EMP E5Ti Impression Series Speakers - Unbelievable Value

[miggs29]

No you won't have to re-run Audyssey. I would experiment with Audyssey "Flat" vs Off to see if Audyssey really improved the fidelity in your system. I suggest flat b/c the EMP's are a bit laid back sounding and the normal Audyssey setting may cut the top end a bit too much for your liking.

If you have a Denon receiver, there is an independent 2CH bass management setting. If not, don't worry. But I suggest trying a CD in 2CH stereo and making sure your subwoofer is still playing. If it isn't, then you need to goto the bass management and select Sub out = Mains + sub or both or w/e they call it.

I'd try those towers full range before crossing them over at 80 or 40Hz. They have a natural roll off below 60Hz which may blend well enough with your sub without having to further cut the bass from them. Since those speakers aren't easy to bottom out even at high volumes, you can run them at full range without any issues in most applications.

Gene,

I am pretty sure that I am going to buy these towers. I have read in a couple of posts that the volume of these speakers is a bit low. Not sure what they mean by that. Do you think my yamaha rx-v1700 has enough power to drive these towers? Also, how should I set the impedence on the AVR with my current set up once these guys arrive? 6 or 8 ohm? currently is set to 8 ohm. Also, what you do you mean by " I'd try those towers full range before crossing them over at 80 or 40Hz. They have a natural roll off below 60Hz which may blend well enough with your sub without having to further cut the bass from them."? Is that to set them to large on the set up and to set the crossover at 60 hz? I am sorry if these are redundant questions. I am pretty new at this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[gene]

I am pretty sure that I am going to buy these towers. I have read in a couple of posts that the volume of these speakers is a bit low. Not sure what they mean by that. Do you think my yamaha rx-v1700 has enough power to drive these towers? Also, how should I set the impedence on the AVR with my current set up once these guys arrive? 6 or 8 ohm? currently is set to 8 ohm. Also, what you do you mean by " I'd try those towers full range before crossing them over at 80 or 40Hz. They have a natural roll off below 60Hz which may blend well enough with your sub without having to further cut the bass from them."? Is that to set them to large on the set up and to set the crossover at 60 hz? I am sorry if these are redundant questions. I am pretty new at this.

The EMPs are a few dB less efficient than typical towers from the mass brands in this price range. What that means is you have to turn up the volume a few dB to compensate. That being said, I tested towers from AV123 that were even less efficient and required more power to truly sound their best but that didn't make them a bad speaker. Higher efficiency doesn't mean better else we would all be using horn loaded speakers all the time.

NEVER set the impedance switch on a Yamaha receiver to anything other than "8 ohms or more". The lower setting does nothing more than clip the amp sooner for a UL Heat Dissipation test and thus robs about 40% of your available power in doing so. DON'T USE IT!

The RX-V1700 has a good amp section. It should be fine to power the EMP towers if you in fact decide to purchase them.

I'd experiment setting the towers large/small to see which sounds better when played with your sub. You may have too much bass when set to large. In that case, set them small and cross them over anywhere between 60-80Hz. Good luck.

 

[krzywica]

Pulled it

Just pulled the trigger on these.....will replace my current main front sound stage....I really wish they had bipoles or dipoles....should be a nice change. My current mains are too laid back for my taste.

Would these benefit greatly from an external amp? Say an Emotiva XPA-2? Or would my little Yammie 663 be enough to make these towers shine?

 

[audioholic212]

Just pulled the trigger on these.....

Congratulations. Unless you had some kind of expedited shipping, you may have to wait until next friday

 

[krzywica]

Congratulations. Unless you had some kind of expedited shipping, you may have to wait until next friday

Meh....no biggie, I already have a very good front soundstage for H/T. My friends who are buying the Towers and B15's will be sad though as I told them they would have to wait till I get my new gear until then get their greedy hands on my hand-me-downs.

