Anyone Familar With ESS Speakers?

Had a pair in the 70s with a kenwood receiver--- Probably sounded like the fellas described. ---But hey it was hi fi to me. (back then)There got to be better/ cheaper designs out there without spending lots of bucks.

I only responded because I hear confession is good for the soul.

Heard these speakers once. The heil drivers could sound very good but the woofers"Never" intergrated with the heils..I wouldn't touch them because of that. You can probably find something with better driver matching for similar dollars. I believe the Oskar speakers use a form of the heil drivers. Uhf loved the oskars...cheers, Bluenose

I owned the AMT 1A's in the mid-70s and thought they were the best thing I'd ever heard. But this was my first "high end" system after graduating from college and these speakers replaced some little AR bookshelf box speakers. The woofers rotted out after a few years, and the cloth lid contraption didn't hang right after a while. I guess the tweeters were a *little* bright, too. I gave the speakers to my sister in 1980 and she still uses them! The woofers are probably not even functioning by now, but she doesn't notice it. anyway, if someone is giving you these speakers, sure, try them out, but for even a couple hundred dollars you can buy much better used speakers these days.

it you want a good vintage speaker that can be had for little money, try the shihanian obelisk

The other posts have pretty much said it all, but I'll throw in one more point. I sold audio gear on a part-time basis in 1974-75, and the store where I worked carried the ESS Heil speakers (that name always makes me want to put on German martial music, goose-step around the room, and yell "Sieg Heil" ...). The speaker design was interesting, but they were/are terribly inefficient. The pair in the store was driven by the old Phase Linear amp, one of Bob Carver's earliest designs (also known as "Flame Linear" for reasons that should be self-explanatory). Even with 300 wpc driving them, the Heils still sounded pretty awful, and I can't imagine they'll sound any better today.