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Epicure 100V Vinyl Veneer Bubbling, is it fixable?

Isaac C.

Isaac C.

Cat Hoarder
Hello everyone, I just acquired a pair of Epicure 100Vs that could use a good refoam. However, thats not why I am posting. The cabinets are very sticky and the vinyl veneer appears to be bubbling very badly. Im wondering if there is an economical way to fix them or reveneer them. Or are the cabinets trash at this point? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
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Ooof... I know you can slit the bubbles to remove air & inject glue, then weight them down to flatten. Other than that if it's a total mess it might be a new veneer job...
I have an EPI M100 pair and love them! Sweet sound for sure, definitely worth some work if it's not a herculean task!
 
KSutt920 said:
Ooof... I know you can slit the bubbles to remove air & inject glue, then weight them down to flatten. Other than that if it's a total mess it might be a new veneer job...
I have an EPI M100 pair and love them! Sweet sound for sure, definitely worth some work if it's not a herculean task!
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I bought them to refoam and hopefully resale, but I'm not sure if most people would want them with the condition of the cabinets. Do you think it would be better to sell the drivers out of them?
 
U can buy those drivers from HumanSpeakers.com for like $60. So it'd likely only be worth it to anyone by salvaging the cabs if you can.
 
A good refoam as opposed to a....bad refoam? That's always preferable. ;)

It's vinyl cabinets. Personally, unless you were keeping them for your own use, I wouldn't put a lot of effort into vinyl veneer repair or replace. Cut the slit, reglue, press down, and call it good...if that's possible. They aren't worth crazy money; just decent sounding for what they are. I have a pair of their cousins, Genesis G10's, that I keep for garage duty or checking out old receivers versus blowing up the good speakers
 
Isaac C. said:
I bought them to refoam and hopefully resale, but I'm not sure if most people would want them with the condition of the cabinets. Do you think it would be better to sell the drivers out of them?
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Although nice speakers, EPI 100V are hard to flip and make a profit. I paid $100 for my EPI 100s (already refoamed) and they have walnut veneer. In good shape, vinyl 100s won't get more than that in my area. If you must flip, your best bet is to clean the vinyl and get rid of the sticky, refoam, recap, and hope you can make enough to make it worth your time. I plan on keeping my EPI 100s because they are nice sounding speakers.
 
EPI-100s either in vinyl-veneered "utility cabs" or walnut-veneers are excellent and worth some effort to restore and keep in service.

Maybe try a warm iron on the bubbled vinyl to see if it lays down again.

The "sticky" is related to the vinyl "outgassing" as it deteriorates plus crap absorbed from the environment over the years, and happens to some vinyl'd speakers worse than others. So far, nothing happening on my EPI-100Vs, but I did have a slight tackiness to my "The Smaller Advents", and it was really bad on my KLH-363s.

I used Dawn dish soap and water and wiped down my KLH and Advents, then when dry; used an old, furniture-oil-soaked rag I used on my "real" walnut veneer speakers and wiped them down, then buffed dry with a soft rag. It really took the tackiness down to almost nothing, but I expect it will slowly come back.
 
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I have some EPI 100V speakers. Thankfully, the vinyl wraps have remained in good condition. Good luck to you Issac C. in getting yours to look presentable again.

Until recently, my EPI 100's have usually taken a back seat to some Smaller Advents. Pretty much by chance, about a month ago, I tried the EPI's with some classical music. I was/am shocked at good they sound!
 
I paid $35, is it worth a refoam for $20, and then resale them? I currently have more gear than I need, these were part of several lots I bought in an auction for relatively cheap. The best part of the deal was the Hitachi Sr-603 that I paid $30 for, it's in mint condition and sounds excellent.

I plan on trying the warm iron to see if I can minimize the bubbles.
 
Isaac C. said:
I paid $35, is it worth a refoam for $20, and then resale them? I currently have more gear than I need, these were part of several lots I bought in an auction for relatively cheap. The best part of the deal was the Hitachi Sr-603 that I paid $30 for, it's in mint condition and sounds excellent.

I plan on trying the warm iron to see if I can minimize the bubbles.
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If you were closer, I would buy them from you. You won't make a killing (who does flipping this stuff?). But you can do better than break even by refoaming. I would recap them too. The idea behind refoaming before selling is to do something the typical buy cannot do so the buyer has a good, working speaker. Recapping falls in that same category.
 
You bought them cheap, then, flip them for cheap too.

Enjoy them a bit then resale just a tiny bit higher than you bought them.
Not much of a profit to earned there.

Flipping ain't easy... time consuming and frustrating for my part.
 
Yes refoam them and recap too. Don't use fancy caps just new ones. You may be surprised at how good they can sound. If they are not better to you than some of your other speak you can sell them at least for what you'd have invested in them if not a little more. :)
 
Isaac C. said:
I paid $35, is it worth a refoam for $20, and then resale them? I currently have more gear than I need, these were part of several lots I bought in an auction for relatively cheap. The best part of the deal was the Hitachi Sr-603 that I paid $30 for, it's in mint condition and sounds excellent.

I plan on trying the warm iron to see if I can minimize the bubbles.
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This is an excellent speaker if you have the desire to get someone into vintage audio. I just gave an SX550 and these 100's to a recent college grad. I didnt have more than $100 into them combined.
 
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