12 yr old speakers (1 Viewer)

[JohnVB]

I was wondering if anyone could tell me more information about my speakers. Here's a link to some information I found. The site doesn't say a whole lot.
I got these so long ago I don't remember very much about them myself. Are these good speakers, or just so so?
Just curious,
- bones

 

[John Garcia]

They look decent. How do they sound? It doesn't say what the tweeter is made of, but it looks like it is either plastic or fabric. With a response of 55Hz-20KHz, seems like the should be able to hold their own.

 

[JohnVB]

They sound good to me, but I'm not much of an audiophile. In comparing them to my Klipsch Promedia 4.1's (on my computer), I'd say they could use a sub to complement the bass.

Now I'm wondering if I should keep these and just add surrounds with a center and sub. Would, say, Paradigm Monitor 9's sound much better than these? Any guesses?

If I keep these EPI's, how hard is it to "timbre match" with other speakers?

I don't have these on stands. Would they sound a lot better if I got stands for them? They are kinda funny shaped (tapered/narrower in the front). Would I have to get special stands for them?

Just trying to figure out my HT speaker situation.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions,

- bones

 

[John Garcia]

With a bottom end of 55Hz, they definitely need a sub for movies. With good stands, they probably will sound marginally better, but not night and day unless you have them sitting on the floor You shouldn't need any specially shaped stands.
It may be tough to timbre match these to other speakers as mains, but you could probably get away with using them as surrounds without an issue. It will mostly come down to the tweeters, as that is often the most noticable aspect of a speaker.
Monitor 9s will definitely have a ton more bass than these. These speakers look to have very similar specs to Mini Monitors, for comparison.

 

[JohnVB]

John,

Well, they are on the floor. I don't have stands so, where else would they be? ;-p. They're much too heavy to really be on a bookshelf.

I glanced at the basics area of this forum but didn't see anything about speaker height or speakers being on the floor vs being on a stand. Can you explain more why having them on the floor is not so good? Pardon the questions of a newbie.

I can't use them for rear speakers. There's no back wall in our living room, and if I put speakers there, I'd be blocking the entrance to the room. Even if I could find a good place to put them, we have 2 small children, we can't have free standing speakers in the middle of the room. Our plan is to use in ceiling speakers for the rears.

My options for these speakers are:
1) try to match them and use them as fronts.
2) move them to our bedroom where or current stereo will be moving.
3) decide we don't have use for them anymore and sell them.

- bones

 

[John Garcia]

Stands will do a few things in this case: 1) minimize floor interaction (resonance and reflections) and 2) bring them up to a better height for sound distribution.
A good rule of thumb for main speaker height is the tweeter should be roughly ear level when you are seated in the listening position. This typically means stands that are between 24"-36" tall, depending on the speakers.
Since I have never heard these speakers, I would tend to lean towards sticking them in the bedroom. Rear speakers can be wall mounted, and those appear to be front ported so they would be OK for this, but matching them may not be easy (maybe it will, maybe it won't).
In-ceiling will be less obtrusive and more attractive, though you will not be able to reposition them to account for room effects (effects of the shape and size of room and furniture on the sound coming from a speaker's specific location).