ESS Transar 5 Anyone?
- Thread starter snipercharli
- Start date
I was just at THE Show (2012) in Las Vegas -ESS was there with a current production Transar, a Limited (similar to AMT 1?) and a new mini. They all sounded awesome. ESS purchased a loudspeaker factory in South El Monte with experienced loudspeaker builders (25+years). Rico has all of Oskar Heils drawing - 1000's of them, and is plowing through the history. He is gaining experience of what made and makes ESS the icon it is. The ESS AMT1 was the first high end speaker I heard back in 1975 at a friends house in Iowa - WOW!
mrappe
Active Member
Like EchoWars I too saw them in the late 70's. Only once did I see them and I was a big fan of the AMT1s which I had so I expected them to sound good. I don't remember being bowled over by the sound but while I distinctly can see the picture in my mind I don't remember the sound. They must not have been a big seller since I don't think that they were around long.
SleeperSupra
Super Member
I'd really like to hear a pair.
Any idea how much they cost?
Any idea how much they cost?
sealy
Addicted Member
Sometimes technology for its own sake can be an unmitigated disaster. This was the case with the Transar. There is strong evidence to suggest that the Chairman of ESS was warned by his experts in product-design that this speaker was too complex, too costly to produce and too fragile to be successful in the home audio market. These pleas were ignored. ESS also completely ignored customers who complained of broken speakers and offered no assistance whatsoever. Shortly thereafter, the Transar and ESS disappeared from the audio scene.
Genius or not, Mr. Heil blew it big time with the Transar.
Genius or not, Mr. Heil blew it big time with the Transar.
SleeperSupra
Super Member
Thirty years ago.
They may have made some progress with them before they were reintroduced.
Time will tell...
I'm optimistic.
They may have made some progress with them before they were reintroduced.
Time will tell...
I'm optimistic.
I remember hearing and watching the Transars in action when they were first introduced -- even a little bit of tt rumble or footfalls would get the woofer string moving what seemed to me to be +/-1" or so, even with the hp filters engaged. If you could get a total of 4 of them to make a pair of line sources with large Heils in the middle, I think you could have a killer system.
Yes. That was initially what prompted Oskar to go back to the drawing board redesigning the carbon struts and replacing them with graphite. It was the rods that created harmonic anomalies and reproduced unwanted distortion. They were detected as mechanical transient noise but were in fact harmonic in nature. Still yet, not a good sign.
Somewhat yes and some no. They are not in production, those and any others in El Monte were retrieved complete from Frankfurt just in late 2010 / early 2011. They have been in storage for years and have made not one but TWO transcontinental ocean journeys to end up in San Gabriel and now, Las Vegas.
The purchase was merely of the facility (warehouse) not an actual company. All of the experienced loudspeaker personnel left the bldg when ESS arrived... less a small outfit of 3 Japanese guys selling home-theatre (crap) from the Orient who continued to rent 40% of it for another ~18 months... before Rico couldn't hack their "company" anymore lol. At last that i had seen yes the documents and drawings are haphazardly arranged in a drawing cabinet that at the time that i saw it, was placed upside down atop several cartons of other peoples equipment. I couldn't believe my eyes, and could barely open the upside down drawers.
He'll work and work as i know Rico to be more or less a diligent feller, even though he's lazy as ****.
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ESS is actually making them again...they had a set at the CES show...
Those are the very same beautiful oiled walnut veneered originals from the late 70's and early 80's with ebony stain applied to get into the modern look as anyone would do... i guess. They are housing approximately 7 pairs, for now. Way too expensive to build today and, the good Dr isn't with us anymore.
mrappe
Active Member
I had the same experience. I was already familiar with the Heils. My best friend had the AMT1s and I loved them. I was going to buy his pair a couple of years later but I went into a local store and a guy showed them to me. I thought that the woofer was a giant Heil but I did not look closely at it and only listened for a few minutes. I don't remember them sounding better than the other AMTs but it may have be the length of exposure or just the setup that they had.
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Well, since Heil is someone's last name and he could easily be considered a true giant, let's go ahead and just call it the Giant Heil for arguments' sake.
Yes, i concur. Albeit with a traditional motor, coil and former structure it truly appears like an 'air-motion' transducer complete with the generously ominous look of translucent diaphragms. They're nice to look at.
Nice post! It wasn't Oskars fault really, it was the owner's doing. He did ignore everyone, including Oskar. It was the owners inability or even better spoken, unwillingness to listen to anyone regarding production flaws followed by another unwillingness to honor unhappy customers. Retailers had to bail on the Transar due to the lack of warranty implied or other which backfired into the owners' face. Oskar had a falling out with the owner over this and parted company with him as a direct result. Greed was what blew it, not the good Dr.
Amazing pictures of the Transar bass unit! Thanks for putting this up - the more we can learn about the amazing Dr. Heil the better.
As for ESS and their engineering, too bad. It's also sad that you wouldn't trust them with my woofers, either. It looks like I'll just pick up some refoam kits (unless someone knows where I can get proper butyl surrounds) and live with the glue on the small crack on one of my woofer cones.
Or would another driver (Eminence 1220SF?) work better? If so, would it require crossover modifications?
IBJamon
I would check with Simply Speakers as far as those particuliar woofers go. OCS would be another one-as they too know ESS products pretty well.
I know Midwest Speaker in Roseville MN can tackle them as well.
There are some advatages of foam surrounds over "rubber" and the reverse is true as well.
Personally I would want to stick with as close to stock as possible, but I'm sure you can get them repaired by one of those listed above.
I would get any cracks or splits repaired before they cause further problems.
That was a really old post.I have new rubber surrounds, and the very small amount of glue that was needed will stay. Thank you for your help!
IBJamon
How well does the overall repair handle the low end power? Curious about a review on the woofers in particular when you went bi-amp.