loudspeakers of the future
This brochure presents the full line of ESS "sound as clear as light" loudspeaker systems, a line that has received world-wide acclaim for advancing loudspeaker technology through use of the unprecedented ESS Heil air-motion transformer, the first advance in loudspeaker design in fifty years.
The ESS Heil air-motion transformer, developed and perfected by physicist and musician Dr. Oskar Heil, is without equal in accurate sound production and destined to become the loudspeaker of the future. By discarding bankrupt concepts rooted in past technology and employing deeper insight into laws of physics overlooked in the design of conventional loudspeakers, the ESS Heil air-motion transformer approaches the theoretical limits of perfect sound production. "Listener fatigue", that gradual exhaustion and growing sense of irritation as the ear reacts to subtle distortions of frequency in complex tones, is so negligible that it dispels the usual loudspeaker equation — loudness equals pain.
Now the unmatched performance of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer is available in a wide range of superbly engineered speaker systems from ESS. Each model achieves a level of accuracy that sets it light years ahead of the industry. You can be confident that an ESS speaker system of any size and price range will remain the standard of comparison for years to come.
If you're not listening to an ESS Heil air-motion transformer loudspeaker system, you're not listening to state-of-the-art high fidelity as it now exists.
inside the ESS Heil air-motion transformer
MAGNETIC FOCUS PLATES
why does the ESS Heil air-motion transformer obsolete conventional loudspeakers?
Sound is as delicate as the air that carries it. The ideal loudspeaker, therefore, would create sound by using air to move air; it would not be burdened by having to move a paper cone, or in fact any solid material first.
Unfortunately, this is impractical. Virtually all loudspeakers must use a vibrating solid to produce sound; virtually all loudspeakers, therefore, are 'mass limited' devices. Their real bulk and weight prevent them from moving air with the same accuracy as the original music. For the original instruments do not first have to move a heavy loudspeaker cone, dome or diaphragm, which then moves air; they work directly on the air itself.
No matter how weightless a tweeter cone may seem in your hand, it is still far too heavy to move air fast enough to achieve that instant acceleration so essential to the accurate reproduction of a sound's initial transient attack. This inability to achieve instantaneous acceleration — technically called "rise time" — is an extremely critical failing precisely because the human ear identifies, in fact interprets, sound in the first milliseconds of that sound. This faculty allows us to instantly recognize and identify the sound of a shattering glass from that of a falling pan.
A characteristic tone is produced not only by a metal gong, but by paper as well.
There are other reasons why the great bulk and heavy weight of conventional loudspeaker diaphragms affect performance. When you apply energy to a solid at only one point, which is what occurs when a loudspeaker cone is pushed by a centrally located voice coil, it "rings", creating its own characteristic resonant sound, just as if it had been a gong struck at its center.
You can hear the unique "sound" of every solid — a block of wood, a metal pot, a porcelain dish — by striking it. You can do the same with a speaker cone by scratching across it lightly with your fingernail. To minimize this inherent noise, cone materials are composed of pulpy compounds. This minimizes, or "damps out", the resonant sound as rapidly as possible. But because a cone is continually being pushed and pulled by its voice coil, this ringing resonance is constantly being reexcited despite the damping, and is heard as a continuous coloration — for example as a vague nasal quality in the human voice.
The goal of all loudspeaker manufacturers is to achieve a device that is not subject to the limitations characteristic of a solid, despite the fact that a solid is the only practical way of setting air into motion. That goal is achieved with the ESS Heil air-motion transformer, a loudspeaker that employs a solid material to move air, as it must, but utilizes laws of physics completely ignored by conventional loudspeakers.
The drawings below are simplified to better illustrate the diaphragm movement of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer. When the diaphragm moves, all the folds which open out to the front get narrower, pushing out air, while the folds next to them which open out to the rear, get wider, drawing in air. 1 This pattern of movement squeezes air in one direction, and when the motion is reversed, the air is squeezed out in the other direction. 2
To picture how the diaphragm motion of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer may impart a greater speed to the air, think of a long room with an end wall removed to make a wide, arched doorway. This doorway, like the doorways in your home, has a definite space inside it which is much less than all the space inside the room.
