Suggested price for a pair of ES14s?

Posted by: Martin Payne on 08 August 2001

Any ideas what a pair of Epos ES14 with SF14 stands, guestimated at about 10 years old, are worth?

Any help appreciated.

cheers, Martin

Posted on: 08 August 2001 by Dev B

I'd say about a 170 to a couple of hundred squid.

Posted on: 08 August 2001 by Duncan Fullerton

They always seem to have some for sale. Any of the later types (phase plug driver and/or bi-wireable) plus stands will go for around £250-300.

Posted on: 12 August 2001 by BrianD

Martin

Why are you thinking of buying 14´s Martin

I owned a pair for 3 years and think they´re very good. Ultimately, though, the bass just doesn´t sound right. I had to use them with the bung in the rear port as a compromise. They´re better without the bung but I just had to use it. My room at the time was 16 x 14.

Brian

Posted on: 12 August 2001 by Martin Payne

A friend of mine asked me to find out what his pair are worth, since he's not using them at the moment.

I used to own ES14s myself (and probably the same vintage, although a different actual pair). I agree fully about the bass, and also didn't like the treble from the metal dome tweeter - never seemed to integrate with the midrange.

Since then I've learned much more about rooms and their problems, so could probably get a better setup than I had at the time, but my room can mess up the bass from Kans. Ported speakers don't stand a chance, but I might be tempted to give them another go, since the rest of my system is much better now than it was.

I did find, though, that stuffing the ports with packed drinking straws cut to the same length as the tube gave a result somewhere between bunged-up and open. I tried three different sizes of straws and the thinner the straw the closer it was to the bunged-up sound.

Shortly after I sold mine I worked out that I knew seven or eight people who had owned ES14s for less than a year before selling them on.

Interestingly, my later brief exposure to the ES11s was extremely positive (on £300+ Foundation stands).

I know many people like ES14s, though, and I suspect that they work very differently in different rooms.

cheers, Martin

[This message was edited by Martin Payne on SUNDAY 12 August 2001 at 22:45.]

Posted on: 05 September 2001 by Team Reeves

Is it a coincidence that there is currently a pair on auction in Loot ? Current bid £100 on a reserve of £180 - are they THAT unpopular ? Someone of limited resources can score a bargain here.

Yes, I too have a pair.

Team

Sounds good to me.

Posted on: 05 September 2001 by Rico

I think ES11's and ES14's are fabulous speakers, and a stonking used buy.

Rico - all your base are belong to us

Posted on: 06 September 2001 by Team Reeves

FWIW the bass from my ES14s is fine 99.9% of the time, but on rare occasions they do boom when a certain note is reached. Not enough to worry me. They are currently sited 2-3 feet in front of my french windows and sound great, but I could see them being a problem close to a wall when port tuning would come into its own. I am about to find out whether this is the case as I move house tomorrow and have no idea how the new setup will be. The speakers may need to be near a wall, temporarily at least.

BTW, slightly off-topic, I was unsure about the locking bolts for transporting my recently-purchased S/H CDi (what a brill buy !), so I phoned Naim. Spoke to a lovely lady who gave me the lowdown on transporting the CDi (you CAN actually turn them upside-down - but gently - to put in the transportation bolts) AND sent me a pair of new bolts gratis. WELL DONE AGAIN NAIM.

Team

Sounds good to me.

Posted on: 06 September 2001 by Rico

Great post, Eric! It's inpired me to perhaps have a play around with my ES11's once we're reunited.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

Posted on: 06 September 2001 by Martin Payne

quote:
Originally posted by Team Reeves:

Spoke to a lovely lady who gave me the lowdown on transporting the CDi (you CAN actually turn them upside-down - but gently - to put in the transportation bolts) AND sent me a pair of new bolts gratis. WELL DONE AGAIN NAIM.

Team,

this may be OK for the CDI, but MUST NOT BE DONE WITH A CDS-II.

Tipping these more than 15 degrees from horizontal will make the transport fall of it's internal spikes, and may require return to Naim to have it sorted.

cheers, Martin

P.S. No idea if this applies to the CDS-I.

Posted on: 06 September 2001 by Team Reeves

quote:

this may be OK for the CDI, but MUST NOT BE DONE WITH A CDS-II.
Tipping these more than 15 degrees from horizontal will make the transport fall of it's internal spikes, and may require return to Naim to have it sorted.
cheers, Martin
P.S. No idea if this applies to the CDS-I.

Agreed, my comments only apply for CDi, and GENTLY at that.

Insert usual legal disclaimer here.

Team

Sounds good to me.

Posted on: 07 September 2001 by Rico

quote:
I presume they hang together all around better than the 14s to begin with since they are not reaching for lower bass in the bigger cabinet. I'm still curious to know if they can be bettered though.

Back in the good ol' days, my impression was that the ES11 was a bit faster and agile in certain areas than the 14, but did not have same abilities in scale. perhaps the 11's tweeter (or at least it's implementation) worked better for me.

Still, most of my listening to either of these speakers was via a 140, and a 250 did not even enter my wildest dreams. perhaps some of these issues related to better control under a 250 (which they were designed on). ES11's could be driven by a Nait 2, which was a requirement as I had one at the time I bought them.
No guarentees I'll get to faffing around with them as I've had them apart a couple of times already (x-over cap upgrade to Epos MKII) - and they are a real shit to get back together.

A friend recently sent me a link to ES11 discussion on the Madisound discussion forum, where someone was dissing the ES11 for not integrating the tweeter characteristics with the poly bass driver. Without having experienced the systems the guy was explaining, I couldn't really add anything to the discussion, but found it food for thought nonetheless.

Rico - SM/Mullet Audio

Posted on: 07 September 2001 by mr saucisson

quote:
this may be OK for the CDI, but MUST NOT BE DONE WITH A CDS-II.
Tipping these more than 15 degrees from horizontal will make the transport fall of it's internal spikes, and may require return to Naim to have it sorted.
cheers, Martin
P.S. No idea if this applies to the CDS-I.

CDS1s can, and indeed should, be turned upside down to screw up the transport screws on the underside, but ONLY after locking down the transport by doing up the 2 screws in the bit where the CDs go.

Ben

Posted on: 07 September 2001 by Jez Quigley

Thanks for the ideas. I pulled out the tubes a couple of inches and stone me if I'm not delighted, I can't believe I've had the Epos' for nigh on 15 years and never knew that the tubes could be pulled out nevermind how much I'd enjoy the result. I've tried bunging the ports before but didn't like it. Time for some experimenting!