I have pair of ESS speakers Monitor Series 4 in very good condition.What do you guys think how much should I sell them for??
Thanks |
I purchased my ESS AMT Monitors in 1982. I used them in a large room with thick carpeting, absorbent ceiling panels and curtains on three side from ceiling to floor. I listened to them with a powerful SAE amplifier usually running pretty much flat out. There were no room reflections or standing waves. The sound was extraordinary in that the the ambience in the recording (if any) was faithfully reproduced. For twenty years I never heard anything to beat this system. When I played "The living Daylights" LP then my *neighbours* spoke of the realism of the train (Note brick houses 65m apart).
The woofers have had surrounds replaced twice and the diaphrams in the EMT units have been replaced once. Another set of replacement surrounds and diaphrams are on order.
They are now being used as rear speakers with two Tannoy D900 speakers in front and Musical Fidelity amplification. People still jump to answer the phone when a DVD soundtrack rings in the background.
I have just taken delivery of a stack of equipment to biamp the Tannoys, and if that works well then I might do the ESS Monitors as well. This will allow me to streighten out the response curve a bit and match the back and front speakers better. |
ESS memories. In the 70's, I had a pair of the AMT 4's, the Heil unit was about 1/2 the size of the AMT 1's. I thought they were great, but I sold them and moved on to Kef 104ab's. About two years ago, I got a pair of the AMT monitors(the foam surrounds were all shot). I always felt it didn't make sense to pair the heil with a 12" driver so I paired the 6" heil with a 6" Peerless mid/bass in a new cabinet (sized for the proper Q). I also have a subwoofer using a pair of the Kef B139's crossed over at 100hz. The sound still stuns me. |
I have a pair of Ess speakers that I purchased back in 1972, I still play them everyday. I had to redo the rounds on the woofer but a side from that they sound as good as ever |
Ahh..I know what you mean Albert! Maybe we are 'romanticizing' the sound of those early speakers because they were so advanced. I have bi-amped Carver Amazing Silvers now which probably are much better than an old ESS? It does seem odd that there is so little info on the web about the early ESS speakers. I will be checking this thread from time to time myself! |
Good data nexusstudio. I visit this thread every time someone posts new comments.
I would love to hear one of these today and see how reality fares, when compared to my rosy memories. |
I too have just come across this thread. My first experience with true hi-end sound was back in 1972 and the ESS Translinears. I heard ELP's Trilogy album being played (it was quite a popular hi-fi demo record in those days!)and there was a cut where this LOUD kick drum enters and I was absolutely flabbergasted by the huge (in those days) bass impact. I haven't heard this speaker in all these years but I agree with what was said here. Transmission lines load the bass into the room instead of an enclosure. They sound very refined and are better for music than home theater. I later heard the Transtatic I and it was even better! I remember the salesman explaining about the Translinear II that ESS was using this fantastic flat woofer which was immune to cone break-up loaded into an EXCELLENT transmission line enclosure. He also mentioned that the midrange was also from KEF (as was the B139 woofer) and the tweeters were made by Peerless with a radical approach for that time of a tweeter facing to the back as well as front to mimic electrostatics. An ad from that time claimed "the closest likeness to electrostatics yet achieved with dynamic drivers" They were right! The Transtatic I did have the RTR panels (actually from a Janszen design).
The orignal Heil AMT ( I still have the sales brochures for all these speakers!) had a crossover of 700 hz but this proved too low and caused 'ribbon-slap' in the Heil so it was later changed to 900 hz before finally setteling on an 800 hz crossover. The early Heils had crappy ported enclosures with a wimpy 10" paper woofer. I was poor back then so I finally bought a Heil speaker made for "Lafayette Radio" by ESS with a "power ring" version of the Heil but the same woofer and enclosure. It did not have the qualities of the 'big' AMTs. ESS did make a really good version of the AMT with the 10" woofer mounted in one of their top-notch transmission line enclosures and the difference was GREAT! This speaker was discontinued shortly because the cost of that type of enclosure (and the increased shipping costs by that time)were too high and people preferred the "Rock Monitor" version that had a big ported enclosure. By the time I scraped together enough money to buy the Tower...it was gone. So then..the "Lafayette".
