Tweeters sound pretty good alone, whole system not to bad, abosolute crap next to MY Klipsch RF-5s. Then agian for fairness sake, the woofers are shot on the poor ESSs.

Uglyiest speakers i have seen in my entire life. Cannot fathom them looking anywhere near semi-decent. Short Ugly, Harry, Stupid, Ugly, Ugly like Tom Dashel.

Salvaged tweeters and crossovers, eclosures are gonna make good firewood and/or projectiles or prehaps flaming projectiles. Woofers will make good frisbees or chew toys for Fito.

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Hair Dryer...

Crystline highs and efficent lows.

I can't tell yet (need better amp) but I think mids are a little weak and I like the electrical alteration ideas I read about here.

I'm sure everyone has noticed that all the "ESS amt 1a's" lose all four foam surrounds after about ten years. (My friend in L.A. and I both bought Sony MDR-V6 headphones in '85, after ten years all the foam in hers had crumbled away to dust but mine are like new, not having left Seattle. Ergo: the more ozone you can avoid the longer all of your foam components will last). I can write a better review next time if I can get some advise: what is the minimum amp power one needs to appreciate the 1a's? It is the unique color of the highs that place these speakers in the homes of "those in the know". Can anyone give me a comparison between the trusty old "ESS1a" and the "Acoustat Spectra 1100"? Both are known for their highs by the use of unique technology and both are similarly priced (used). Similarities stop there. After spending 30 years waiting for that affordale 'special speaker' (like waiting until 2010 to pick up a 2003 5 Series Beamer), I now have my college wet-dream "Larger Advents", 1972's best (ported) "JBL's", the somewhat newer "ESS 1a's" and now my new find, a pair of "Acoustat 1100's" ($400). Which two sets should I put in storage if I only have an anemic 5.1 channel Sony amp? Thanks! jimmyneon@earthlink.net

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The Acoustat 1100 also uses electrostatic drivers (I don't fully understand the differences, technically) but of a much different configuration.

Crisp, clear highs. Tight bass.

Clipping with some CDs that were recorded too hot.

I again am the proud owner of ESS Heil AMT-1C speakers. Originally purchased them in 1981 when I was single and had money. Powered them with an SAE Amp (2401) and SAE 2800 Parametric Equalizer and 3BX/DBX 3-band range expander and have the SAE 4100 Rear-ambience Delay powered by a second amp all rack-mounted in a 5-foot high black rack. Really impressive. Bought everything for roughly $10,000 back in 1981. Got married in 1984 and inherited a stepson. In 1990, he blew out my air-motion transformers and the bass speakers. I didn't want to spend any more money on repairs etc. so I (regretably now) took a sludge hammer to my AMT-1C speakers and threw them out in the garbage. I hated to do that. I just over-reacted because I was so mad. Anyway, after 12 years of total silence, I decided I'd like to see if all that rack-mounted equipment still works. Tested it out with a multi-meter volt meter and have almost no DC current coming out of the amps. Bought a used set of AMT-1C speakers from The Sound Well in California and had them shipped to Ohio. Hooked everything up with monster cable and popped in my favorite CD. After 12 years of "silence" the room came alive with the sound of music I had come to love in the past. Tears of satisfaction rolled down my face as I felt my stereo had just received a resurrection to life. These are truly the ultimate speakers as far as I'm concerned. I have loved reading the reviews on this forum. I especially appreciate the tip from a few posters about putting a pencil under the front of the air-motion transformer to get the up/down dispersion more at ear level. I will be trying that suggestion very soon. Instead of a pencil I will be putting three rubber piano tuning wedges under each AMT. That should angle the AMT's up about 5/16" in the front. I'm really curious to see if that improves the already great sound I get from listening to these speakers. Will be having dance parties down in the finished basement starting next month. Got to show off my "new" ESS AMT-1Cs! I can't say enough good things about these speakers. I do have a question though. When I bought these used AMT-1Cs for $525 and roughly $100 shipping from California, I rejected the AMT-1Ds from ESS which they quoted me $1098 plus $200-$500 shipping with ESS covering 20% of the shipping to try and entice me to buy. I just couldn't afford that right now and the AMT-1Cs are in great shape and sound super. My question is: What am I missing because I didn't get the AMT 1-Ds? Is the technology better? Is the sound better? Is the bass better? What's the difference? Hope I don't regret not paying the extra money for the AMT-1Ds. Anyone know the difference? Rockin' on near Cleveland, Ohio.

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None worth mentioning. I felt I struck gold with the ESS Heil AMT-1Cs and I never wanted anything else. Best bang for the buck and as good as any speakers 2 to 3 times as expensive.

I acquired a pair of AMT-1a speakers that need a little work. They didn't have the tweeters when I got them and the woofers and PRs both need work (because of rotted foam). The cabinets, grills, and crossovers all look to be in fairly good condition. I intended to restore them, but I'm finally giving up on the project. So I'm looking to sell them entirely or part them out. Email me (at bcm00re@yahoo) if you are interested in any parts.

Detailed, deep soundstage. Good bass, attractive truncated pyramid styling, good quality veneer on solid box.