Thanks though

 

[gene]

Would these benefit greatly from an external amp? Say an Emotiva XPA-2? Or would my little Yammie 663 be enough to make these towers shine?

If you had a 665 I would say get the amp right away but the 663 is a better receiver than the 665 so try your Yammie first and add the XPA-2 later. That is the best amp for the money bar none!

 

[krzywica]

If you had a 665 I would say get the amp right away but the 663 is a better receiver than the 665 so try your Yammie first and add the XPA-2 later. That is the best amp for the money bar none!

Thanks a lot gene!

 

[Soundman]

I hope this lasts. I'd love to get a pair for another room, but right now I have some other financial obligations.

 

[yeahman68]

Does anyone have any idea how their impression bookshelves would compare to a pair of TSC P6-PR's???

 

[Imitation]

Hey guys, new guy around here, I've usually hung out more at avsforum but for some reason no one is talking about these speakers over there. So I'd been looking for some speakers to replace my current klipsch rvx-54's for a while. So even tho the wife wasn't excited about it, she didn't say no so i ordered the towers to start with and might do center and bookshelf surrounds soon as an xmas gift to myself

So today I'll be giving you guys my initial impressions from listening last night and today so far. Here's the setup I've got. It's a pretty big room, I think its 14x20 in my living room and opens directly into the foyer and makes an L all 10ft ceilings, so its alot of space. I've currently got a yamaha 1800 receiver powering my speakers and my xbox360 provides my music via toslink. The 360 streams it from my pc, all the music i've purchased in the last year or 2 i've encoded lossless, no mp3's here anymore. So its not a hifi system with a 3k cd player, but its what i've got and what I enjoy Low end is anchored by a very capable epik valor 15" sealed sub. Lastly, of course are the klipsch rvx-54's, for those that aren't familiar, horn loaded and 4 5.25 cones in a slim aluminum enclosure and are super tall, lifestyle ish speakers.

Now i'm going to try to give you an unbiased post here without going into what i don't like about the 54's and stick with talking about the EMP's as much as I can. Let me first say that after turning off ypao(yamaha room correction), the 54's are much less tame beasts IMO. ypao really evened them out, and since I decided to listen to both for what they can do instead of what my receiver can fix, ypao had to go for my initial listening.

I started with 54's since those were already hooked up. Listened to them for about 10 mins with a couple different dave matthews band songs, the wife and i are pretty big fans and have most of his CD's. Then I hooked up the new EMP's. Sadly wife wouldn't let me get em more than about 12" from the wall. My initial first impression was HELLO MIDRANGE! And then hello base. I REALLY had to tone down the sub since the EMP's are less efficient and the sub was bumped up a few notches to keep up with the klipsch.

Getting more settled, I continued to listen as I could not believe the detail i was hearing in the midrange compared to the 54's. I really think that the 54's horn gives it just enough more db at the top that it makes it hard to hear the details of the midrange. The EMP's with the soft dome tweeter and dedicated midrange gave it much more detail in the mid and upper midrange. Sadly, i felt like the lower midrange was a little muddy and garbled at higher volumes, I played with crossover and some other settings and found they sounded best in my room crossed at 80hz, but i went back and forth on the small or large setting. I felt like i lost a little fullness set to small, but it got a little muddy set to large. Perhaps if I could pull em another 3-5 inches out it might clear them up a little bit. We'll see if I can inch em out over the next week or so

So overall i'm pretty impressed with their sound. The highs are maybe a touch recessed for my tastes, i'm sure ypao or even some manual adjustment could give em just a touch more volume. The cymbals and tambourines weren't nearly and prominent or crisp. Course listening to the klipsch's for the last 2 years maybe I'm just used to the big top end. But I was looking to get away from that and these are a pretty good change. I think I gained alot in midrange detail and lost the overpowering high's. Also since these can reach lower than the 54's, I can get off the 100hz crossover I needed to use for them. 100hz I could localize the sub somewhat and I wasn't a fan of that either.

