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Epos ES14 (MK1) equal or better out there?

Yoiks, a Kef B200 used without a crossover, now that's brave, or stupid.

Even with a filter, using the KEF B200 was a challenge suited only for the courageous or impaired. I think the only production design using that woofer that was even close to acceptable was the Tangent TM1/TM3.
 
i thought celestion supplied certain parts for the speaker....assembled by epos.

Sounds more plausible. Lest he set up a little casting plant. The driver looks like so many others with far more casting expertise. Bit like Naim with their first forays in speakers where they got MS stuff in. YNWOAN will know.

Last time interview with Robin Marshall suggested he had no interest whatsover in Hi Fi..........like he had grew out of it really.
 
Utter nonsense (best not take your anorak off just yet).

Just meant that it looked similar in basket webs to some others which are usually the give away? No need for shirtyness?
 
I always thought the es14 was somehow related to the celestion sl6?

I say this because they look and sound so similar!
 
Nobody as I know ever got to the source of bass driver. It has Celestion, Richard Allan and Spendor looks all over it (anorak off now).

Epos were not connected in any way with Celestion, Richard Allan or Spendor and did not use parts from any of these companies. The ES14 bass driver was built entirely in-house with every major part coming from custom tooling owned by Epos. Epos did not cast the chassis in house, of course. They were cast at a specialist foundary using dies designed and owned by Epos. The only parts which were generic and externally sourced were minor things like the tag panel and the braid connecting it to the voice coil.

The tweeter was also built in-house until Epos was sold to TGi and became a division of Mordaunt-Short. At that point the dome assembly was sourced from SEAS and assembled into the Epos chassis and magnet system.

I always thought the es14 was somehow related to the celestion sl6?

I say this because they look and sound so similar!

There is no manufacturing relationship between the ES14 and the Celestion SL6, nor is there any real design similarity. Do you really believe that they sound similar? I’d be surprised if you did. I would say that it would be hard to find two speakers more sonically different than these.
 
Thanks Andy. I thought this myself from various readings but would have been afraid to state it so definitively. The later sourced hf unit assembly plus other mods to cabinetry, biwire terminals etc were a retrograde move in my experience.

There is a review somewhere online between the Celestion, Epos and an other, I seem to recall the Epos coming out well ahead even then fwiw. G
 
They sound nothing like each other. What parts of the sound do you think are similar?

LOL - yes, one probably rates as the worst loudspeaker ever inflicted upon mankind while the other has already entered history as one of the best.
 
hi rob....r.e. darius... you do know it went through several crossover series....i don't ever remember a production one with no bass crossover.....i used them active when i had mine.

This was mid 1980s so very early. With a passive filter on the B200 or active it should certainly sound very different.
 
Really? Which things?

ES14s have a real hear-though transparency in the mids and especially in the vocal range where many loudspeakers sound oddly phasey and coarse.
There is also a top to bottom coherence when you mount them correctly and use the correct bungs to align the bass.

Used in this way they approach the best BBC thin wall designs for mid range quality, though they are less distant in balance. Bass is tauter and more dynamic than those designs, again assuming you don't run the ports open which isn't correct.

At the time I ran my Mk1s I used them with LP12, black Ittok, VDH Decca Gold into Naim 62/Hicap/NAP140. Wonderful synergy and probably one of the best sounding systems I've owned over the years, or heard.
At the same time a friend had a pair in a very small room with a similar front end but running a pair of Radford MA15s. Given the room effects at the bottom end they sounded wonderfully open, transparent and liquid.

The little ES11 is also very capable and great for those who can't get the ES14 bass to work in their room.
 
Thread is bit like my speaker history, started with Celestion Ditton 110's then went to SL6S, the aluminium tweeter updated SL6 with it's original copper dome tweeter.
Used the SL6S with my Incatech Claymore amp, considering the SL's weren't easy to drive, but the Claymore did great job. Front end was LP12' Ittok and Asaka or K18.
The SL6S were pretty good, set up on good stands, mine were made from kerb stones !!!

I then moved to ES14s, single wire with phase plug on the driver. Only thing the two had in common was both had listenable metal dome tweeters, most brands would take your ears off in those days.
Can't remember what drove me to replace the ES14s, do remember them having a one note bass, the port chuffeed without the bung, and they were lightweight with it in, also the bass was a bit boxy, so I added few extra deadening panels inside.

At the time I was helping out in a Linn dealership, so borrowed both Kaber and Keilidh, both were good in ways, but neither were what I was after.

What found and bought to replace the ES14s was a Dynaudio Kit called the Gemini. It is a mid tweeter mid design, with about 5inch drive units and soft dome tweeter.
In summary these had better mid than Epos, faster than a Kaber, more bass than a Kaber, not boxy, no booms, increadably tunefull and live sounding.... 18 years on I still use them in the lounge, tweaked and reworked several times to keep them improving...

Which made finding a speaker I liked as much or more became dam near impossible...... In the end found the PMC Fact8... Again has mid range like most designs don't achieve or ignore !!! ... As tight and fast again unlike most designs about.....
Did the ES14 set the standards for me ? ........ Try the new PMC twenty series, they are a spin off from the Fact8.
 
Interesting viewpoints. I've only heard Andrew's pair recently & a pair at the first Scalford show (?) I do also remember hearing them quite alot back in the late 80's. I find there to be much too obvious a driver sound, a rather uneven bass character & I have to say I've not been that taken with the tweeter either. Horses for courses I suppose. Back in the day, for that sort of price I'd always have chosen a pair of Snell J/II's. The Epos would perhaps have been a better match for Naim electronics.
 
Interesting viewpoints. I've only heard Andrew's pair recently & a pair at the first Scalford show (?) I do also remember hearing them quite alot back in the late 80's. I find there to be much too obvious a driver sound, a rather uneven bass character & I have to say I've not been that taken with the tweeter either. Horses for courses I suppose. Back in the day, for that sort of price I'd always have chosen a pair of Snell J/II's. The Epos would perhaps have been a better match for Naim electronics.


I'll get some Snells for the next bake off, just for you!
 


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