I have acquired a pair of amt-1a speakers. The price was right, so I just couldn't pass them up 😉 The woofers and PR need help and one crossover looks like it's seen better days, however, overall they seem to be in OK shape. I've done a fair amount of searching and research, yet I still have some questions. There seemed to be a fair number of people here with knowledge/interest in amt / heil stuff here, so I thought this would be a good place to start 😉
1) The decal on my speakers says AMT-1a. Are there bookshelf/tower versions of AMT-1a? What I have would definitely be considered a tower. Can someone explain the part numbering system to me? What is a amt-1 a/b/c/d? What is a tower vs a pyramid?
2) My crossover seems to be different that other pictures I've seen: It has a high frequency adjustment (not a 3 pos. switch, a rheostat/xmfr), a midrange (presence??) control and a circuit breaker instead of a fuse.
3) In the big picture, how do these sound? I've read comments that some people don't like the low end (both quantity and quality). Is this specific to certain version or true across the board?
I'm not what one would consider a true audiophile. I don't own a tube (or other purist) amp and don't have an acoustically perfect listen room. I do, however, enjoy and desire good sound. I have a home theater room with denon and pioneer amps and quality old school speakers.
With the above paragraph in mind: Should I sell or keep these speakers? Are these a collectors item? Would someone want to kill me if I bastardize them to a degree (re-finish the boxes, repair/recone them with non-original components)?
Sorry for the long post! TIA
Vince
1) The decal on my speakers says AMT-1a. Are there bookshelf/tower versions of AMT-1a? What I have would definitely be considered a tower. Can someone explain the part numbering system to me? What is a amt-1 a/b/c/d? What is a tower vs a pyramid?
2) My crossover seems to be different that other pictures I've seen: It has a high frequency adjustment (not a 3 pos. switch, a rheostat/xmfr), a midrange (presence??) control and a circuit breaker instead of a fuse.
3) In the big picture, how do these sound? I've read comments that some people don't like the low end (both quantity and quality). Is this specific to certain version or true across the board?
I'm not what one would consider a true audiophile. I don't own a tube (or other purist) amp and don't have an acoustically perfect listen room. I do, however, enjoy and desire good sound. I have a home theater room with denon and pioneer amps and quality old school speakers.
With the above paragraph in mind: Should I sell or keep these speakers? Are these a collectors item? Would someone want to kill me if I bastardize them to a degree (re-finish the boxes, repair/recone them with non-original components)?
Sorry for the long post! TIA
Vince
Vince , if you have any inclination towards tweaking / rebuilding them, I'd definitely keep them. There's seriously musical performance lurking therein.
From my personal experience with ESS factory boxes, unless you're absolutley married to them , or they're in perfect condition, I'd suggest building new cabinets. The pair I encountered was literally coming apart at the hotglue/folded mitre seams - and the bracing was inadequate.
The parts quality of the original XO was very poor, and it was designed to allow for midrange "presence" adjustment. Given this is a 2 way system, you can imagine how unnecessarily complex the filter /boost network is.
The factory woofer and PR are actually quite a decent performing pair, and even all 4 need new surrounds, it would still be a tiresome and expensive task to find current production candidates that integrate as well with the AMT tweeter.
If you're willing to forego the adjustments designed in the original passive XO (or surplant with active EQ / and/or biamping) you can significantly reduce the parts count and increase the quality of filter network.
The results can be quite musically satisfying, and while speed and dynamics of the lower midbass on down may suffer in comparison to a well executed BLH, the upper mids and top end of the AMT are still 30+yrs on quite magical.
I'm currently very happy with a pair of AMTs with vented Fostex bipole midbass drivers on a variant of Eli Duttman/Jim McShane's "El Cheapo" triode connected EL84 P/P amp - anything less than 5 watts could be underpowered for some folk's expectations.
From my personal experience with ESS factory boxes, unless you're absolutley married to them , or they're in perfect condition, I'd suggest building new cabinets. The pair I encountered was literally coming apart at the hotglue/folded mitre seams - and the bracing was inadequate.
The parts quality of the original XO was very poor, and it was designed to allow for midrange "presence" adjustment. Given this is a 2 way system, you can imagine how unnecessarily complex the filter /boost network is.
The factory woofer and PR are actually quite a decent performing pair, and even all 4 need new surrounds, it would still be a tiresome and expensive task to find current production candidates that integrate as well with the AMT tweeter.
If you're willing to forego the adjustments designed in the original passive XO (or surplant with active EQ / and/or biamping) you can significantly reduce the parts count and increase the quality of filter network.
The results can be quite musically satisfying, and while speed and dynamics of the lower midbass on down may suffer in comparison to a well executed BLH, the upper mids and top end of the AMT are still 30+yrs on quite magical.
I'm currently very happy with a pair of AMTs with vented Fostex bipole midbass drivers on a variant of Eli Duttman/Jim McShane's "El Cheapo" triode connected EL84 P/P amp - anything less than 5 watts could be underpowered for some folk's expectations.
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