audio-talk

As some of you will remember from a previous Witham 'do', I have a, well not exactly, pair of ESS AMT speakers. They were originally AMT1Bs with paper coned bass units and the outstanding and marvellous Heil Grand Master 'Air Motion Transformers'. (In England these speakers are as rare as something not quite a rare as Hen's Teeth, but in that sort of region)

On eBay in the US these speakers quite common and dead cheap for their sheer quality if you are up to resurrounding the bass units and the passives. Heil AMTs can have new ribbons fitted and I've done that to my other pair. It really is quite easy! All spares are available from several dealers in the US.

Like my other pair, the Witham AMTs had new crossover units, the design scrounged from a chap in Germany who has successfully designed 1E crossovers and had the distribution rights for ESS before the company in Sacramento ceased trading.

I have finally resurrounded the passives, so they are 'matched' and the speakers sound superb! They used to sound worryingly not so good for although the Heils are splendid there was something strangely not right about the bass units. All is fixed!

Now the Mangers are something else. I have persevered with trying to wed the Mangers with Kef B139s. I think I have a 'little more' work to do.
I can't see me getting round to OBs but the Mangers would probably do well in such a setup.

Are you taking them the the upcoming Witham?

It's a thought Ali, when I brought them up before I also brought two or three amplifiers. Amplifiers are so much easier! I have a bad back (this began oddly, just before the first EggFest), so much so that I have been talked into going for Physiotherapy. I hurt my back again at Witham and I am sort of resigned to needing help other than Pharmocological to get me better.

All this stuff, turntable through to spekers is so bloody heavy!

Amplifiers easy?? I'll get you to carry Nick's GM70 next time then...

GM70 ... I've been there.

My Ongaku I don't like at all.

The Rankin 'baby ongaku' is too much because I used silver wound amorphous AE transformers. I can hardly lift the dam'thing.

But speakers are the worst.

I used to think my old Linn Keilidhs and Exposure amps were pretty heavy.

But single ended valve amps and large full range horns are a different ball game. Now I'm starting to think of my hi fi to be a little like a Land Rover. It's incredibly heavy, is rather large, looks kind of functional (which the missus doesn't particularly like), and if I ever move it I need a full tool kit to get it working...

Real men build valve amplifiers.

When I build something it takes my back two weeks to recover.[/i]

Ok Andrew am with you now.Just carried a pair of Technics SB-7000 speakers up the stairs.38kg each! Got them for a song tho.It's not the weight,it's the size....

When I build something it takes my back two weeks to recover

Having lifted a (full) storage heater into the back of a van yesterday I can only agree .

we take out the fire bricks.

we take out the fire bricks.

Yep, thats what I did once I go it home, however it was sitting with the bricks in waiting to be picked up