Hi everyone. I have not posted in quiet a while and have been unbelievably lucky and have found tons of amazing finds for cheap. I was on Craigslist 4-5 months back, and saw these old speakers ive never seen before for $150. Little did I know, this cheap purchase would completely end my search for speakers. They simply destroy everything I have ever heared. Martin Logan's, doesn't matter. Never in my life could I be prepared for how good these would sound after the recone.
I got them home, the cabinets where splitting a little bit at the corner seams. The Heil was slightly rusted on the surface, but all the drivers where perfectly preserved. The early Teflon Diaphragms where in perfect shape, and so where the woofers. I gutted the cabinets, glued, and clamped all the seams down with 8+ bar clamps. Then I masked out the pyramid and painted it satin black. One of the Heils had a manufacturing error, Few extra wave guides where thrown into a stack on a tweeter. I removed the putty, and the diaphragm. And tapped around the Heil with a rubber screw driver. Within seconds it broke at the seams into 2x halves. I pried up the stack which was very difficult, uncrimped the delicate, thin aluminum rod crimped on either end. Removed the plates 1x1. Then re-stacked them correctly. Since there where a few extra plates, this gave me some extra wiggle room to re-crimp the aluminum rod. Using a vice, and crimper, I crimped it until it matched the other stack in tightness and size. I reinstalled it into its location, and the Magnet violently ripped it into place, and smashing my fingers between the guides!!
So after that incident, I restored the plates using a 3M pad. Look brand new now! Due to the Heil breaking apart so easily, I didnt trust the Old Epoxy, so I decided to replace the Epoxy on the other Heil as well. So I purposely broke the other Heil, and reglued it using bar Clamps, strong feet, and Strong epoxy. Scraped the old glue off when a razor blade. The Diaphragms putty was old and crumbled after removal. I am currently using Blutak to hold each end of the diaphragms place at either end of the Heil, it worked a treat!
I called ESS because I some some questions about my speakers, as I heared they are very helpful. I called, it starting ringing, and a very nice man named Rick answered. Little did I know I was speaking to the CEO of this fantastic company. No front end, no automated "information" line. If you call, you will be talking to the CEO. He answered all my questions. Apparently my diaphragms are made of Teflon, not Mylar like the new ones. and that there is no need to replace with the new replacements as there is no difference in sound. He could have sold them to me and lied, but instead, he said, (if they are working, don't replace them) An amazing trust from ME to ESS Laboratory's is instantly obtained from this. All I can say is the way Rick runs this company is amazing, in terms of the care for the customer, people, and personal, warm way he speakes with you.
He also stated that ESS is like "Burger king" "Have it your way" you send us whatever parts you want, and we rebuilt it and bring it to our current standards. AMAZING!
I wanted to replace the woofers in my AMTs, as the original Alnico cones where pretty poor, worn, and the spider was sagging immensely. He said the new ESS woofers don't work with the early 10inch AMTs, and that they are a different woofer and voice coil entirely. He said if I want the best possible sound, which I've found to be true, to send my Alnico woofers into them, they would remove the Magnet, demagnetize, and then re-magnitized it. And completely recone the woofer using a really nice voice coil and cone specifically made for the AMT1. I got my invoice, paid the $200 flat fee, and they where on there way.
They arrived in their OEM 10inch woofer boxes. It was like unboxing a brand new pair of woofers. The cone is a beautiful paper pulp purple color that I really dig. My AMTs are now like bass cannons when they need to be, the low midrange transition has improved to pure and utter perfection. The transition to the Heil is flawless. Incredibly impact full sounding bass. Doing a sweep, audible down to 30hz with little variation is volume until it drops off. A smaller room drops at about 40HZ. Extremely accurate woofers, but not too boomy or overpowering to the Heils transition. They are incredibly fast. When a low bass note hits them, there is no sense of hesitation next to the Heil.
I also asked why they don't make the 3x way AMT3 Rock Monitors. Its because the newer cones are perfectly capable of delivering those frequencies in a timely matter. The diffrence would be pointless and negligible. But only if the Heil is implemented correctly with the woofer. An ESS AMT exhibiting this issue will have a lower midrange gap, and as if there are 2x separate sources of sound. The larger, vintage 12inch models inherently have this issue more often as the woofer is simply larger. I have tried all the woofers I have seen recommended on forums, ect. and none of them seemed to integrate with the Heil to the perfection the ESS woofer did. I have a ESS Professional Eclipse 2242 Electronic Crossover and Have experimented with a midrange cabinet, lots of different woofers. The best sound I got from these was everything set to flat, the Heil crossed at factory 700hz crossover with the Reconed Alnico, crossover knob set to normal.
You do not want a woofer that is too powerful, or goes to high, as it seems to take away from the Heil. These reconed woofers are truly the only ones I've tried that blended perfectly with the Heil, lots and lots of very fast, impactfull, accurate bass detail. Not boomy, and not too weak. Not too extensive in the mids. Everything is precisely where it should be! There was an obvious break in period. Seems after only a few hours of working them out, the bass extended lower, and the spider/surround felt less stiff. Great! After a few months of music, they now extend even deeper. I use damping in the center of the wall to reflect rear reflection into the center of the room. I had to align the speakers perfectly in the room. Even a few cm off messes with the sound due to their speed.
To this day, they are the best speakers I have ever heard, or owned, period! I will cherish them for the rest of my life, and pass them onto someone that will take care of them, even though I'm young. These speakers are revelations that will never be competed with. Completely within there own category of transparency.
Here are a few SOUND DEMOS
Before
After Full Restoration!
This is CD direct through a Yamaha receiver with no eq or processing of any type and I expect the same on your part.
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