Official Epik Subwoofer Thread - Page 613

Let me get this straight. There are quite of few guys that have had amp failures. There shouldn't be barely any! If I got a new sub and the amp failed after 20 mins,I'd be screaming! So you guys are ok with spending $800 + shipping and then soon after the amp takes a dump. Just because someone rectify's the faulty amp doesn't make it right.. It should never have happened. If I waited a week and the amp went out right away,then had to wait another week to get another one and put it in myself,I'd be pretty pissed! PS,I'm looking at getting one of these. I heard it might have been a bad batch of amps,but do we know that. I want to see some people post that recently bought on and zero problems..

Hope you have thick skin!!! Your probably going to be chastized! But I'm with you. There should be NO problems when spending good money, and to some of us good hard earned money. I was going for an Empire, but was steered away by the amp issues with Epik. Went with Rythmik instead.

Jeff

Not quite recent, but I have an empire I bought from a member here about a year ago and it's running strong. Also bought a legend for my bedroom last black Friday and that one has been problem free also.

Which Rythmik did you go with?


I'm interested in the dual woofers. How good they pound. I wonder if they switched amps or actually check them out now.

[quote
I'm interested in the dual woofers. How good they pound. I wonder if they switched amps or actually check them out now.[/quote]

I also own a seaton submersive hp I love the inertness dual opposing woofers offer. I don't know if epik checks amps before installing. I will say that while the submersive is in an entirely different league than the empire, the epik subs provide incredible performance for the price. In my opinion, if doing mostly ht, I would rather have the empire than the legend. It pressurizes the room more easily. And provides more couch shaking bass. They both have the same sound. The legend is perfect for my bedroom since I didn't need a ton of bass and my daughters bedroom is right next to mine. the only time I raise the volume on the legend is when listening to music. The sound is that clean and that good.

Yeah, that was Epik's plan, to have amp failures. Their supplier let them down, they're aware of the issue and they have taken appropriate steps. If that's not good enough for you, maybe you're just not the right buyer to take the risk. Sometimes with an emerging company or technology you need to work with it rather than it being about consumer-is-king expectations of perfection. $800 for a sub of this performance isn't very expensive at all really, either, one reason I chose to try. My amp took over a year to develop a problem, too. My 2 cents...

Thanks for the reply. I'll probably go with the empire then. From what I'm hearing it has great a great mid range. Would love something you can feel in your chest

That shouldn't be a problem. About how big is your room approximately ?

about 10 x 25. 10' across ,its an L shaped basement.

Keep in mind with that size, you might want 2. If you get one now, you can see for yourself how it performs in your basement. And then make a decision. I have my empire running with the subM in my 16 x 18 living room. Then again I'm a little of a bass head, so it might be enough for you. For now anyway .

Yes,I can always add one. I do have a Jamo 15" also and a 12" klipsch . So I would probably pair the jamo with the Empire until I got another empire.

Ok very good. I have also mixed different subs before my current 2. It takes a while to get them dialed in together but it's definitely worth it.

What do they mean when they say EQ a sub?

Let me get this straight. Do we all not take a chance when we buy any new product!

I went with an FV15. I based my decision on personel reviews here on AVS and the subwoofer shoot out also on this forum. Also Brian and Enrico were always there when I had a question or concern and very helpful. I was so up and down about which sub to buy and they steered me in the right direction.

Jeff

EQ means to use an equalizer to filter the LFE signal, typically to flatten the subwoofer frequency response in your room. Examples of subwoofer equalizers are the BFD (Behringer Feedback Destroyer), MiniDSP, and Velodyne SMS-1.

I've had my dual Legends for about 6 months and have no problems. The amps run very hot...
heat kills electronics. I'm sure Chad is not thrilled when he has to send out replacement amps.
It costs him time and money. My guess is that he's a very busy guy, and think 3 people put their
subs (CNC cabinet, driver(s) and amp are all produced or installed by him and his wife and some other guy
or gal).

Power Supplies (amps) that fail can be a common problem. Power supply companies are cheap by nature
ane are hard to deal with. I use to package Power One power supplies, and unless you order them
in huge quanties, they don't even want to listen to your problems of amp failure.

