ESP Speakers


I am looking for some information on ESP speakers from people who have actually owned them. 

I recently purchased a pair of ESP Bodhran speakers on Ebay and currently am waiting for their delivery.

I have never heard those speakers before but listened, under what I think were suboptimal conditions, to the older version of the ESP Concert Grands (3 woofers). These auditions left me quite puzzled. At times the speakers sounded great, even amazing. At other times they sounded quite awful. My feeling was that there was great potential with these speakers, but as I didn't have the opportunity to fiddle with the conditions under which they were offered, I have decided to look elsewhere.

Then one day I saw on Ebay a used pair of the Bodhran SE at a good price and decided to take the risk and purchase them. I would say that I did it out of curiosity, if not of anything else.    

Now the version of the Bodhran that I bought came out about 10 years after the first CG, and at the time cost more or less the same (16,000$). What I am interested to know is, first, how do the ESP Bodhran SE compare to the older ESP speakers?  I know that some drivers were changed, probably the crossovers, but I have no idea what change was made that justified an increase of 10,000$ from the first version?

Another thing I am curious to know is what people think in general about the brand. Today one can hardly find any information about ESP which is less than 10 years old. It would seem that very few people kept them long from new, and those who did eventually decided to get rid of them at very low prices.
This makes one wonder: has the fashion changed or are there really better offerings today than 10 and 20 years ago that justify such an expensive change? Or perhaps, there was something inherently wrong with the speakers after all?   
 ESP past and present owners, I would appreciate your comments.  
  
taviran
Crap, I bumped the post button.  So anyway, my listening position is about 9 feet away.
I never could really achieve the bass impact I was looking for so my solution turned out to be a pair of Gallo subs.  I'm used to full bass from my summer N802's.  I now have plenty of mid bass Punch and slam with response down to 25 hz.

So, how do they sound?  Like real music, real instruments especially anything acoustic piano, drums, cello, bass fiddle and voices.  I can pretty much play anything I want.  Both of my systems offer a lot of pleasure but the winter system is my favorite.

 I can't think of another speaker on the market today that would serve my needs any better.
I want to thank both George and rhljazz for their replies, this was just what I was looking for: very informative comments from one current and one former owner of ESP. From your answers, I believe I have learned that the ESP speakers are kind of  'midrange' speakers in that George was missing the highs (above 15K) and rhljazz was missing the lows (although granted, the speaker model was not the same) .

I also noticed that both of you have/had the newer models which came out in around 2004 (SI and SE).  I would love to hear also from someone who has or had the original Concert Grands (which came out in the mid 1990th), since that is the speaker I actually auditioned. (I read Art Shapiro of positive-feedback's journey with them but would be interested also to hear from recent owners of those speakers).   
Thanks.       
Hi Guys,
 Well, I have finally received my ESP Bodhran SE speakers and I must say that so far I am not too excited. They sound quite muffled and it seems to me that one back tweeter on one speaker is not working. Any advice about what can be done would be appreciated.  
Here's a list of questions for you:
Did you get the factory supplied spiked footer, and are you using them?  They are pretty much a must.

Do you have the speakers biwired?  This also a must.

What amp are you using?

FYI the extra tweeter fires out the side, not the back.  If one isn't working that is a problem for sure.  Since the speakers are designed to fire at a 45 degree angle into the room the sides of the speakers will be parallel with the room side wall.  Some toe out may help.  I measure a 1/2 inch difference closer to the sidewall at the front of the speaker which reduces the toe in to about 37 degrees.

I should have some contact info if you need a tweeter.

Where are you located?
Hi again. thank you rhljazz for the quick reply. Well, I fixed the tweeter problem. I unscrewed the bottom where the crossover is located and found a white wire disconnected. soldered it back and it's working now. What a relief.  And thank you for the correction: this tweeter is firing at 45 degrees indeed. Now as for the other suggestions, yes I connected it in biwire and screwd the spikes on. I will now try to listen with all drivers working.