Imagine squeezing all the air in the room out through the door by bringing the sides of the room together. Since the side walls of the room are also the sides of the archway door, it too will get smaller as the sides come together and the amount of air being moved in the room will always be greater than the air space in the archway through which it must pass.
This means that as a result of the squeezing motion a pressure is created that makes the air speed up as it passes through the door to the outside.
This is exactly what happens in a fold of the ESS Heil diaphragm. The amount of air "squeezed" within the folds, as compared to the opening spaces, makes the speed with which air enters or leaves through the openings five times faster than the movement of the fold.
Because air has negligible mass, its acceleration is virtually instantaneous and the result is transient response and clarity of detail completely beyond the capability of any other device.
In fact, the speed with which the ESS Heil air-motion transformer can set air into motion — its "rise time" or ability to instantly accelerate — is as fast as the transient resolving faculty of the human ear. In this respect the ESS Heil air-motion transformer is effectively unlimited in its ability to resolve complex transient sounds. Since it does not "push" air like a conventional speaker, "squeezing" it to a greater speed instead, dynamic crescendos are actually reproduced instead of being pinched, clipped and compressed. Unlike weighty, mass limited speakers, the ESS Heil air-motion transformer is able to complete its rising movement before being instructed to begin the return stroke.
The diaphragm of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer adds absolutely no coloration of its own. No "ringing" energy waves are set up within the diaphragm because the moving force is not applied to it at any one point, as is true for the center drive of conventional speakers. Instead it is exerted instantly and simultaneously throughout the conductive area of the diaphragm. Energy is not forced to travel through the mass of the diaphragm, from the central voice coil, to reach all extremities of the material as it does with conventional cones or domes.
In cone and voice coil speakers only the voice coil directly reacts to the signal. The ESS Heil diaphragm is signal energized over its entire air-moving surface.
The conduction strips which run inside each fold of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer are themselves the air moving portions of the diaphragm. This avoids the two separate, cemented together, cone and voice coil parts of a conventional speaker and permits absolute motional integrity. This single equivalent of the cone and voice coil is completely immersed in a magnetic field which exists between the front and rear magnetic focus plates. When an electrical signal from the amplifier is sent through, its moving force is distributed uniformly and instantaneously throughout the entire structure. This perfect application of force everywhere prevents the material from reacting with any of the "ringing" resonance characteristic of the wobbly motion of conventional speakers, and results in a purity of reproduction unequaled by any other moving system.
THE ESS AMT SPEAKERS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL ON THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE THE MOST ADVANCED AND ACCURATE REPRODUCERS YOU CAN BUY.
THEY REACH SO FAR BEYOND THE PERFORMANCE STANDARDS OF CONVENTIONALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS THAT COMPARISONS ARE NOT POSSIBLE AND THEIR POSITION OF LEADERSHIP WILL REMAIN UNCHALLENGED FOR YEARS TO COME.
ONCE YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED THE ABSOLUTE PURITY, TRANSIENT INTEGRITY AND DYNAMIC FREEDOM OF AN ESS HEIL AIR-MOTION TRANSFORMER SYSTEM YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF
sound as clear as light
amt1
This unprecedented loudspeaker introduced the revolutionary ESS Heil air-motion transformer to high fidelity sound reproduction and achieved immediate acclaim world-wide as the major advance in loudspeaker design of the decade. By using the ESS Heil air-motion transformer for mid and high frequency reproduction, the amt 1 broke free of past technological theory to achieve a transparency, uncompressed stereo imaging and dynamic transient impact beyond any previous high fidelity experience
Completely unlike any loudspeaker that has come before, and already a classic, the ESS amt 1 opens new sound vistas to music listeners. All forms of distortion are gone; not only sluggish acceleration that smears the immediacy of percussiv sounds, but the less immediately recognized motional errors that rob brasses of their "sheen", strings of their "guttiness solo instruments of their natural "ease", and turn an orchestra of individual instruments into a homogenized sonic haze
The amt 1 combines the original ESS Heil air-motion transformer with a specially developed ten-inch woofer that has an oversize. deep-drawn frame and high gauss magnet assembly for long, linear excursion at the highest possible acceleration. A culmination of ten prototype designs, the ESS amt 1 woofer rapid acceleration for crisp transient performance that blends precisely with the clarity of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer
Revolutionary today and the standard of comparison for tomorrow, the ESS amt 1 is the first authentically new approach to sound generation in fifty years. Every detail of the recorded performance is revealed with a degree of purity never before achieved and completely beyond the ability of all conventional systems. Nothing we say, or can say, will prepare you for the ESS amt 1's incredible high resolution sound — sound as clear as light.
