I have casually bought and sold a lot of speakers over the years, and have had a few sets of 90s Ruarks through the door. They all seem to have a similar balance quirk where the treble driver is set just a bit too hot. Apart from that they have a nice bright, clear, fun sound that is really enjoyable. I rarely use tone controls on an amp but with treble tweeked down a couple of notches it really improves the balance, and makes them so much easier to live with. If I didn't have tone controls in my amp I would put a low value resistor in series with the treble driver, which is easy with this being a biwirable design.

Once adjusted, they have seen off a number of more expensive and newer designs, and are now my small room speakers of choice. In the UK, good sets seem to be fetching between £60-£100 on the second hand market, which is an absolute bargain.

very clear, produce big sound for small speakers, you can listen into the speakers. Sound great even as fronts for home theater.

treble can be harsh, lack of base

I have been using the Epilogues for almost two years now. I originally bought them to be rear speakers in a home theater environment, but have been using them as the fronts, with my cheap old Polks as the rears. The Epilogues are amazingly clear and are very detailed. However, I would say they are best with female vocals, acoustic music, or light jazz, versus driving rock or other music with a lot of base. When turned up loud, the treble is somewhat harsh. They sound very good with movies. My electronics are more home theater oriented, so I guess the treble problems might be alleviated with some good hi end audio only electronics.

During my search for speakers I listened to a number of brands, but with the Ruarks I was able to listen into the speaker, where as with a lot of the others (NHT, B&W, Alon Little Rascal, etc.) the sound seemed just to come out from the speaker rather than drawing me in. The downside I have since found out is that they don't carry much base weight. The base that is there is taut and good, but there just isn't much of it, as I guess is to be expected from a speaker of such small size. If you listen mostly to rock, blues, or reggae, I wouldn't recommend these. If you lean toward light acoustic music, chamber music, or jazz, you might want to give them a listen. My value and overall rating are given for those who would buy them for those music types and not for rock, blues, or reggae listeners.

My equipment:

Sony DVPS7700 DVD player
Sherwood AVP9080R preamp
Outlaw Model 750 5-Channel Amplifier
Monster power HTS 2000
Tara Labs interconnects
Qudos speaker wire

Similar Products Used:

cheap polk speakers

This pair of speakers like sweet & seductive vocals and natural acoustic instruments. They don't dislike techno or pop either.

But it do not sound like what I experience in the Royal Concert Hall!

If you secretly like Britney Spier & Jennifer Lopez and friends cannot stop making fun of you then you can put the blame on the Epilogues. I know it is not cool but they do sound very sweet with these speakers. Perhaps you can plays Diana Krall to them when they come over and enjoy her superb musical skill on the keyboard and admire the ways her voice sings out all those lines. If they don’t like Vanessa Mae and her funny sound then play them Beethoven violin sonatas by Mutter. Admire the way that you can almost see her fingers moving. They should by now say yes it sound just likes a real violin & piano, very transparent you say.

If you like Karajan then you will not dislike the way Epilogues recreate all his works as open, exquisite and romantic. However, if you also like to go to concert for symphonic works by Shostakovich then these small speakers start to show their limitation. When you turn up the volume it just not that convincing but still at sensible decibel you can feel all the music and appreciate how it should sound like. The only hifi that I have heard that sound closest to that experience is Revel Salon with the best of Mark Levinson’s amplifiers and Cd player plus highend cables etc. However, that will seriously affect my passion to go to life music events.

If you have modest equipments them they are very well paired with this speakers costing in U.K. £260 to 300 depending on finish. By the way, few words about the looks and feel of the cabinet. If you have seen Sonus Faber but cannot afford them Ruarks workmanship is just as good. If you like the sound and can afford the price then you can look at Ruarks other costlier product but we are talking about the Epilogues. They are best for people who enjoy music as they sound like.

Similar Products Used:

ProArc, Tannoy R2, Linn Tukan, B&W 601,(Revel Salon).

exceptionally nice sounding middle and upper range

distorts when listening to deep base signals (range of about 50 to 70 Hz)

i must say that these speakers are some of the nicest sounding speakers in the middle range. as the other person above mentions, they are ideal to listen to classical music or jazz. i must however say that i would recomend combining these speakers with a subwoofer. due to the limited size they have difficulties reproducing low frequencies accurately and nicely.

