Official Epik Subwoofer Thread - Page 630

Do a search for "Chad Kuypers", the owner of EPIK Subwoofers and you will see when he has posted here.


Bill C

Here is more information on the Taiwanese company that Epik is dealing with http://panjiva.com/T-S-C-Enterprise-Ltd/1299878

Exporting from China. I don't know if they received parts and put them together or they were already assembled. Maybe if someone stopped there they could comment on what they saw.

BTW, I don't think getting those heatsinks is going to do much of anything. What would do something would be if you could 'wick away' the heat from whatever is causing it inside the amp itself. Can't hurt but...

And the website of their number 3 customer from that link http://www.barefootsound.com/

They may assemble them here, but a great many (most?) ID companies source their components from China - and other Far Eastern sources.



Which do you think bro? Our "trade relationship" with China is not quid pro quo. It goes almost exclusively in one direction - namely from China to the US.

Oops political content....removed lest I be banned.

Based on this - and assuming the transaction record is complete - looks like they haven't received a shipment in over a year which would make me believe they were clearing out old inventory with the recent Legend sale. If so, probably not a good sign.

It could also be that Epik is getting their parts from a new distributor. That said, where there is smoke, there is fire. And there seems to be a lot of smoke with this company, and after eD, nothing would surprise me anymore.

Or, that was the vendor with the funky amps and has been cut off. The web services checking on shipments may have missed a new one, or he may have new shipments consigned differently or even sourced domestically (after that party imports). Hard to know just with vague internet info....smoke indeed. Cluck cluck cluck...like a bunch of old hens around here.

Maybe. That's why I said, "assuming the transaction record is complete." No idea how accurate those records are but if he's been importing from someone else, seems like there'd be a record of that. Considering the price he's selling the subs, I'd be very surprised if amps are sourced domestically since you'd expect that to add expense. Also, FWIW, I bought an Empire soon after they were introduced. A month or so ago, the amp blew. I called Epik and Chad immediately sent out a free replacement. From what I could tell, the replacement was almost identical to the original which would seem to indicate that it came from the same manufacturer. Different subject but since I've brought it up - I was very satisfied with the customer service I received - enough so to buy a Legend a couple weeks later during the sale. Based on what I've been reading here since, sounds like many people haven't had as good of an experience lately. Hope they get everything sorted out soon.

While I have been a pretty outspoken critic of Epik's customer service shortcomings, gosh the posts over the last week or so are a little out of line guys.

I trust that you all are aware that they have been having these end of the year blow outs every year, right? Nothing unusual there. And, after all the orders are processed, shipped, and the dust settles, they typically shut down for the last week or two of the year for the holidays. Same old, same old.

Again, I'm not excusing the normally horrible (imho) customer service, but I'm just not seeing anything out of the ordinary that should reasonably be construed to be prompting all of this failing rhetoric.

If we get deep into January, and there's still no sign, then I'd start worrying, and we'll have to encourage a local to take a field trip, but until then, I just think it's unfair to be going so overboard.

Take a break, enjoy the holidays, and let's see what the new year brings.

Yeah, I agree too many variables to just go off that random Internet site. As for the rest, well, the evidence is in this thread that there is some level of smoke. Many of the issues (phones/email not working, taking some people weeks/months to get simple replies to questions and issues, numerous reports of amp issues, etc) are the exact same as how they played out at eD. It could very well be, that this is just the way Chad runs his business and everything is totally fine. Or it might not be. You don't no the answer to that any more than I do.. But I think folks have the right to question it and be very cautious in either recommending or buying Epik products.

Actually, I am not seeing where the Legend subwoofer was ever $399 shipped... That is $100 off plus free shipping.. I have seen a few times where they offered free shipping as their BF deal..

They blew out all the Legends at that deal a few weeks ago...read the thread.

I think that's ack_bk's point. Until this past Black Friday, they'd never sold them that cheap before.

