I have a pair of EPI A40s, which is from their second wave product line in the early '80s. I got'em in 1995 for $10 from a coworker. I had to replace the woofers' foam surround which added another $20.
For that money they're a clean, tight little bookshelf speaker. Easy to mate with a subwoofer because of the sealed cab's gentle bass rolloff.
Taken on their own merits, and placed on modern welded steel stands with sand-filled pillars, they could throw spooky-real imaging in a 3D soundstage. Nobody heard them that way back in 1981 on a bookshelf, but when I filled those stands with sand, the merits of these EPIs really "popped."
I did compare them side by side with some newer more sophisticated speakers, such as a pair of Wharfedale 7.3 small floorstanders. It showed that for $10 or $30, these were a steal, but at the same time--as good as those inverted dome tweeters were for their time--the treble didn't have the smoothness and refinement of tweeters from 20 years later, let alone what you can get now.
Parts Express's <$60/pr. Dayton B652-AIR features a folded ribbon AMT tweeter. Adjusted for inflation, they would be $23/pair in 1981 and offer a level of treble refinement practically unthinkable back then.
For that money they're a clean, tight little bookshelf speaker. Easy to mate with a subwoofer because of the sealed cab's gentle bass rolloff.
Taken on their own merits, and placed on modern welded steel stands with sand-filled pillars, they could throw spooky-real imaging in a 3D soundstage. Nobody heard them that way back in 1981 on a bookshelf, but when I filled those stands with sand, the merits of these EPIs really "popped."
I did compare them side by side with some newer more sophisticated speakers, such as a pair of Wharfedale 7.3 small floorstanders. It showed that for $10 or $30, these were a steal, but at the same time--as good as those inverted dome tweeters were for their time--the treble didn't have the smoothness and refinement of tweeters from 20 years later, let alone what you can get now.
Parts Express's <$60/pr. Dayton B652-AIR features a folded ribbon AMT tweeter. Adjusted for inflation, they would be $23/pair in 1981 and offer a level of treble refinement practically unthinkable back then.