Epos ES14 vs. Neat Motive 2

I have a pair of EPOS ES-14s that I bought to use in a room with a lot of volume. I drove them with NAIM gear. In that room they sounded great. If I could have kept that room I doubt I would have ever wanted to change. I moved into a much smaller place after retirement and could never get the ES-14s to sound very good. I think I just couldn't back up far enough from them in this room. I just got a pair of demo Motive 2s. Much better in this room. Images stay put and the sound stage is pretty wide. A nice balance on all sorts of music. I kind of miss the way the ES-14s will play larger scale music, but I'd have to get the old room back. I think the Motive 2s are my answer.

Poly cone does not blend with aluminum tweeter.
Sounds like 2 different speakers put into 1 box.

In this case they mesh beautifully. There was a review in Stereophile many years ago explaining the design work done by Robin Marshall. If you don't have the opportunity to listen first it probably wouldn't be prudent to go with such an old design as the ES-14. But if you like large scale music and can afford the space for them. they're great. When I first got mine (off Audiogon) I drove them with a Naim 150. There was little too much tizziness on some recordings. I wound up getting a Naim 250 and they sounded terrific. Voices seemed perfect to me. You need the dedicated stands and they're ugly, to be sure. I really like the Motive 2s I have now but miss the bigger scale capability of the ES-14s.

Not in my room to my ears. Switching over from Epos M15 to single driver full range was "ear opening". YMMV.