Opinions on EPI 200 Bass Response

[peterfranks]

Looking for opinions from other EPI 200 owners. I have a pair that I re-foamed recently but did not recap. They sound wonderful as is. They are very clear, not muddled. The high and mid frequencies are clear. Question is the bass - they definitely hit the low notes. I have a CD player on a lower shelf about 3 inches above the floor and with the volume turned up a bit, the bass from the EPIs made the CD skip on certain low notes.

The question: are these bass heavy speakers and would re-capping tone down the bass a little. I have everything on the Sansui 771 set to flat.

The bass doesn't bother me but I just want to make sure it is being reproduced accurately. And yes, these have the huge 12 inch passive radiator.

How's the bass on your EPI 200s?
thanks!

 

[Dr. Mordo]

Recapping makes a pretty subtle difference; it won't raise the volume of the tweeters.

My 200s certainly aren't bass heavy. They reached low but it feels pretty flat from 10kHz down to wherever they bottom out (30ish hz). If anything, mine are dark sounding with the tweeter just not producing much about 12-13kHz.

Do yours have the switch to adjust the volume of the tweeter? If so, the first thing I would do is clean the crap out of it.

 

[Andyman]

Recapping makes a pretty subtle difference; it won't raise the volume of the tweeters.

Actually, if the caps have increased in resistance, the tweeters volume may pick up once less resistive caps are installed. That's what happened with my EPI 500s when I recapped them.

 

[peterfranks]

Thanks for the feedback -

I have the toggle switch on the back - Tweeter Level - Medium, Low, Normal
When I switch it, the tweeter frequency changes appropriately. I did clean it and it appears to be working fine. I keep it in normal mode.

Folks said these speakers may sound dark without a recap but I have quite a few hours listening to them and they are anything but dark. The tweets have more than enough high frequency and are very clear.

Now we go back to the debate over the loudness button. When I turn the loudness button off, the sound seems much duller/thin and bass is subdued (as expected). Loudness turned on and the sound is fuller but the bass is much stronger.

I run all my receiver tone controls flat and generally don't mess with them. I will say the Sansui 771 puts much more bass into the speakers than the 2238B.

Maybe the pairing of the 771 and these speakers require the bass to be dialed back a little.

 

[audiomagnate]

Nothing is easier than recapping an EPI as the entire crossover consists of exactly one cap. It sounds like your speakers are working fine so it's not urgent. Try my simple crossover test. Put the speakers right next to each other and play white noise from the hash between stations on an FM tuner. If the two speakers sound identical, the caps are probably OK.

 

[Dr. Mordo]

You bring up an excellent point about your loudness switch - different amps implement "loudness" differently, and some amps are much more aggressive with the correction applied by the loudness circuit.

So that is likely the issue. You can either turn loudness off and use eq to make a "loudness lite" correction, or leave the loudness on and use eq to modify it a bit.

 

[kb9qkc]

did you try placing your speakers differently in the room. maybe the placement isn't good for them so without the loudness they sound a little dull but with loudness it gives them the extra boost then they start interacting with the walls more. turn the loudness off and put the speakers closer to walls see if it helps, would be nice to get them sounding right without relying on the loudness button on.

 

[peterfranks]

Audiomagnate - good idea - I shall try that. Even though the caps are old and presumably out of spec, the speakers sound good with a variety of music.

Dr. - I've never been an EQ or tone control guy. I like it all flat. But I am a user of the loudness button - go figure.

KB9 - the speakers are in my listening room - although they are about 6 inches from a flat wall - good idea of moving them - could scoot them to the outside of my set-up and give more room in the back.