EPI speakers- sound and power handling?

ethangsmith

ethangsmith

Well-Known Member
Hi guys-

Sort of an offshoot of another thread I have on here, but something that I think warrants its own thread for the benefit of many.

I am looking for speakers that would work well with a Pioneer SX-1010 that I will be getting back from the shop soon. From my own research, one speaker that comes highly regarded is the EPI speakers. This leaves me a with a few simple questions that I haven't been able to answer:

1. I see the M100 is listed at 4-8ohms. Can I safely run a pair of M100s at low to moderate volume with another pair of EPI speakers?

2. What is the bass response of the M100 and M150? I know the M150 has more, but how much more? Advents were recommended to me- how does the M100 or M150 compare with bass?

3. What is the observed power handling of the EPIs? Will I destroy them with the 1010?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm just getting in to this stuff and on a budget, so experimentation is tough for me. I want to find stuff that sounds right and is not hard on my 1010.
 
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http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi100.htm

I never recommend stacking speakers.

4Ω DC is a strange thing to list. Your speakers should never see a DC signal...

I had a pair of Genesis Is which are EPI 100 clones. They had pretty good bass, but the Advents will give you more in that department.

Those EPI tweeters are pretty hardy so you shouldn't worry too much about power handling. Just don't used them like PA speakers. They will definitely start to distort before they fry.
 
Good info to know. I'm really bouncing back and forth between the EPIs and Advents as they seem very similar in specifications. I wish I could do an A/B sound comparison on them!
 
I have some smaller Genesis Model 10's as well as some Advent/1's. Both sound well for there size. The Model 10's especially sound well and you will find that there is quite a following for EPI/Genesis and Advents. With a 1010, you would definitely want to go bigger but they can be found for reasonable prices. I was lucky to find both of mine for really cheap because they needed a re-foam. The Advents are warm-sounding (to me) and the Genesis are surprisingly tight for their size. So if you can find some that are in need of repair at a discount, it may be worth it to do the repairs yourself. There is a ton of information on woofer re-foaming.

Good luck!
 
I'm thinking about doing a combination of EPI and Advent on my system. It seems each would balance each other out- The better bass of the Advent, but then the better mids and highs of the EPI. One of the sets of EPIs that I'm looking at is the M150, which is a larger cabinet that supposedly produces greater bass- and looks really cool with the brass accents!

I didn't realize how much support/repair parts there are for the EPIs, which is a huge bonus too.
 
The EPI 100 is a 4 ohm speaker so if chosen should be the only pair connected in use. Or connect them in series. They are fantastic speakers and will perform nicely on the SX-1010.



Barney
 
If you read through various specs on the 100s EPI states that while they are a 4 ohm speaker when presented with straight DC they behave as an 8 ohm speaker when presented with an actual music signal from an amp. Why this is so I don't know, but I would imagine it has more to do with testing procedures than anything.
 
I think a pair of the bigger EPIs would be a better choice than the combination of EPIs and Advents. Better looking too, and would eat up less real estate.
 
Hmmmm...

Maybe I'll try and score these 100s and 150s and then for a third set try to get some 200s or something larger like that. They do seem to pop up often enough.

So EPIs aren't bass shy then?
 
I've been running 2 pairs of EPI 100's off of my Denon DRA775RD for 4 years, no problems. EPI's are power hungry, with efficiency in the mid 80's or so. The posted 65 watts is an exceedingly conservative rating, they'll take a good bit more than that, provided it's clean signal.

As the cabinets have a resonant frequency of 32 hz, their bass is clean and clear. They're not going to knock you over with the volume of bass, but they reach considerably lower than most bookshelf speakers of the day.

My smaller Advents are in the garage.
 
Good info to know.

I had Dynaco A25s that I thought sounded terrible. No bass and crunchy, grainy highs. They were the early Scan Speak ones too. Maybe I got junkers, but when I hear people comparing the EPIs to Dynacos, it does worry me a little. What sets EPI apart from Dynaco?
 
The EPIs that most closely match the Advent driver complement are the 120 series. 10" woofer, and the burhoe inverted tweeter.

Not quite as "bassy" as large Advents but certainly very close (38Hz-20Khz), and probably better up top. Although I have not done a direct A/B comparison.

To poster above. Your Dynacos sound like they had something wrong with them. While they don't have the bass of the Advents they certainly have more bass than EPI 100s (supposedly 45Hz-18Khz-sounds more like 50Hz, or at best 48Hz, to me), IMO. And the highs are hardly "grainy", maybe a little rolled off or soft but that's often a good thing, warms things up.

cnh2
 
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It was a very strange sounding speaker, the Dynacos. A bass kick was just a little "thuck" sound and that was it. Highs were shrill and crashing. I get more bass out of my little computer desktop speakers than those gave out. They had no warmth to them either. Very muddy and sterile sounding.

As for the EPIs, I think I'm going to try and snag the sets of 100s and 150s that are available and then go looking for some 120s or 200s as the third set. But it's certainly not to say I won't pick up cheap Advents if they show up! Seeing the responses on this thread about EPI speakers makes me want to really check them out and give them a good listen!
 
If you like EPIs, it's worth keeping an eye out for Genesis speakers. They were an EPI offshoot, and many of their models are essentially identical to EPIs.
The Human speaker website is a good source of information and EPI and its offshoots.
If you live in New England, you might also run across a pair of Fred Locke Stereo (FLS) speakers, which were Genesis 1+ with attractive rosewood vinyl and low diffraction grills (and hence a metal screen protecting the tweeter) sold as the house brand by a Connecticut (I think) audio chain.

(Worth noting also that there is another company named Genesis started by Arnie Nudel of Infinity fame and some one else (the guy from PA Audio?) that made much more expensive speakers in the 90s. Probably good, but even more probably a lot more expensive, even used.)
 
FWIW my EPI M202's are, component-wise, two EPI M100's inside one big box. There is a switch to wire them in 4Ω (parallel) and 16Ω (series)--implying that EPI M100s are 8Ω speakers. Some amps I have used them with are happy running them in 4Ω mode, and some get uncomfortably hot so I switch them to 16Ω mode. If you run two sets of speakers, just make sure your amp is not sweating to much.

BTW the bass in amazing on those things.
 
Got my 1010 back today. Playing it on my existing speakers I had hooked to a 780 or 737, the 1010 seems to lack warmth. Upping the bass controls or turning the loudness on helps, but the sound does not have the power of the less powerful units. It's crisp and clear, but it has little warmth to it.

So here's the question now: Are EPIs warm sounding? Would they work with a receiver that does not have a lot of warmth to it?
 
I guess the root of what I'm asking here is about mid-bass. I don't need them to go down to 20hz or rumble pictures off the wall. I need speakers that will be warm and have a good mid-bass punch.
 
Based on my experience with the Genesis I, "warm" is not the word I would use to describe the basic Burhoe module. I always thought they sounded a little too forward and a little too bright. Plenty of clarity, like you say, but not much warmth. On the M202's it gets rounded out a little because only one of the tweeters is facing you, while the other points to the side. I toyed with the idea of putting in a resistor to soften the treble a little in my Genesis I's, but I eventually traded them for a pair of Polk Monitor 7s with a broken tweeter.

I have friend who picked up some EPIs that are just like the 100s but with 6-inch woofers. I can't remember the model number, but to my ears they sounded more well rounded than the 8-inch woofer version.
 
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