AHHHHHHH they arrived

Submariner said:

My ESS AMT1Cs are finally hooked up to my Sansui Gear. I need to move outside the end tables and dial them in but they are in a 9 out of 10 condition and only $400.

Pics

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never heard that before

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Submariner said:

My ESS AMT1Cs are finally hooked up to my Sansui Gear. I need to move outside the end tables and dial them in but they are in a 9 out of 10 condition and only $400.

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macman007 said:

Old thread, but just some FYI for the OP owner and other readers interested,.. the latest AMT 1 series (or AMT Limited Edition as they are now called) are available for sale, brand new from ESS Labs California. Retail price before tax and shipping is 4495.00 the pair. ESS have multiple other models for sale as well as headphones that are said to sound good, depending on who you ask. I expect this, speakers are a person, subjective subject.. No 2 persons hear the same things the same way.

The 12" AMT Series retail for the same price, are available in 8", 10" , and 12" varieties, as well as are many new parts for legacy models, not limited to:,.. new badges, grill assemblies, serial plates for the top where the trip pots sit, as well as passive drivers, surround/refoam kits, and most importantly the Mylar Heil diaphragms for multiple models. Their site is here: https://esslabsusa.com/ All new speakers come with a 1 year warranty.

As an aside, I've been living ESS Heil speakers since 1975, and have accumulated several model pairs, including the ESS Tempest Lab Series 1's with 12" woofer; Tempest Lab Series II's with the 8" woofer, and a pair of AMT 1-C's with 12" drivers and 2 sets of grill tops. The Tempest 1's and AMT 1 C's were bought new by my dad in '75 and myself in 78 for the Lab Series II's and '79 for the 1 C's. All have been lovingly restored inside and out, refinished, repainted, new grill cloths, badges, caps, pots, terminals, etc.

The 1C's both will need new woofers/cones/coils. I dropped the tonearm on my VPI with the volume up and over-excursion-woofer pump event damaged both woofers.The voice coils over extended, hanging up outside both drivers' magnets gaps. Once I was able to persuade-manipulate them carefully back into their magnet groove, both windings on both woofers started rubbing the magnet's gap.

I'm torn between buying 2 brand new genuine 12" ESS poly woofers (the 1C's and later came with poly woofers, not paper, and butyl rubber surrounds) or having the original woofers re-coned/re-coning them myself. I think to be safe, I'm going to get a new pair and have/rebuild the originals myself, just in case. Shame is the polypropylene cones with butyl rubber surrounds never fail the way paper cones and foam edges do. They were perfect in every way till my bonehead move with the VPI tonearm, not muting the volume. I'll never make that mistake again. The woofers are original. AS proof, both have the correct date code May 27 and May 29 1978 stamped on their (aluminum?) baskets. I never replaced them and owned them from new in Summer '79.

Purchased from Sight and Sound in Baltimore, Md, along with a matching Marantz 1120 and later a Marantz 1200, both of which still sound glorious playing through the Lab Series I and II. The big speakers always had McIntosh amps of one model or another driving them, originally my dad's MC 2105, then later when I could afford it a MC 2205. The Marantz 1200 integrated always had plenty of oomph to competently drive any of the 3 sets, with plenty of muscle to spare. The 6 ohm ESS static load helps out here, even using a modest amp like the 1120 integrated, which features 60 WPC, instead of the 120 WPC the 1200 offers. For comparison, the MC2105 is rated 105 wpc, but real world is more like 140wpc. The MC2205 is similarly underrated, at 205wpc, it's more like 240-250wpc real world. Both Mc amps are rated at any load, from between 4-16 ohms at full power

The Marantz Integrated amps specify not less than 4 ohms each channel total..or 8 ohms nominal. Power rating is a tad higher at 4 ohms than 8 ohms. 6 ohms for the ESS speaker loads is a nice compromise. The load is represented static, actual real world operating impedance can vary all over the place depending on frequency and other measured variables. Some speakers out there will dip as low as .5 ohms at times, so an amp has to be able to compensate for this. I like the 6 ohm load, its seemingly more safe than starting with a 4 ohm load, which is at the recommended edge of many amps out there, old and new. But anyway, back to the speakers,....

I am in-love with the sound quality of these speakers, especially the bigger 2 way 1C's, as well as my Lab Series 1's with the big 12" drivers. Even my smaller LS II's still sound phenomenal to me. This considering they are essentially bookshelf sized. The LS II's on stands will fill a fair size room featuring a 8' ceiling full of musical sound. Placed properly (proper on-axis placement at proper distances for given room layout is essential for any speaker, especially these beauties. When pushed with decent gear, they too will fill the room with clear, strong, exciting sound, which is not bloated, or in any way undesirable to me.

All 3 sets or speakers use Dr. Oskar Heil's famous Heil Tweeters. Both my Lab Series sets implement the smaller round flush mount Heil tweeter, (with a vented woofer slot at the bottom of each cabinet) not the larger surface mount 'block' on top on the AMT 1C. There are multiple controls for high frequency blent/boost, and ultra high frequency crossover controls in front as well as 2 circuit breaker protections, which actually works! I've tripped them before and thought I blew the speakers. Happily they reset and everything works nicely again.

Keeping the fragile foam poly precision cut grills with their metal 'V' trims from disintegrating is my biggest worry. The original grills for the LS 1's disintegrated once already. I needed to have a custom set made from the same coarse cellulose-poly foam material the originals used, without any solid perimeter frame. The stuff isn't easy to find today. The LS speakers used stapled Velcro pieces to hold the grills in place, with velcro on the aluminum trim "V's" as well as the ESS LS name badges.

Great looking AND great sounding, ESS,..Sound As Clear As Light.. believe that.

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Submariner said:

My ESS AMT1Cs are finally hooked up to my Sansui Gear. I need to move outside the end tables and dial them in but they are in a 9 out of 10 condition and only $400.

Pics

Click to expand...

SaturationPt said:

@macman007

Everyone tends to believe that the rubber surrounds are forever, they're not. Neither are the cloth surrounds that ESS also used (I have a pair of each generation of ESS AMT Monitor). The cloth gets stiff (really stiff), and so does the rubber. I finally had mine replaced as I could tell that the rubber was getting stiffer and felt more like a higher-durometer urethene than the original, after removal found that bending them sharply made the surround crack on the bend/fold. They were not responding / moving like they did new.

Although it is sad that the original woofers were damaged, the reality is that you'll get SO MUCH BETTER music out of new ones. If you prefer, you can send them back to Rick at ESS, they will demag/remagnetize the magnets and recone IIRC it is cheaper than new drivers, OTOH the new drivers are supposed to be a better design and match the speed of the Heil better.

Also, Rick has told several of us to move the Heil back, says they did this on the new speakers to better time-align them. We tried this on one of our pair, very much like the result, did the other pair also. This applies to the AMT Monitor as well as your AMT-1Cs. Give him a call, I'm sure he'll have lots of suggestions for you.

And yes, the Heil tweeter was a great piece then, and still is.

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