I usually don't write reviews on forums, because I just don't get excited about loudspeakers anymore. 99% of what's out there is meh. Because audio is one of my passions, every 5 years (or so) I do a complete evaluation of whats out on the market. Here's one of my threads on Audioholics:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/loudspeakers/77952-top-10-current-speaker-manufacturers-world.html
The Epos were so good, that it has inspired me to write about them.
I've never heard the Epos line of loudspeakers before and stumbled upon them at one of my local dealers. The Epic 1's (two-way bookshelf with a 5.5" mid-woofer) are $600pr., the Epic 2's are $800pr. (two-way bookshelf with a 7" mid-woofer), and the Epic 5's (2.5 way towers with two 7" mid-woofers) are $1400pr.
The speakers were driven by Naim equipment with average sound quality, but premium prices.
They're all built out of roughly 3/4" MDF and laminated with plastic veneer. They all have a ferro fluid filled 1" silk dome tweeter, which looks to be based on Seas.
Sound: Silky midrange, upper midrange, and a virtually grain free treble. Rich, glassy, extremely detailed, crisp sound. Very open and revealing. 3D soundstage. Great off-axis presentation. Tight, fast, and controlled bass. No boominess, boxiness, or cabinet resonance/coloration of any kind. Very lively and detailed presentation without a single hint of fatigue. The type of sound where one can forget he/she is listening to speakers and just enjoy the music all day.
The above is very much so my subjective review. Now for the objective part...
The way the speakers are tuned, voiced, choices of the tweeter attenuation and leaving it hot by a few dB's, crossover slopes, etc. make the Epos Epic line of speakers very colored. Their on-axis SPL measures a fairly poor +/-4dB from 200Hz-10,000kHz. You can find measurements from Stereophile here:
Epos Epic 2 loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
But to me, this coloration and the voicing decisions are absolutely fabulous. The Epos Epic line are one of the best and most surprising audio discoveries in a long time.
Here are just a handful of the speakers that I've compared the Epos Epic's to and where the Epos completely destroyed them:
Paradigm - S1, S2, Studio 10, Studio 20 (range of $900pr. to $1900pr.)
Revel - M12, Performa M22 ($600pr. to $2200pr.)
Dynaudio - Focus, DM, Excite (range of $1000pr. to $3000pr.)
KEF - Q-Series ($600pr.+)
Klipsch
B&W - DM 300, DM 600, CM ($600pr. to $2000pr.)
Sonus Faber - Toy and Liuto
Energy - the entire line
Magnepan - the entire line
Martin Logan - the entire line
Definitive Technology - the entire line
Thiel - MCS1, SCS4, SCS4T, CS 1.6 ($2000pr.-$4000pr.)
Gallo - the entire line
Amphion - the entire line
Vienna Acoustics - the entire line
Carnegie Acoustics - the entire line
NOTHING under $2000pr. compares, from any manufacturer. This speaks volumes of the sound quality of the Epos Epic line. A true gem currently on the market.
