ESS AMT 1D REVIVAL

ESS AMT 1D REVIVAL

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History

If you don't know what the AMT driver is, basically it was designed by Oscar Heil over 40 years ago (yes! 40 years…) and licensed exclusively to ESS laboratories. It's a folded ribbon design utilizing Mylar (very lightweight) bonded to conductive aluminum strips encased in a magnetic enclosure. It's quite impressive, and has been used in concert-grade PA speakers just to give you an idea of its power and strength. In fact, if you were to visit the factory for the tour, you would be shown a stack of old PA gear used by the Grateful Dead during past concerts. Talk about legacy!

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Back then, 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 ... qualities that are still relevant today !

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Completely unlike any loudspeaker that had come before it, and already a classic, the ESS AMT 1 opened new sound vistas to music listeners. All forms of distortion were suddenly gone; not only the sluggish acceleration that smeared the immediacy of percussive sounds, but the less immediately recognized motional errors that robbed brasses of their sheen, strings of their guttiness, solo instruments of their natural ease, all of which turned an orchestra of individual instruments into a homogenized sonic haze.

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The AMT 1 combined the original ESS Heil air-motion transformer with a specially developed ten-inch woofer (... today, a 12" woofer) that had 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, this ESS AMT 1 woofer achieved both powerful, impactful, low frequency response and rapid acceleration for crisp transient performance that blended precisely with the clarity of the ESS Heil air-motion transformer.

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Fast forward to 2023

The AMT-1D Revival is the spiritual successor to the legendary AMT 1D. Characterized by excellence in every detail, you'll still find a build and finish that is designed to last, but now equipped with the latest drivers and crossovers. In typical ESS tradition, each AMT-1D Revival is still carefully crafted by hand, making each speaker a unique work of craftsmanship.

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The ESS AMT Heil driver was the first authentically new approach to sound generation in fifty years, and whilst this design was revolutionary back then, it still remains a standard of comparison today. This driver still reveals every detail of the recorded performance with a degree of purity and clarity beyond the ability of most currently utilized conventional systems ... so much so, that the company still preserves its motto : "a high resolution sound as clear as light".

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Visually, the AMT-1D retains it "iconic and immediately recognizable form" ... its exterior of rich, hand-finished walnut or cherry veneer, and its complementing pyramid-shaped grill ... a classic stunner !

 

This speaker offers a great balance between value and sound and is priced at a very accessible $4500 which, in this industry, is on the lower end of the price scale ... and for a speaker designed and wholly manufactured by hand in the states (California, no less), that is really good. The speaker itself is not a super heavy mass type, but at 78 lbs per speaker it aint a lightweight either.

 

Sonic Tradition

Sonically, the speaker continues a nearly 50-year tradition of excellence offering the superb, bi-polar Heil Air Motion Transformer midrange/tweeter and a powerful and precise 12" woofer.

The challenge that such a speaker faces is matching the speed of the woofer to the sheer speed of the AMT driver ... which in the past has posed a problem to the quality of the woofers at the time, but modern woofers today exist that void the issue. Further, the quality of the crossover capacitors have dramatically improved over time, and this has also augmented the performance capabilities of the 2023 re-incarnation of the AMT D1. No doubt, as in the past, audiophiles will be tempted to upgrade X-Over caps ... an unavoidable passion reserved only for the "initiated". But, for those that wish to go down this road ... please be advised in advance that you will have to collaborate with your fellow tweakers ... enjoy ... :=))

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Who knows, perhaps ESS will at some point offer a Super SE  X-Over as an upgrade, but this is not planned at present.

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$  4,495  per pair  + shipping (which depends on your zip)