Awesome bass response. Surprisingly accurate midrange. One of the best mid-hi fi tweeters ever built.

Foam surrounds on woofers deteriorate. Company out of biz.

For months I have been trying to "bring back" my EPI 120C speakers. I bought these speakers in 1981 for college. I believe I paid $399. At the time, they were very well known, and today there is kind of a cult following for them. (see
www.humanspeakers.com) Over the years, the foam surrounds on the woofers had rotted, and I had no idea until recently that they could be repaired. (Those days before the internet...how did we survive???) Unfortunately, I actually threw out the original woofers. I replaced them with 10" Radio Shack woofers, but, obviously, they were never the same speakers after that. Recently, I have been scouring the internet for genuine replacements. I have twice been close to getting replacement 10" woofers, but things fell through.
FINALLY, I was able to buy exact 1982 EPI 10" replacement woofers from a fellow on ebay about three weeks ago. Yesterday I installed them, and the past twenty four hours I have been in audio heaven. I have a much better receiver and cd player than the old days, (an NAD C740 and an NAD 517) and the speakers sound just incredible now. I had been using Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble speakers, and oh what a difference! The CSW's are great for accurate midrange and treble, but they have always lacked in the bass department. My favorite test track for bass is BB King's "Bad Case Of Love" and when I did an A/B test yesterday, the difference in bottom range was incredible. (That bass riff rocked the house.) Likewise, when I put in my Stereophile Test cd, the bass range warble test shot much lower than the CSW's. So anyway, this morning I boxed up the CSWs and moved the EPIs back to their rightful home. All is now right in the universe!

Similar Products Used:

CSW Ensemble

Beautiful sound, great imaging and an unmatched naturalness

Absolutely none

I have 4 EPI 100's(8" 2 ways) from the original Epicure family. I got them for free from the local high school planetarium where they were just sitting. They had been bought by the school in 1972(brand new) and were used until the early 90's. They were replaced by Realistics which is really a sin. The 100's were in horrible conditon because the planetarium had a leakage problem and the speakers had literally sat in water for 20 years. The walnut cabinets were white with calcium deposits and the rubber surrounds(some people say their's were foam but mine are rubber)were badly rotted. I have restored them by taking everything out and sanding them down. Then used Miniwax Dark Walnut stain and McLoskey Heirloom varnish to finish them. I had the surrounds professionally replaced with foam unfortunately. I compared them with a pair of Boston Acoustics A60's and the EPI's trashed them. They have such a rich, full, and natural sound. They are unbelieveable. I also tested them against a pair of Fisher DS-811's, JVC SK-500's, and Infinity RS-4000's. They sound better than all of them. They have very tight bass and that inverted dome tweeter is something else! Very, very nice to look at too! The only pair of speakers that I have ever heard that are better than these were a pair of Epicure 20+'s. Here is the equipment I am using them with:
-Pioneer SX-850(reciever)
-Sony CDP-39(cd player)
-Kenwood KX-1030(tape deck)
-Dual 1229(record player)
-Gold plated RCA cables
-12 AWG wire

If anyone has more info than that which is listed on www.humanspeakers.com PLEASE e-mail me. Also if you have anything to do with EPI for sale(parts or whole speakers even if it seems un-repairable) please e-mail me. These things are definitely giant killers!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

none

Smoothe marvelous response. Warm sound for a 2 way speaker amazing tweeter and good punch for a single ten with no midrange. Cheap!!!

Vinyl covering, heavy, no longer for sale

This review is for the EPI T&E 120 - Great speakers for their day or any other day. Tight crisp response in all but the lowest frequencies. The tweeter is an exceptional find and coated polypropelene woofer is beautiful to look at. Heavy speakers but well made for their day. Replacements some what hard to find but I'm happy with them. Really happy.

Similar Products Used:

Ohm Walsh 2's and 4's, Klipsch SB3's, KG4's and KG1's

Tight bass, clear highs, Party favoites!

cheap coverings

Ha! I laughed when I saw the EPI listing. I have a pair of TE 100's I bought in 1983 to put in the back of my celica hatchback. A frind of mine had a pair of TE70 in his car and I couldn't believe how good they sounded. I actually made mounting bracket and attached them to the back panel angled over the back seat! Ah, the things you'll do in high school! I had a big Carver M240 car stereo amp and a Yamaha tuner and I was rocking! Beat the hell out of any 6x9 JBL's of the time! When I went to college I took the EPI's with me and they rocked on through many a party. A Frat brother of mine was hooked on Coke and pawned a pair of 6 month old polk A5 jr's and his dad's camera for $150. His dad wanted the camera back and he didn't have the money to get the stuff out so I split the pawn ticket price and got the Polks for $75. I'm still using those, but the EPI are in the garage with rotten surrounds and a blown tweeter. Just looking at them reminds me of girls dancing on tables and Kegs. Nostalgia is great!