Low quality components for connectors and internal wire, grilles obstruct sound. The tweeter circuit-breaker muddies sound, as do adjustable pots in crossover. Poor transition from big woofer to narrow ribbon, so mids do suffer a little.

I have been building speakers since I was about 12, about 25 years. I always liked "unboxed" sound, with open air tweeters and mids on almost everything I built. Early on, 1977-78, I heard Dahlquist DQ-10's(good, but 'diffuse' with all those drivers) and the big Heils, and wanted that sound. Well, finally got a nice, refurbished pair of AMT-1a's (paper woofers, not poly).(Only $300.00, too!) Wish I had them for the past twenty years...not saying I didn't like building systems, but NOTHING compares to the Heils. Just one driver over the critical ranges, dipole, fast-amazing! I 're-discovered' my music library...meet or beat about any, even my friend's Theil Sevens (about $7000.00!)...not as clean in the bass and low mids, mind you, but the detail you can hear "into" the high end is unmatched by ANY cone, dome or even ribbon, though some Bohlender-Graebeners I have are very close. I coated the paper woofers with polyurethane, cleaning up the mids and tightening the bass(great cheap mod on any paper woofer). I don't like the 'thunky' sound of poly woofers, borne out by my friend installing his ESS poly's into my boxes(he got them for a project), and the coated paper woofs are much more detailed and tight-factory puts little pieces of dense foam on cone back near coil, it must help with the mids. I also put them on home-made 6" bases(tweeter's now at ear height), replaced the ridiculously cheap binding posts and re-wired with good wire inside, removing tweeter circuit-breaker and adjustable pots-sound got dramatically better. Another little trick is to cover exposed magnets on front with felt, you'd be amazed at how getting rid of treble reflections from the Heil itself cleans up the sound. I whole-heartedly agree that the change in dispersion characteristics from a 10" dia. cone(of 12" basket) to a 3/4" ribbon is one of the main drawbacks. I might use some 5 1/4" fiberglass drivers in a mid-tweet-mid array to cure this, and allow woofer to woof and Heil to tweet. By the way, since ESS is in Sacramento, big Heils can be bought for about $160.00 delivered to your door, and with a little work you can recreate my center channel with 2 fiberglass cone 6 1/2" and a Heil, and use some monopole 'little' Heils and some more 6 1/2" for your rear channels, and blow away ANY modern surround system...even my non-audio sisters and friends cannot BELIEVE what they hear at my house watching their favorite movies or shows. I agree with other reviewers that ESS is sitting on their hands, and not updating their designs for today...it's obvious that with some new designs, maybe improved magnets and incidental components and better marketing they could be a major player...I have tried to talk to them about this, but they're(understandably)not open to some guy telling them what to do. Maybe they'll read some of these reviews and re-think their place in the audio pantheon. In conclusion, if you can get some of these- BUY THEM!. No-one who's heard mine can believe they're 25 year old tech, and many regret some other recent speaker purchase.

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Numerous home-made speakers with 'open-air' mids and tweeters. Several satellite-sub systems to get soundstaging. Modified Hafler and GAS amps, with home-made tube preamp. Various turtables, CD/DVD pl

Spaciality and clarity. These seem to add depth to the room. I like these speakers. I've upgraded with FM antennae, German pressed LP's, and CD/RW capabilities. The only upgrade considered for the speakers is a customized media room and a second pair.

I know some have noted deficiencies in the crossover and bass areas, but I don't hear it. I can get some boominess if they are placed 4" or closer to the wall, but this clears up completely at about 8" in my judgement. At 120dB SPL I'd recommend masonry walls.

This review is for the ESS AMT 1A, I've had a pair (of these speakers) since 1977. No regrets. The grill cloth is long gone. I removed the Heil units from the base and draped a small table cloth over the base to cover the upper half of the base unit. I put the Heils on top of a mantle behind them. I know I'm breaking an audiophile rule here, but it works so fine! Maybe I just invented a new audiophile rule. I had the foam surround on the woofer and the passive radiator replaced about 10 years back. They still look good. I've driven these with a Kensonic Labs Accuphase T101 tuner, Technics SL1510 turntable, Nakamichi 600 cassette tape deck, Phase Linear 4000 pre-amp, and various power amps (anybody got a Phase linear 400 they want to sell me?). I also run TV/VCR through these and more recently added CD/DVD capabilities. I believe it was Dr. Hirsch who said that 50% of your budget should be targeted for the speakers. Maybe that should be 75% in todays market.

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Well, ya know, I've used Sennheiser headphones for quite some time. Plus pot and LSD.

Clarity, powerful, unique style and design.

They aren't small and light. Plan room placement of other things around them to get their best output.

I had a freind in the late 70's whose father had a pair of AMT 1B's as his main speakers. When his father was gone, he "demonstarted" them for me and the fantastic sound coming from them left a memory I never forgot. Needless to say I couldn't afford them and settled for much less expensive copies (Lafayette Criterion 2002's with a smaller Heil) from the electronics store I was working at then (Lafayette Radio Electronics). Those speakers were finally sold at a garage sale for $40 when we bought a new entertainment center and surround sound system. Gloom and depression set in as that new system paled in so many ways and I resolved to once again create separate music and video systems several years later. Sold off the baby grand piano to make room for a "stereo room". On a whim, I did a search on eBay for ESS. There they were. A pair of "late model" AMT 1b's in mint condition. I called the seller to get detailed information about condition, why he was selling, what sort of use they had been through, etc. With less than 2 hours left on the auction, I entered my bid and waited, anxiously and nervously until it closed. When the huge boxes were delivered by a grumbling UPS delivery man (they are heavy!) I was oblivious to anything else. Removing the professional packing job (they were shipped from California) with care I was boring my wife to tears telling her every detail about them. Her dis-interest disappeared when she heard the first notes come through them! For me, that impression I got back in 1978 was right there again! The Bose went into the basement that afternoon. Shimmering highs, clear, thundering bass and perfectly intelligable vocals in the middle filled our new room. Now if I can just cure her from her desire to place a decoration of some sort on the top of the cabinet! My audiophile friend has disconnected his Martin Logans and is in serach of a pair himself after hearing these "demonstrated" for him. Another convert!

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Bose 601, 301, 901s; Martin-Logan; Utah (vintage items); B&O

I have an updated address for ESS. About a month ago they sent me out their sales information for their 1999 model line, and their address is:
ESS LABORATORY, INC.
10170 Croydon Way, Ste H
Sacramento, CA 95827
ph: 916-362-4102
fax: 916-362-1179


If you're looking for speakers in the $1000-1500 range, the AMT-1 series is unbeatable. I rated my 1B's 5 stars in a previous post, so I'll do it again.
Scott

Clarity, wide soundfield

I just won't to share experience in my own build speaker system with ESS AMT fans.

By chance I got a pair of used big cube AMT driver(from AMT 1b) and hooked with my previous speaker system to replace the origin tweeter, it was completely diffenent in soundfield and transparancy in high frequeny, I therefore decided to design and build a better speaker system to matching this ESS AMT driver.

The system is 10"x2 woofer + 6-1/2"x2 midrange,
+ AMT tweeter, 3way crossover at 220Hz, 2Khz,
midrange and high in MTM and tri-wire configuration,
the cabinet and crossover are important in this system to ensure the best performance for ESS AMT, however it took 4months to complete, all my friends are impressed on its clarity in high, focus in mid, deep in bass.

I read a lot reviews about ESS AMT1b, it is no doubt in
high but complainning in lower freguency, if you have speaker building ability, try to make your own super speaker using others good woofer & midrage but keep the AMT Heil driver that is the best in high frequency.

Spacial Clarity on mid/high, Solid Construction and Design

1000hz crossover produces lack of low-mid range definition

I actually own the AMT 1b Monitors, purchased new in 1980 through a electronic repair shop that I worked at. The shop was a warranty station for ESS speakers. The 1b Monitors have both the Woofer and Passive Radiator in front, which in my opinion, provide smoother bass response, and a bit less finicky when placing them next to the rear wall. These monitors use Bextrene woofers/radiators which have an inverted tar like surrounds which have weather the years very well. The surrounds don't appear to dry and rot like foam surrounds do. The 12" Bextrene (a form of polypropelene?)woofers, I think, provide very clean bass, but tend to strain and not meld well with the Heil at the 1000hz crossover point. I'd be interested to hear the AMT 1d monitors that ESS is selling today (www.essspeakers.com), with the crossover at 800hz. Would there be any noticable improvements??

Like others in this forum who have AMTs, I have had mine for 20 years now. Throughout the years, they have played at many college dorm parties, a wedding reception hall for 300 guests, and been transported to several audio stores, where I was looking to replace them with something else. But I always decided to keep them. Since I worked at a repair shop where I could get spare parts for a little over cost, I replaced the teflon diaphrams for the newer mylar with the mesh dampening over the front and rear of the diaphram. This did provide a slight improvement to the sound quality, especially at high volume levels. And for the individual in this forum that stated AMTs cannot be played loud, the only other speakers, that I have heard, that play louder while sounding as clean, are the Klipsh Corner Horns. BTW, I did get the opportunity to listen to the AMT Transars at a local dealer back then. Very impressive looking, but they were a little dry for my tastes. I think they were around $3000 for a pair,which was a lot of money back then, and still is today. I was also told by one of the salesmen that the Heil low frequecy driver had some drive stability problems at high volumes. That probably explains why they were not marketed for very long.

In 1983, I re-veneered my monitors in oak, over the original dark walnut. With a meduim walnut stain, the lighter woodgrain now provides a beautiful contrast to the dark brown grill cloth. I wish ESS would offer light oak as an option. I was surprise that ESS is marketing basically the same design today that they were 20 years ago, and the prices are just slightly higher also.

One last point. The Heils in the AMTs, like any other bi-polar design, need to breath to sound best. These speakers like large rooms, and to need to be placed away from rear and side walls to really open up. It still makes me smile to think back at how many friends or acquaintances who listened to these speakers for the first time, and commented how "clear" they sound.

Four and a half stars, leaving room to improve or find a match of a low frequency drivet that can keep pace with the Heil.

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DCM Time Windows, Magneplaner, Klipsh