I wish these things would show up on the auction sites so I could finally get my hands on one, but I guess that is a testament to the great sound of all ESS speakers from the seventies that they still sound good enough to make audiophiles want to KEEP them! |
Just caught this thread..I had back in the day a pair of ESS Translinear2's with the Kef 9/12 oval woofer as Vintage described..These speakers had incredible bass clarity and speed because of the styrofoam material of the woofer made a great linear piston. The enlosure was very stout and was a transmission line type. I latter built a larger transmission line subwoofer enclosure using this same Kef driver based on a design published in a English Journal..I found it difficult to stay in the room with this woofer playing ..it seemed to reproduce the fundamental resonance of my then Sony TT and Vestigal tonearm equiped with a ADC XLM cartridge..Tom |
I just wanted to let everybody know that ESS is still around, it was bought by a German company a few years back and they have some new exciting speakers and is just now being introduced back on the US market.
http://www.audio-intl.com/en/index.html
Peder |
Hellow my name is ed. I recently picked up a pair of ess tower speakers. I would guess they are early 70s. They are 42" x16" x14" and weigh over 100lbs each.The name on them is ElectroStatic SoundSystems...INC. Sacrmento Calif. Trans-Linear II. They have a 9x12 Oval woofer & 5" MIDRANGE & 2TWEETERS .tHESE SOUND AWESOME AND REALLY HANDLE SOME POWER. DOES ANY ONE HAVE ANY MORE INFO ON THESE BABYS. |
I have a pair of ESS Heil AMT 1a since '72 and love them. Had the woofers re paired in Portland, OR in '91. I wouldn't give them up for nothing. The sound is rich and surounding. Great sounds for jazz, blues, panio etc |
Hello,my name is frank .I was looking through the net an came across your forum.I bought in 1997 a pair of ess amt 4"s and am in the proces of replacing the drivers ,I'm searching the net for the replacements, i completely re- finished the cabinets and have been very satisfied with their line of speakers. And have just recently purchased a pair of Transtatic 1's in great shape except for one rtr electrostatic panel is blown.They came with three RTR6 electrostatic panels, one 9"x12" KEF flat oval woofer and a 5" midrange per speaker.They are 4 ohm speakers so you need a pretty high end amp to run these babys, recommended power is 60 watt rms min stable into reactive loads and they will handle greater than 650 watts musical peaks without distortion and they are fuse protected.They are 42x20x16 and very heavy 110 lbs per speaker.I run them with a Dynaco st400 amp, 200 watts per channel and these guys sound awesome to say the least, I would recommend that if any one comes across a pair of these rare brutes do not hesitate to purchase them.I know for me i own the last pair of speakers i'll ever purchase. And if any one knows where i can buy a replacement rtr6 panel please e-mail me and let me know.And in case you,re wondering who i bought these from is the same person i got the amt4's from, for a price of $650.00 a pair, they originally sold for $1200.00 a pair in the 70's.ESS also made a top of the line system called SuperQuads which are even rarer, they cost $3000.00 apair which was a lot of money back then.Well thanks for listening and to all happy searching.And if anyone wants to they can e-mail me. Frank J. Rustay |
Hi,
I have owned the ESS AMT-3's since 1975 and have the foam rotting problem. I prefer to purchase equivalent drivers (10's and 6's) rather than refoam. Greatly appreciate driver specification data and/or any info on replacement driver manufacturer and p/n. Thanks.
