ESS custom speakers

Well I'm looking to make a custom set of ESS bookshelf speakers using modern parts. As of now i have a pair of black helis and I'm looking for ideas for a x-over and woofers. I'm aiming for an upgraded version of the PS6. I already built a pair of them out of vintage parts so x-over should be easy to make minus I don't know what to upgrade on them aside of crossing the heli lower. I'm also looking for a modern woofer to handle the low end. I'm hoping to go poly for this but I don't know where I can get specs on the original drivers ESS used.

Thanks in advance for the help

My Lab 3E's sound awsom.

With those tweeters, almost anything put with them is going to sound good.

My Tempest LAB 3-E speakers have "junk" Bose 8" woofers in them and what they don't reproduce on the low end, I supplement with a sub woofer.

Most times when you find "curb side" speakers, the drivers are shot and the cabinets are OK, THIS time someone must have tossed a set of good speakers down a flight of concrete stairs "just for fun".

The woofers where good, tweeters where paper crap, so I just took the woofers.

The boxes are ported, I installed a wood brace between the back and front speaker board to reduce some vibration I had at higher volume and added more poly-fill stuffing to deaden the cabinet space behind the tweeter.

The front "shaped foam" grills are dirty and tattered looking so I left them off, painted the woofers with a thinned down mixture of silicon caulk for a little more damping and I couldn't be more pleased with the sound!:thmbsp:

BTW, the LAB speakers are part of my childhood, my friend (now passed) and I used to party to them "back in the day"

Mark T.

I got the regular PS-6 clones up in my college dorm room right now....I'm hoping to use the extra tweeters for a upgraded pair for fronts in a surround sound system....trying to avoid a sub at all costs.

Well, here's some specifications on a couple of them: Ess speakers but I wouldn't shoot for a crossover point of less than 2000 hz for the big Heil. I've been down this same path and it becomes hard to get a woofer that has enough speed and/or efficiency that will cover the whole bottom end and reach up to 2khz. Using a mid-range driver is probably the best solution.

I got the small ones so I was thinking doing ribbons for the mids and crossing them up higher.

I have used the small Heils in several speakers. I don't do woodworking, so I repurpose other cabinets. My mains are HPM-150s with the small heils and Lanzar 15" subs in place of the stock Pioneer 15s. One was bad so don't hate me.

They sound fantastic. No, really, really, fantastic. I used big 100 watt lpads from PE and Dayton poly caps in 6db xovers. the xover freq is lower than you would think would possible with the small heils. I blew one diaphragm at the full output of my G-9000, once.

Experiment. They are apparently very forgiving.

I decided I don't like low pass xovers on woofers, I feel they slow them down.
I also don't like anything other than first order xovers on tweeters.

I am very happy with what I have done. Have fun!