The EPI 100 is probably the best smaller box system I have heard. Excellentimaging and superb lively transient response. (compared to other overgrown "shoe-box" speakers). Bill and I ran exhaustive test with his (then) new HP
pink noise generator, HP real time analyser and B&K mike. These had the most
pan cake flat response curve from 50-16KHZ any of use had ever measured. It just did not vary at 1 meter on axis. Interestingly, the of axis response
at 30 degrees was far better above 10KHZ than any other system regardless of price. The most unusual feature was the tiny 1" inverted dome tweeter. An extrememly sweet, clean sounding driver with a tiny fabric suspension. It appeared to be completely free of any resonances or iregularities over its range of 2KHZ up to just below 20kHZ, its rollof point. Any of you who think that only today's smaller systems reach the "pinnacles of perfection" may change your mind if you can find one of these. Favorite combo: 2, 8 ohm EPI 100's wired in parallel (4 ohm), and angled at 20 degrees apart, on 30" risers on your choice of modern 30-50 watt complimentary symmetry direct coupled bipolar solid state amps. V-e-r-y nice. Too bad this outfit went out of business
but I think it did and I also think it had something to do with a bum rap review in Consumer reports (maybe not on this model though). This was the manufacturer's first product. Thank god I had bought a couple of these really
sweet little tweeters as replacements (even though I didn't own a pair of EPI
100's at the time). I was simply so enchanted with the design of this unique little tweeter that I had to have them. Many, Many years later I was "bequeathed" a pair of old AR-2's with blown tweeters and I have succesfully
reconfigured the thing into something "akin" to an AR-2a but with the EPI 100
tweeters. An AR-2(e)?.

Big, natural, crisp sound. Inexpensive. Extremely reliable.

They aren't made anymore

This review is actually for the EPI Magnus A10. I've had these speakers for almost 20 years and they still sound amazing. The magnets are quite heavy and really deliver and crisp and clean sound. These speakers have been played and abused for years on end. They still sound brand new. Probably the best $300 I ever spent on any audio/visual component for my house. If you ever stumble across someone selling a pair, grab 'em! Too bad EPI isn't around anymore!

Clear, flat/linear response, natural sound; best in class

None

I have owned these speakers since the mid-70's. Unfortunately, the woofer foam had reached its end of life years ago and they were just not the same if you know what I mean. So they sat and sat. Just recently I purchased "direct" replacements from HUMAN Speakers. What a difference! The speakers are very natural sounding and sound like I remember them. And my son is discovering things in his music that he just didn't hear with his "consumer" electronic speaker set.

Similar Products Used:

None

endurance, good clean sound

pressed wood cabinet

I have owned these speakers for so long I cannot remember when I bought them, It had to be in the early 70's and they are in is as good as condition as I bought for 2 for $99. what a bargain, maybe not hitech but work quite well in my prologic setup have a couple of small boses to boost high end and kenwood subwoofer, I didn't realize anyone else remembered them until reading these reviews.

great bottom end

simulated wood look

I actually have the EPI Magnus Series and I have been using the same pair since I bought them prior to my first year in college (1983). What can I say? Since then, I cannot remember how many dorms/apartments/beachhouses I have trekked them through. I am now 35 years old and own a home, and they are still my main speakers, and they still sound incredible. Since they are hooked into an AV reciever, they get used everyday for long durations. They definately looked well "traveled", but sound fantastic. I remember they were on the floor of a local stereo shop near where I grew up. (Anyone in North Wilmington remember the name of the store at the corner of Silverside and Concord Pike?) They cost me 50 bucks for the floor models. Not a bad investment.....

Just about everything. The giant killer! An upgraded version is made by Human Speakers (Who also repair them)

You can't get new ones (Under the EPI Name. Grille cloth of flimsy quality.

My audio system was recently upgraded to a vintage McIntosh MA 6100 integrated amplifier (Amplifier-Preamplifier in Mc Speak) and my Cerwin-Vega's sounded sick. No Bass, Highs or detail to speak of. I tried several used speakers out and the EPI T/E 100's were the ones i came back to. The Paradigm Atoms of the 1970's and still wonderful now. A bargain today at 10X the price.

Similar Products Used:

KLH 24, Altec Lansing 1, Boston A40 Mk 2, Cerwin-Vega.