Is there anyone out there who knows anything about Essence Speakers by Dale Pitcher?

I have owned Dale's Intiutive Design's speakers for about 10 years.  The Gammas Deltas still sound incredible.

I and my brother have owned Essence gear. My brother did have the Topaz. Not sure the model number but they did not have the subs. Its a long shot that he has the literature on them, actually since they came right from Dale they most likely dont. I now have the Intuitive Design Summits which are quite amazing. I have a long history with Dale Pitcher starting back right around 1979. If you would like to hear more about that let me know. I will still ask my brother though. Just have to say, I think what Dale made was some of the best equipment even though I didnt own anything else (to make comparisons) after finding his stuff. 

I have the manual and wave launch charts for the Topaz 6. Several years ago, I sent the midrange, tweeter assemblies with cradles, and crossovers to Dale for upgrade. They never got finished and I don’t believe they ever will. All I have left is the bass enclosure with upper sides, the tops, and the bottom plinths. I could send you copies of the manual and charts if you are interested.

Don't know a lot about them, but when I heard a pair, I liked them very much!

Like I thought my brother does not have the manuals. Looks like someone else does, thats good.

No one ever mentions the Essence 8a. It had the same driver complement as the IMF TLS80 and RSPM MK IV. The 8a had an aperiodic bass chamber instead of a TL. I thought the 8a was an homage to John Wright and his designs. It was a beautiful loudspeaker.

I just stumbled on a set of Essence speakers and I’ve been trying to identify them. I posted a discussion about them already but I’ve included a picture of them. I know very little about speakers but they looked and felt very high end so I bought them. Any help is appreciated. Thanks a lot. 

https://i.ibb.co/njNFxHh/3-D97166-B-536-A-4-A0-E-A597-64-A686543982.jpg

It is odd that the sides are covered in speaker fabric, Dale loved to use glossy finished exotic woods for his cabinets. I would need to know the dimensions of the speakers and see a photo of the connections. Also using a flashlight carefully try to determine how many speakers are in the units. From the pic they could be Topaz Subs or early Topaz 6 or Amethyst 30 but I need dimensions to be sure.

And to all who have responded to my first inquiry I truly appreciate your contributions to the discussion. And to mre28m5 thank you for sharing your information. I was never introduced to the speakers you mentioned nor John Wright. I followed up on your comments and read up on both the speakers and Mr Wright.  I seemed so have missed much in the years gone by. There are so many wonderful vintage pieces of equipment lost and unappreciated out there. 

I have known Dale Pitcher since the early 1990's. My entire 2 channel main system is made by Dale. Preamp, amps, external crossovers, speakers, interconnects, speaker cables. All of my components were his top of the line. His stuff is incredible. He was truly an electronic genius. He was always very eccentric but unfortunately he went off the deep end about 6 years ago with a psychotic break. He is of course now out of business and unreachable. A guy who sold his stuff for 25 years is Duane Randleman, who is now with Automated Lifestyles in Bettendorf, Iowa. He is very knowledgeable about Dale components. And he even makes great speaker cables, interconnects, and power cords using a lot of Dale's principles.

Very well said above, Dale’s a genius in a vacuum and Duane is an extremely knowledgeable person about what sounds good or correct.

I’ve had a pair of Summits for bout 15+ years, no hurry to change or "find something better?"

I own the gamma summit speakers, essence sapphire amp and all cables made by Dale including an shunyata king cobra power cord modified by Dale, his equipment is top notch. And Duane randleman at automated lifestyle would be the most knowledgeable on Dale's equipment.

Every time I think about possibly upgrading my Gamma Delta's I realize how great sounding they are and a possible upgrade might not actually be a upgrade.  How much in today's dollars would it take to better the Gammas?  Dale certainly knew what he was doing.

I'd assume it'd be a good chunk of change to compare to the gammas. I've had no desire to look at other speakers since I bought the gamma summits nor do I have any desire to change any of my cables Dale made or the essence sapphire amp.

I have a pair of Gems. 

I met Dale in the late 80's when he would come to his dealer in Columbus, Ohio - Audio Encounters which is long gone. He was a little eccentric but a nice guy.