specifications
escription: wo-way, floor-standing system. Low equencies are reproduced by a ten-inch oofer mounted in a resistive ported nclosure, High frequencies are reproduced the ESS Heil air-motion transformer
Frequency response: 45 Hz through 24,000 Hz + 2,5 dB, neal
Square wave rise time: 15 microseconds @ 5,000 Hz
Power requirements: 20 watts BMS minimum Power handling: 350 watt musical peaks. Fuse protected 4 ohms minimum
3 position brightness switch
Design refinements may alter specifications without notice or liability
amt1 tower
The ESS amt 1 tower, though quite dissimilar in appearance from the amt 1, is a "high performance" luxury version of the amt 1 and extracts every bit of low range potential in the amt 1 woofer by utilizing a considerably larger and more complex enclosure The ESS amt 1 tower incorporates the same woofer and ESS Heil air-motion transformer as the smaller amt 1 but differs in its capability for sustaining extended low frequency response. It. therefore, substantially increases low frequency output for applications where performance can outweigh convenience as a deciding factor
The ESS amt 1 tower's deep bass performance is obtained through the use of a full six-foot quarter wave length transmission mission line, the result of long experience by ESS in the design and construction of folded transmission line labyrinths. Employ ing techniques perfected in the earlier and highly acclaimed ESS transtatic and translinear models. ESS developed a new. requirements of the amt 1 woofer that provides the amt 1 tower with deep. full-bodied bass descending to 30 Hz pedal tones. With this high pressure bass seamlessly matched to the open detailed midrange and clear pure highs that only the ESS Heil air-motion transformer can achieve, the amt 1 tower is a perfectionist's "high performance" system capable of accurately reproducing all the information on today's finest recordings.
A large floor-standing system, the amt 1 tower is styled with lines of elegant restraint that blend into without dominating any decor. Its top surface is structurally sound, allowing it to be used as a display pedestal if desired. Combined with this sturdy attractive column is the heritage of ESS transmission line design, now integrated with the unapproachable accuracy of the revolutionary ESS Heil air-motion transformer to create a new tradition of excellence
specifications
Description: Two-way, floor-standing column. Upper air-motion transformer midrange/tweeter Lower frequencies are reproduced by a high excursion ten-inch woofer mounted in a resistively loaded, tuned transmission line Crossover frequency is 700 Hz.
Frequency response: 35 Hz through 24,000 Hz ± 2.5 dB near
Square wave rise time 15 microseconds @ 5,000 Hz
Power requirements: 20 watts RMS minimum
Power handling: 400 watt musical peaks. Fuse protected.
Input impedance: 4 ohms minimum 3 position brightness switch
43% inches high, 14% inches wide, 17½
Finish
Walnut veneer, hand oiled and rubbed.
Warranty: To the original owner: Lifetime parts and labor for the ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/tweeter, five years on the remainder of the system excluding finish on condition the ESS amt 1 tower was purchased from an authorized ESS dealer.