Bob |
Thank you for your information Rurdangaray. I am most appreciative, Joe |
I bought the AMT-3 Rock Monitors in 1975, and still have them in my basement being driven by a Pioneer receiver. I've twice replaced the two 10" woofers and Heil diaphrams. The mid-range is still the original. With a sub-woofer, it still sounds very good. It was my main speakers until about 5 years ago. I now have Legacy Focus speakers in my SACD based main system. |
In response to Trelja's question - the crossover of the orignal ESS AMT speakers was set at 1,000 HZ. The most recent version use 800 HZ. The Swiss made Oscar Kithara has a crossover at 730 HZ. While the ESS speakers had midrange problems, I'm not sure why anyone would hate these speakers. The clarity and openess of the Heil puts a lot of high dollar speakers to sham and works wonderfully for a lot of rock and electronic music. The midrange deficiencies of the ESS designs caused by blending a large slow woofer with the ultra fast Heil just made the ESS a poor choice for jass and vocal enthusiasts. I understand that some the recent designs that use the Heil do not have this midrange problem. Alas they are not easily avaialbe in the U.S. The Swiss company Precide distributes the speakers. |
By the way, it's been a long time, but I have never hated those ESS speakers the way so many have. The 12" woofers did need to be replaced, due to the surrounds rotting out. It's in the back of my mind to go through them, and see what happens. Does anyone know the crossover point of the speaker? How low the Heil AMT can be crossed over? Any other bits of wisdom? Thank you, Joe |
Thank you Albert. Your postings are always very well written and thought out, not to mention insightful. |
Trelja, no, we lost the ESS line about that time, and instead picked up the more popular JBL commercial line and Infinity Systems. I had a hell of a time learning all the technical materials and specification sheets required for JBL. I quoted parts and power requirements for commercial sound applications such as auditorium reinforcement and rock band equipment. It is nice though, to have owned and lived with so many technologies, it does however make me even more committed to my Soundlabs, which I consider to have the fewest compromises. |
Hi, I owned a pair of ESS AMT 1A's in 1975 through about 1980. I gave them to my sister and she still has them and loves them. The woofer surrounds disintegrated about 12 years ago, but the dealer (a local TV store) ordered new ones for me and as far as I know, they are still functioning well. My sister likes them, anyway. They are the highest-end speakers she has ever had.
I remember the day I had these speakers delivered, I thought I had way overdone it in size and cost. However, 30 years later, I see I had many more extreme excesses to go, audio-wise. |
ESS is still in business. You can view their web site at http://www.essspeakers.com. Their product line has not changed very much of the years. I used to own a pair of AMT-1As with the Heil. I thought the Heil was a great driver. Unfortunatly, it was not well integrated with the 12 inch woofer used in the speaker (hard to do). The Heil AMT is being used in speakers other than ESS. There are 2 Swiss speakers the Oscar Aulos and Kithara (the former was recently well reviewed in Soundstage e-mag. There is also a British company called Orchid that is using the Heil. |
Very entertaining comments Albert. Were you still at ESS when they went to the Heil AMT technology? I know a lot of people love to knock those speakers. My father has a pair(in my home no less), and it has always intrigued me to take them apart, modify them, and see what happens. While I have never really given them a lot of time in the past years, I remember some good qualities of the driver. Thanks for your information! |
Sean, you are right about the memories, it was pleasant thinking about the ESS again. Your question about Soundlab, all the large speakers in the line have excellent bass, and are exclusively electrostatic. The mylar driver has very low excursion, but is ultra fast and phase accurate. For what it lacks in deflection, it makes up by radiating area (in excess of 15 square feet). Properly set up, you are assured to get the "oomph" you describe. Electrostatic bass still "sounds" different from a traditional piston woofer, a music session with your favorite software should determine if it has the sound you like. |
Wow, i bet that post brought up memories, huh Albert ??? : )
Thanks for filling us in on that. I have a good sized batch of the RTR e-stat tweeters that i'll be working with quite soon. Your comments about the Soundlabs' bass. From what i know of these, they are an all E-stat design, correct ? Maybe i'm misinformed and they are a hybrid. If they are completely electrostatic, I will HAVE to hear these things if they've got bottom end "oomph" that can compete with dynamic drivers. Sean
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I was the factory representative for this line in 1971, and took these speakers around to audio dealers for demo. I believe that the electrostatic element was at that time, manufactured by RTR, the same company that made the elements for the Crown ESL (Elkhart Indiana), and the original Infinity Systems Servo-Static. You are correct about the oval driver being built by KEF. This woofer was totally flat in appearance, and behind it was a long labyrinth, forming a complex transmission line network within the cabinet. It was precisely tuned to be in near perfect phase with the front (output) of the KEF woofer. I remember the sound of the very deep bass, passing thorough walls of the sound room and into my office, while I was speaking to customers on the phone. This design was indeed way ahead of it's time, and delivered remarkable sound, especially considering it's relatively small size. As far as being as good as electrostatics of today, I think that the Maggie, Quad and Soundlab all have better mid and top than the ESS. As far as bass, my memory is probably blurred, but I would guess the ESS to be better than the Quad, but certainly not equal to the output of the Soundlabs. |
