These speakers are the best sounding that I have heard in this price range. The placement of the speakers approximately 2-3 feet from the wall seems to enhance the bass which I feel is quite impressive. By the way, I think that the "Castle Isis" speakers described by another reveiwer are woefully inadequate in comparison the the more manly EPOS 12's. Mr. Chen needs to hace his cochlea adjusted. I would add that these speakers blow away the following speakers: B&W, Definitive Technologies, Snell, and any Infinity or Bose product. In fact, I prefer them to the Martin Logan models at a much higher price point.

I have enjoyed my Epos 12 speakers for about six months. I purchased them after comparing them to several of the much larger and much more expensive usual suspects. I prefered the slightly warm, full and rich sound these little guys produce down to all but the lower base, and you don't have to dedicate your living room to a pair of monoliths. I have them in a large room as satilites to a built-in Legacy subwoofer which provides a sonic foundation, the result is outstanding.

I must rectify a past review, published several months ago. Naturally, after the disastrous experience with the Epos I returned to the JM Labs. But I've tried the Epos again and now they sound well. I don't know what happened. Perhaps I made the connections wrong. Now I think these are very good speakers. In order to compensate I give the highest score.

My Epos Es12's sound fabulous! *Extremely* warm sounding (which I like)and detailed in the middle range. Not bright at all... but crisp and musical. You should take a listen... its hard to describe. They sound especially marvelous with my Quad Cd player, and coupled suprisingly well with my McIntosh 754 amp. On the down side, the lower bass can be a bit muddy if they're too close to a back wall, and they're a bit beamy, so ya have to toe them in a little and really play around with position to squeeze out the best sound. Plus... they really should be on their own special stands... (made originally for the ES11) or else the bass gets loose and muddy. But once you've set 'em up right, they just disappear! Absolutely lovely sound. Be sure to buy em' used, though! I got mine with stands, original box etc. and all in mint condition for $650 (the previous owner upgraded to the ES25's). A rare deal, indeed... but if ya hunt around you may something similar.

The Epos ES-12 are very musical speakers. I think they are one of the best speakers in its price point. Although they don't have the transparency, imaging, bass response of, say, a Totem Model 1 or Proacs, they are very affordable (cheap).
For speakers below 1k and in terms of value for money, they would be my speakers of choice. I just happened to buy the more expensive Totem speakers because I received a bonus the year I bought my speakers!

Words that come to mind to describe these speakers are smooth, detailed and balanced. You can enjoy music at a decent sound level without disturbing people in the same room or house. The speakers get into the music and reveals a lot of details with a fine touch.

These speakers are great!!! The sound is excellent. The only complaint Ihave is their price ($1000). I love the craftsmanship and the beautiful
finish, but next time I'll think twice on spending this amount on only bookshelf speakers.

I had this EPOS 12 for 1 year and I bought it newly in Singapore for just Singapore$800(US$550). It is definitely a good deal than anyone in the review list.This speaker needs a very solid speaker stand to perform like high end. I do it with a sand filled ROVANN stand. It's treble is detailed and crispy. Bass is one solid boom and no muddy. There is some tweaks to add-on a)place a 2kg brick on top of speaker to further improve the treble and bass. b)Use a tweezer to carefully remove the round treble grille and let the high frequency wave knock with the open air. (Do this on your own risk as that high frequency dome is very fragile - said to be 50um thick aluminium) c)place just four pieces of 5mm 'blue tac' at each corner of the base d)it must be placed far away from walls in order to have nice bass.

My system: Marantz CD17 KI-S, Mini Houston 1998 amplifier (EL84 tube), Nordost Solar wind interconnect, Van Der Hul CS122 speaker cable.

out stadnig for Jazz and classics. precise sound.

If you want POP Rock etc. look elsewhere.

I started out with the idea of replacing my old onkyo/mordaunt short/sony stereo system with a new home cinema one. And so I bought the pioneer 414, the Nakamichi AV –10, and the Mission 753f. All were highly rated by reviews and looked smashing. After two weeks of intensive listening I couldn’t stand the boomy bass coming out of my new system no matter how low the volume was. Every body told me that my room’s acoustics is the problem and that I should improve it. At first I bought into this rubbish but at the end I got fed up with this system. To my good fortune, at one of the stores I had visited they had a second hand “exposure” pre and power and so I took them for a trail, did a little research and hooked them up with the Epos E12 babies. My good was I surprised. This is the kind of sound I have been looking for all this time. I bought them write away.
So now my system’s components are:
exposure XVII pre-amp and XVIII super power amp
Epos E12
DV 717 (that is also an exceptionally good CD for its price)
Audioquest Type4 speaker cable
Audioquest and VanderHule iterconnectors.

If you ever read reviews that the E12 isn’t that good you should also now that in order to get the maximum out of speakers like these you should also hook them up with the right amplification. Do you really think they could sound this good with a cheep receiver. (does any body drive a luxury car with a small engine). If you havn’t figured it out yet – stereo systems are like match making. You need synergy (if you don’t know what this if look it up in the dictionary).

Another thing – before I bought this system I used to listen to all kinds of music. Now – jazz. This is such a superb speaker and it makes listening to a Diana Krall CD (for example) heavenly. Why waist your time on rock/pop/electronic music etc. save the later for your car or kitchen.

what about home cinema you say?
didn't you figure it out yet - well you need another system for that.

I just bought this bookshelf speakers for my second system in my bedroom. After playing it countinually for almost 10 days to break it in I began to listen to it seriously for last few days. I used the marantz cd 17 for digital source and mcintosh ma6400 for amplification with all MIT2 cables. Listening to Shawn Colvin's Cover Girl this speakers deliver quite impressive midrange, especially in vocal there was no grain and rolled off at all. but the problem that quite struck me was in the high frequency it seems to be a bit colored, i do not want to use colouration because it was not that bad, it colors in the way that depends on the individual taste of music. for someone who love bright and shine treble not tubed like they quite hit the spot but for me I prefer warm and texture in high frequency. But this may be the result from my amplifier, ma 6400, solid state, I'am still trying to figure it out. I'm thinking about playing these speakers with my main system, with levinson 332 and meridian 508.20, then I could tell exactly what is the cause of this.Anyway, I think these speakers are worth my money they are suitable for casual listening not for audiophile who dying for such thing like the purest music reproduction.for casual listening it gives you more than you could expect, excellent sounstage, sweetness in midrange and acceptable bass even it can not deliver so deep bass but who would buy bookself for bass anyway. For it's price I have nothing to complain at all, LOVE IT.