I know I'm not the only one in this forum using ESS speakers so if you've been hankering for a new set, take a look at these. Although they didn't have any ESS speakers at the HE 2006 show I was able to talk to a dealer of ESS speakers who gave me a brochure of the new Connoiseur Series of speakers.

There is a web site with the whole set of ESS Heil speakers from this company at http://www.eliteavdist.com and a review at http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue20/ess450.htm. According to the review they are very nice but quite expensive.

I have had a pair of AMT-1Bs for a long, long time. I bought new 12" woofers (polypropylene like the newer 1D model, which I think sound better than the original ones) and passive radiators directly from the original ESS in Sacramento within the last few years. MeanGene, do you know anything about the relationship between the original ESS and this company? The original ESS in Sacramento was still selling AMT-1D's and AMT-Monitors as well as replacement parts by direct mail order for pretty reasonable prices, at least up until a year or two ago. They were even selling off some inventory of the large Heil tweeters quite recently on ebay.

Wow I had a pair of those things in the early 80s!

People were always impressed by the 50's science fiction tweeter (Heil air motion transformer).

Wolverine, that link is dead. I tried to go to the site and search for ESS related articles and found nothing. If you get a chance could you find another review?

There's nothing wrong with the link, you just need to drop the . at the end.
http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue20/ess450.htm

Try the link above.
Lonny

Try this link , MeanGene - there was a period at the end of wolverine's that was messing you up.

Thanks, all

At HE2006 I spoke with a representative of Elite Audio and Visual who explained that the company had moved most of the operations to Germany, but the Heil AMT's were still assembled in Sacramento.

The forum program automatically incorporated the trailing period into the link. It take all the text until the next space as part of the link. Since the second URL in my reply was at the end of a sentence, I put a period after it. The other URL did not come at the end of the sentence so I had not typed a period after it, and it was fine.

I did test it in the Preview Post, and that's the way it works. So don't put a period or comma at the end of a URL even if it is grammmatically correct. You learn something new every day!

And of course, no Home Theater is complete without genuine MeanGene Custom Cables.

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knows what happened to ESS? I need to get some new passive radiators and woofers.

Thanks

You can find more information about ESS on my home page. Just follow the link in my signature and go to the Links page .

Passive's and speakers are readily available on ebay too.
Lonster

I purchased the second to the last pair of ESS AMT1-D speakers from ESS last February. When played them they rattled, I found out later that the dust covers were falling off. I contacted ESS and they sent an old used 12", I called and said I needed a "new" replacement speaker. They said they would send one out, that was months ago, I still have not received anything but BS from them. Now their website is gone and all I have is a phone number and BS. Pretty shameful way to treat their customers. All the speakers must be in Germany by now. They say they will send me new speakers but nothing is ever sent. Nice speakers but now I have to replace both woofers.

Ed

That's a real shame, Ed. Sorry to hear about the problems you've run into.

Yes Ed, that's really too bad. Several months ago ESS was unloading their remaining stock of new large Heil transformers (tweeters) on ebay for $300/pair (I think?), so I am not surprised they are now gone. Thought about buying a pair just to have them for an emergency.

By dust covers do you mean the surrounds around the woofer cones and the passive radiators, or do you mean the whole grill-cloth "bonnet" that sits on top?

This is a very useful site. I happen to be here by chance while searching for the ess website. I'm in dire need of two heil-air motion xfmrs for my old amt 1d. Any body knows where to get one since according to some of these postings, ess has now moved its operation to germany.

AudioKarma forums may be what you want. Lots of vintage audio buffs there. They have a thread devoted to loudspeakers. I have, over time, came accross posts about the ESS heil-air motion speakers.
Other than that I cannot think of any other sites.

That's terrible. I realize that internal strife got the better of the company but that's no way to treat a slender customer base involved with such a unique driver.

I too was in the position to acquire a pair of the AMT-1D speakers and lo and behold i found the same issues with cabinet construction. The joinery was lousy between the 2 halves, bottom and top. The one cabinet actually separated from itself and i was forced to become a carpenter or better suited to this problem, a furniture repair person. The woofers had also the dustcaps falling apart but even more of an issue was the inner suspension de-laminating from the woofer baskets. The tweeters sounded fine except that i noticed the cheaper avenue of sound by using a diaphragm with fewer traces of signal path and fewer pleats than previous AMT speakers i've owned. I spoke with the new ESS company last year to find they use the same cheap diaphragms and are being sold now with those "lessened" signal traces.

Shame on them altogether, i love my Heil speakers. I hope things worked on your end but i'm not buying anything but the older researched AMT's anymore.

You might want to try here, I think you will have better results.

http://www.essspeakersusa.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ESS-Labs-LLC/10150109682755562