Has anybody owned EPI speakers?

gudnoyez

https://quadcities.craigslist.org/ele/4929145263.html

I had heard good things about the 100 series these are TE 100s. I found a foam kit for $25 on line. Do these fail in comparison to the original 100s?

mhardy6647

Actually the T/E series, while not held in the esteem of the earlier Newburyport (Winslow Burhoe) era EPI/Epicures, aren't bad at all. You'll note that they do still feature a version of the concave dome "airspring" Burhoe tweeter. EDIT: actually, the more I think about it (and look at the CL ad), I think the dome on the T/E ('Time/Energy') series speakers is a more conventionalconvex dome made of some sort of plastic-y material... memory's a bit fuzzy). Still, the T/E 100 ain't bad at all, even compared to the 'real' EPI 100.

You can buy a kit if you want, but... generic foam from MAT Electronics (which should be fine for those) are (last time I bought any) three bucks a pop or so. Use Eileen's Tacky Glue; works well for paper cones. The EPI 8" woofers are plenty forgiving and can be readily refoamed sans dustcap-ectomy & shimming, IME.

One minor caveat. The T/E speakers have, as you can see from the photo, plastic-coated paper woofers (not dissimilar to the early Polk Audio Monitor Series "midbass drivers", actually). As I recall, the foam surrounds on those are glued to the back, paper side of the woofers. I did refoam a pair of T/E 100s that I found on the swap pile at the ol' Harvard,MA town dump, years ago. I don't remember which surrounds I used (either the aforementioned MAT surrounds or maybe surrounds from PartsExpress... generic ones, either way), but the job was straightforward & turned out fine.

I gave them to a friend who was looking for a basic pair of speakers for a friend of his; I don't think I ever took any photos of 'em, unfortunately.

I certainly wouldn't recommend paying more than about $25 for a pair, though (at least in New England, where EPIs of all stripes are very, very common).
EDIT: OK, a little re-think. Original packaging is nice to have, and they are claimed to be in excellent condition other than the surrounds... I could imagine going to fiddy smackers for 'em -- I wouldn't, myself... but maybe an OK price in the Quad Cities (whichever quad they be).

gudnoyez

Yeah the Newburyport Winslow Burhoe era ones are the ones I heard are decent the original 100s, that's why I was unsure of these, thanks for your response.

mhardy6647

If you ever find your way out to New Hampster, I can send you home with a pair of EPI 100Vs as a swell parting gift :- )

Seriously -- they've been sitting around for years; I need to refoam 'em... that would give me a good reason to do it!

(The 100Vs are the pair of speakers cohabitating with all the Yamaha junk on that shelf)

Mystery

gudnoyez wrote: »

https://quadcities.craigslist.org/ele/4929145263.html

I had heard good things about the 100 series these are TE 100s. I found a foam kit for $25 on line. Do these fail in comparison to the original 100s?

The worst speaker to refoam due to foam backing on the cone.
I won't get them for free.
I had them and that's enough.

Polkie2009

Weren't the EPI line fairly popular in the 80's? Seems like I used to see a lot of sales ads for them , although I may be confused, was there another line of speakers called ECI?

mhardy6647

A completely anecdotal and as-remembered"history" :-P -- EPI (Epicure Products Inc.) started in the early/mid 1970s and were quite popular, buoyed by extremely high ratings by Consumers' Report. They were also featured in many systems sold by Warehouse Sound of San Luis Obispo, CA. Some EPI'ers ended up starting a company called Genesis Physics; Win Burhoe of EPI went on to several successful ventures and is still (last I knew) selling speakers under the "Direct Acoustics" brand. http://directacoustics.com/

EPI ended up being bought by someone (not that I remember whom -- maybe Sparkomatic or Recoton or Harman International [see links below], or folks of that ilk) and went downhill fairly quickly, probably in the early 1980s.

Now, here's some (probably) more definitive information on the brand :- )
(each of the linked threads below has at least one "history" type post in it; I post links to the whole threads rather than the specific links; if anyone wants just the specific posts, I can post those inks, too).

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=237538
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=265436
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=78620
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?p=5555761

The other, well known source of EPI/Genesis parts and information is www.humanspeakers.com

EPI 110C by mhardy6647, on Flickr

boston1450

Mark. Wasnt Genesis speakers made in New Hampshire also ? Newfield or something/somewhere like that
..
:edit: these are Geniesis ||'s & they are not the original drivers & the passives foams have been changed. They dropped in Dayton drivers in these for flipping reasons. Beautiful cabinets. I have not heard them so i cant comment on this model

mhardy6647

Yes, they were -- and Humanspeakers' Huw Powell is still in Lee, NH.

