What equipment have you bought this year so far ?

@phomchick, we’re of the same generation. While scraping the money together to upgrade from my first loudspeakers, the AR 4x, I set my sights on the Rectilinear III, which I preferred to the AR 3a (too veiled and soft), the JBL L-100 (too colored, forward, and brash), and the Bose 901 (terrible!). For some reason I never saw or heard the Dynaco A-25. Before I was in a position to buy, I stumbled into Sound Systems in Palo Alto, and heard the Servo-Static I (at $2000, WAY above my 1971 pay grade. I was in a hippy band, barely able to pay rent and eat ;-). I heard the 2000A and 1001 (both of which I found more transparent than the Rectilinear) and though I wanted the former, I decided to get a pair of the 1001 and a new set of Ludwig drums. Gotta prioritize!

The ESS TranStatic also has a KEF midrange driver, the B110 you mention. ESS briefly offered a model named the Super Quad, which used the RTR ESL tweeter and KEF B139 woofer in the same transmissionline enclosure as the TranStatic, with the Quad ESL in place of the KEF B110. It was their competition to the Servo-Static, but I never saw or heard a pair. I finally found "my" speaker when I heard the Magneplanar Tympani T-I. I bought my first pair in ’73, and now own the last version of the Tympani, the T-IVa. The new Magnepan MG30.7 is an updated version of the T-IVa. I heard the 30.7 on the tour last year, but in a terrible room, at Echo Audio in Portland. One of the worst sounding rooms I’ve ever been in! Wendell Diller knew it, but what could he do?

Wow @phomchick, I haven’t seen a pair of Infinity 2000A since 1971! I lusted for them, but had only the $ for the half-as-much 1001. The 2000A was at that time one of only two loudspeakers using the great RTR ESL tweeters, the other being the ESS TranStatic I (a pair of which I now own). The TranStatic employed another great driver, the KEF B139 woofer (later used by David Wilson in his WAMM), and it was that fact that led to ESS producing the Heil AMT loudspeaker.

TV-Audio Center (how’s THAT for an old-school hi-fi shop name?!) in San Jose was the first true hi-fi shop I discovered in my audiophile journey (component "stereo’s" were sold mostly at electronics stores back then), and they sold all the big 50’s/60’s/early-70’s brands: McIntosh, Dynaco, Acoustic Research, Thorens, Decca, Shure, Bozak, Wharfedale, Quad, Sony, JBL, Altec-Lansing, Crown, Phase Linear, etc., all sold by WWII generation hi-fi guys. The shop also had a hip young salesman named Bryan "something" (I bought all my gear from him, but have forgotten his last name), who brought in two new brands from the about-to-explode emerging high-end scene, ARC (I saw my first ARC pieces---an SP-2C and D50---in the shop in 1971), and ESS.

Oscar Heil had a working prototype of his AMT driver, and had been looking for a great woofer to mate with it in the loudspeaker he was working toward producing. He chose the KEF B139, one of the best woofer drivers at that time. Oscar was pointed towards ESS by KEF (distribution of UK products in the U.S.A. was very limited at the time), so he visited the TV-Audio Center shop to check out the transmissionline-loaded B139 in the TranStatic. He liked the bass he heard coming out of the speaker, so Bryan put him in touch with ESS, who of course ended up manufacturing the ESS Heil loudspeakers. Bryan was rewarded for his efforts by being given a nice position at ESS, director of sales, I believe.

Ancient history!