New Epik Empire Owner Review

In my quest for a Home Theater subwoofer upgrade, I read countless threads, articles, shootout results and reviews on every subwoofer speaker design/product currently available.

First I had to make a decision on whether to go with Ported, Sealed or Passive Radiator. I always liked the quick, tight, articulate sound of sealed over ported, plus, given my love of music - I'm a musician (bass player) - I decided to go the sealed route. Also because of the size of my room (2,200 cubic feet), I thought I would have some room gain that a good sealed sub would be able to take advantage of nicely.

Next was - Do I want Servo, Single Driver, Dual Opposing Drivers and Passive or Powered. Because of my existing HT wiring and personal preference, I opted not to go with a Passive Sub/External Amp setup.

This is what I ended up narrowing my choices down to:

Rythmik Audio F15 - Single 15" sealed Direct Servo w/370W RMS. Total cost to me in Black Oak would have been $1,038 with shipping & tax (I live in TX - Rythmik is in Austin). The F15HP has a 600W RMS amp and would have cost me $1,326

SVS SB13-Plus - Single 13" sealed box w/1,000W amp. Total cost shipped = $1,650

Seaton SubMersive HP - Dual Opposing 15" drivers Sealed w/2,400W amp. Total cost shipped = $2,335

I finally decided on the:

Epik Empire - Dual Opposing 15" drivers Sealed w/600W RMS amp. Grand Total cost was $938

After the KC sub shootout, I really would have liked to get the Seaton but at literally 2 1/2 times the price, I couldn't justify it. If I were looking for a "money is no object" sub, I would give a pair of these with 4,000W amp upgrades a try.

I thought about the SVS until I read a post here from a member that owns both the Empire and an SVS. He mentioned that had he didn't think that the SVS was that much better than the Empire and would have gotten two Empires had he bought the Epik first. I wanted to get the best value for my $, so this did influence my decision a little.

EDIT: to add this quote




This left only the Epik and Rythmik. It was almost a coin toss. Only $100 difference in price, similar specs, similar reviews from owners although I have yet to find someone who has owned both. I really liked the Parallel Drive Technology concept from Epik and reports of good customer service along with many happy owners.

I called and talked to the owner (Chad) and talked with him for quite a while about my room, my existing setup and what I thought was lacking about it. By the end of the conversation, I placed the order. Exactly one week later my new sub arrived. Illinois to Texas. It came shipped freight with DB Schenker. It was double boxed with adequate padding and on it's own pallet.

I have only had time to unpack, do a sub crawl, run Audessey speaker setup and run a few REW sweeps to compare frequency response graphs at different crossover points. I will post some thoughts after listening more. One thing I would suggest is getting furniture sliders to move sub around when looking for best location. It's a heavy one.

Phantom power for my mic in my REW (Room Eq Wizard) rig setup.

Here are two graphs. One is close mic with very little room interaction and is only down 3db at 18 Hz. The other shows some room gain with 17 Hz being -3db. With my mains engaged and from my main listening positions, I was able to get some good response at 15 Hz and below.

I also added a graph of what I was getting from the Klipsch which drops quickly below about 23Hz.

Don't use it for anything else down here in Texas.

I used a dbx RTA-M mic and yes I did use a calibration file. I put my REW rig away for now. I want to spend some time listening/enjoying the sub for a bit. And also breaking it in (if there is any such thing). But I will get it back out again - don't know exactly when. I will do some higher SPL graphs and post them when I do.

Ok. Here's a little about my room/setup.

Room: 12.5' x 22.5' x 7.75' Dedicated Basement Home Theater with carpet over concrete (no padding), wood paneling over concrete walls (3 of them anyway) some broadband acoustic panels on walls and ceiling to absorb first reflections and tame high frequencies (I have Klipsch speakers) - no bass traps - only one corner is available for one anyway. Two doorways and my equipment rack occupy the other corners. Room is open to the stairway but has a door at the top of the stairs. This only adds about 400 cubic feet.

Equipment: Onkyo TX-SR806 AVR and Behringer Feedback Destroyer Pro DSP1124P Parametric EQ

Speakers: Klipsch RF-82's, RC-62, RS-62's and the Empire replaces a Klipsch RW-12d ported 12" sub.

My intial thoughts:

OMG! This is a huge improvement.
The RW-12d required five filters on the BFD to get a fairly decent frequency response. Two of them were boosts so alot of headroom was taken up really quickly. So far I am using only one filter on the Empire - and it's a -5db cut at about 26Hz. I raised the sub level by 3db after my initial Audessey setup. It also set my mains to full range, center x-over 40Hz, surrounds 50Hz. I changed center and surrounds to crossover at 80Hz. After trying all possible x-over settings on my main towers, I found 90 Hz to give me the best blend and REW FR graph. I am really happy with the sounds of things so far. I listened to several different genres of music streamed from my PC on my PS3. I also watched a little 5.1 Dolby Digital DirecTV material at different listening levels. The Empire sounds a lot better at lower listening volumes than the Klipsch. I am using Dynamic EQ which helps this out. But I had it on with my other sub as well. At louder volumes, on music, the only way I can describe it is - It puts out high SPL's and sounds like it is doing it effortlessly. Very tight, quick bass notes. No overhang. No muddiness at all. And you can definately tell that it goes lower, way lower than the ported Klipsch did. More impressions later.

Yeah, maybe we could plan a DFW sub shootout sometime! What subs do you guys that live in the area have?