On the other side of the state from us...

PS - this was the cool AK thread on EPI; I finally found it... but... unfortunately, the guy who posted the 1970s EPI factory photos took 'em down from his hosting site :- (

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=379810

Mystery

Of course, the earlier EPI and even earlier Epicure are great speakers.
I have these in my basement.

skrol

I have a pair of M-50's "The Mite" that I am restoring from the early 70's. They use the inverted dome tweeter. The woofers have rubber surrounds.

One of the binding posts were broken and the bass had a buzz. I removed the grills, which were glued on, and found excess grill cloth touching the woofer cone. I trimmed the excess but have not reattached the grills yet. They are nice sounding little speakers that I have been playing in my shop.

mhardy6647

Mystery wrote: »

Of course, the earlier EPI and even earlier Epicure are great speakers.
I have these in my basement.

Those are indeed pretty wonderful loudspeakers. Win Burhoe, in essence, still builds a modern version of them.
http://directacoustics.com/

http://www.stereophile.com/content/direct-acoustics-silent-speaker-ii

leftwinger57

Mystery,those Epicures remind me of my long gone fully rehabbed Bose 601s. In design they had the top firing 8'' woofer and the front firing 8'' w/ the tweeter array on top. Mine were series 1s w/ real wood which needed a severe cleaning,and a refoam job. Got them for $20, a foam kit some labor and flipped them for $175 via C/L. after 8 months of ownership. I actually liked those 601s, they were very powerful but the cash was just to good.

gudnoyez

I passed on the TE 100 's. I had heard a few good reviews on the older 100 EPI ' S the money saved will be for the two pair of RDO 198s I need, for my 2B, and CRS TL mods. I probably should get rid of a few pair that are sitting Idle. Thanks for sharing everyone.

Mystery

DSkip wrote: »

Mystery, I'm pretty sure I remember a thread on those EPI's when you got them.

You must have remembered the wonderful refoam job previous owner did.

boston1450

Just traded off some unwanted/untested gear i wasnt messing with for these Genesis G2's with grills near minty with fresh surrounds. T

hey ended up being much bigger than expected 1c's behind them.
Hooked them to a Carver 150wpc receiver & they sound quite well. Not sure what kind of tweet it is but it sounds good to these old ears.

mhardy6647

It's the Genesis version of the EPI inverted dome (virtually identical to the latter AFAIK). Good sounding tweeter but not quite as silky (heh!) smooth as the ol' Peerless KO10DT

boston1450

Thanks Mark they dont sound bad especially listening to the Eagles-Clapton-NYoung i threw at them earlier. These are the ones that i posted pictures above. He put the original woofers back in them as i requested. I think im gonna enjoy them for a long time. They are about the size between 7 & 10 monitors. I probably woulda went smaller for the workbench

cnh

EPI T/E 360s some of the best sub $1000 a pair original MSRP towers I have EVER heard. That air-spring tweeter and the mids are phenomenal! The problem? Can't repair that weird laminate surface poly plastic or whatever it is on the woofer and mid.

The inverted dome (the original, previous tweeter)-THE BURHOE tweeter, a legend of sorts and one of the EPI secrets that allowed the two ways to be crossed over at a very LOW point (1800 Hz or so, at least that's how I recall it?). Good stuff.

I've owned the 100Vs and the larger 10" two way 120Cs. EPI, not the T/E versions.

I can't speak to your T/E because I've only heard the TOTL above. A friend of mine had them in the 80s with a nice Technics TT and a classic Kenwood integrated amp of 65 watts x 2 (from the late '70s). Voluminous room filling sound! Excellent imaging and detail from almost anywhere in the room! Airy highs, clean distinct mids, tight fast bass. And boy could you go LOUD with no hint of distortion or break-up! The very last gasp before EPI lost its cookies.

They were WIDE like the Boston A 150s or A 200s (probably NOT as wide as the 200s or 400s). I'm sure the width played into a similar design idea as the Boston series because they were also shallow and quite heavy!

Those Genesis should sound pretty darn good, Randy!

Enjoy!

msg

woh! what model are these?

Mystery wrote: »

Of course, the earlier EPI and even earlier Epicure are great speakers.
I have these in my basement.

cnh

200 series? 201, 202?

http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi201.htm

OR maybe the EPICURE 20+ cousins?

http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epicure-20.htm

mhardy6647

They appear to be the Epicure 20(+), as noted above -- and they're superb.

boston1450

cnh wrote: »

EPI T/E 360s some of the best sub $1000 a pair original MSRP towers I have EVER heard. That air-spring tweeter and the mids are phenomenal! The problem? Can't repair that weird laminate surface poly plastic or whatever it is on the woofer and mid.

