I bought some 50% clearance EMPTek E55TI towers and E55CI center today...

Oldfatdogs

Hay slammin,I was staying out of this one till the end.I'm glad your new speakers are working out for you.Dan

halo71

Yeah I am happy you are liking your new speakers as well. While I like my Polk's, there are other speakers out there worthy of being heard too. I am loving my newly recapped Infinity RSIIIa's right now.

slammin86

I tried to get some of the wood grain pattern but it is hard to capture under living room lighting.

chumlie

Nice looking setup. Glad your happy with them. Killer price too.

slammin86

Oh and I put a coat of pinnacle souveran spray wax on them today...lol.

audiocr381ve

Bro, I can't believe how beautiful those things are and the price you paid for them. I would love to get my ears on a pair!

slammin86

pietro944 wrote: »

Got a nice email from Brian Tracy at Emptek,confirming my order.He said that they have had a huge response to their clearance sale and that shipping would be in a couple of days.....not in a hurry....gotta make room for these babies,anyhow.

Have you received tracking on these yet?

Tankman

I have too say they are some nice looking speakers tall they are.Can anyone say if they area two way or three way?On there site they don't go into what type of crossover they use unless i missed it?Now in the M70's being a 2 1/2 way crossover with is in them a cascade tapered array design which makes the M70's a very musical speaker.The EMP's have a real nice cabinet design that is usually found on a much higher end speaker.Very interesting speaker for the price.

slammin86

Tankman wrote: »

I have too say they are some nice looking speakers tall they are.Can anyone say if they area two way or three way?On there site they don't go into what type of crossover they use unless i missed it?Now in the M70's being a 2 1/2 way crossover with is in them a cascade tapered array design which makes the M70's a very musical speaker.The EMP's have a real nice cabinet design that is usually found on a much higher end speaker.Very interesting speaker for the price.

They are a 3 way. This is what they list on their website.

? Crossover Frequencies: 120 Hz / 3,000 Hz

Based on listening the two 5.25" speakers play the same frequencies and the bottom three 6.5" speakers play the same frequency.

For music these win over the M70's no questions asked.

tonyb

Glad your diggin' them, they sure look nice. Enjoy

pietro944

slammin86 wrote: »

Have you received tracking on these yet?

Not yet.....I emailed them saturday to ask if they were ok to run at 8 ohms on my Pio Elite recv'r.I'd rather not use the 6 ohms setting because of the slight increase in Heat and THD....Brian tracy said it shouldn't be a problem.
Funny thing is i mentioned my new score to a friend in my building and he said "I'll take your M70's"....so the Polks are gone and i won't be able to compare them(lol).

Sherardp

Speaks look gorgeous. Nice review and glad your liking them. The thread over at AVS on these make them seem promising as well. Here is a review compared to some other speakers.

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/2010-1k-faceoff

Sherardp

That price is very tempting, I sent an email to see if they can ship me a pair.

slammin86

Sherardp wrote: »

Speaks look gorgeous. Nice review and glad your liking them. The thread over at AVS on these make them seem promising as well. Here is a review compared to some other speakers.

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/speakers/floorstanding/2010-1k-faceoff

Yes I linked to that article earlier in the thread. The speaker did quite well. So far all the other guys on AVS are happy with them.
I do not know how much longer I can hold out on buying the bookshelf/ surround speakers. I keep hoping some will pop up on the b stock list but so far nothing.

pietro944

slammin86 wrote: »

Yes I linked to that article earlier in the thread. The speaker did quite well. So far all the other guys on AVS are happy with them.
I do not know how much longer I can hold out on buying the bookshelf/ surround speakers. I keep hoping some will pop up on the b stock list but so far nothing.

What about the earlier version of the towers....the E5ti.....They're on clearance for $275/pair and in stock in Burl!

WagBoss

I think the M70s will be better.

slammin86

WagBoss wrote: »

I think the M70s will be better.

Have you heard both side by side in your living room? Yeah...well I have...

Toolfan66

When a company does price cuts like this it makes you wonder how much it really cost them to build them.. Nice looking towers for under $400 looks and seems like a steal...


