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ESS speakers synergise with valves?

I recently bought a pair of old ESS PS5C speakers.These use a small Heil Ribbon,a ten inch mid woofer and a rear mounted ten inch passive radiator.
I started out using some of my SS amps amps with these and whilst I could hear that they were doing some things really well,felt that a hollow and slightly coarse midrange detracted from their overall sound.They had a typical 'west coast" sound,although infinitely better sounding than their JBL contemporaries.
To combat this I doped the woofer with liquid silicone.This is often a subtle but very effective way of reducing paper cone colourations.
The next day I changed amps to 23 watt EL34 Trimax monoblocks,never really expecting them to drive them properly.But was I ever wrong!
The sound from this combination is simply amazing.These are now incredibly neutral sounding speakers,with fantastic bass,clarity and imaging.
Anybody who has been using valve amps for a while comes to know that they very rarely achieve their potential with mainstream speakers.So when we discover one that is the exception to the rule we need to announce it.These ESS may not to be to everyones liking-they are quite analytical,but on balance I think they are still a real find for tube lovers.With a 300b SET amp they could really be something.
Just to confirm the ease of driving I have also run them with a Tripath 10 watt class T amp.Not as good as the valves but still drives them quite loud before clipping and sounds better than SS.

Has anyone else discovered these?
128x128jtgofish
decooney
1,996 posts
 

 

@johnnotkathi - decooney thanks for the info - actually I do not own these yet but am looking at a pair used and just cannot find any info about them. Specs? Are they really good speakers? OK? Not so hot, etc.....

The ones I am looking at seem to be in really solid condition, at least from what you can tell from pictures......

If you are a specs hunter for perfect speaker specs, look elsewhere imo.

However If you are handy and the cabinets are in good shape for your need, and you want a different type of musical sound from AMTs, they can be improved with a few low cost updates. The last set I bought cheap got updated and handily beat other speakers [I was demoing to compare for a company] that had a retail cost of 4k a pair at the time. If you want a budget value buy - you can simply recone the woofers and replace a few caps in the crossovers, replace rear terminals, and start listening. They respond well to quality weighty amps [with some real iron in them] much better than lightweight low grade receivers. Can sound glorious imo with quality tube amps.

johnnotkathi
55 posts
 

@decooney definitely not a "spec hunter" but was more so just trying to figure out a little about them.  I have not seen anything online with any detail at all.  Thanks!

decooney
1,996 posts
 

@johnnotkathi you can look up the older ESS Performance Series brochures still around on the web (in .pdf) form for download and I found one last night in Denmark (.de) I think it was, for a subscription fee or something to download. Some of these artifacts will list the 9a but not the 9c model.. Same family IIRC but not exactly the same. Don’t hold me to this, but something close to this - 8ohm, 15-75w, 8" woofer, 92db, smaller AMT Heil. Adjustable presence control in front. Some show rear passive radiators. Can be tube friendly, but you’d have to try with your amplifiers. No guarantees, and some of these go for cheap on the used market.May be worth it if you find a set with nice cabinets.

Be careful if you replace the woofer [and don’t re-cone and re-surround it], you may get a larger hole in the midrange on this speaker. Best to ensure something right at 92db efficiency for the woofer, However, I’d try to have to re-coned by Nealsspeakerservice if you can. Best of Luck on the decision, project, etc.

johnnotkathi
55 posts
 

@decooney - thanks for the info and taking the time to help me out!! 

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