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EPI 150's

Sansui Louie

Sansui Louie

Curmudgeon
Got a pair of these unusually heavy and interestingly styled beasts yesterday. Wood veneer with brass(!!) accents. An unusually placed tweeter on a raised bit of wood, above an 8 or 10 inch woofer (didn't measure, not at home right now to look). Got them mostly because they looked 'interesting'.

VERY impressed with the sound!
 
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Nice speakers. I had to pass on a pair a couple of weeks ago that needed refoamed (the drive was too long for me). It's hard to go wrong with the early EPI stuff if the drivers are original. Yes, those are 8" woofers. The link has your very simple crossover drawing. I love what EPI was able to do with a simple 8" 2-way acoustic suspension design and a single cap crossover.

http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi150.htm
 
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In 1977 my neighbour was Terry Brown who at that time was a producer (Moody Blues & Rush to name a few) He had as his 'reference' a pair of EPI 100's in his living room. Just some trivia on a brand with great following. Terry really liked the Sansui AU6600 I had just bought.
 
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UncleAng said:
In 1977 my neighbour was Terry Brown who at that time was a producer (Moody Blues & Rush to name a few) He had as his 'reference' a pair of EPI 100's in his living room.
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He's not the only one!

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun04/articles/ferdinand.htm

ferdinand4workstation.l.jpg


I have three M150s in regular service at home. Modified slightly for more cabinet volume and vented alignment (a riser base, which adds volume, with a port, in each one), they are the front three channels of my HT system. Hardly needs a sub!

Regards,
Gordon.
 
Is the only difference between the 150 and the 100 the size of the cabinet and consequent lower 35hz resonance frequency, because they're both crossed over at 1800hz and seem to use similar sized drivers?

cnh2
 
The 150's were my first thrift store score, I walked right in and was shocked to find some...interestingly the cabinets were made for them I believe by batesville casket company in Indiana near Cincy....I used to see their trucks on the highways in the midwest. Rubber surrounds too, just another pair I wish I would have kept, but you can't keep them all...well, you can, but I don't have room for them all.
 
interestingly the cabinets were made for them I believe by batesville casket company in Indiana near Cincy....
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That's a bit of hoosier manufacturing history that I was unaware of.
 
I've got a pair of M100 EPI's on CL in mint condish for 125$ and haven't gotten 1 bite. Oh I did get 1 bite. Guy wanted me to throw in a receiver with it. CL has gotten to be full of BSers and scammers.
 
jkcoondog3 said:
I've got a pair of M100 EPI's on CL in mint condish for 125$ and haven't gotten 1 bite. Oh I did get 1 bite. Guy wanted me to throw in a receiver with it. CL has gotten to be full of BSers and scammers.
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I paid a lot less than that for mine. But I am a regular customer of this gentleman, so I imagine that helps.
 
jkcoondog3 said:
I've got a pair of M100 EPI's on CL in mint condish for 125$ and haven't gotten 1 bite. Oh I did get 1 bite. Guy wanted me to throw in a receiver with it. CL has gotten to be full of BSers and scammers.
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Where are you located? There's a pair on CL in Phoenix for the same price, and they've been around quite a while.
 
Listening to a set of 150s I recapped, braced, and dampened. Driven by 60 wpc. Wish they could be on short stands. Too much bass on the floor.
 
FauxHall said:
Listening to a set of 150s I recapped, braced, and dampened. Driven by 60 wpc. Wish they could be on short stands. Too much bass on the floor.
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They sound great on top of overturned 5 gallon buckets. Did I just say that? Did I just admit on AK that I have these wonderful speakers sitting on overturned pails? Ooops.

Well, gang, it's temporary. Building stands this weekend. :D
 
The schematic is in the link I posted above in my first post but it is just a single 10uf cap on the tweeter and an L-pad I believe. I believe the 5 next to the L-pad is just the power rating for the pad. 5 watts in this case.
http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi150.htm
epi-150.gif


The Dayton 5% metal/poly caps like this one should be fine. They also have a 1% cap for a few more bucks and similar offerings from Solen and Jantzen. The Daytons are a good value.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-428

You may find GordonW's thoughts on his 150 mods & tweaks in this thread to be interesting, especially in regards to that L-pad. The Quote below the link is from that thread.
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=109878

Also, on the M150- I find that most of the time, I used mine with the tweeter L-pad set all-the-way-up, ie, wide-open position... so, on mine, I bypassed (connected pins 2 and 3 together- do NOT remove the L-pad, simply turn the control all the way up and jumper pin 2 (output to tweeter) to pin 3 (input from capacitor), together. This can "brighten up" the mids and highs just a tad.
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There is a pic of the cap and L-pad in this thread. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=392764 . In the last post Gordon explains this step again which may make what he is talking about a bit more clear. Thanks, Gordon.
 
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Thank you! Most interesting and useful.

These may get moved out of the bedroom and into the main system instead over the weekend. They sound a little too good to be bedroom speakers.
 
Gordon also recommends changing out the rubber surrounds with foam. Hmmm. I think I like the durability of the rubber...it's lasted 40 years...probably will last 40 more. And we know what the foam will do...
 
I think the newer foam surrounds use a much better foam than they had 40 years ago but nearly all of my speakers have had rubber (except the treated foam on my Nova 10's) so I can appreciate that durability as well.
 
Many of the EPI speakers have the L-pad or a Normal/High/Low switch for the tweeter, while some do not. Many choose to eliminate those when they rebuild them and let the tweeter run wide open. I'd leave it out if they were mine. You can always use the treble control to attenuate the highs, if you like.
 
Sansui Louie said:
Gordon also recommends changing out the rubber surrounds with foam. Hmmm. I think I like the durability of the rubber...it's lasted 40 years...probably will last 40 more. And we know what the foam will do...
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the issue with rubber is after 40 years they can stiffen considerably, and some have even cracked....new foam is better than cracked rubber. and even if it isn't cracked, if it's hardened and become stiffer, that can raise Fs and reduce bass output on the bottom octaves.
 
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