ES22
The ES22 is a compact, floor-standing loudspeaker that follows the minimalist design approach pioneered in the revered ES14. The ES22, like all Epos loudspeakers, uses sophisticated but purposeful engineering to ensure that, unlike most, it will not compromise your full enjoyment of music.
Design Intentions
The ES22 draws on the research that produced the widely acclaimed ES25. It aims to provide a similar, musically involving, large-scale presentation from a more easily accommodated enclosure. Like the ES25, it is designed to satisfy listeners whose priority is musical realism and not "hi-fi" artifice by presenting a faithful and exciting insight into all types of music.
The High Frequency Unit
The ES22’s 25mm tweeter uses an aluminium alloy diaphragm terminated by a Polyamide suspension. This combination reduces colouration and enables the driver to handle high power without distress. A vented voice coil and magnetic liquid cooling system augment its power handling ability and smooth its frequency response. Rear cavity loading and a new, high efficiency magnet system focus its transient response and eliminate temporal smearing, giving the ES22 impeccable pace, rhythm and timing.
The tweeter’s excellent linearity allows it to operate with minimal external tailoring. There is only one high quality capacitor present in its signal path and this "minimalist" network design greatly increases the loudspeaker’s ability to resolve detail and dynamics.
The Midrange Unit
The 150mm midrange driver uses a robust, die-cast aluminium chassis fitted with a newly developed, injection moulded polymer cone. The rigid chassis provides exceptional detail resolution and transient response while the cone’s unique profile gives improved performance over its bandwidth and provides smooth integration with the tweeter. The driver will handle high levels cleanly without producing colouration or distortion.
A new 32mm voice coil is wet wound on an aluminium former with high-temperature wire for efficient heat dissipation, which reduces the distortion and dynamic compression that rob music of its ‘life’. In conjunction with a computer optimised magnet assembly, this elaborate construction produces a driver whose performance is characterised by exceptional linearity, wide ranging dynamics and seamless integration with the other units. A phase plug further improves the driver’s ability to integrate and deliver outstanding stereo imagery.
The driver is housed in an isolated enclosure to protect it from vibrations produced by the bass unit. The benefits include reduced distortion in the midband and superb transient response.
The Low Frequency Unit
The ES22’s 150mm bass driver only handles low bass. It is built around a rigid, die-cast aluminium chassis, with an injection moulded polymer cone and stiff dust cap and features a powerful motor system offering high sensitivity, substantial power handling and excellent linearity. Coupled with the unit’s rigid chassis and essentially pistonic cone assembly, this gives the ES22 an extraordinarily potent, accurate low frequency performance.
The Crossover
Every component in the signal path can colour, distort or degrade the music. A minimalist crossover can eliminate these problems but will only function properly with drivers whose mechanical characteristics have been appropriately engineered. The ES22 uses purpose built drivers tailored specifically for this design. The resulting performance benefits are significant.
The midrange driver crosses over mechanically and is directly coupled to the power amplifier for maximum information retrieval and control. This makes the midband responsive, transparent and explicitly detailed. The bass driver and tweeter use single component networks solely to fine tune their integration with the midrange unit.
The ES22’s hard-wired internal connections provide the highest attainable signal path integrity and consistent performance. Individual earth paths to the loudspeaker terminals prevent back-EMFs from one driver influencing the performance of the others.
The Cabinet
The design of the ES22’s cabinet provides remarkable structural integrity and the combination of complementary materials with dissimilar resonant frequencies produces an enclosure with exceptionally low levels of panel radiation, allowing the drive units to perform optimally. Extensive internal bracing reinforces the enclosure and acts as a barrier to internal standing waves, further reducing colouration and improving transient response and stereo imaging.
The port for the bass driver is gas-flowed to provide consistent loading and eliminate the ‘chuffing’ distortion caused by air turbulence.
The ES22’s floor-spikes fit into high torque inserts, providing enhanced transient response and stereo imaging. By allowing easy fine adjustment, these maximise the speaker’s control and ‘punch’ at low frequencies, resulting in tuneful, rhythmically faithful bass.
Power Requirements
The ES22 is suitable for use with any high quality amplifier rated between 50 and 175Watts. More powerful models may be used with caution, but the amplifier’s quality is more important than its power rating: a musically informative 50Watt amplifier will prove more satisfying than a less capable 175Watt model.
Impedance
6 ohms nominal.
Positioning The ES22 will normally perform well when placed in free space at least 50cm from the nearest wall. It does not require boundary reinforcement to deliver its intended bass response. For ideal results, however, you should treat your room as an individual acoustic environment and experiment with different placements. Often, moving the speakers a few inches closer to or further from a wall will yield superior performance.
Connections Three pairs of high current, gold-plated terminals allow the ES22 to be tri-wired or tri-amplified. Providing separate feeds to each of the drive units through premium quality connectors offers worthwhile gains in stereo imagery, control and detail resolution.
Auditioning
Epos speakers are available exclusively through a small number of enthusiastic, highly competent retailers, chosen for their ability to demonstrate and sell complementary equipment. To guarantee satisfactory performance they must be partnered with equally capable equipment, which does not necessarily mean a combination of the best or the most highly rated components. A skilled retailer’s advice and demonstration facilities are invaluable in helping to prevent ES22 buyers wasting money on inappropriate partnering equipment.
Specifications
Power Handling 175 Watts speech and music
Frequency Response 38Hz - 22kHz
Impedance 6 ohms Nominal
Sensitivity 87dB/1 watt/1 metre
Finish Light or Dark Cherry wood veneer
Dimensions 873mm(H) x 202mm(W) x 250mm(D)
Weight 27kg
An acoustically transparent foam grille is supplied