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EPI 70c - little rehab project done

Snade

Snade

humble AK member
These EPI 70C speakers are dated 1982 and have a 6 1/2" woofer and the EPI inverted tweeter.

This was the project:

- clean and re-glue grillcloth to frame
- replace caps with Dayton 10uF
- new woofer surrounds (vendor: MSound)
- clean years of sticky furniture polish from the cabs
- repaint the EPI badges the stock antique gold color

Total Cost: speakers cost $7 at thrift, plus parts of about $30 = $37

Here is the before photo.

EPI_70C.jpg



After photo with new surrounds

EPI_70C_after.jpg



Cleaned up cabs and grillcloth and painted badge

EPI_70C_cover.jpg



Each speaker has one cap - new Dayton 10uF cap soldered and glued in.

EPI_70C_cap.jpg



Setup with my Sherwood S-7200 (early 70's, 35 watts per)

EPI_70C_and_Sherwood.jpg



A fun little project. They sound very good.

Cheers, Snade
 
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Vintage EPI 2-ways are so easy to refurbish... and they sound VERY nice when you get done. I'm about to refurb my second pair, a set of EPI-105 which is a larger cabinet version of the EPI-100. Definitely one of the best bang-for-your-buck projects that any vintage audio scrounger will come across. These old EPI's show up in thrift stores all the time, so everyone should keep an eye out!

BTW, It is really easy to change out the spring clips with some binding posts if you want to do a little more work on them.
 
I wonder if a l'il bypass cap in the EPI crossover would be a good idea, or a bad one? Anyone here ever try it?
 
While praising EPIs, let's not forget the Epicures. I am not clear on why some things were EPI and others Epicure, since they don't divide neatly on the practical/deluxe line. But there did seem to be some sort of division between sensible designs and the more exotic ones, even if exotic only meant larger box volume than you'd expect.
But the boxy Epicure 6 inch two way wiped the floor with a bunch of highly regarded small speakers (including, to my astonishment, the Fried Beta, and by extension, the KEFs and Mordaunt Shorts it had clobbered, and others). Granted this was in my kitchen with th speakers up high near the ceiling, which may have had a major effect on balance.
And I have just picked up a pair of the large ported 6 inch version (though with the dreaded Radio Shack 6" subwoofer (6 inch subwoofer -- in what universe does that make sense?) replacing the EPI. Arghh. Anyone got a pair they don't need?
By the by -I would hazard a guess that the best thing AK has done for audio (and its a very big thing) is broadcasting the news that refoaming is easy, and that recapping is important. These two things are responsible for the a very large part of the increasing appreciation of common, but great, speakers like EPIs and KLHs, Dynaco, Advents and so on.
 
Nat said:
By the by -I would hazard a guess that the best thing AK has done for audio (and its a very big thing) is broadcasting the news that refoaming is easy, and that recapping is important. These two things are responsible for the a very large part of the increasing appreciation of common, but great, speakers like EPIs and KLHs, Dynaco, Advents and so on.
Click to expand...

Nat, you are exactly right. I am not handy, but with info and experience from AK members, I've now done two refoam efforts and it has worked out great. The refoam vendors provide excellent documentation. And the recap is fairly easy.

This opens up a lot of possibilities to score some nice vintage speakers for a few dollars and restore them into great sounding speakers.

Cheers, Snade
 
Bypass cap ??

Great project. Love working on these kinds of things. I have two on the bench right now - BA 833T drivers and when those are done, some Infinity RS5000 drivers. I did all my EPI's last summer or early fall. As usual, they come out sounding sweet :)

I hot rodded my EPI 50's with some B&G woofers (same 6.5 inch driver, smaller cab). The B&G picked up the bass A LOT and that helped in the smaller cab :)

EPI 70's are one of the sweet spots in the audio universe. About the best sound you can get from a cab that size - period. The 100 is pretty good, but the bigger cabs bring out the bass better so your 105 should be nice once they are done :)

OBTW - I have tried adding a small bypass cap as in 0.1 uF. They seem to add a bit of high end clarity. The value is below the tolerance variation for the original main cap so it should be quite safe. Just clip one in parallel and see what you get?
 
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