ESS Model 9 Speakers

A pair of ESS Model 9 speakers arrived this past week as I wanted to hear what the HEIL Air Motion Transformer sounded like with the tube amp.

I was not disappointed in the clarity and accuracy of the tweeter. It is in essence an electrostatic tweeter which creates a real "Air" about it. Paired with a tube amp and its clarity these little 2 wayspeaker with 8 inch woofers really shine. These speakers are pretty efficient so they match well with a Single Ended Tube amp.

The bass notes are a little lacking due to the cabinet size but the sound stage depth and imaging suggest that you are listening to a much larger speaker. Mid range and the highs are pleasant with absolute clarity that electrostatic drivers can do.

The cabinets in this pair are solidly built with a real oak veneer, this pair has seen some "Wabi Sabi" nicks and and bumps, but that tells me that they have been well enjoyed in the past. this pair has already seen a re foam by the previous owner.

On Solid state equipment these speakers do not shine as well as they do on the tube amp, something the previous owner never got to hear.

A new set of caps might be in order and I will open them up to see if they went cheap on the inside of the box.

Over all rating on these are as follows:

Match well on tube amp:  *****
Match well on solid state: ***
Depth of imaging: ****
Spacial imaging: ****
Build Quality: ****

Rotel RX-1603 Receiver

One of the King Daddy of the "Monster" receivers came my way, the Rotel RX-1603.

This offering from Rotel comes in two parts with the pre amp tuner up front and the massive power amp in the rear.

This unit was rated at 180WPC into 8 ohms and 250WPC into 4 ohms.

An absolute stunning unit and rare to come by, these were $1100 USD back in the 70's.

Another write up can be found on the Classic Receiver site.

Tannoy Mercury M2 Speakers

Another deal I could not resist is this "Best Buy" rated entry level pair of Tannoy speakers. Not the dual concentric or horn loaded Tannoy's but a budget conscious offering.

Another British designed and built speaker once again using a 6 1/2 woofer and a textile dome tweeter, this speaker has a beautiful cabinet and is very well built.

Not the super efficient Tannoy Oxford Gold that has become my reference speaker connected to the tube amp, but a surprisingly good little speaker that produces amazing bottom end and a clean clean sound.

Not the highest efficiency and the mi range is a little laid back but non the lesss a great speaker and tops all the other speakers in its class that I have sampled on this blog.

Aesthetically these are little beauties and have a high wife friendly factor.

There is plenty of info and reviews on these speakers on the internet, well impressed and very deserving of their "Best Buy" status for under 250 Pounds Sterling.

Wharfdale Delta 30 Speakers

This entry level Wharfedale Delta 30 came my way this week. A nice little 6 1/2" woofer with a textile dome tweeter.

This speaker is a pretty good offering sound wise although the lime green motif is not my favorite. these speakers are very neutral and a little shallow in the bass department. Women vocals are smooth and the sound is very British, very good in the mid range. Imaging was good for their size.

I am sure these competed well against the B&W DM100i, the Mission 700 Leading Edge, EPI A70 or the Acoustic Research AR 18B featured on this blog before. My favorite out of the bunch is the Acoustic Research AR 18B.

Now that I have the Rotel RX-830 back from repair these speakers would match up well with a British designed amp for a starter system.

Kenwood KR-9400 Receiver

A Kenwood monster from 1976, the KR-9400 runs a 120 watts per channel and was one of Kenwood's top of the line receiver during the 1970's only to be superseded by the KR-9500 and the KR-9600.

This unit has a huge transformer with two 15,000uf power caps.

I look forward to auditioning this unit over the next few weeks.

Noresco NE 561 Speakers

A great find came my way in this pair of Noresco NE 561 speakers, these are Canadian made with a well revered Isophon PH2132E dual concentric Alnico 8"X12" woofer with a 3" tweeter center mounted.

This pair of speakers has a beautiful walnut veneer cabinet that was a little sun bleached but a few nice coats of Circa 1856 Naturoil brought out the best in the cabinets.

I have swapped to this oil versus Minwax as the Minwax off gasses for 48 hours and this product is all natural.

I opted to upgrade the internal speaker wire to 16 gauge and replace the tired caps with Solen Fast Caps and it has completely opened up these speakers.

It looks t me like Noresco built these speakers to Isophon specs according to the data sheet.

So how do they sound, absolutely amazing on the Single Ended tube amp. They need a little bump up in the bass region but the mid range imaging is incredible. The cone tweeter is nice and smooth without any paper harshness, almost horn like. The dual concentric driver really shines in placement of instruments and musicians, the sound from one origin source is a real joy to listen to, no wonder the Isophon PH2132 drivers are well sought after.

The efficiency is pretty high of at least 95db at one watt, which suits the tube amp perfectly.

I have become a real fan of well designed speakers that use natural roll offs and a single capacitor in the crossover, it means that the drivers were designed to work together and they are not off the shelf  drivers.

Speakers that do this the best are EPI 100's, AR 18B's these Isophon drivers, the Tannoy Oxford Gold's and the Sound Dynamic Concert 500's all have a 1st order crossover and they all sound best on a tube amp.

These Noresco'c image incredibly well as if they are a window into the music. If you are a tube aficionado these speakers should be on your list of must hear speakers. 

Paradigm Mini Monitor V1

Another and later version of the Paradigm 3SE Mini speakers that showed this past week is this pair of Paradigm Mini Monitors Version 1.

The Paradigm 3SE Mini's made it up to Mark 3 before being rebranded as the Paradigm Mini Monitor. A move to a polypropylene woofer was carried over from earlier versions of the 3SE mini but the Mini Monitor now has a titanium dome tweeter, replacing the Vifa fabric dome tweeter. the Mini Monitor is now sold in its' seventh generation.

I find the titanium dome to be smooth and crisp, revealing more detail in the music that the Vifa tweeter. The bottom end bass notes can be a bit boxy as the 6.5" woofer tries to fulfill its' duties. Where these little speaker really shine is from the lower mid range right to the highs, these are silky smooth with great depth of sound and really nice imaging.

To really balance out these speakers a sub woofer should probably be used with a crossover in the 100-120Hz range.

These speakers sounded nicer on a single ended tube amp versus the push pull tubes.

I have a feeling these speakers will be staying around for a while.