Epos ES14 (MK1) equal or better out there?
- Thread starter graeme h
- Start date
RustyB
Registered Ginga
Firstly apologies to Rusty. Thank goodness I did not actually accuse him of being American
That's OK. I would have only felt insulted if you'd called me a Republican.
bottleneck
pfm Member
cant be arsed to read entire 14? page thread.
Epos speakers - my knowledge of them is this - practically no crossover, just the tweeter is damped down to the bass.
No wadding in there.
This reminds me most of ''totem'' speakers, so if you want something of a similar recipe that would sound like a place to try.
There's no magic recipe's... there are only recipe's.
Epos speakers - my knowledge of them is this - practically no crossover, just the tweeter is damped down to the bass.
No wadding in there.
This reminds me most of ''totem'' speakers, so if you want something of a similar recipe that would sound like a place to try.
There's no magic recipe's... there are only recipe's.
bottleneck
pfm Member
Hi - it should be noted I haven't opened any Epos or Totem speakers, this is just what I've heard from enough people to form a view that ''this is probably how they are made''.
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
They do have internal wadding. There is a tension bar across the cabinet as well.
graeme h
pfm Member
The 14's I assume you mean - or do you mean the Totems share this feature? G
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
Its the ES14s Graeme:-
graeme h
pfm Member
Better baaaaa ss!
Aye and pigs can fly.
You didn't tell us what other kit you've got, but as you've got a NAP300 I'll hazard a guess you have a £20k system driving £200 speakers. Get your card out and spend a few grand for gawds sake.
Mr Tibbs
Merry Crimbo by the way!
graeme h
pfm Member
Did that this time last year.......and then went back to the 14's. A reverse mullett I grant you but it sounds damn fine!
Merry Crimbo to you too Mr Tibbs (sounds positively Dickensian!) G
They do have a certain something I must admit, but what ultimately spoiled them for me was that I ended up not playing some of the music I like best.
Mr Tibbs
graeme h
pfm Member
Nothing has tripped them up with me yet but I'd be interested to see if I can catch them out.
Any clues as to what you couldn't play and why? G
Well, a lot depends on your personal trip-up-o-meter doesn't it?
An extreme example of where they fail the test badly is practically anything by ZZ Top. They can't do the scale or loudness or clarity at the volume required to make that trio sound as effortlessly tight, rhythmic and lyrical as they do.
There are much less obvious occasions when they don't IMO cut it particularly well and leave me feeling shortchanged. Take something like Fagan's The Nightfly; Here we have an album where ES14s can appear to be in their element, but then when I hear it via a speaker that can really do bass well, I realise I missed the fact that the bass playing actually drives the whole album from start to finish. Even though the bass line is mostly still present via the 14s, it doesn't have the pep and presence I think is needed to make the album come to life.
Mr Tibbs
flatpopely
Prog Rock/Moderator
This is where I think we can't be hearing the same things.
On loud rock like Porcupine Tree 'Strip the Soul' they go really loud and stay in control. On Sacre du Printemps they handle the huge dynamic swings with ease. One listener at my bake off last year said he had never heard such scale and dynamics before.
On The Nightfly the bass punches along really well and I can hear what the bass is doing all the way through.
On loud rock like Porcupine Tree 'Strip the Soul' they go really loud and stay in control. On Sacre du Printemps they handle the huge dynamic swings with ease. One listener at my bake off last year said he had never heard such scale and dynamics before.
On The Nightfly the bass punches along really well and I can hear what the bass is doing all the way through.
graeme h
pfm Member
No zzzzz top in the collection but will spin 'nightfly' and report back. Playing Lindsey Buckingham Live at Bass Performance Hall just now and he is in the room. Second Hand News is propelling along loud and fully under control. It is 'awesome' to use a horrible Americanism. Fantastically engineered disc. G
I can only assume the obvious - you haven't heard this music over a speaker that is significantly better at doing scale and maintaining absolute clarity while playing loudly. If you had then you'd know exactly what I'm banging on about. Same goes for the bake off listener.
See above. By all means spin Nightfly, but the effect here is much subtler therefore won't be particularly illuminating, plus you'll be focusing on the bass line and will hear the significance of it now. What struck me about Nightfly was that I'd never found it that interesting via the ES14s, but didn't know why at the time.
Anyway, if you guys are enjoying your ES14s (and clearly you are) then long may it continue. It could be that I just never managed to get them to work as well as it appears you have.
Mr Tibbs
graeme h
pfm Member
Mr Tibbs re. Nightfly. You certainly make a valid point in that the bass is there and tuneful, but it by no means drives the music along. Polite and musical on the 14 and so I can concede that something with more ' deft heft ' might be required to fully appreciate the recording. Saying that Ruby Ruby is sounding wonderful as I type and is 'plummier' than the S600 I last played this on.
Are you listening to cd or vinyl? G
Are you listening to cd or vinyl? G