I wasn't disagreeing, just amplifying.


That CA-410 - was the first integrated amp I purchased back in the day. Learned about clipping (took out a tweeter in my JBL L40) and then moved up the chain to the CA-810 which I had for a number of years.A completely rebuilt CA-1010 with all of the good caps in it at that!
First generation EPI and Yamaha of that vintage is a "natural" pairing (pardon the in-joke). My first "good" stereo back as a university student was a CA-410 and M50s (actually not quite true - I had a CA-400 and Dynaco A-10s for a few weeks before they were stolen). I tried every speaker in the shop I could afford and the EPIs came out on top with the Yamaha. The 100s actually do real justice to the CA-1010 to my ears. The top end is really smooth and sweet (as one expects with those tweeters) and the bass is quite palpable. What I wasn't expecting was that the mid-range would be so nice as well. Female vocals come across very well indeed.
I really do think that the choices of pairings were pretty regional, especially back in those days. Even between cities I noticed differences, probably due to the influence of whoever the local audio shops were.I wasn't disagreeing, just amplifying.
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I never managed to get mine to clip, even playing the little M50s so loudly that they would walk across shelf they were on and I'd have to catch them before they jumped right off! The CA-810 is a really nice amp, pretty durned close to the 1010 and (to my ears) a fairly big step up from the 610. I guess there were other similar models in different markets, but we had the 410, 610, 810, 1010 and the 2010 as well, though I never actually saw one in a shop for sale. I wanted the 1010, but could afford the 410. Funny thing is that my 1010 was a rescue, found just before it was headed to the dump.That CA-410 - was the first integrated amp I purchased back in the day. Learned about clipping (took out a tweeter in my JBL L40) and then moved up the chain to the CA-810 which I had for a number of years.
They really are incredibly low distortion amplifiers.Had a CA-810 for a while. It was a sweet sounding amp. I just remember turning it up and thinking that it didn't sound loud. Until I walked out of the room and realized that it was pretty loud after all. Just clean and smooth.
well ya... But there is at least one EPI in the photos too. even on the test bench, there is an EPI M180 (Center Channel) in the mix with some AR-18s... ok I'm sorry they snuck in there.stacked advents!
To a degree you are correct. The downside of this arrangement is each speaker pair is sharing the same cabinet space. Since these designs are acoustically sealed, while they do work together to move air or double the sound presence, they are fighting each other to a small degree as they attempt to reproduce a given tone.ps one of the epi's that you posted appears to have 2 woofers and 2 tweeters, so is sort of "internally stacked", right?
When & where I came from (Baltimore), the canonical pairing was Yamaha and Polk Audio.![]()
Are the speakers vented or sealed? I've been looking at the Human drivers to go with the tweeters I bought from @Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ . Can't make up my mind to use a 8" pro005 or 10 pro031. I have some old Coral BX1001 cabs that are about 1.3-1.5 or so.Having seen a few mentions on forum of EPI speakers lately and having just got my 100s back from my tech I though maybe it was time to get a thread going. I'm not going to narrow the topic to strictly the early generation models with the "masonite" tweeter, though that is as far as my personal exposure extends.
My first EPIs were a set of M50s that I got with a Yamaha CA-410 back in the mid-70s and this was my only stereo system for the next dozen years or so. I auditioned a quite a few combinations at my limited entry-level budget and I thought the pairing had the most realistic sound for the funds available. Of the early models I've also owned 202s and the 100s (more on them shortly) and have had extensive time listening to the 400 "mini-towers" and 1000 beasts. The 202s were paired with a nice 100 w/ch Yamaha receiver and CDP for my daughter's birthday a decade back, the 50s reside in a kitchen system.
So, on to the 100s in question - nice condition walnut veneered cabinets on these. I got them for next to nothing in a pawnshop 25 years or more ago ($5? $10?), got them home and discovered that the cheap non-original drivers were toast masonite tweeters were fine. A friend took a shot at reviving them with some other non-EPI woofers and they soldiered on in various systems do yeoman service.
I pulled them out awhile back and noticed that is seemed like one of the tweeters had been fried when my ex tried blow them up when I was out (toward the end she had a shot at a few pair of speakers what way). So after residing in the back of a closet for a few years I decided recently I either had to get them completely renovated or pass the, on to someone else.
Glenn (Audio Two) had some spare masonite tweeters listed on his website so I bought the lot, all three. I also got a pair of proper woofers from Huw at Human Speakers, a pair of nice Mundorf caps for the crossover (one cap, that's all there is to it) and some good binding posts to replace the stupid clip things EPI used back then - not that they were the only ones guilty of such!
So I took the lot over to Dennis, my tech, to deal with. The first thing he discovered was that there was nothing wrong with any of the tweeters, it was a crossover had burned up. I now have five masonite tweeters, a lifetime supply! It was decided to eliminate the iffy level controls in the assembly as they can't be doing anything good for the sound. Once everything was together Dennis wasn't happy with what was coming out of the tweeters so he pulled them out and had a look. It turned out the brass clip/steel post interface had gone sour on them. He checked the other three tweeters and found the same to be true, so he sorted them all out and then picked out the best matched pair to install, from the same production batch as it turned out.
In measuring the output from each of the tweeters Dennis also discovered something interesting about the dispersion pattern of the inverted dome tweeters. They produce less right on centre and have a great wide pattern. Between that and the single cap crossover it would explain why the speakers image so well I'd reckon. Dennis also reckons that all of the improvements have also raised the efficiency to at least 90db. Interesting.
So, how do they sound, you ask? Quite magnificent, even with only 3 hours of burn-in on brand new woofers and caps. I took them over to my wife's art supply shop and paired them with the Yamaha CA-1010 and they immediately sounded wonderful. Vintage Yamaha and EPI are an excellent pairing. My wife is audio-friendly, but doesn't pay particular attention to how things sound (I think she's now just used to everything sounding decent) but she commented immediately on how fine the speakers sounded. I'll have to stop back at the shop in a few days and see how things are sounding with having been run 8 hours a day for awhile.
Interesting observation - over the years when I've run different speakers I've always had women in particular comment on how much they liked the EPIs. Wonder why that is?
So, anyone care to comment on their own EPI experiences?