Epos Loudspeakers Are Born Again Under Karl

Epos ES14N 2-way Stand Mount Speaker

Dependingyour audio background, you might have fond memories of Epos speakers. TheBritish loudspeaker manufacturer has changed hands a few times since it wasfounded in 1983 by former BBC engineer Robin Marshall, who had just finished asuccessful stint designing speakers for Monitor Audio when he decided to go hisown way. (The company is not connected to the homonymous maker of Epos Sennheiser gaming headphones and business headsets, formerly knownas Sennheiser Communications.)

The first Epos loudspeaker model, the ES 20,never made it across the pond to the USA. But the company's second effort — amedium-sized, ported 2-way stand-mounted speaker called the ES 14 — becamehugely popular in the mid 1980s, both here and in the UK. In 1988, Epos wassold to Mordaunt-Short, which itself had just been bought up by the TGI group(Tannoy). In that same year, TGI acquired the electronics brand Creek Audio;Creek electronics and Epos speakers were often sold together. In 1994, CreekAudio founder Mike Creek bought his company back from TGI. In 1999, he boughtEpos as well (after TGI sold Mordaunt-Short to Audio Partnership, the manufacturing/sourcing divisionof the company that owns Cambridge Audio.) Epos put out some very good speakersunder Mike Creek's ownership — I auditioned some of the M-series models atlength back in the mid 2000s — but it never recaptured the "audio icon" statusthat it had in its heyday. In recent years, the company sort of fell off themap; I don't recall hearing about a new Epos speaker since around 2014, whenMike Creek's son Luke became the Epos brand director and introduced thelifestyle-oriented Epos K-Series. But in early 2020, Epos was briefly back inthe audio headlines when the German loudspeaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink announced that he had bought thecompany and was going to start from scratch with new designs.

I’mhappy to continue a well-established British brand that started its life withsome great products, showing the unusual ideas of the founder, Robin Marshall.When he started Epos, it was not just a brand like many others, but unique inmany ways. Be prepared to see more unconventional ideas in our new Eposloudspeakers.

—Karl-Heinz Fink, in 2020

Karl-Heinz Finkalready makes seriously high-end loudspeakers under the Fink Team brand, but he is best known forrunning Europe's most successful acoustics design consultancy. Fink and co havedesigned speakers for Q Acoustics, Tannoy, Boston Acoustics, and countlessother companies, some of which do not advertise the fact that they farm outtheir loudspeaker design to a third party. But now that Karl-Heinz Fink is becoming a household name in audio— joining the ranks of Andrew Jones, Paul Barton, Richard Vandersteen, et al. —some companies, including Wharfedale,are all-too happy to brag that their newest products were designed by Fink. TheFink Team speakers have 5-figure prices that naturally limit the customer base.Now the Epos brand will give Fink an opportunity to reach more people by way ofits less expensive offerings, boosted by the name recognition provided by Epos.The first new Epos speaker will be the spiritual successor to the original ES 14.According to Fink, that means "a 2-way speaker in a fairly big… andclassic-looking cabinet, to be used on a dedicated stand. The design should beclassic, not lifestyle, only doing things that help with the sound, and asstraight-forward as possible." Fink spent the better part of two years on thedesign process, and he documented various milestones on his blog. He comes across as a no-nonsensedesigner with a belief that "measurements are not everything, but solidmeasurements can help to make better speakers." The result of his efforts isthe new Epos ES14N, which is expected to launch in September of 2022, sellingfor around $4,700 per pair (exact pricing TBA).

Likeits namesake from the 1980s, the new ES14N is a 2-way ported speaker combininga 7-inch mid-woofer with a metal dome tweeter. But that's where thesimilarities end. This isn't a tweaked reboot of a retro design; it'scompletely new from the ground up. The 7-inch cone is made from Polypropylene,a material chosen for its ability to be made with various fillers (such asmica), and injection-molded into intricate shapes with variations in thickness.Fink says that the driver design includes compensation for a high-resistanceair coil, and that the use of a low-damping rubber surround contributes to gooddynamics with very low coloration. The 36mm voice coil uses an 18mm-long, 2-layer winding of copperwire on a non-metallicformer made of fiberglass and epoxy. Computer simulation was used to optimizethe shape of the magnet in order to yield the best linear motor strength and avery low variation in inductance over the movement of the coil. Fink says thatthis design results in the lowest level of linear distortion and intermodulationdistortion — a far cry fromthe magnet systems used in the 1980s. Fink explains the magnet system asfollows: "The main magnet is a Ferrite type, the flux compensation magnetreduces the stray field of the magnet and set the right BL (motor strength) forthe cabinet size. A Neodymium disk on the pole piece made the BL more linearand a metal phase plug helps to move heat from the coil. All the parts aremounted into a very strong glass-filled plastic basket made from scratch. Thematerial was chosen for the combination of stiffness and good damping."

