ron-c
Addicted Member
I picked up a pair of ESS Elites a few months back. These are the add on tweeters with the large Heil AMT in a walnut cabinet which is designed to set on top of whatever speaker you have.
They have a 1k or 5 k crossover controlled by a micro switch and a gain control on the back of the cabinet.
This pair was virginal and the original diaphragms were still installed. How do they sound? Not bad. I set them up with a pair of McIntosh LS330s and bypassed the internal tweeter and fed the output of the tweeter to the Elites. The LS330s cross over to the tweeter at 3500 hz so the crossover was set to 1 k on the ESS. The lower range of the AMT sounded somewhat light as I remember them.
Thinking new diaphragms might help I called ESS in Sacramento and they sell new diaphragms for $30.00 each plus freight. This is the same price as they were 20 some years ago so ESS must be in some kind of time warp.
Much to my surprise the new diaphragms were made out of some yellow material, had the netting to keep the pleats straight and seemed to have fewer pleats than the originals. The sound is very impressive now. Lots of detail with no harshness and the midrange transitions fine to the 8" LDHP midrange in the LS330s.
If anyone has some old Heil AMTs I would recommend the new diaphragms. For $60 bucks a pair you can not go wrong.
Ron-C
They have a 1k or 5 k crossover controlled by a micro switch and a gain control on the back of the cabinet.
This pair was virginal and the original diaphragms were still installed. How do they sound? Not bad. I set them up with a pair of McIntosh LS330s and bypassed the internal tweeter and fed the output of the tweeter to the Elites. The LS330s cross over to the tweeter at 3500 hz so the crossover was set to 1 k on the ESS. The lower range of the AMT sounded somewhat light as I remember them.
Thinking new diaphragms might help I called ESS in Sacramento and they sell new diaphragms for $30.00 each plus freight. This is the same price as they were 20 some years ago so ESS must be in some kind of time warp.
Much to my surprise the new diaphragms were made out of some yellow material, had the netting to keep the pleats straight and seemed to have fewer pleats than the originals. The sound is very impressive now. Lots of detail with no harshness and the midrange transitions fine to the 8" LDHP midrange in the LS330s.
If anyone has some old Heil AMTs I would recommend the new diaphragms. For $60 bucks a pair you can not go wrong.
Ron-C