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My EPI 100M Restoration

tiga

tiga

Super Member
So after some research and some help from folks here I decided to jump into restoring a pair of EPI 100M's. I thought I would share the process in case someone else finds it helpful in the future. I picked these up recently for a tidy sum of $20. The cabinets and grills are in amazing condition. Here is link to a picture:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=364014&d=1342971420

I pulled out all the drivers and on the recommendations of folks here I put some hot glue around where the magnets meet the speaker basket. For the tweeters I had to cut away some of the foam gasket to do this. I'll try to get some pictures posted - having some trouble with getting them uploaded. More to come.
 

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Woofers

Next thing done was wiping on some DOT3 brake fluid over the rubber surrounds. Some folks think this will make the old rubber a bit more pliable. I could be imagining it but it does seem more pliable after I put it on. Sure looks better.
 

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Throw in a couple of fresh crossover caps too. There's only two, so a couple Dayton Polys should do fine for less than $10.

You'll have one fine set of speakers for less than $30 and some effort
 
Thanks guys. I'm a few steps ahead now - I've replaced the speaker terminals and cleaned the l-pads. Interesting how the cabinets and drivers of these speakers are of such high quality, but the crossover board and speaker terminals are so cheap. One of my crossover boards was already separating from the cabinet when I purchased them. When I drilled out the speaker post rivets the post assembly just crumbled. Here are pictures of before and after:
 

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I also recapped the crossover. Pretty simple -just a 10uf cap. I didn't go very exotic with the caps. Just an NPE with a film by-pass. Here are pictures:
 

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nissan guy said:
If the brake flud doesn't work you can always remove the rubber and use foam as most do with these.
Click to expand...

I've thought about doing that anyway. I'm going to give them a go with the rubber surrounds first and see how they sound. I may change them out later. Thanks!
 
Are these the same a Epicure Model 10 Speakers? If so they're great, I love mine and will be sad to see them go in a couple of weeks
 
Face Painting

The grills on these were originally glued on. I carefully pried them off without damage (thank goodness). I chiseled off the remaining glue off the baffles and gave them a light sanding. I taped them off and hit them with some black spray paint I had lying around. Here are a few pictures, one sanded and the other with one coat of paint. I think I'm about ready to reassemble and dress up the wood cabinets. (That's if everything works :D )
 

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Ugh - help needed.

Tonight I put the speakers back together and hooked them to my Kenwood 4140 to give them a test run. No sound out of one of them. I tried switching wires, different connections, etc. but still nothing.

Now when I bought the pair the owner said that one of them wasn't working. When I got home I pulled the woofers and connected them directly to my receiver and they played fine. I then haphazardly put them back into the cabinet, connected the speaker wire to the terminals in the back and I got sound out of both drivers.

My initial thought here is that I have a bad wire somewhere in the cabinet. Any other thoughts? What should I try first? Not a fun way to end the evening. Thanks everyone!
Tiga
 
If you re-used the original internal wires, that would be the starting point. Go somewhere that sells 16ga wire by the foot. HomeDepot, Lowes, hardware store, or auto parts stores all sell it. I think I paid $5 bucks for 20ft roll at HomeDepot for each. Better to have more than be short. Measure how much wire you'll need for each box. Get both red and black for polarity. Also, pickup crimp type ends for the drivers.

I see you changed the binding posts. Check to see if the solder joints are secure. Make sure nothing's shorting out, stray wires, cold joints, ect.

Change all wires inside the box. DO ONE AT A TIME. If you need to see if it's correct, you'll have a guide with the other speaker.

Once one is finished, test it out. If it works, do the other one.

This should solve the problem.
 
Update - Good News!

Both speakers are now functional! Turns out the only problem was my soldering skills. Re-flowed the solder at the speaker terminal points and all is well. I put some Howard's Walnut RAF on the cabinets today and they just look great (pics attached). The wood is in such great condition after the Howards they almost look new.

I have them hooked up to my Onkyo HTR now and am running some FM stereo through them. Thought I would play them for a day or two for the caps to settle in. After that I'm going to wax the cabinets, put on the grills with some velcro, and then give them a run on the Sansui 9090 in my living room.

For the few moments I had them playing on the Kenwood they sounded pretty good in a nearfield position. I really appreciate everyone's help with this restoration.

Just curious - does anyone have any specs on these?
 

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I believe it is the same speaker, unless you are referring to the Magnus 10, which looks much different. Why are you getting rid of yours?

caddisgeek said:
Are these the same a Epicure Model 10 Speakers? If so they're great, I love mine and will be sad to see them go in a couple of weeks
Click to expand...
 
Last night after the kids went to bed I attached the grills and hooked them up to my 9090 and gave them a whirl. Very nice sounding with decent imaging and soundstage. I pretty impressed with the bass response considering their size. I do have them sitting pretty low and tilted back on some low-boy stands I made so that may be helping the bass response.

I've learned recently that anytime you put new speakers in rotation you have to give them some listening time to allow your ears to adjust and maybe work on placement a bit. The only initial thing I noticed was I thought the mids were just a bit congested, although to be fair I had some BA A70's in there before which have excellent mids so I could just be used to them. Not to mention that I spent the entire day yesterday at Kennywood park. I was really suffering from ear and brain fatigue by the time I got these connected. Overall I'm very happy with the way these turned out and I'm looking forward to running them a while.
 
picked up some M110's
the pots are very scratchy, how did you clean the pots?
also my rubber surrounds are not attached to the basket, I assume this should be glued down.
planning on using left over glue from previous refoam kit
thanks
 
Thank you tiga, for the detailed refurbishing of the M100's. I just got a pair from a lady in a yard sale that told me her son took the rest of the audio equipment and left the speakers behind because they "didn't work". Foams are wasted, the grills were glued on, badges were gone and the cloth has holes in them. Price was right 'cause she gave them to me. "They are too heavy for me to move again," she said. I ordered the foams already and now I need the caps. Any ideas about replacing the grill cloth?
 
Thank you. I know some folks have had luck getting cloth from JoAnne fabrics that they've used on KLH and Advent speakers. I just remember it being some sort of linen - hopefully someone will chime in who has better information.

Good luck restoring yours - this was one of my most rewarding restorations (not that I've done that many). It was not overly difficult but the speakers just look and sound so good that I have a feeling of pride whenever I see them. I doubt they'll ever leave my collection. Keep us posted on how yours turn out.

nancydrive said:
Thank you tiga, for the detailed refurbishing of the M100's. I just got a pair from a lady in a yard sale that told me her son took the rest of the audio equipment and left the speakers behind because they "didn't work". Foams are wasted, the grills were glued on, badges were gone and the cloth has holes in them. Price was right 'cause she gave them to me. "They are too heavy for me to move again," she said. I ordered the foams already and now I need the caps. Any ideas about replacing the grill cloth?
Click to expand...
 
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