I'll also comment on the construction a little bit to finish this post up. They come well packed, even though fedex COMPLETELY mangled one of them. The delivery guy helped me open it and inspect it but I couldn't find a scratch or dent on it and i looked over it for a good 10 mins I'd say. The layered foam inserts probably saved it from being a fedex claim. The red burl finish is very nice. I'm no expert on telling if its veneer or not, but it doesn't look like a repeat pattern on it, or if it is its large enough that it doesn't overlap in the same spots on the speakers. I read somewhere they're made of 1/2 mdf on the sides and doubled on the front. So they're not super heavy, and they aren't quite as inert as my epik valor sub enclosure, but I don't hold this against them in this price range at all. BUT, one thing I do hold against them is that there's no outrigger feet and the thinner profile and lighter weight makes them a little more wobbly than I'd like even with the spikes inserted. My thick carpet is not helping things either. Some feet off the back part could really help their stability IMO in case a child or pet pushes against them.

So overall fit and finish is very nice, the red burl is beautiful and a huge set up in looks over the klipsch which are sadly in silver. Sadly no pics, the wife left the camera at work Hope you enjoyed it, man that got long! If you guys have questions i'll try to answer them the best I can.

 

[miggs29]

Hey guys, new guy around here, I've usually hung out more at avsforum but for some reason no one is talking about these speakers over there. So I'd been looking for some speakers to replace my current klipsch rvx-54's for a while. So even tho the wife wasn't excited about it, she didn't say no so i ordered the towers to start with and might do center and bookshelf surrounds soon as an xmas gift to myself

So today I'll be giving you guys my initial impressions from listening last night and today so far. Here's the setup I've got. It's a pretty big room, I think its 14x20 in my living room and opens directly into the foyer and makes an L all 10ft ceilings, so its alot of space. I've currently got a yamaha 1800 receiver powering my speakers and my xbox360 provides my music via toslink. The 360 streams it from my pc, all the music i've purchased in the last year or 2 i've encoded lossless, no mp3's here anymore. So its not a hifi system with a 3k cd player, but its what i've got and what I enjoy Low end is anchored by a very capable epik valor 15" sealed sub. Lastly, of course are the klipsch rvx-54's, for those that aren't familiar, horn loaded and 4 5.25 cones in a slim aluminum enclosure and are super tall, lifestyle ish speakers.

Now i'm going to try to give you an unbiased post here without going into what i don't like about the 54's and stick with talking about the EMP's as much as I can. Let me first say that after turning off ypao(yamaha room correction), the 54's are much less tame beasts IMO. ypao really evened them out, and since I decided to listen to both for what they can do instead of what my receiver can fix, ypao had to go for my initial listening.

I started with 54's since those were already hooked up. Listened to them for about 10 mins with a couple different dave matthews band songs, the wife and i are pretty big fans and have most of his CD's. Then I hooked up the new EMP's. Sadly wife wouldn't let me get em more than about 12" from the wall. My initial first impression was HELLO MIDRANGE! And then hello base. I REALLY had to tone down the sub since the EMP's are less efficient and the sub was bumped up a few notches to keep up with the klipsch.

Getting more settled, I continued to listen as I could not believe the detail i was hearing in the midrange compared to the 54's. I really think that the 54's horn gives it just enough more db at the top that it makes it hard to hear the details of the midrange. The EMP's with the soft dome tweeter and dedicated midrange gave it much more detail in the mid and upper midrange. Sadly, i felt like the lower midrange was a little muddy and garbled at higher volumes, I played with crossover and some other settings and found they sounded best in my room crossed at 80hz, but i went back and forth on the small or large setting. I felt like i lost a little fullness set to small, but it got a little muddy set to large. Perhaps if I could pull em another 3-5 inches out it might clear them up a little bit. We'll see if I can inch em out over the next week or so

So overall i'm pretty impressed with their sound. The highs are maybe a touch recessed for my tastes, i'm sure ypao or even some manual adjustment could give em just a touch more volume. The cymbals and tambourines weren't nearly and prominent or crisp. Course listening to the klipsch's for the last 2 years maybe I'm just used to the big top end. But I was looking to get away from that and these are a pretty good change. I think I gained alot in midrange detail and lost the overpowering high's. Also since these can reach lower than the 54's, I can get off the 100hz crossover I needed to use for them. 100hz I could localize the sub somewhat and I wasn't a fan of that either.

