can you remember these

leftwinger57

Hi , long time ago when a friend of mine hit big w/ an insurance settlement he first went w/ top flight audio gear for the peroid. His system consisted of a Mac 2105 amp , c-28 pre, Dual 1229 tt, and EES Heill AMT speakers. Of course the Macs were fantastic and you definately got what you paid for.What really impressed me were the ESS Heil AMT air motion speakers. These, if I remember blew away what was around at the time including the vaunted Bose 901s series 1 and Frazier black boxes.These speakers while pretty big completed this package and I rate these as one of my all time favorites. So does anyone remember these speaks and did they do anything for you guys who are old enough to know these speakers. Now w/o to much damage they go for between $5oo -700 and hopefully you do not have to refoam either the mains or passives. They also had the famous air tranfer radiater tweeters and were a step ahead in speakers for the time.If I had a choice of vintage speakers I would lean towards Ohm/walsh 2xo ( I like the idea of omni directional speakers)or these ESS Heils and I always liked the large Advents w/ the bull nose fronts.

heiney9

Nelson Pass started at ESS a couple weeks before Oskar Heil started. Here's an interesting article about the early days at ESS. Nelson met his wife while there.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/diy/0911/slot_loaded_open_baffle_speaker.htm

Schurkey

I remember "window shopping" for stereo stuff; back in the late '70's and very early '80's.

Yup, I remember Ohm F (power hungry, until the thing blows up) and of course Ohm is still in business selling much improved speakers that don't get any "big name magazine" coverage. I'd love to audition them; but what's the point--I'm in no position to buy 'em; and I don't expect to like 'em more than what I already have.
http://www.ohmspeakers.com/


I remember the ESS with "All Heil" the Air Motion Transformer. I remember liking them; but not being so impressed that I actually bought them. Air Motion Transformer sounded like a Carver trademark to me--fancy name, oddball engineering. Again, the stuff is still being built but doesn't get coverage. I'd love to hear them again.
http://www.essspeakersusa.com/

Later on, I got a kick out of the oddball tweeter pioneered by Linaeum and commercially mass-marketed by Radio Shaft. By the time I got around to buying them, they'd been disco'ed for six months. Never did find a "new" pair. I suppose they're still available on eBay.

Had an eye-opening (ear opening???) experience with a pair of Magnepan 3.3s; have itched to buy the current model of 3-series ever since. Again, ten minutes of bliss in the store may not translate to years of bliss in the home. I've out-waited the 3.3, 3.5, 3.6, and currently not buying the 3.7.

I think I just have a penchant for oddball drivers. I'd probably soil myself if I heard the helium-plasma (Hill and others) tweeters.

Tony M

I still own my ESS AMT1B's or 1D's...I replaced the woofers in them long ago. I see they make replacement woofers for them now. Same cast aluminum baskets! I haven't heard mine in years though. They're tucked away in my spare bedroom.:frown:

Beautiful effortless sound forsure.

"Sound as clear as light" is their trademark phrase.:biggrin: