How much are Heil AMT-3 speakers in

excellent shape worth?

A friend of mine is thinking of selling his (and I'm thinking of buying).

Anyone know?

Thanks!

If those are the AMT-3 Rock Monitors, they should command a pretty penny. They don't show up on Ebay very often and I've never seen them, but most of the stuff I've read about them was glowing.

Do a search here and see what you can find, but it looks like you may have some nice speakers to decide on.

Here, check this out:

Rock Monitor link

You can be fair, or you can try and convince him you're just gonna help him get shed of those big, gnarly old speakers that nobody in their right mind would want ...

Yes, "pretty penny" is about right. Check epay and audiogon.

The AMT-3 Rock Monitors have two problems as they age. The grill is made of particle board which deteriorates (crumbles) as they age. The second issue is that the foam surrounds should be shot by now. Make sure that the Heil tweeters are fully functional as they may be non-repairable. I thought they sounded great back in the 70s but realized later that they are highly colored in sound when compared to newer speakers.

Do an A/B comparison with any new speaker and the monitors sound pretty lame.

I thought they sounded great back in the 70s but realized later that they are highly colored in sound when compared to newer speakers

Click to expand...

They are (were) colored because ESS insisted on using them in a two-way config with a big-ass woofer where the Heil is crossed over way too damn low. Use a couple of 7" drivers with good response out to 4K or so, and cross from the woofer to the Heil at 2500Hz or therabouts, and the response is as flat as anyone could hope for.

The Heils in the AMT-3 are very serviceable and I would recommend the latest diaphragms from ESS which are $30 each be installed. ESS is very much in business.
The AMT 3 was the most balanced of the early speakers and used a smaller midrange to fill in between the twin 10" drivers and the Heil AMT. These speakers have a big West coast sound.
I have a pair of the same AMT drivers and they are competitive with other modern premium tweeters both dome and ribbon. The latest AMT diaphragms are much improved over the originals. Many speaker manufacturers in Europe are taking a second look at the Heil and designing new AMT drivers.
The 10" woofers and mid may need to be re-coned or have new surrounds installed which is common on all speakers from the 70s.
When rebuilt these are great speakers IMHO.

Ron-C

I have had a pair of AMT 3s since they were new in 1974 or 75 and they were/are being driven by a Crown DC 300A. The only problem i have ever had was damaging the diaphram by over driving them, this was back in the 70s and I blame Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery album, namely the cut Jerusalem. Since I have grown up (yeah right) I have not melted one in over 12 years.
Richard

Originally posted by Jon S
The AMT-3 Rock Monitors have two problems as they age. The grill is made of particle board which deteriorates (crumbles) as they age. The second issue is that the foam surrounds should be shot by now. Make sure that the Heil tweeters are fully functional as they may be non-repairable. I thought they sounded great back in the 70s but realized later that they are highly colored in sound when compared to newer speakers.

Do an A/B comparison with any new speaker and the monitors sound pretty lame.

Click to expand...

Damn, you must be talking about a COMPELETELY different speaker than the pair I restored.

The grilles on these were masonite frame, and were just fine.

As for colorations- I find them FAR LESS colored, than pretty much ANY speaker from the 70s or 80s, save stuff of the ilk of the JBL 250Ti, Marantz DS940 and such. In fact, the pair we had, could pretty much hang with brand new high-end speakers... I directly compared them with Tannoy Saturn S-10s, Vandersteen 2CE Signatures, Boston VR-M90s, Elons, JBLs, and more. What impressed me with the AMT3, was the completely DIFFERENT character that it had, than the AMT1. The AMT3 had VERY fast midrange, very well-defined and tight bass, imaged like a m____f____ (to use the language of Samuel L. Jackson ), and had overall dynamics that very few speakers of ANY price could beat.

Of course, it may have to do with room placement, as well as sources, amps and such... the system I was using, consisted of a Rega Planet 2000 CD player, an Eastern Electric MiniMax tube line-stage preamp, and an original Marantz 8B tube amp. That combo is about as trouble-free as a source/amp chain as I've ever encountered.

As for value- the pair we had, we traded for other equipment... we got about $800 in trade value for them. IMHO, we may have let them go too cheaply...

Regards,
Gordon.

For those near this Canadian bloke one could pick up a large set of Heil AMT-6 's. Is this heil speakers from the same Bob Heil here in Fairview Heights who has mics and headphones and such?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=50597&item=3083590865