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Interesting pair of ESS AMT1 speakers with Heil - San Antonio

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"some cosmetic wear" seems like a bit of an understatement! Those are getting into parts donor territory in my book though not at that price.

SA ESS.jpg
 
I agree they're overpriced, although repairable (grille frames will probably be hard to find). The worn upper corners are due to the grilles; they're held on by gravity alone, and centering them can be difficult, even when everything else is correct. I'm assuming the woofers are correct; although obviously one dust cap has been replaced, they look otherwise identical. But there also appears to be some rust on the right AMT. I think $200-$300 is closer to the correct price, and I'd be hesitant at the latter.

ETA: my AMT-1Cs had double dust caps (i.e. one larger one over another, smaller one) on the woofers. Although I don't see a glue trace, I wonder if the right side woofer is just missing the outer cap. The left one looks correct.
 
They are now $280! I would be all over those if they were here and the price was $280 CAD! These are quite nice sounding. There is more bass, and if you want more, there are modern day drop in replacements. I had one pair of them twice. I enjoyed having them both times. I found them better balanced than the other ESS I heard. It is why I have AMT4s now with a modern woofer. They like a fair bit of power too. I would recommend Yamaha M40 style power for them.
 
The cosmetics are really not too terrible. I have a pair that I acquired in worse condition. The Heils are missing their end caps. Its my understanding that the very earliest box Heils had no end caps. Of course missing end caps have nothing to do with sonic performance. Its just cosmetics. The Heil plates can be cleaned up and shine like the sun. There are several posts here on AK from people who have done this. I have a pair of box Heils that were missing their end caps and wrote to Ricky 3 times through their website asking to buy 2 pair of end caps. Never got a response. This was just last year. Fortunately, my favorite west coast seller had 2 pair and mine are now complete. This is the same guy who will be shipping me a pair of AMT 1 Towers in a couple of weeks.

The woofer on the right looks original. The other one might also be, just from a different supplier, or mfg run or year. New grills for the 1 are available from ESS but are pricy. Hopefully at this price they are gone by this time.
 
swechsler said:
I agree they're overpriced, although repairable (grille frames will probably be hard to find). The worn upper corners are due to the grilles; they're held on by gravity alone, and centering them can be difficult, even when everything else is correct. I'm assuming the woofers are correct; although obviously one dust cap has been replaced, they look otherwise identical. But there also appears to be some rust on the right AMT. I think $200-$300 is closer to the correct price, and I'd be hesitant at the latter.

ETA: my AMT-1Cs had double dust caps (i.e. one larger one over another, smaller one) on the woofers. Although I don't see a glue trace, I wonder if the right side woofer is just missing the outer cap. The left one looks correct.
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Those are two different woofers. One has been replaced, probably by a no-name aftermarket speaker. The "genuine" replacement speakers are around $250 each. I used to have AMT 1B monitors and a friend is rebuilding a pair of 1D's. I used to sell those back in the 70's. And the rust indicates it may have been in a humid environment. These are something I would only buy if I could inspect them - in person - first.
 
POSTING DELETED BY AUTHOR!
ya snooze, ya lose!

Then again, it didn't sound like a great score anyway ... ;)
 
I don't know where people are looking, but last I knew a decent pair of the tweeters are running in the $350 to $400 price range. And given that you can get replacement diaphragms for ~ $80 each, the price for even non-working tweets should be at least $200 to $250. Not having the covers is a problem, but the price seemed pretty okay to me.
 
hammr7 said:
I don't know where people are looking, but last I knew a decent pair of the tweeters are running in the $350 to $400 price range.
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I could have sworn ESS was selling them new for less than that, but I just checked on their parts page and they are no longer offered. So you are 100% correct.

