ESS speakers "Translinear" Transstatic


These were speakers designed by California based company called ESS, that is, Electro Static Sound before they used the Heil Air Montion transformer. These models were current in 1970-1975. I am curious if any one still owns either of the above models, or has seem them listed on any of them listed in the used audio web sites. They were incredible speakers for their time,and sounded as good as many of so-called elctrostatics of today. They used good driver elements, for example, the KEF B-139 oval driver for the bass response.If anyone has knowledge of either of these above vintage speakers,please leave info on this Web page. Thank you!!
sunnyjim
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.
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 have heard kithara loudspeakers they sounds good
i want to make a clone
is there somebody who know what woofer model they use?
Sunnyjim,interesting stuff.I have some Crown ES212s which use similar RTR made stat panels.The Crowns use 12 5inch stat panels arranged in a curved screen 3 high by 4 wide.The bass [below 350hz] is handled by two ten inch woofers in a sealed box.Even by todays standards they sound superb.They are clearly better than the older Quads and many of the Martin Logans I have heard.They are surprisingly dynamic and have real world loudness capabilities.Apparently they cost the same as a family sedan in the mid 70s so they should be good.

JT
Holy moly i love this type of talk! I have owned a multitude of pairs of the ESS AMT line of towers, pyramids, bookshelfs, etc. Whence first i heard the AMT MONITOR towers, i was sold on the sound of the Heils. The owner, a youngster, had removed the cast 12" front firing woofer radiator combo, and replaced them with generic ribbed-pulp 12's. While removing the phase coherence of a single 12 and a bass radiator, he was essentially phase-cancelling bass, enhancing midrange production, increasing power handling, and biasing power levels of two 8ohm woofers and one Heil diapragm, towards the woofers. Something about that combination, or having never heard the AMT ESS line of loudspeakers, threw me for a loop. I had never in my life heard a pair of house speakers, floor standing or otherwise, sound that brilliant and punchy. Today, yes, this very day the 7th of August yr 2006, i currently own ONE pair of the AMT-1B pyramids / ONE pair of the AMT-3 Rock Monitors / ONE pair of the AMT MONITORS / ONE pair of the AMT-1C pyramids / ONE pair of the AMT-1D bookshelfs / ONE pair of the AMT-1D pyramids / ONE pair of the AMT-II pyramids / ONE pair of the M6 mini-bookshelfs (non-Heil) / ONE pair of the PS-820 bookshelfs / and ONE pair of the PS-920 bookshelfs. Can you tell i was adversely affected by the one experience??? lol... i love the Heil line-up, i listen to the whole lot of them, regularly!