I'm sure that Chad is dealing with the amp problem as best as he can. Maybe even swithched
vendors.

I love my Legends, and there is a 3 yr warranty on them (amps). For the price I paid I feel I got a superior product
for the money. $499 is cheap for a dual 12" sub. See anything like that at Best Buy or a audio salon? Not at $499.

Bottom line is I am more than satisfied with my purchace.

vardo

I would purchase a set of Legends, but the ticking time bomb is a concern. Not saying that the amps would fail, but knowing its a issue and sending out 2nd time bombs to band-aid the issue s not cool.

Reminds me of my old 2002 Acura TLS with the ticking time bomb transmissions that was really no fix except to offer a 100k tranny warranty. Guess what happen at the 88k on the odometer and 3-times in the shop to replace the pos transmissions?? bye bye Acura !!!!

I say go with the Empire Subs as there seems to not have the amps issues the these Legends are having.

Only way I'll buy the Legends is when Chad can assure the robes on the amps are resolved

Some AVRs also can equalize the sub using programs like Audyssey XT or XT32 (lesser versions of Audyssey don't do sub eq). In addition to those dboff01 mentions, anther highly regarded sub eq right now is the Antimode in various flavors. Some subs have built in eq programs, too.

I have read much about the Empire's mid bass slam, I'm wondering where I should set my crossover with smaller speakers? I have paradigm Millenia 200's which are rated down to 55hz, and my surround speakers are Polk rc80i in ceiling speakers which I know don't go very low. Audysey set my levels at 40hz and I bumped it up to 80, but I'm wondering if I should up it to 100 or higher? Any recommendation?

I disagree, Chad stepping up and correcting the issue DOES make it right, IMO.

And there was no week long wait. He had me my new amp next day.

We're all entitled to our opinions, and how I'm treated IF something goes wrong makes up a large portion of mine.

Yes, I was not happy that my sub was DOA, and I WAS screaming at first, but after 5 minutes speaking with Chad and having a new amp next day I am more than satisfied.

To each their own and YMWV.

Justin

Yeah, 80Hz is definitely a good start for the Empire. I would simply play with it a bit if you feel that you are missing something. Start moving up by 5-10Hz at a time. When the subwoofer starts to distract from the main speakers, back the crossover off a little until it sounds integrated again. If you can set the crossover at 100Hz without localization then so be it. Your mains and receiver will thank you while the Empire won't even break a sweat.

I disagree with your disagree. I'm sure Chad is a great guy,but if you have a certain failure rate on something,you don't just send it out hoping nothing will happen. I'd love to know the ratio of amp problems against no amp problems..

Like I said, to each their own and YMMV!

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Justin

That's it, he just sent them out hoping nothing would happen. Unless Chad shares that stat we'll never know....but remember forums aren't a good place to determine such. Good luck with whatever you decide on.

so as of last night my phoenix is getting no power. i checked my connections and tried another power cord but to no avail. is this most likely a dead amp? i bought the sub in late '09 and it has worked perfectly up to now.

Well ironically ,I just ordered a Legend. Tried online,but got an error message 3 times so I called left a message. Chad called me right back and I placed an order for a Legend. Very nice guy,I can tell just from talking to him that you would have zero issues getting a problem rectified..

i called epik this morning and sent a backup email but i haven't heard back yet. i just wanted to find out if anyone here knew of anything else i could check.

Call them..

The Empire is Epik's most popular and successful sub. Empire sales surpassed the sum of all Epik's sub sales prior to the introduction of the Empire a very long time ago. It's just a guess, but I would think Epik has manufactured and sold around 10,000 Empires.

That said, I am not surprised that we are reading about so many amp failures. The amp failure rate seems to be acceptable because Chad hasn't changed amp manufacturers, gone out of business, etc.

No one wants to send out defective products. That's just bad business. The best any company can do is try to make it right by the customer which Chad has done from the very start-up of the business. Let's give Chad some slack because he has done right by all his customers (other than being a little slow in the communication department!).

Just my $.02 and feel free to disagree. I am just relaying my thoughts on the matter. For the record... I own five Empires. I had one amp replaced because it seemed to me at the time that it was humming too loudly. In the end I think it turned out to be a bad sub cable down the chain if I remember correctly.