Nice looking setup one thing for sure is they have a better looking cool factor over the 70's.

slammin86

Toolfan66 wrote: »

When a company does price cuts like this it makes you wonder how much it really cost them to build them.. Nice looking towers for under $400 looks and seems like a steal...


Nice looking setup one thing for sure is they have a better looking cool factor over the 70's.

I agree. Especially when they are paying to ship out 110lbs of speakers. Surely they aren't loosing money doing this.

after hearing these and seeing them I would not have a problem paying 800 for a perfect set. Heck I would pay more than that. They really are a nice looking as well as nice sounding speaker.

Upstatemax

Toolfan66 wrote: »

When a company does price cuts like this it makes you wonder how much it really cost them to build them.. Nice looking towers for under $400 looks and seems like a steal...


Nice looking setup one thing for sure is they have a better looking cool factor over the 70's.

Polk does the same thing.

Have you seen the current prices of the Monitor series?

I think brand new Monitor 70's can be at your door for around $300 shipped now.

The profit margins on speakers is huge...

Toolfan66

Upstatemax wrote: »

Polk does the same thing.

Have you seen the current prices of the Monitor series?

I think brand new Monitor 70's can be at your door for around $300 shipped now.

The profit margins on speakers is huge...

I know Polk does the same thing I never said they didn't, many companys do this to feed out old inventory and clear up floor space for new models, it just had me questioning the real cost on what they (the company) pays to have these built and shipped from overseas (China/Japan for the most part)

heiney9

Anyone who has been to a Polk fest at HQ has met all the engineers, testers, seen the uber expensive testing equipment. The cost of the speakers includes the R&D to move designs forward, etc. It's a HUGE cost. Too many people simply refer to the labor and materials to assemble the final product. Talking with many of the engineer's and people at Polk and hearing them describe something like the DSW Pro subs and the "feed forward" concept that took two years to final product is why certain speakers cost more. Also talking with Matt and realizing he and another engineer worked close to 7 years to bring the first Surround Bar to market. That's 7 years of developing a product with no income from that product, that's huge.

So just remember it's not about materials and final assembly. It's the entire effort of R&D and engineering that is the major cost. Many companies in the same bracket as Polk don't put half the effort into the technology/ R&D side of it. They either use off the shelf parts and designs or pay to use someone else's.

H9

ravaneli

I work for a large retailer and I know the costs at least to us, and for sure we sell the last pieces of anything at a loss. They have nowhere to go, we can't ship them back, and new product has to come on the floor, so they will be cleared at a loss. These 'huge' margins are in jealous people's heads. Nobody has huge margins, if you take everything in consideration. MSRP doesn't tell the whole story. 80% of all merchandise is sold as sale prices or clearance, then when you pay everyone's salaries and benefits and all the leases and other bill you end the year with a loss, like we did. People that have never hired anyone are quick to say how huge the margins are.

Toolfan66

heiney9 wrote: »

Anyone who has been to a Polk fest at HQ has met all the engineers, testers, seen the uber expensive testing equipment. The cost of the speakers includes the R&D to move designs forward, etc. It's a HUGE cost. Too many people simply refer to the labor and materials to assemble the final product. Talking with many of the engineer's and people at Polk and hearing them describe something like the DSW Pro subs and the "feed forward" concept that took two years to final product is why certain speakers cost more. Also talking with Matt and realizing he and another engineer worked close to 7 years to bring the first Surround Bar to market. That's 7 years of developing a product with no income from that product, that's huge.

So just remember it's not about materials and final assembly. It's the entire effort of R&D and engineering that is the major cost. Many companies in the same bracket as Polk don't put half the effort into the technology/ R&D side of it. They either use off the shelf parts and designs or pay to use someone else's.

H9

Agreed!!! I know what it cost here at the shop just to get a prototype done, and we get people come in all the time and with an idea and are shocked when we give them the cost to build a prototype, they just dont understand what it cost to build 1 part compared to building a 1000 of them, the price difference is huge.. This is another reason why I question the price of a speaker at what seems like a give a way price, and what it cost to have them built in China or Japan after the R&D Prototype/Testing has been done and approved to go into production..