Thetweeter dome is made of a ceramic-coated aluminum alloy, which offers greaterstiffness than pure aluminum. The 28mm voice coil reportedly provides betterperformance at the lower end of the tweeter's operating range, while the fabricsurround and "shaped Mode control ring" help push the tweeter's resonance peakup to 30 kHz, well beyond the limit of human hearing. Distortion is minimizedby the use of Ferrite magnetsin the magnet system, which allow for more "air" behind the dome and the surround,according to Fink. He states that Ferrite is the better material for a tweeterif a small size is not needed, since Ferrite magnets avoid the compression andharmonic distortion caused by too-small cavities within the tweeter's physicaldesign. At very high frequencies, a copper cap in the magnet reportedly reducesdistortion and increases output. According to Fink, the tweeter does not use awaveguide "for sound reasons." (I imagine that means it sounds better withoutone.) There is, however, a perforated metal grille to protect the dome. Thegrille is not removable, but Fink assures us that the speaker was voiced withthe grille in place. Fink points out that the tweeter does not use Ferrofluidin the gap to suppress the resonance frequency of the tweeter. AlthoughFerrofluid "sounds like a good idea," Fink asserts that it changes behaviordepending on the level and style of music being played, and that it's "a verynon-linear process" that makes the tweeter's sound inconsistent. According toFink, "Tweeters with no Ferrofluid are more open and natural and show lessdynamic compression compared to standard tweeters with Ferrofluid." The tweeteris mounted to the cabinet via a massive metal plate that only touches thecabinet at 4 points, around the fastening screws. Fink says that this elementof the design, taken from Roy George of NAIM (with his blessing, of course),reduces energy transfer between the tweeter and the front baffle of thecabinet. Internally, the tweeter is built into its own cavity within thecabinet.

Speakingof the cabinet, Fink says that it has roughly the same volume as the original ES 14,owing to the fact that the driver configuration and the defined bandwidth ofthe new speaker are similar to those of its predecessor. But it's plain to seethat the shape of the ES14N's cabinet is different, featuring a slanted frontbaffle that time-aligns the two drivers while simultaneously combattingstanding waves that might otherwise develop between the front and back of thecabinet. The rear-mounted port is specially shaped to minimize air flow noise,with internal openings in the port tube to compensate for open tube resonance.These openings are covered with soft material and tuned to kill unwanted portresonances without causing the speaker to lose low-end performance, accordingto Fink. The two-layer MDFcabinet uses "the latest generation of damping glue" between the fiberboardlayers. Fink says that this new adhesive material is more consistent and allowsfor easier production. The panels are braced internally "to control the panelvibration modes and reduce the unwanted radiation of the whole cabinet."Internal damping material is used sparingly. The front baffle includes an extraplate that is both glued and screwed onto the main cabinet. The front plate hasa 45° chamfer around it to control diffractionaround 2000–3000Hz. Fink does not recommend listening with the included grillesin place. All speaker designers face the challenge of working around one bigunknown: the listening room. Fink goes into more detail than most whendiscussing the choices he made around the cabinet and the way it willinevitably interact with different rooms. He chose a "flat 4th-order alignmentwith a tuning frequency of 38Hz," noting that this configuration plays nicelywith the bottom-endroom gain of many listening rooms, allowing for "fast and precise bottom endwhen used in the right position in the room." On the back of the speaker, youwon't find big and chunky five-way binding posts. Although common on high-endloudspeaker designs, Fink says that these are high-cost parts that don'tjustify their price tags. Instead, the ES14N uses recessed 4mm banana sockets,which Fink says offer the best sound. They connect directly to the crossover,which sits on the inside of the rear panel.

Iwas not really excited to follow some rules that were used in the 1980s. Thatwas when I started my journey in HiFi and hey, I think I learnt something inthe last 35 years that I wanted to use. (But) I found an interview with RobinMarshall, made many years after he sold the brand and moved on. (He) saidclearly that he did the speakers based on the ideas and know-how he had at thattime – not more and not less. That sounded like my way: trying to stretchboundaries and not copying the past. So I made the deal with Mike Creek andthis was the beginning of the new Epos story.

—Karl-Heinz Fink

Ithink it's interesting that Fink didn't go for a super-retro aesthetic, giventhe ES14N's heritage, and the recent success of retro-inspired speakers likethe JBL L100Classic, theWharfedale Linton, PSB Passif, KLH Model Five, and the Mission 770. The somewhatutilitarian look of the ES14N might not be for everybody, but the speakers willcertainly look their best on the dedicated 22-inch stands (sold separately,price TBA), which are built around a massive wooden bar that combines 4 layersof wood, joined together by the same damping glue used in the speaker cabinets.The speaker sits on a two-layer steel top plate, with a layer of Bitumen (mineraltar) in the middle to absorb vibrations. The thick steel bottom plate attachesto adjustable spikes. The ES14N will be available in Walnut veneer, orsemi-matte white or black paint. It's safe to assume that the ES14N is only thefirst in a series of new Epos models coming from Karl-Heinz Fink. Will this once-iconic brand reclaimits former glory under Fink's guiding hand?

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Jacob is a music-lover and audiophile who enjoys convincing his friends to buy audio gear that they can't afford. He's also a freelance writer and editor based in Los Angeles.

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