His Amethyst 10's (I think) were one of the best speakers I ever heard. They had maybe 5 drivers all in individual enclosures that were stacked. During installation you would adjust the positions of the boxes in relation to each other based on a chart that you would look up your room dimensions or listening position. As the setup was dialed in the sounstage would come into focus & the speakers would disappear.

I have opportunity to buy a pair of Essence Topaz Six for a $1000.
Hard to find any information on these. Can anybody provide input? Is this a fair price? My understanding is these are pretty high end and were expensive new.
Thanks!

IMO, $1000 is a touch on the high side. If they don't have the wave launch charts, it would be a no go. They can't be properly set up without the charts.

Thank you for the reply!
It looks like all they have is the introduction page about the speakers and what appears to be the crossover wiring diagram. Is the wave launch chart unique to each set? I noticed you stated  above you had them for this model?
In your opinion, should I abort pursuing these or negotiate down? (If willing) in your opinion, what do feel is a fair price?
Any idea production years of the Topaz 6? 

My understanding is that there were two versions of the Topaz 6. The version I own had separate enclosures for the woofer, midrange, tweeter, and super tweeter. They stacked on each other, with the tweeter assemblies in a cradle. The enclosure was wrapped in fabric with a removable wood top on it. Each driver could be positioned independently of the other. The Wave launch charts tell you how much offset for each of the drivers based on the height of the listeners ears from the floor and the distance from the cabinet. I still have the manual and charts for that version. If you could get the person down to the $900 range, they are worth a try. Have you had the opportunity to listen to them? 

csmgolf is correct in his remarks and he has been a  big help to me when I first asked regarding my topaz units. I have the older 1985 units and they also need the Wave Launch Charts specific to my model. The later 1997-1998 units are the units you are looking at purchasing. They are very seldom seen and from what I have come to find is that VERY few were sold. A rare opportunity. If they sound good are fully operational I wouldn't hesitate. That is if I were 20 years younger, had the cash and could keep another set of large speakers hidden from my CEO/CFO  aka The Mrs. By the way. If there are any readers out there who have an extra set of  Topaz Supertweeters that go with the 1985 Topaz 6 units I would be interested in them. I think my units were originally purchased as Topaz 4 units (without the supertweeters) which would have made then Topaz 5

I did end up pulling the trigger on these. They are in great shape and sounded great. They were only set up for auditioning functionality with a basic Denon AVR. 
I currently only have them hooked to a Pioneer SC-91 Class D3 AVR that I have for my HT setup, running in 2 channel and I can tell they have potential. Working on getting an amp and room setup that will do these justice.
As lkp1952 stated these are the later 1997-1998 units.
Thanks to all that provided input!
I will try to share pics if I can figure it out. :)

Hello 

I Live in Lincoln Ne. And last summer stumbled onto a pair of the Essense 8a . With all the Original drivers intact. All i can say is wow. They have became some of my favorite speakers. It actually took a little digging to find out the backstory on him and his manufacturing plant here.Lucky a friend of mine sold audio gear here in town back in the 80’s and had met Dale and was able to give me a bit of background.  

I still own a pair of Gem II speakers, which I bought in Nashville, TN in the late 80’s / early 90’s; don’t recall the exact year. These speakers were the terminus of my search for the "perfect" speaker for my ears. I’d owned Snell, Infinity, and something else I can no longer recall, and the Gems gave me most of what I’d been looking for, in a small package! Clearly, they aren’t perfect, but give an overall ease of listening with tremendous low end for such small speakers and good mid and high end clarity without harshness. I’ve toted them with me for every move over many years and have thought a few times to sell them, but never received anything approaching a reasonable offer; now planning to just keep them even though I haven’t been able to regularly set them up for listening.

I’d been looking for info on the company over the years and I’m glad to find a few groups who know anything about Essence and Dale Pitcher. I’m contributing here mainly to post a link to Dale’s LinkedIn page, which I recently located, and that might be of interest or use to anyone here wishing to contact Dale about Essence speakers.

Dale Pitcher’s LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-pitcher-447306a0/

All I can say is dont send Dale any money. Product/service first then payment.