Just had an Epic experience....

[sci85]

I'm a longtime Klipsch admirer ever since I heard my 1st pair back in the 80's as a teenager. Like many though, I never really had the funds to own any.  Fast forward to about 10yrs ago and I happened upon a set of Heresy's at an estate sale for a hundred bucks and grabbed them. Not the best sounding speaker in the world but at last I was a Klipsch owner and they have served me well.  But recently I felt it was time to upgrade.  The Heresy's have worked well but I never felt the bottom end was all that good and I'm not a sub-woofer/multi speaker kind of guy so I decided it was time to start looking for something better.  So, I went down to the local sound room to check out the latest offerings. They had some nice speakers but everything seemed to be built for multi-speaker setups and the ubiquitous sub-woofer assistance.  And what has happened to cabinet materials lately?  Everything in the low and mid price band was made from particle board and covered in black vinyl.  Just ugly to me.  To get anything made of wood required jumping into 2K per speaker and up prices.  That wasn't going to work.  I decided to see if I could find something on CL that would work and checked out some RF's and some others but nothing really seemed to fit the bill until yesterday I saw a post for some Epic CF-3's.  I was like, hmm, these look like they might work but I had never heard of this series of Klipsch before.  I talked to a friend of mine who said they were really good speakers and although they had a short run, were some of the their best.  So I went and met the seller who was the daughter of the original owner who had passed away.  She said these were his babies and took great care of them.  They were in great condition but she had no system for me to test them out.  And wow, are these things BIG!  But something inside me said go for it so I did.  After unloading and getting them placed in my room (boy was that a work out!),  I put on some vinyl and all I can say is WOW.  I don't think I've ever heard a better sounding speaker. I was just blown away with how smooth and low the bottom end was. The bass seemed effortless sounding and so clean.  I threw on Rush 2112 to really give the low end a work out and couldn't believe how awesome Neil Peart's drums sounded. I could hear every note of Geddy's bass which in my experience tends to get muddled with the drums on most speakers.  I then went to some more vocal heavy material and again, everything was just clean and smooth.  Much smoother and softer presence than my Heresy's.  And I am running them with completely flat EQ.  They didn't need any!  I sat there spinning tunes for 3hrs straight as I just listened in awe.

 

Thank you LD2210!

 

Obligatory pics attached next to my Heresy's for context.

Edited May 6, 2019 by sci85

[Schu]

I'm blind!

 

[LD2210]

I couldn’t be happier that these went to a good home to be enjoyed properly! I hope these bring you many years of joy and kick *** sound!!!! 

[pzannucci]

On 5/6/2019 at 9:10 AM, sci85 said:

  And I am running them with completely flat EQ.  They didn't need any!  

 

 

You shouldn't need any in a reasonable room with relatively flat speakers.

Great find.

[Harleywood]

Love my Epics and after 22 years with them I have zero desire to search for anything else. I had my Xovers repaired by Bob Crites who is a member here a couple years ago. Believe it or not they can sound better and Bob can make it happen. Congrats on your purchase!

[sci85]

So I listen to a lot of streaming music because I'm in the car a lot and well, you just kinda live with it knowing it's nothing close to ideal a listening environment.  But what's really funny is that these 25yr old speakers are so clean that I just can't stand to listen to streaming music through them. I never realized just how bad it was until I heard it through these.  The quality is just all over the place in my ears.  Ugh.  No worries though. Gives me a great reason to bulk up the vinyl and CD collection 😀