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Introducing my EPI 200C


Pierredu76

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After more than 30 years I got my EPI 200C speakers back.   :D

The short version of their story is that I bought them sometime around 79-81, brought them back to France in 1982 to finally give them to my sister when I moved again to the US. She and her husband used them for a while, not sure how long exactly, until they got smaller ones. And the EPIs got moved into their attic.

Said attic gets like an oven in the summer as it is in the south and, for the last 15 years or so, cold in the winter because no one has lived there. So, I wasn't too optimistic about what shape they were going to be in...

When they got to me and I pulled them out of their original boxes, I found both the cabinets and grills in close to perfect shape. Only some very minor damage to the cabinets. When I removed the grills, positive surprise. Only the woofers' foam is dead. I was ready for the passive radiators' surround to be in the same shape and having to be replaced but, no. They seem fine. Not sure what they are made of but they feel a bit like rubber and that surprises me as rubber doesn't tend to age well.

Anyway, I'd watched videos on replacing the woofers' foam and although most of the process seemed easy enough, I was quite worried about cleaning the edge of the cone. I could see myself just killing the speaker. As it turned out, the foam was so dried up (what was left of it anyway) that it took me about 2 minutes and a finger nail to clean the edge of the cone. Happy day!

So I plugged them in to an amp to see if the speakers still worked and I got my first bad surprise. The cable connectors are the spring-loaded type... And although I'm not into big cables (I've never heard any difference), my cables did not go in very easily. At least, the speakers do work.

Next step is taking out the woofers. And, sandwiched between the speaker and the cabinet, I find a foam gasket. Although there is a bit of some sort of goop at the screw holes, the gasket are not glued on either side and came out in fairly good shape. Still, they've been so flattened that I'm thinking it's worth changing them.

The foam surrounds for that specific woofer were easy enough to find but I'm having no luck with the gaskets. The only thing I've found that seems to match, material wise, comes in the form of a ribbon and I can't help but wonder how to create a circle out of this tape. The woofer is an 8 inch and it makes for a fairly tight circle so I'm thinking it's going to bunch up on the inside of the circle and the speaker won't/may not sit flat...

What do you guys think? Any other ideas?

I've found sheets of felt that I could cut to the right shape and size but I'm wondering if it will make enough of an air seal... Any thoughts?

Thank you.

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Welcome to the CSP!

Sellers such as Parts Express sell pins that you can put on your speaker wires to help them fit the spring connectors. http://www.parts-express.com/gold-12-awg-speaker-pin-connector-pair-solder-type--091-300

PE has excellent foam gasket tape http://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-speaker-gasketing-tape-1-8-x-3-8-x-50-ft-roll--260-540

Another solution is to buy some foam sheets from Michael's and cut your own gaskets http://www.michaels.com/creatology-foam-sheet-12x18/M10597609.html

-Kent

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Thanks for the welcome.

If I was still in the US, I probably would have already gone to Michael's  :lol:  but, unfortunately, I am now in France. There is a store with craft things not too far and I intend to check it out although it didn't seem to have foam sheets in their online catalog, just the felt sheets I mentioned.

I do find the tape here however but as I've said, I'm a bit worried about it bunching up on the inside of the circle. Any experience using that gasketing tape?

Pierre

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So make that "bienvenue" Pierre ;)

Many of us have used the gasket tape from PE and it works perfectly. No bunching. Don't know if the stuff you found in France is the same.

-Kent

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Those are some traveled EPI's!  Welcome aboard Pierre.

JKent has you lined up well.  As for the tape gaskets foam stuff, you can make little cuts on the outside edge every so often and it will make the turn a bit easier.  Not to big of a cut though.  The stuff turns pretty good as it is though.  Wouldn't worry too much about it.

Get us some photos when you get a chance.  I have a pair of M150's currently taken apart and awaiting to be put back together.  Cool cabinets for sure.

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"Those are some traveled EPI's"

And they may well be the only 200s here in France.  :D

From the info found on the web (most of it on the Human's website), I gather this was not a huge company and I feel lucky to have stumbled upon it. For my first 25 years in the US, I was in the DC area so not too far from their place of birth but no memory at all of what store I found them in. All I know for sure is that the 250C's couldn't be very expensive because at the time that I bought them I was trying to make a living as an artist so, I was pretty broke :lol:

But I had a memory of a very good sounding speaker... and the few write-ups I've found since getting them back definitely lean that way, especially Human's. Couldn't research them before getting them back because I had no idea of the model. I just knew they were fairly big and, when I saw them again a few days ago, I was pretty surprised to find out the woofers are only 8".

 

Anyway, I've decided to try the foam tape. Not sure if it is the same one here but the description is almost identical. If, that is, my little craft store doesn't have foam sheets.

I can't seem to take a decent picture with my phone but here's what I've got right now:

 

EPI-200C-1.jpg

EPI-200C-2.jpg

EPI-200C-3.jpg

EPI-200C-4.jpg

 

I will borrow a camera and post better ones later on. Number 3 was just to give an idea of their size compared to a vinyl.

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