Epos ES-12 - what modifications?

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I'm usually cautious in suggesting improvements to a speaker that is evidently carefully thought out. The pitfall has become obvious though. The baffle attachment is a bit of a fussy design. Too loose and the bass is wobbly. Too tight and it will flex (or even break) a soft plastic baffle. What you call a pigs breakfast of a design really. 4 bolts isn't enough for any solidity. :confused:

I would be looking to add some hardwood battens and fix the front baffle with a dozen screws if it's possible. The back panel could also be solid timber, maybe ply.

Might improve things, might make it worse. :D

Wouldn't do any harm to add a 47 ohm shunt wirewound resistor to the tweeter though. Robin Marshall had his reasons for having it in his designs.


Thank you System7 for the comments & suggestions and others who have responded.

The front baffle will be too difficult to strengthen without decreasing the volume and piercing the panel. Judging by the impression left in the cardboard gaskets, the front and back panel should be stiff enough. So i will leave that one alone. Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to look into the shunt resistor. This should be easy.
 
I think there was a 2uF Bennic metalized MKP when I had opened an ES12 yrs ago. Then again memory can be tricky. Is there a possibility the previous owner(s) changed as an upgrade to ICW (Clarity) SA as in your pics?

Judging from close inspection of the shrink wrapping on the leads of the capacitor compared to the shrink wrapping elsewhere, it appears to all match. My impression would be that the ICW capacitor is standard from the factory. Anyone else care to chime in?

Is the last line of markings on the capacitor the date code?
i.e. 9839D

1998 March 9?
 
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Most possibly an original feature then. They may had Bennic in earlier production and then changed or I remember from some ES11. A couple of 1uF Mundorf Supreme (non oil, simple model) in parallel per speaker should be interesting subs to the SAs.
 
Most possibly an original feature then. They may had Bennic in earlier production and then changed or I remember from some ES11. A couple of 1uF Mundorf Supreme (non oil, simple model) in parallel per speaker should be interesting subs to the SAs.

During my Christmas holidays I have done some extensive listening and experimentation.

I feel the original capacitor will remain.

The density of the long fiber wool stuffing had to be decreased to bring back some of the midrange liveliness which was lost when I had too much stuffing.

I compared a 10 lb flat plate weight on the top of my Mission lightweight metal stands to 5 lbs at the bottom. I prefer the weight at the bottom. I suppose the manufacturers recommendation to use open lightweight stands is warranted. Having all the weight on top seemed to have smeared the sound stage and decreased the dynamics of the speaker.
 
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