. In their era I think they were the best system by far until the introduction of the Infinity Servostatics which were a whopping 2200 dollars more expensive than the 1200 dollar price of the ESS. My house payment at the time was 145 dollars per month so one can see that these high end speakers of that era were more expensive than 10K speakers today relative to the vanishing value of the dollar.

I've been an ESS fanboy for some 40+ years, still using my amt 1b pyramids I bought from a friend in the late 70s in my main system. He got them from the original owner as trade for some concrete work he'd done, and I paid $350 for them. All I've done since is refoam the woofers twice, and replace the passives once.

What brought me here to this old thread is that I have a chance to purchase a pair of Translinear speakers from an acquantance the next town over. On-line info for these is very lean, and that helps muddy up consideration of their fair market valuation, so I haven't any idea what a fair price would be for the pair.

I heard them yesterday and boy do they sound nice. Huge and heavy, though

Better late than never to respond. I have a matched numbered pair of ESS TS Is and have been contemplating selling them. I purchased them (1973) as floor models from Paulson's in Tacoma, WA. They are in great shape and the rosewood veneer is intact and shiny. I have 7 or so extra RtR es wafers that I scored on ebay a few years ago. They are the only downfall of the TSs because the wafers were glued and riveted together making it difficult to repair. I also have a roll of mylar given me by a British man in case I decided to attempt a repair. What are you willing to pay for a one-owner pair of ESS TS towers? I reside in WA, the State. Shipping would be expensive for over two hundred pounds. Also, I would have to custom construct transport boxes in the case of sending them via freight. 

Can you send me some pictures...

mrluckeyy at aol.com

Thanks...