EMP E41-B for $209

[fuzz092888]

A good reason is that this speaker is not a $200 bookshelf. It's a $1000 MSRP bookshelf, and could easily sell for two-times that, still in my opinion .

So I just got a $1000-$2000 pair of speakers for $209 shipped? Good times right there.

 

[GranteedEV]

So I just got a $1000-$2000 pair of speakers for $209 shipped? Good times right there.

In all fairness, they probably managed to avoid any big costly inductors by not using any baffle step compensation (which is what would be done for a stand mount speaker). That also shoots the so-called sensitivity up from around 81-82db to a more sell-able 85-86db. The cost of parts toroll the speaker off starting around about 700hz compared to around 2.5-3khz is probablly not small.

But what that also means, is that these are the rare speaker that may actually work plopped in people's ugly entertainment shelf unit right against the wall - without sounding syruppy or boomy. That's also why I think they'll do well as surrounds for those Philharmonics of yours. Mounted on a wall like most surrounds, they'll work with boundary gain.

Btw, are they shiny or what?

 

[fuzz092888]

Btw, are they shiny or what?

Definitely

The tops are so shiny, plus the plugs are super shiny. I find myself sitting in front of the computer right now instead of in front of the Phils

Probably just a variation of new car syndrome

 

[GranteedEV]

Definitely

The tops are so shiny, plus the plugs are super shiny. I find myself sitting in front of the computer right now instead of in front of the Phils

Probably just a variation of new car syndrome

They're both great speakers. I think soon Myself, Yourself, KEW will all be owners of these same two speakers.

 

[fuzz092888]

Great minds must think alike

 

[templemaners]

After all the favorable reviews, I decided to pick up a pair. Now I just need to figure out where to put them.

 

[KEW]

Definitely

The tops are so shiny, plus the plugs are super shiny. I find myself sitting in front of the computer right now instead of in front of the Phils

Probably just a variation of new car syndrome

Obviously, the Phils are far superior, but in my experience, there is something special that happens when you are sitting in relatively compact envelope of sound.

As an extreme example, I experienced decent sound from a little Ipod speaker set with 1-1/2" drivers if I held about 18" in front of me. Sounded like total crap if you used it any normal way.

 

[fuzz092888]

I agree, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for a great pair of near field monitors.

I remember listening to some Kef and Totem bookshelves, and granted they weren't on my desk, but in a wall of sound configuration like ADTGs house with a bunch of other bookshelf speakers, and these sound at least as good. Although my terrible acoustic memory/not same setups is probably influencing me somewhat.

That being said I'm more than happy with the sound for 1/5 and 1/6 the prices of those bookshelves.

 

[alphaiii]

Looks like these sold out...

On one hand, I'm kicking myself for not buying a pair... But on the other, I keep telling myself they were too big for my desk, and I like not really needing a sub with my desktop setup... the Airmotiv4 do surprisingly well on their own.

Ah well... to those that bought them - Enjoy!

 

[fuzz092888]

I've never heard the airmotiv before and they look like very interesting speakers.

but for $209 I don't think this is a purchase I'll ever regret

 

[Soccerkid830]

Still waiting for mine, I ordered the cables from Monoprice the day after and have already received those! I am only awaiting the speakers which seem to have gotten lost leaving Utah on Friday .

Having tracking info makes the wait so much worse. They had an expected delivery of Saturday which has since passed. Hopefully they'll come today .

 

[fuzz092888]

That sucks, but at least you'll be ready for them

Speaking of things for these speakers, I believe my new amp might be here. Time to go check the mail.

 

[Soccerkid830]

What amp did you end up getting? I might run mine as zone two on my 809 for the time being in my current apartment. I'm only here for another ~3.5 weeks. That's when my internship ends and I have to move back to my school apartment.

 

[fuzz092888]

What amp did you end up getting? I might run mine as zone two on my 809 for the time being in my current apartment. I'm only here for another ~3.5 weeks. That's when my internship ends and I have to move back to my school apartment.

I got me one of these

 

[Soccerkid830]

It looks pretty sharp.

I picked up two of these to power these and just yesterday switched them over so one amp is powering both the shakers. The spare amp might go to power these little guys. It's more/less junk, I took one apart yesterday while I was messing around with it and the parts inside are eye-opening to say the least. I didn't expect anything fancy, but still . I just got them to play with, and maybe power speakers outside with when we're watching movies on our neighbor's house.

 

[alphaiii]

Interestingly enough, it looks like they're back in stock, but as the E41 with the aluminum midrange instead of the beryllium cone.

Gene, can you comment on the Al vs Be cones, or did you do that already and I just missed it?

 

[gene]

Interestingly enough, it looks like they're back in stock, but as the E41 with the aluminum midrange instead of the beryllium cone.

Gene, can you comment on the Al vs Be cones, or did you do that already and I just missed it?

They probably sold out of the Beryllium drivers which is why they now use the Aluminum ones. The Aluminum drivers will have better bass output, especially the non phase plug version but they will give up some of the softness in sound you get from the Beryllium cone. Either way, at $210/pr these speakers are a steal. Used without a sub, I'd recommend the AL cone without the phase plug, assuming EMP is offering that option.

 

[Soccerkid830]

Interestingly enough, it looks like they're back in stock, but as the E41 with the aluminum midrange instead of the beryllium cone.

Gene, can you comment on the Al vs Be cones, or did you do that already and I just missed it?

FWIW, this is an excerpt from an email chain Brian at Status/RBH/EMP and I had. I was asking him about my T-2's as they have Be midranges, NOT Al. Apparently due to being prototypes that were never released to public. Anyway, this is what he said about the Be.

We were looking at adding a beryllium option to all of our speakers. Some sort of upgrade. However the cost to produce the beryllium woofers is fairly high. The beryllium is also very hard to work with, so we decided not to go that way with all of our speaker line. We are still working with it but we have moved it to an upper end line of product.

By upper end line, he is referring to Status 8T's that Gene recently acquired.

 

[fuzz092888]

It looks pretty sharp.

I picked up two of these to power these and just yesterday switched them over so one amp is powering both the shakers. The spare amp might go to power these little guys. It's more/less junk, I took one apart yesterday while I was messing around with it and the parts inside are eye-opening to say the least. I didn't expect anything fancy, but still . I just got them to play with, and maybe power speakers outside with when we're watching movies on our neighbor's house.

Nice, the sub has always been enough for me. I think if I tried to add bass shakers my woman would kill me (although she may yet since she has yet to see the 41's yet )

I can tell you these little SMSL amps aren't junk. They're no joke and I'm glad I took a chance on one. Insert shout out to GranteedEV for turning me on to them here.

 

[Soccerkid830]

Nice, the sub has always been enough for me. I think if I tried to add bass shakers my woman would kill me (although she may yet since she has yet to see the 41's yet )

I can tell you these little SMSL amps aren't junk. They're no joke and I'm glad I took a chance on one. Insert shout out to GranteedEV for turning me on to them here.

I'll have to look into them for powering these 41's then as well. I'm not sure the little Lepai's are really up for the duty of producing decent distortion-free sound. I could care less what they do with the shakers.

Lucky for me, my woman doesn't live with me quite yet. That's changing soon here at the beginning of 2013 so we'll see where things go from there! She said she doesn't care about having big boxy speakers everywhere, so that's a good sign, right?