I'll also comment on the construction a little bit to finish this post up. They come well packed, even though fedex COMPLETELY mangled one of them. The delivery guy helped me open it and inspect it but I couldn't find a scratch or dent on it and i looked over it for a good 10 mins I'd say. The layered foam inserts probably saved it from being a fedex claim. The red burl finish is very nice. I'm no expert on telling if its veneer or not, but it doesn't look like a repeat pattern on it, or if it is its large enough that it doesn't overlap in the same spots on the speakers. I read somewhere they're made of 1/2 mdf on the sides and doubled on the front. So they're not super heavy, and they aren't quite as inert as my epik valor sub enclosure, but I don't hold this against them in this price range at all. BUT, one thing I do hold against them is that there's no outrigger feet and the thinner profile and lighter weight makes them a little more wobbly than I'd like even with the spikes inserted. My thick carpet is not helping things either. Some feet off the back part could really help their stability IMO in case a child or pet pushes against them.

So overall fit and finish is very nice, the red burl is beautiful and a huge set up in looks over the klipsch which are sadly in silver. Sadly no pics, the wife left the camera at work Hope you enjoyed it, man that got long! If you guys have questions i'll try to answer them the best I can.

See additional info. Post 38.
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=112985&page=2

 

[ophiacus]

My first impression of the impressions

Well, FedEx delivered my new 5.1 set of EMP Impressions yesterday, in Red Burl. I know there are several people waiting to hear more while they can still act and get the introductory price. I am by no means a professional reviewer but will attempt to follow their format as best as I can.

Arrival/Appearance - the speakers came VERY well packaged and were in perfect condition upon unboxing. In fact, each speaker was wrapped in a heavy cotton type bag, almost like a pillow case. I won't go into a lengthy description as they look just like they do in pictures.

Setup - I am in the process of building a dedicated home theater but won't have it finished for another 2 weeks or so. In the mean time I have set the towers in my upstairs hallway which is approximately 9ft wide, behind the towers is a two story foyer and a very open banister. The ceiling above the speakers is probably 8ft. I am powering the towers with a new Pioneer Elite Receiver (SC-25), it's 140 watts, AIR Studio certified (for those familiar with this rare? certification). It's also THX 2 Select, if I remember correctly. I have not had anything else other than some older PSB Alpha's, setting on a desk top, hooked up to this receiver so I won't try to give comparisons between these speakers and other speakers but rather, thoughts on their sound in and of themselves. I am using an old Sony CD changer, connected via RCA cables as I couldn't put my hands on a toslink optical cable yesterday (I'm sure I have one around here somewhere but in my excitement to get these speakers going I couldn't find it).