Those speakers seem to be a steal at under $400 for the set. There is a lot of work in them let alone what it cost to ship them!!!

slammin86

Toolfan66 wrote: »

Agreed!!! I know what it cost here at the shop just to get a prototype done, and we get people come in all the time and with an idea and are shocked when we give them the cost to build a prototype, they just dont understand what it cost to build 1 part compared to building a 1000 of them, the price difference is huge.. This is another reason why I question the price of a speaker at what seems like a give a way price, and what it cost to have them built in China or Japan after the R&D Prototype/Testing has been done and approved to go into production..

Those speakers seem to be a steal at under $400 for the set. There is a lot of work in them let alone what it cost to ship them!!!

If I am emptek I am getting my QC in check so that I am not blowing out this many b stock speakers at a time for half price. These are not a $400 dollar pair of towers.

I know in my searching back it seems when they entered this style speaker in 2009 with the smaller towers it was said they were actually selling them at or below cost in order to generate interest and try to build the company. IDK if it worked or not. You do not hear a lot about them really but what you do hear tends to be good.

slammin86

This was posted about these speakers on another forum.

Eternal Velocity wrote: »

Sensitivity is not as high as a typical pro audio speaker but it's perfectly fine.

With three 6.5" drivers, two 5.25" mids, and a high 3khz tweeter crossover point, these things can handle a good 200+ watts without compressing (which is better than some more sensitive speakers). The only time these speakers have EVER made me cringe was during inception; the scene when the glass breaks. And that was near reference levels on probably one of the most dynamic movies in the world. I'd wager you have to bust out over $3000 to do movies like that justice at reference. And no, some 12" elemental designs horn speakers won't do it justice, they'll just do it loud.

The Aluminum/Poly matrix cone is very well-designed and surprisingly resolving. The tweeter is nice and detailed.

Off-axis response is pretty nice. The tonality doesn't shift significantly whether you treat the room or not, or if you shift seats or not. The 2nd order midrange crossover has a lot to do with this. Overall frequency response is a LOT flatter than pretty much any other sub- 1K speaker (+/- 2db), never mind a complex 3-way with six drivers. They're not very placement sensitive at all, either.

Imaging is convincing enough. I wouldn't call it holographic, but the stereo image emanates from behind and around the speaker. You can tell they spent a good bit of time optimizing this speaker, because with this many drivers they really shouldn't image like they do. On good music you can close your eyes and forget the speakers are there.

The bass is very well damped (at least on my Generation 1s), which means it's slightly on the dry side. People used to typical "speaker bass" will probably find it a bit lacking, but it's a bit more accurate. Still not as tight as ""headphone bass"", but I'm sure that has to do with my room to a good extent.

The Cabinets are absolutely beautiful, even 2 years later I still smile looking at these speakers.

Honestly, this price for e55tis is a total steal. Unless you've got $1600 to drop on a pair of Philharmonic speakers, these are probably the best speakers you can buy. At the very least, they'll bring a smile to your face, unless you want speakers that add a thick layer of "cough syrup bass".

audiocr381ve

Looks like the clearance sale is over.

Woops! Never mind, the sale is still on. If I had some extra funds I'd buy a pair for that price. It makes me sick how beautiful they are.

pietro944

slammin86 wrote: »

This was posted about these speakers on another forum.

I can't stand waiting for my speakers to arrive......I just keep staring at the pictures of these speakers in the gloss burl.....My Revel T-1 sub in burl arrives on Friday......sigh.....lol.

audiocr381ve

pietro944 wrote: »

I can't stand waiting for my speakers to arrive......I just keep staring at the pictures of these speakers in the gloss burl.....My Revel T-1 sub in burl arrives on Friday......sigh.....lol.

What kinds of speakers have you owned in the past?

pietro944

audiocr381ve wrote: »

What kinds of speakers have you owned in the past?

These are replacing Polk M 70's....In my working days,when I had lots of dough.I had Linn speakers,Klipschorns,Mirage........Hope to get up to the big maggies or ML Electromotions in a year or 2.....if I live that long(lol).