emaidel
07-29-2009, 04:47 AM
Several months ago, as I was finishing a 12-hour drive to Long Island, and pulling into my sister's driveway, my cell phone rang, and it was someone who told me he was starting up ESS again, and wanted to talk to me as I had worked for ESS back in 1979-1981. I couldn't speak to him at the time, and asked that he call back the next day. I never heard from him again.
I thought it was a bit foolhearty to try to start up a speaker company in today's market, but apparently, ESS has been "reborn" as "ESS Labs." The only products the company currently offers are the large Heil (used in the AMT model speakers), and several replacement diaphragms. The list price for the "Great Heil" (as ESS Labs now calls it) is a whopping $399.95. I wonder how many people have a speaker system with a woofer and crossover network, and are in need of a tweeter/midrange unit, and are willing to plop down $800 or so?
When I worked for ESS, I believed that the company had the potential to be a really terrific speaker company, and to manufacture some truly great products. Unfortunately, since the business end of the upper management was as nutty as it was, such a potential was never reached. The "C" versions of the AMT lineup were noticeable improvements over the "A" and "B" predecessors, but by then the company's money problems started to take hold, and ultimately ESS went out of business.
ESS acquired the rights to build the Gale Loudspeaker, but the ESS reincarnation never sounded anything like the original. ESS's handling of the Dynaco brand is also a perfect example of how, under all the wrong upper-management decisions, a great name was totally trashed.
I hope that ESS Labs ultimately manufactures a complete speaker system, and not just the Heil, and that it can live up to the promise ESS from the 70s' never did.
I thought it was a bit foolhearty to try to start up a speaker company in today's market, but apparently, ESS has been "reborn" as "ESS Labs." The only products the company currently offers are the large Heil (used in the AMT model speakers), and several replacement diaphragms. The list price for the "Great Heil" (as ESS Labs now calls it) is a whopping $399.95. I wonder how many people have a speaker system with a woofer and crossover network, and are in need of a tweeter/midrange unit, and are willing to plop down $800 or so?
When I worked for ESS, I believed that the company had the potential to be a really terrific speaker company, and to manufacture some truly great products. Unfortunately, since the business end of the upper management was as nutty as it was, such a potential was never reached. The "C" versions of the AMT lineup were noticeable improvements over the "A" and "B" predecessors, but by then the company's money problems started to take hold, and ultimately ESS went out of business.
ESS acquired the rights to build the Gale Loudspeaker, but the ESS reincarnation never sounded anything like the original. ESS's handling of the Dynaco brand is also a perfect example of how, under all the wrong upper-management decisions, a great name was totally trashed.
I hope that ESS Labs ultimately manufactures a complete speaker system, and not just the Heil, and that it can live up to the promise ESS from the 70s' never did.