NM, found them. They're now $200 each, but paying that much for used doesn't make sense.
 
hammr7 said:
I don't know where people are looking, but last I knew a decent pair of the tweeters are running in the $350 to $400 price range. And given that you can get replacement diaphragms for ~ $80 each, the price for even non-working tweets should be at least $200 to $250. Not having the covers is a problem, but the price seemed pretty okay to me.
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I completely agree. I'd have wanted to listen to ensure those tweeters worked, but that's about it.
 
hjames said:
Looks to me that new Heil drivers are still for sale
https://essspeakers.store/collections/heil-amt
I bought my "Original Great Heil Air Motion Transformer™"
directly from ESS Nov 2018, when they were on sale for $280/pair with Free Shipping
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When I sold Hi-fi back when the AMT1B's and monitors came out, we displayed them in our "High end" room. I remember putting on "That's the way I always heard it should be" by Carly Simon through a hitachi stack (that I ended up purchasing). It was like she was in the room. And Tower of Power and Cold Blood simply blasted their horn section through those things in a way JBL L100's couldn't touch. As a big band member in my high school and college days, that mattered to me.
 
hjames said:
Looks to me that new Heil drivers are still for sale
https://essspeakers.store/collections/heil-amt
I bought my "Original Great Heil Air Motion Transformer™"
directly from ESS Nov 2018, when they were on sale for $280/pair with Free Shipping
Click to expand...
I got a pair of Great Heils from ESS right at the same time you did and got the same deal. I had plans to build a pair of Monitor type cabinets but then found a real pair and had them shipped to me. So as a fun project to use the Heils, I got a pair of RS Nova 15's and shoe horned the Heils into them and was able to save the positioning of the 8 inch woofer. There is no engineering here, mind you; just a frankenspeaker. Plays fine for fill in.

ESS Nova 15 conversion 4.JPG
 
RobRoy said:
When I sold Hi-fi back when the AMT1B's and monitors came out, we displayed them in our "High end" room. I remember putting on "That's the way I always heard it should be" by Carly Simon through a hitachi stack (that I ended up purchasing). It was like she was in the room. And Tower of Power and Cold Blood simply blasted their horn section through those things in a way JBL L100's couldn't touch. As a big band member in my high school and college days, that mattered to me.
Click to expand...
I was selling at my audio store ESS dealer just slightly before you when ESS had all the paper cone products: the 1's, 1 Towers, 3's 4's 5's, then the 1A, 1A Monitor and 1A Bookshelf. We also eventually got the Tempest Lab series bookshelves with the Power Ring Heil like the AMT5. And like you, the main comparison speaker was the Century L100.
There wasn't another line of speakers in the store that could offer the same quality of sound from the low end, ie. Tempest to the high end floor standers like ESS. After the 10bs came out I was gone from the store.
Mainly listen to big band jazz and big band swing. We know these speakers excel at that.
 
jcidave said:
I was selling at my audio store ESS dealer just slightly before you when ESS had all the paper cone products: the 1's, 1 Towers, 3's 4's 5's, then the 1A, 1A Monitor and 1A Bookshelf. We also eventually got the Tempest Lab series bookshelves with the Power Ring Heil like the AMT5. And like you, the main comparison speaker was the Century L100.
There wasn't another line of speakers in the store that could offer the same quality of sound from the low end, ie. Tempest to the high end floor standers like ESS. After the 10bs came out I was gone from the store.
Mainly listen to big band jazz and big band swing. We know these speakers excel at that.
Click to expand...
I powered my 1B monitors bi-amped with a hitachi HMA8300 and HMA 7500 using an ESS active crossover. The crossover came with two 4" square aluminum plates to attach to the backs of the passive radiators to change their resonant frequency. It gave noticeably deeper bass.

I really liked those speakers. Lost 'em in a divorce, but I have moved on since then. That kind of system is not on my bucket list. Been there, done that. And after you've been in a dozen or so live bands, it's not really a big deal.
 
RobRoy said:
I powered my 1B monitors bi-amped with a hitachi HMA8300 and HMA 7500 using an ESS active crossover. The crossover came with two 4" square aluminum plates to attach to the backs of the passive radiators to change their resonant frequency. It gave noticeably deeper bass.

I really liked those speakers. Lost 'em in a divorce, but I have moved on since then. That kind of system is not on my bucket list. Been there, done that. And after you've been in a dozen or so live bands, it's not really a big deal.
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That sounds like a very nice setup. I was not aware that the xover gave you weights for the passives. We might have had one pair of the ESS electronics at the store, but I don't remember it being setup.
I lost a pair of Bose 901s in my divorce. I would have been far more upset to have lost ESS Monitors. After I got 2 pair of ESS speakers during the stereo store days, I just kept adding more ESS speakers and never changed direction.
 
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