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ESS and Heil air-motion tranformer - any thoughts?

These seem like interesting speakers, has anyone on this board had any experience with the ESS line of speakers?

A.M.T. description:

"The Heil diaphragm, made of soft, quiet mylar to reduce background noise, is bonded with conductive aluminum strips. It is equivalent in surface area to a conventional cone type eight inch midrange driver, but is accordion-folded down to a compact one-inch band for better point source dispersion. The low mass diaphragm is suspended in a massive magnet structure concentrating an intense magnetic field around the diaphragm.

When a signal passes through the aluminum strips, the bellows-like motion of the folded "pleats" squeezes air out five times faster then the air motion of a conventional cone driver. The virtual "instant acceleration" provides high definition, crisp transients, and overall spaciousness with superb dynamic range. This type of performance distinguishes the heil from all other transducers."

http://www.essspeakers.com/
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yours4sound
1 posts
 
Thought I'd revive this thread.

I'm now in the process of rehabbing a pair of ESS AMT 1 (transmission line) Towers and was wondering why there is nothing in the A'gon blue book. Certainly in the last 5 years some have sold on the 'gon!

ESS is now active and actually never went out of business. They still have the originaly ownership and I've been chatting with the President of ESS, Rico. If I heard him correctly the owner simply put the business into retirement until deciding to bring the brand back into production.

They're going to have 2 rooms at CES, one devoted to a very large scale HT system. Legacy products are being serviced, many from NOS parts. Apparently crossover rebuilds are popular for the larger AMT 1 models.

Any ESS folks out there? Thoughts?
walkerent
1 posts
 
I have several pairs of Heil AMT-1 tweeters. I've had a pair on a 3 way system with Altec 416-8Bs, Altec 311-60 horns and Altec 288 drivers for almost two years. They easily keep up to the large Altecs, with head room, and they sound clear and musical. I love them.
hotmailjbc
571 posts
 
wow, you guys have photographic memories. i had a pair 35 years ago and loved them. i would really like to hear them now on some good gear. i was using a crown d-150 and a sae preamp. probably a thorens td-160 or bang and o 3000 table. later i was a rep for the heil tweeters and sold them almost exclusively to pro music shops. they loved them. big dudes in kansas city was a retailer i remember well.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,182 posts
 
Lafayette branded Ess/heil speakers were my first good speakers circa 1977.

FWIW, they did not stick around long. The heils continuously got fried and the bass was fat/muddy. Not sure the heils were really that well integrated into the overall design.

I realized their shortcomings a few months after getting them when I left my summer job at Lafayette and worked part time at TEch Hifi during college years.
weseixas
519 posts
 
Very familiar with the Heil AMTT, built quite a few speakers using them during the late 70's right up until 1990 when i could no longer get the units.

Never cared for the ESS version, Very good driver and a Pity they ( ESS) never went into production with the full range version...

regards,
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