31 inches high, 14¼ inches wide, 14¼
alnut veneer, hand oiled and rubbed
Warrany: To the original owner: Lifetime parts and labor on the ESS Heil air-motion trans-former midrange/tweeter, five years on the remainder of the system excluding finish
amt 3 rock monitor
The ESS amt 3 rock monitor was developed to make available a hybrid system having perfect fusion between specialized cone drivers and the incredible clarity of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/tweeter. The ESS amt 3 is so uncolored throughout its range, so detailed in its transient precision, and so powerful in its dynamic capability that no musical demands, from the purity of a solo voice to the visceral impact of a rock concert, will tax its resources
To achieve performance at this impressive level, the ESS amt 3 the frequency range. Midrange and treble frequencies are handled by the ESS Heil air-motion transformer positioned to fully realize its unprecedented sound dispersion. To carry the extreme definition of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer into the lower frequencies, a powerful six-inch driver, mounted in an internal transmission line, reproduces the lower midrange and upper bass. A new order of transient impact is carried into the deepest bass frequencies by the use of twin ten-inch, high gauss, foam surround woofers
The result is a performance beyond classification, free of subtle colorations or shifts in spectral emphasis which tend to favor one musical form over another, and an unswerving full-bodied sonic accuracy that will remain an enduring value for years to come. Styled in simple, contemporary lines, the ESS amt 3 will blend easily into any decor: and like all FSS amt systems, its extraordinarily wide dispersion allows complete freedom of placement with precise stereo localization at any listening position. Uncompromised in any aspect of design, construction or performance, the amt 3 is the most accurate hybrid system ESS can produce. A brilliant example of sound as clear as light
specifications
scription: ree-way, four-driver, floor-standing
Frequency response: 40 Hz through 24,000 Hz ± 2 dB near
uare wave rise time: microseconds @ 5 000 Hz
requirements:
att musical peaks. Fuse protected
es high, 15% inches wide, 15%
nut veneer, hand oiled and rubbed
warranty: To the original owner: Lifetime parts and labor for the ESS Heil air-motion trans-former midrange/tweeter, five years on the remainder of the system excluding finish n condition the ESS amt 3 was purchased
amt 4
The ESS amt 4, in clean, contemporary styling, is the compact, floor-standing system from ESS that employs a full, bi-polar radiating ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/tweeter assembly for the open imaging that gained the ESS amt 1 international recognition.
The amt 4's new "dual magnetic plate" transformer is identical in operation to the original ESS Heil air-motion transformer but is only two-thirds as high. It is slightly less complex in structure and is made up of two precision machined ferrous metal grilles energized by three pounds of strontium ferrite magnet material. Every important characteristic that earned the original ESS Heil air-motion transformer acclaim throughout the world has been retained: Incredible clarity and definition; instantaneous transient response; high efficiency; outstanding stereo dispersion; wide smooth response to beyond 20,000 Hz; and the design simplicity that enables an ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/tweeter to carry a lifetime warranty to the original owner.
Designed with the idea that outstanding components are seen as well as heard, the ESS amt 4 presents the fascination of simplicity with a flair that slips easily into any surroundings. while the wide dispersion characteristics of its drivers eliminate critical room placement problems.
Bass and lower midrange frequencies are produced by a high acceleration, ten-inch air suspension driver designed by ESS for outstandingly tight, clean bass coupled with clear and precise midrange definition. The upper range is carried by the new "dual magnetic plate" ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/ tweeter that provides smooth, high-resolution clarity and unprecedented wide dispersion pattern to the very highest frequencies. As is true with all ESS Heil air-motion transformers, it is completely free from the limitations present in even the most sophisticated paper-cone, voice coil, electromagnetic or electrostatic speakers.
The ESS amt 4 is engineering so advanced, performance so outstanding, and styling so uncluttered, that its position of leadership and value will remain preeminent for years to come.
specifications
Description: Two-way, floor-standing system utilizing a ten-inch, foam surround, air suspension ten-inch, foam surround, air suspension woofer and "dual magnetic plate" ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/ tweeter. Crossover frequency: 1,000 Hz.
requency response: 5 Hz through 24,000 Hz ± 3 dB, near field measurement
uare wave rise time: microseconds @ 5,000 Hz
Power requirements: 20 watts RMS minimum
Power handling: 250 watts musical peaks. Fuse protected. Input impedance: 4 ohms minimum
Controls: 3 position brightness switch
27 inches high, 15% inches wide, 12½ inches deep
Finish: Walnut veneer, hand oiled and rubbed.
Warranty: To the original owner: Lifetime parts and labor on the "dual magnetic plate" ESS Heil air-motion transformer midrange/ tweeter, five years on the remainder of the system excluding finish on condition the ESS ant 4 was purchased from an authorized ESS dealer.