Pretty wide frequency range for such a small speaker.

none for the size and price

I am re-doing this review because my browser failed during my first attempt.

I recently purchased these for the rear speakers of my HT system, but am using them as the fronts, in stereo mode, until the front LCR arrive. I am very impressed with the clarity and range of the speaker. The speaker cabinet appears to be solid and well built. The break in period appear to be fairly short and you can hear it open up within a few hours. Even after several hours of listening, they sound crisp without being "shrill" and significant lower frequencies become more apparent over time. DO NOT expect them to sound like full range speakers, but do expect them to have a pretty balanced sound over its frequency range. The speakers seem to have a wide sound stage.

They deserve a listen and consideration for HT, small stereo system, or large system with a sub.

Lovely sound from such a small box.

not much bass.
the cable connectors are crappy plastic ones, not metal. (i have the epilogue v, the epilogue r have metal connectors)

i demo d the epilogues in a much larger room than what i have at home. Although they sounded rather weak in the shop, they sound good at home, even with cheapo cable.
The B&W 601 sounded nice, but to me, they look ugly compared to the epilogues.

I demo d the Tannoy R1 s very briefly. Within a minute, i told the hifi shop worker that the Tannoys were much inferior to the epilogues.

I demo d with pop cd s.

Similar Products Used:

Tannoy R1
B&W 601

To me, the job of the speakers is reproduce the sound and/or music. I have had many pair of speakers before. But, this little bookshelf make the music so enjoyable. If you mainly listen to acoustic or classic, Epilogues might be your final speakers to own.

Great soundstage, clear and detailed without being fatiguing.

The laws of physics remain intact - bass tight but not .

The first thing you notice about these mini-monitors is the beautiful real wood veneer finish and the air of quality they exude. Whats more, they sound as good as they look! Their bass response is unlikely to bother the neighbors but the lows are tight and perfectly formed. The amazing clarity and superb dynamics of their mid range more than makes up for any weakness in the bass department. I also auditioned some floor standing speakers (JPW and AE) that promised better bass but was surprised how wooly they sounded in comparison to the Epilogues. The Aegis One mini-monitors lacked the warmth of the Ruarks and sounded like they would be hard to listen to for longer periods. The Epilogues sound sweet with my NAD C540 CD player/C340 Amplifier combo. and should sound even better when everything has broken in.

Similar Products Used:

JPW 710, 810, AE Aegis 1, 2, 3.

Clarity and detail, easy to drive. Cheap.

Coarse, forward treble.

These are attractive and well made, and on purely physical grounds are a cut above the rest. As mini-monitor speakers in the sub £300 price bracket go, I suppose they're quite good sonically too: I use them with a Naim Nait3 on Atacama stands in a small room, and they're generally quite enjoyable. However, when high quality recordings of a great soprano or tenor are put to them, then the problems start: the upper registers can be absolutely chronic. The simple, peppy qualities that will endear these speakers to pop and jazz fans take a back seat as a grainy and aggessive treble screeches mercilessly into the ears of the unfortunate classical fan: if you like lieder and opera, or solo violin, then save your money a little longer and buy something else!

All in all, if £270 is all you can afford and you want small speakers then the Epilogues are about as good as they get. They're cute and charming, in their way, and work with affordable amps. That said, listening to them sometimes reminds me why people spend considerably more. For people who appreciate classical music - especially classical vocal - an extra couple of hundred pounds will take you a good deal closer to the truth; those who know the difference may find them a little unsatisfactory in the long term.

Similar Products Used:

Mission 780, Tannoy R1, Epos ES12, VA Haydn

Clarity, incredible response from such tiny boxes, look stunning.

Can sound a little lost in *BIG* rooms

OK, so these speakers arn't the biggest in the world, and as such the bass drive units are a little on the prudent side- but what drivers!!! The bass response is tight, punchy and very fast, the midrange and treble are detailed to the extreme, making Naim Audio's Allegri Quartet come alive in your room. On (blind) audtion, the competitors (Celestion F3, Eltax Symphony 8.1, MS MS25I) seemed lacklustre and unexciting.

Yes, the bass from the Ruarks can sometimes lack a little sheer grunt, but when you remember these speakers are primarily marketed as rear effects speakers for home theatre applications... for the money, you'll do no better.

Similar Products Used:

Mordaunt-Short, Eltax, Celestion