ESP Speakers


I am looking for some information on ESP speakers from people who have actually owned them. 

I recently purchased a pair of ESP Bodhran speakers on Ebay and currently am waiting for their delivery.

I have never heard those speakers before but listened, under what I think were suboptimal conditions, to the older version of the ESP Concert Grands (3 woofers). These auditions left me quite puzzled. At times the speakers sounded great, even amazing. At other times they sounded quite awful. My feeling was that there was great potential with these speakers, but as I didn't have the opportunity to fiddle with the conditions under which they were offered, I have decided to look elsewhere.

Then one day I saw on Ebay a used pair of the Bodhran SE at a good price and decided to take the risk and purchase them. I would say that I did it out of curiosity, if not of anything else.    

Now the version of the Bodhran that I bought came out about 10 years after the first CG, and at the time cost more or less the same (16,000$). What I am interested to know is, first, how do the ESP Bodhran SE compare to the older ESP speakers?  I know that some drivers were changed, probably the crossovers, but I have no idea what change was made that justified an increase of 10,000$ from the first version?

Another thing I am curious to know is what people think in general about the brand. Today one can hardly find any information about ESP which is less than 10 years old. It would seem that very few people kept them long from new, and those who did eventually decided to get rid of them at very low prices.
This makes one wonder: has the fashion changed or are there really better offerings today than 10 and 20 years ago that justify such an expensive change? Or perhaps, there was something inherently wrong with the speakers after all?   
 ESP past and present owners, I would appreciate your comments.  
  
taviran
Hi guys
First of all, all the best from Austria. With great interest I followed your entries to the E.S.P. Speakers. I bought my first Concert Grand in 1997 from Peter Mecek, a very good friend of Sean McCoughen the designer, who was previously with Beveridge Audio. I was playing with VTL MB 750 tubes and it was fantastic. Warm, durchleutend, just great. Later I exchanged the VTL for ML 33h and behold, the E.S.P. could grow one more time. So the weaker part was not the speaker but the amplifier. After some time, I was able to move in my new listening room which had been acoustically pretreated. The room has a reasonable size, about 80 m2, and there the Concert Grand developed its great dominance. The possibility to install the speakers pretty much in the room, so away from the reflective walls, gave the big loudspeaker its full potential.
In 2004, Peter and Sean came with the larger Sii built in Isobarik technology. A total of 9 high-quality Chasis were installed and right a Höchtöner goes sideways away. Now the Bassfundamet gained in importance and it was clear my room was not really exhausted yet. So I set up a Double Bass Aray with 4 Velodyne DD12s. 2 subs in front and 2 in the back. Incredible but just because of the low notes the spatiality increased significantly, so that one would like to reach for the interpreters. Now in 2018 I am very satisfied and believe I am allowed to hear one of the best speakers. Unfortunately, I could not hear Sean the last few years, to my knowledge, he has now developed a small set and cable. Hope he's in good health, one of the best among the elderly and Peter makes PearAudio and builds the Fletcher drives.

Linn Klimax

Air Forsell AirForceOne reference with TonArt control

Mark Levinson 52 with phono

Mark Levinson 33H

4 Velodyne DD12

E.S.P. Concert Grand Sii

TonArt cable

with Love from Austria
Ravin
Hi Guys. 
Do you have a schematics of the crossovers of the Bodhrans?
After living for a few months with my speakers I came to the conclusion that something was wrong. I just couldn't get them to image properly. So a few days ago I unscrewed the bottoms and after some soldering exposed the two crossovers.
To my dismay, I found out someone was fiddling with these crosses and there were some "anomalies", like changed parts and wrong phase connections. 
Anybody knows where I can get the schematics?
Thanks. 

 

     
Email for Sean, the designer: espsean@gmail.com
phone +44 1803 226 173
or
Mike Verretto phone +81 3 6425 9375
Hope that will get you what you need.
Hi Guys,
First, I wanted to thank rhljazz for his help. I should have done it sooner but life took me in other directions lately. 
I was finally able to refurbish the ESP crossovers on my own. While at it, I changed some parts (caps, resistors) to higher quality ones, changed cabling to Belden and soldered everything point-to-point. Overall the sound improved a lot I believe and I would certainly recommend this. Not a very difficult job. 
I experimented with various amps: Luxman m900U, and Jadis JA80. Still, I am not altogether where I want to be.
My room is quite small so I believe this sets a limit to what I can achieve. Compared to other speakers I had previously (Quads, Klipsch), the ESPs are much more neutral, and more balanced, but also very sensitive to many factors (like cables, the quality of the recording, etc). My wife does not like the sound, I must say, so perhaps something is wrong. But right now I don't see myself opting for other speakers. 
Cheers. 
Source: Doge 6 Cd Player/EMT 950
Amps: Luxman m900u/Jadis JA80
Pre: Luxman C900U/Jadis JPL
Cables: MIT/XLO
Music: 90% classical


     
 
    
An update on my adventure with ESP Bodhran SE.
After measuring the impedance of the speakers, something I should have perhaps done long ago, I was surprised to see that it was 4 and not 8 ohms, as the manufacturer states on his website. I changed the Jadis JA80 to 4 ohm, and ...Bingo! Now it sounds like I was expecting from the beginning. The Jadis-ESP now sounds better than the Luxman combo, at least with acoustical music. All and all, I believe I can recommend to people to purchase the ESP speakers, although you should be aware that they need space and VERY careful placement (and probably a crossover overhaul). By the prices they are going for, it's really a steal. 
Cheers.