Esm-1s Speakers [ 99% Extended ]
My god, the imaging. The speakers vanished. Krall’s voice was floating exactly in the middle of my room, about six feet back. The upright bass was to the left, but the air around the strings… I could hear the wood of the bass.
9/10 Loses one point only because they demand a serious amplifier. Your ears will thank you anyway. Have you heard the ESM-1S? Disagree about the bass response? Let me know in the comments below. esm-1s speakers
The cabinet is a work of art. It uses a non-parallel "polyhedral" shape—basically, no two sides are flat against each other. Why? To kill internal standing waves before they start. My god, the imaging
If you’ve been in the high-fidelity world for a while, you know the drill. Most speakers look like black coffins. They measure perfectly, but they leave you feeling cold. Then, every once in a while, a speaker comes along that makes you sit up and listen—not just with your ears, but with your soul. The upright bass was to the left, but
What surprised me most was the . For a 6.5-inch woofer, the ESM-1S goes deep. We’re talking solid, punchy response down to 45Hz. You don't need a subwoofer for jazz, vocals, or rock. The bass is taut, fast, and rhythmic—never bloated.
If you are tired of bright, aggressive, "look-at-me" speakers and want something that disappears into the room and leaves only the performance, find a dealer and listen to the ESM-1S.
The midrange is where these speakers earn their keep. They are slightly warm. Not muddy, but forgiving. You know those bad recordings from the 80s that sound shrill on modern metal-dome tweeters? On the ESM-1S, they sound listenable. Enjoyable, even. The ESM-1S is not for the spec-sheet warrior. If you want to measure sine waves and argue about THD at 110dB, look elsewhere.