Emerald Physics history and model progression

Never heard of these. You can usually find measurements of gear online if you search hard enough. This will also give you a good understanding of the actual level of performance. When you say milestones, I’m assuming you’re talking about a flagship product.

Most companies respond well to questions like this. If you’re not sure you could email them.

Audio Science Review is a great place to start...if you want to learn about why measurements matter.

Contact Wally, at Underwood.  https://www.underwoodhifi.com/content/contact     He bought the company from Clayton Shaw (the founder/owner of Spatial Audio Lab).      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYaYCgwmHi8           https://www.spatialaudio.us/contact 

I had EP KCIIs that I paid extra for the factory to upgrade with Clarity Cap and Wire World OCC. While really nice in a much smaller room,  they could not fill my very large room, even with 2 @ 12" SVS powered subs. I replaced them with 3.4s with XO upgrades. These are really amazing, but still need the 2 subs in my room. Now. I have a pair of 2.8s coming which in addition to the same 12" concentric drivers there are 2 @ 15" carbon fiber woofers per cabinet. Hoping they will eliminate the need for the subs.


Both the KCIIs and 3.4s come stock with crap wiring. The 3.4s wiring is inside the 2 sandwiched sections, but, the jumper wire to the external XO is easy to access and needs to be upgraded. I recommend ~ 2ft of wires per connector to get the XO off the speaker base, which vibrates like crazy. I chose WW OCC for this. THE IMPROVEMENT IS NOT SUBTLE

This line has been discontinued, and the factory blew out the remaining inventory at stupid low prices. You can find used pairs at great prices


hth

Attempting to decipher model numbers, seems the least to best progression is
KC - CS - EP (EP being best/most expensive). With regard to numbering pattern, lower prefix is better, and higher suffix is later generation. Example, best latest model is EP-2.8, while an older lowest model might be KC-9.0.
I'm not sure about the KC vs. CS (which is better?). Also, (I don't think it's this simple, but) where do they intersect? As an example, what level/generation of EP is equivalent to what level/generation of CS? Another way to ask this is... Do later model CS or KC outperform earlier model EP?

Thanks for info so far. About the wire... is there anything preventing pulling new wire?  Are they secured in an inaccessible baffle sandwich?

@mwatsme
You may be onto something with model numbering/differentiating, but I don't know.

Email Walter for the 411

I'm interested in this as well.  Also curious about how the earlier Clayton Shaw era models (CS2, CS2.3, CS2.7) compare to the subsequent generations from the Underwood ownership (CS and EP series). 

As to pulling better wire. I just looked. Yes it is possible, as the 4 binding post mounting plate near the bottom has 6 screws (on the 3.4s it is a concentric driver, meaning 2 sets of wire). As to pulling new wire, it would need to be thin-ish to get both through the hole. That said, the wire from the speaker to the binding post is much thicker than the crap wire provided to jump to the XO. One could also simply run new thicker wire outside the back plate


hth

Good to know about wire can be upgraded.
So what I gather is the CS-series = Clayton Shaw
And EP and KC came later with Underwood. What does EP and KC stand for?

Guessing EP stands for Emerald Physics. No idea about KC

I had the original CS2 for a several years with the behringer upgraded by Cullen. Was a great speaker. The crossover died, Walter had bought Ep by then. He had me purchase the DSP 2.4 as a replacement and it was awful. Gave me a really good deal on a pair of 4,4's which he promised were far superior to the CS2's. Unfortunately those were awful too. So purchased a pair of Spatial M3's as Clayton had made the CS speakers. Definitely better than EP but still lacking in low end. Now own Pure Audio Project Trio 15's and these hit the spot for now. 

@giggsy Which full-range driver do you have in the Trio, and why?

I have the horn driver. I auditioned the horn and the Voxativ AC 1.6.
The Voxativ was more forward but the soundstage was limited to the space between the speakers, The Horns throw a huge soundstage with nice separation. I replaced the "internal" wire with Cardas and upgraded the caps and resistors and now they make your hairs stand on the right recording.