I have played several distinctly different types of music through these speakers yesterday and today. Including; John Cougar (Freedom Road) - I had no intention of listening to the entire CD but became so entranced with the voicing of the various guitars and other instruments I couldn't turn it off. The impressions have a very smooth midrange and top end that revealed a lot of details on this recording. The soundstage was awesome with a lot of depth that clearly gave me the illusion of various musicians in different locations (not only left to right but with rear depth as well). Part of this may been due to the fact I don't have them sitting against a wall, EMP recommends at least 15in and I would agree. In my permanent home theater setting I will definitely try to adhere to this recommendation. Next I listened to The Brian Setzer Orchestra (Dirty Boogie) - this CD has some wonderful horn section parts that are handled quite nicely by these towers, I never felt like the horns sounded harsh or annoying (a lot of speakers make horns too bright, especially at higher volumes, at least to me). The bass (in general, on all recordings) seems to be under control and easily play deep enough to reach the subwoofers' domain. You could get by without a sub and probably be perfectly happy but in a home theater application you would lack that "feel" that is so important to movie special effects (i.e. explosions, train wrecks, etc...). Next I listened to Gretchen Wilson (On Of The Boys) - This is a great CD and again, I found myself listening to the entire thing - soft instruments such as the plucking of the mandolin never got lost in the volume of guitars, drums, and vocals - they were always clear and distinct. These speakers also conveyed a lot of detail and emotion in Gretchen's voice with her sassy lyrical style. I also listened to The Batman Suite on a Cincinnati Pops Orchestra CD (led by Eric Kunzel); this is a great classical type recording with a lot of volume swells and soft passages. The string section sounded detailed and the french horns sounded very distant and far back in the sound stage. On this recording I hooked up the subwoofer which reproduced the booming tympanies with ease. I want to go into more details about the sub. I typically use a 12IN Velodyne sub which is not only bigger but also more powerful than this sub. In addition, I probably have it too loud for most people. The EMP sub never called attention to itself but definitely improved the low end - this is probably and audiophile success. At this time, I'm unclear which sub is going in my hometheater (it is approximately 12 x 17 and has high ceiling so I may opt for the Velodyne because I can "feel" it more). I just need to tweak it more so it doesn't call so much attention to itself. I also played a Sting CD through the system with the sub in place - it sounded really great with it's unusual rhythms and instruments - I'm not a big Sting fan but set for quite awhile listening at all of the different sounds.

Surrounds/Center - this evening I swapped out my Celestion speakers in my living room set up with the EMP (I have no surround speakers and I'm using the previously mentioned Velodyne Subwoofer). This system is powered by an Onkyo 8XX something receiver. Unlike the towers I was mildly disappointed with these speakers. HOWEVER, in my temporary set up I have all three speakers on a mantle and only a few inches from the wall. I felt like these speakers sounded somewhat boxy; maybe placing the center speaker on a stand 15in or so from the wall will improve it's imaging. The surround speakers will be mounted on a wall but should be OK in that capacity. The center speaker seemed to do a good job of playing all that was asked for it with a lot of detail (we watched Spiderman 2 on DVD). I believe with better positioning and being set between the two towers the final 5.1 system will be awesome! If I would have bought these three speakers hoping to replace my Celestions on the mantel I would not be happy (the Celestions have no ports to worry about so they seem to have better imaging near a wall).

Final thoughts - at it's introductory price I have no idea how you could do better than the 5.1 system. Even at it's ongoing price it performs VERY well although there is certainly more competition once you near the $2k price point. The towers are great sounding speakers without any compromises that I can find. The sub is musical but probably won't rattle the pictures off your wall. The surround speakers should provide good surround effects and blend well with the rest of the system due to their like driver configuration. The Center Channel speaker sounds good but I would keep it from being against the wall (or any other surface for that matter) if you can avoid it.

Oh yeah, my wife loves the way they look too (big plus).

 

[audioholic212]

Here you go. Pictures, Pictures, Pictures...





















More to Come...

 

[audioholic212]

More Pictures...





















More to Come...

 

[audioholic212]

More...

 

[GirgleMirt]

"Warning, do not bi-amp"

Huh?!

 

[Adam]

"Warning, do not bi-amp"

Huh?!

Check out the thread linked here. Gene mentions this in post #3.

 

[smitty78]

These speakers look much better in the black finish, I must say.

 

[miggs29]

The pictures look great. How do they sound? Someone here also mentioned that they felt like plastic. Are they????

 

[Soundman]

Nice pics! I know I've said it before, but man, these are sweet for that price!!!!