amt 5
A completely new standard of performance, the standard of an ESS Heil air-motion transformer, has been brought to popular ESS amt 5 reference bookshell
This compact and convenient loudspeaker, the only amt system from ESS that can be placed vertically or horizontally, uses the latest development in ESS Heil air-motion transformer high frequency drivers — the ESS Heil "power-ring" air-motion this unprecedented tweeter finally allows the absolute purity and exciting transient resolution of an ESS Heil air-motion transformer system to become available in the universally popular and adaptable "bookshelf" size loudspeaker
The ESS Heil "power-ring" tweeter has a miniaturized sixteenfold diaphragm suspended in a powerful magnetic field, which radiates through precision machined slots in a ferrous metal ring. It operates with the identical and unique air "squeezing principle of the larger ESS Heil midrange/tweeter air-motion transformers to achieve an equivalent transient clarity, wide stereo imaging and complete freedom from fatigue-producing distortion. This new ESS Heil "power-ring" is matched through a precision, multi-stage crossover to a powerful twelve-inch air suspension woofer developed by ESS for deep, high impact bass
The ESS amt 5 reference bookshelf is a revelation in sonic accuracy that was impossible in popular systems before development of the ESS Heil "power-ring" air-motion trans-former tweeter. Whatever your taste in music, the choice of an easily accommodated, less expensive speaker system is no longer limited to outmoded acoustic designs. Now, for only a few dollars more than conventionally engineered products, you can own and enjoy the incredibly clean reproduction and built-in lasting value of an ESS Heil air-motion transformer, the loudspeaker of the future. Finally from ESS, a state-of-the-art bookshelf, the ESS amt 5 reference bookshelf
specifications
Jescription: Two-way bookshelf system utilizing a twelve-inch, foam surround, air suspension woofer and three-inch ESS Heil "power-ring"
Frequency response: 45 Hz through 24,000 Hz ± 3.5 dB, near
guare wave rise time:
equirements: RMS minimum
ts musical peaks. Fuse protected
is: tion brightness switch
24 inches high, 14½ inches wide, 12¾ inches deep. May be placed vertically
Finish: Walnut veneer, hand oiled and rubbed.
Warranty: To the original owner: Five years parts and labor for all elements of the system excluding finish on condition the ESS
amt 6 professional
The ESS amt 6 professional combines a clarity and articulation of complex musical detail achieved only by the ESS Heil air-motion transformer with an overall dynamic range so great it can recreate the original performance levels even in the largest of rooms.
Four "dual magnetic plate" ESS Heil air-motion transformers fitted with virtually indestructible TEFLON* diaphragms make up the mid and high frequency system of the ESS amt 6 professional and are positioned to achieve unprecedented dispersion to beyond 22 kHz in all planes. Two twelve-inch woofers, whose combined magnet structures total nearly sixteen pounds, are mounted in a damped infinite baffle for immense power response and high bass definition into the lowest octaves. These six drivers in combination allow the ESS amt 6 professional to handle program material peaks exceeding a
Although outstanding reproduction can be obtained with the ESS amt 6 when matched with conventional components, the professional was designed to be used with the finest ancillary electronics. Provision has been made for optional biamplification with an active electronic crossover, dynamic range expanders can be included to restore the full power realism from compressed program material and the professional has power handling that permits use with even the most powerful amplifiers
The ESS amt 6 professional is supplied fully wired for single amplification through one of the industry's most sophisticated passive crossover networks or bi-amplification through an external active crossover of the owner's choice. Input terminals are standard phone jacks.
Finished in hand rubbed oiled walnut and neutral dark brown arille cloth the ESS amt 6 professional is designed to exceed the demands of tomorrow's recording capabilities and the next generation of high fidelity components. It is above obsolescence and represents an enduring investment in sound as clear as light.
specifications
Description:
Two-way, six driver floor-standing system infinite baffle. High frequencies are reproduced by an ESS HIGH/SPL Heil air-motion transformer array consisting of four "dual magnetic plate" transform fitted with TEFLON* diabhragms and angled for maximum dispersion in all planes. Crossover frequency is 800 Hz.
Frequency Response: 35Hz through 24,000 Hz± 3dB, near field measurement
Square wave rise time: 15 microseconds @ 5,000 Hz.
Power requirements: 50 watts RMS minimum
Power handling: 1,000 watt musical peaks. Circuit breaker protected
Input impedance: 6 ohms minimum.
* TEEL ON is a registered trademark of Du Pont
3 position brightness switch integral with passive crossover.
Dimensions: 47¾ inches high, 24½ inches wide,
Finish: Walnut veneer, hand oiled and rubbed. Warranty
To the original owner: Lifetime parts and labor on the ESS HIGH/SPL Heil airmotion transformer array, five years on the remainder of the system excluding finish on condition the ESS amt 6 professional
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