Anyone Familar With ESS Speakers?

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.

I have to agree with the other guys. The AMT 1 was somewhat overated when it came out.Also, that Heil transformer was in my opinion was a step backward and hurt this company.Before Dr. Heil took over, ESS made a line of speakers which used standard drivers, that is, KEF drivers from England and I think Vifa tweeters from Denmark. They produced about 5 models. I owned the ESS 7 which to this day was the most exciting speaker I've owned. I am sure some of this is just nostalgia. But they were clean,fast with outstanding bass response. I would look around for these models, someone may have a mint pair to sell. If you can't find them, spend you money on PBS, Paradigm, or even the new Tannoy Revolution 2 speaker reviewed this month in The Absolute Sound. Good Hunting!!!