ESS and Heil air-motion tranformer - any thoughts?


These seem like interesting speakers, has anyone on this board had any experience with the ESS line of speakers?

A.M.T. description:

"The Heil diaphragm, made of soft, quiet mylar to reduce background noise, is bonded with conductive aluminum strips. It is equivalent in surface area to a conventional cone type eight inch midrange driver, but is accordion-folded down to a compact one-inch band for better point source dispersion. The low mass diaphragm is suspended in a massive magnet structure concentrating an intense magnetic field around the diaphragm.

When a signal passes through the aluminum strips, the bellows-like motion of the folded "pleats" squeezes air out five times faster then the air motion of a conventional cone driver. The virtual "instant acceleration" provides high definition, crisp transients, and overall spaciousness with superb dynamic range. This type of performance distinguishes the heil from all other transducers."

http://www.essspeakers.com/
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Showing 1 response by valinar

I had a pair of ESS amt-1a bookshelf speakers for about 25 years. In October 2003 I replaced them with a pair of Paradigm Studio 40 v.3's. The ESS had plenty of high end and bass. When I had them I thought the high end was clear. The Paradigm's are far clearer. The bass in the ESS is mushy. The Paradigm has a better punch. When it comes to midrange I feel there is no comparison. The Paradigm's are far superior.