The inverted dome (the original, previous tweeter)-THE BURHOE tweeter, a legend of sorts and one of the EPI secrets that allowed the two ways to be crossed over at a very LOW point (1800 Hz or so, at least that's how I recall it?). Good stuff.

I've owned the 100Vs and the larger 10" two way 120Cs. EPI, not the T/E versions.

I can't speak to your T/E because I've only heard the TOTL above. A friend of mine had them in the 80s with a nice Technics TT and a classic Kenwood integrated amp of 65 watts x 2 (from the late '70s). Voluminous room filling sound! Excellent imaging and detail from almost anywhere in the room! Airy highs, clean distinct mids, tight fast bass. And boy could you go LOUD with no hint of distortion or break-up! The very last gasp before EPI lost its cookies.

They were WIDE like the Boston A 150s or A 200s (probably NOT as wide as the 200s or 400s). I'm sure the width played into a similar design idea as the Boston series because they were also shallow and quite heavy!

Those Genesis should sound pretty darn good, Randy!

Enjoy!

Those are sweet Cnh. Wouldnt mind hearing those bad boys. Thanks-Joe did a great job on surrounds ive been emailing him often with pics of the jobs ive been doing & saving money to boot im going to tear them down this weekend if i have time & check inside out

boston1450

Mystery wrote: »

DSkip wrote: »

Mystery, I'm pretty sure I remember a thread on those EPI's when you got them.

You must have remembered the wonderful refoam job previous owner did.

i know nothing about these speakers. You did a wonderful job cleaning them up & from what ive read here they are a great speaker... Up here recently there was a pair somewhat like them. Super clean & fresh surrounds. They were for sale quite awhile. They were kinda a copy-cat of those. They were BSR's or something like that. I thought they looked cool like these. Ive never heard drivers set up like that. How do they sound?

leftwinger57

I know most of you like refoaming the speakers yourself. Would any of you be willing to call either Simply Speakers or Orange County speakers for either advice on how to deal w/ those surrounds or send them out to be done by either. No affiliation just asking. Those dual firing jobs are beautiful and would more than likely fill a room w/ quality tunes.

txcoastal1

cnh wrote: »

200 series? 201, 202?

http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epi201.htm

OR maybe the EPICURE 20+ cousins?

http://www.humanspeakers.com/e/epicure-20.htm

Whats strange about those 20's is that not even mirrored. Looks like 2-lefts or to rights

Mystery

These are 20+.

boston1450 wrote: »

Ive never heard drivers set up like that. How do they sound?

They are very good sounding speakers. Sound great close against the wall that I like.
The fact that they are still in my home tells something.

nadams

skrol wrote: »

I have a pair of M-50's "The Mite" that I am restoring from the early 70's. They use the inverted dome tweeter. The woofers have rubber surrounds.

One of the binding posts were broken and the bass had a buzz. I removed the grills, which were glued on, and found excess grill cloth touching the woofer cone. I trimmed the excess but have not reattached the grills yet. They are nice sounding little speakers that I have been playing in my shop.

Not to bump an old thread, but I have a pair of M-50's as well. I took them to the Polkfest that was at Lou's house and several people were very surprised by the sound coming from some seriously junky looking speakers. The cabinets on mine are beat up, the grills are long gone, and I have some ratshack speaker wire soldered to what's left of the speaker terminals. But we hooked them up to a nice tube amp and man did they sing!

skrol

Probably better off with out the grills anyway. Mine had lots of excess material that was buzzing against the woofers and partly blocking a tweeter. I trimmed it back but haven't remounted the grills yet. I might use velcro or magnets rather than glue. Other than that my cabinets are in pretty decent shape.

so_ein_pech

My turn!
Another funky EPI design: M202






Also not mirrored. (But they have rotational symmetry.) I run them upside-down because the speaker terminals are in a recess on the bottom panel.

I had a pair of Genesis 1's which are roughly equivalent to the EPI 100 which I actually traded for some Model 7s that needed some work.

mhardy6647

IN their early days, EPI/Epicure made a number of quite interesting loudspeakers. I wish that I had some of them.




Images from www.humanspeakers.com (of course!)

As a kind of painful :-P aside, I had an opportunity to buy a pair of EPI's flagship loudspeakers, the EPI 1000, from one of the local hifi gurus a few years back. They were in excellent condition, the price would have more than fair, but it was while were were getting ready to move to NH and I literally didn't have a place to put 'em :- (