The ES-1 speakers almost . If you are looking for a pair of very accurate sounding pair of speakers (almost studio like quality), they are it. The highs are taken care off by ribbon tweeters and the bass by a pair of 7″ hexacone woofers. Frequency response is 40Hz to 25 kHz with a sensitivity of 89dB and a nominal impedance of 8 ohm. Speakers are pretty well made with a weighty (38lbs) solid feel to them. They are front ported via a slim rectangular slip opening that stretches across the bottom front of the speaker. We did experiment placing them away from the back wall and close to the back wall and there was a bit of a trade off between getting a bit more bass presence (when placed close to the back wall) versus away from the back wall where the soundstage gained a bit more depth but loss a bit of the bass presence. The rated 40Hz LF is respectable and good for the small to medium size room but would benefit with some assistance with a larger subwoofer if your listening room was larger. What was impressive about the 7″ hexacone woofer is the speed. It was punchy quick and offered lots of resolution and clean details in the mids. The ribbon tweeters gave the highs loads of details and depending on the amp used, different levels of brightness. It can take a bit of getting used to (especially with speakers that offers so much accuracy and details) but once you get yourself acclimatize with them, you would be running through your vinyl or CD collection to pick out details you never heard before.
Cosmetically, speakers look good. Minor scuff marks/light scratches here and there but nothing major. The underside of the speakers looks a bit rough and would need new spikes (some work needed) but are barely noticeable once they are seated on a pair of heavy duty speaker stands. We don’t have the original box but will securely pack them for safe shipping.
