In Mid-September Epos Loudspeakers sent us a pre-production pair of their new ES14N speakers. They drew big crowds at The UK Audio Show and have been on a dealer tour of the UK. We also managed to spend some time evaluating them and thoroughly enjoyed the experience; read on.
About Epos
Epos loudspeakers is now a part of FinkTeam which in turn is an adjunct to Europe’s premier loudspeaker design consultancy, Fink Audio Consulting. In 2020 FinkTeam purchased Epos from Michael Creek – restarting the iconic brand by re-creating the most famous model the Epos ES14.
The Loudspeaker
The Epos ES14N is a completely new 2-way design incorporating all of Karl-Heinz Fink and his teams many years of expertise and knowledge. This, combined with state-of-the-art facilities, proves to be an extremely high performance loudspeaker and a sure future classic.
Build / Appearance
Build quality is excellent, cabinet fit and solidity, construction and finish oozes class and there is only the slightest vibration when playing music at normal listening levels. The stands are impressive too; well made, expertly damped, sturdy and inert. Several people have also commented on the spikes and locking ferrules being solid and well implemented.
Sound Quality
Overall we would say that the ES14N are quite chameleonic, carefully and impartially illuminating the music they are being fed, and relishing all genres. The ES14N are regal with their clean, precise, fast, true, detailed (but not overdone), delivery. They are communicative, agile and somewhat addictive, with a surprisingly powerful portrayal of driving basslines.
Soundstaging, placement, width and depth depiction are a real strength of these speakers. They exhibit very stable imaging, orchestras are well laid out, individual musicians and singers are placed rock solid.
These speakers stop and start with aplomb, generating clean impulses and leading edges across the musical range. However it’s in the bass regions where this really stands out with drums, timpani, synth bass etc. They produce some amazing room pressurisation, with genuine weight, drive, scale and impact. Wonderful textures are apparent with double-bass and bass guitar playing, there is a definite sense of boogie with the ES14N and a bass fruitiness rare at the price.
The Epos exhibit excellent intelligibility, fine detail, light playing remains audible regardless of higher volume elements. There is wonderful resolution and delicacy, with minor percussion and subtle guitar playing, slide guitar is a joy, we enjoyed the rendition of contrasts and nuances with violin playing too. Sustained notes, decay and room reverberation beguile.
The ES14N remain composed when pushed hard at high volumes and in a complex mix; everything can still be followed. They also manage the trick of music staying in proportion, interesting and communicative at lower volumes for late night listening.
Conclusion
The ES14N get to the heart of the music, entice you in. They are very involving, but keep everything ordered and in place, precise and clean yet also full bodied, interesting and above all fun. They punch well above their cost category, in the words of one dealer “it’s a lot of speaker for the money”.
A big, rich, clean and fun sounding High-End Speaker at a moderate cost or for the space constrained? This would be our speaker of choice.
Make sure you hear them at one of our dealers soon…