Why does it matter? It's what happened....maybe it didn't happen before, maybe it won't happen again, only Epik knows....the consumer's expectations aren't always valid. Happy holidays!

Especially when someone mentioned that since eD went under Epik has been seeing more business (hence not having any stock for at least a month or so).. It seems like an odd response to me unless Chad was feeling like Santa and wanting to spread the love... Otherwise he probably just could have kept them at the normal price and either gave out free shipping or knocked $50 off the price. Free shipping and $100 off? Amazing deal. The people that got one for that price should be happy, but if you consider the costs of these subs, plus free shipping, overhead, etc.... I don't see how Chad was not losing money on them... Amazing deal.

I actually found out about the deal through slickdeals where it was a very popular posting. As a result of it, I imagine he got a lot more sales than he expected. Just checked and this year's BF posting had 115 replies with 16k views. Last year's BF posting had 0 replies and 1600 views (it was free shipping but not a discounted price). So, based on last year's BF response/sales, Chad might have thought he needed to do more; and that might be the only reason for the better deal. Who knows. Just wished I'd have picked up 3 Legends instead of the 1.
Edited by benunc - 12/19/12 at 1:08pm

That could very well be the case. It was a very good deal.

Per Chad's latest Blog entry on Dec 5th:

"Please be patient.We have SOLD OUT of all our subwoofers and do not have any idea when more will be available.It will be at least a month, but we will update everyone here, when we know more".

I would think he would have some idea. Or maybe posted responses in this thread or other forum threads
(such as the Blu Ray sub forum) as to why customer service has been not very good for "some people".

I have his products, and have had no problems with them. And I do hope he (Chad) gets back on his feet again,
because his company with "no products but tee shirts" is surely running on fumes.

vardo

I can see why the Legends sold out, that's the product that went on sale. The Empires did NOT go on sale though. Either HUGE demand for a regularly priced product or extreme supply problems.

Or, as I mentioned above, Chad wants to take some time off to recharge his batteries, so he kept the supply low so he could have some downtime once the the last of the inventory sold out. If you notice, he is not even taking orders now for once stock becomes available. He is probably not answering the phone or email either for issues/problems.

Fabulous way to run a business! Bravo!

I'm sure Chad is making sure you're happy next time around Greg. Maybe he runs a business on his own terms. Maybe he's decided, as he's apparently done before, to put out different subs. Maybe he's sick of people telling him what he should do and is going to do something completely different. Time will tell.

I got the heatsinks yesterday and placed them on the amp. Very easy to do, just peel and stick. The fins are very short. I'm not sure if it will help much but the heat sink is getting very warm so I would guess I am getting improved natural convection. Maybe it will make a difference of a few degrees, maybe not.

I don't think you'll be able to wick away heat from the inside, whatever that means. It's a sealed sub, so if you were to drill a hole in it, the sub may be comprimised.

I have no problem with a small family owned company taking time off for the holidays, but how about a little communication to your customers I do not think it is asking much to be more communicative here on AVS and on your website, is it? In the meantime, a lot of us, including myself will continue to speculate about the true status of this company.

The amp is in its own enclosure inside the sub, not really part of the sealed box for the driver (except for the access for the wires to the amp). The amp itself is basically a big circuit board with components mounted on it, the plate is the heatsink as far as I could tell when I changed amps on my Empire, so maybe those little heatsinks you attached might help but I wouldn't think by a lot (but if you put as many as would fit?). I don't think you could attach any additional heatsinks on the inside.

I don't guess those heat sinks could possibly hurt, but you may be overly concerned about this. I bought a Legend in January 2012 despite concerns I had about amp failures being reported at that time. My Legend typically is running 12-14 hours/day. It rarely get a day off. I've experienced no problems whatsoever and still love it. I'm now regretting I didn't pick up one or two more last month. As usual, YMMV, but I'd quit worrying so much and start enjoying your sub more.

Too bad he didn't sell the subs for $309.99 and tossed in a t-shirt. He'd have cleared everything.

Such a fish!