Price: £399
Website: www.epos-acoustics.com
Size: WxHxD: 18x85x20cm
Weight: 10kg
Bass/mid drivers: 2x130mm injection moulded polymer with die-cast aluminium chassis
Tweeter: 25mm aluminium alloy dome
Sensitivity/impedance: 87dB/4 ohms
Power handling: 200 watts max
Frequency response: 48Hz-20kHz
Finishes: Black, dark cherry, light cherry vinyl wraps
Plus points:
Superb midrange, impressive bass extension, fine timing and resolution
Minus points:
Some unwelcome bass 'thump' on occasion
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Summer saw the release of this efficient looking floorstander from Epos which aims to offer an affordable alternative to the company's more advanced M range. Part of the ELS series which includes impressive little standmount the ELS3 along with centre and subwoofer speakers, the ELS 303 is designed with stereo music playback in mind, though it wouldn't be out of place in a full 5.1 surround system.
It's a slimline fellow at just under 18cm across, in a standard box design and in the black version that our sample came in looked quite imposing. However, the bevelled edges at the front quite literally take some of the edge off this effect so although they look quite brisk and business-like, they're unlikely to dominate a room.
Since they're slim and not particularly deep either, it's very handy that they come with their own spiked plinth, which extends the size at the bottom to 25cm square, which makes for a much more reliable footprint. It comes with 6mm spikes to decouple the cabinet from any potential floor vibration and incidentally, the plinth raises the height to around 88cm, which should fit in nicely with most seated listening positions.
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| Bi-wire terminals
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Behind the plain black mesh dust covers, it uses the same tweeter and midrange driver as the highly praised ELS3. The Epos Swift tweeter uses a 25mm aluminium alloy diaphragm with rear cavity loading and a high efficiency Neodymium magnet system, with the front covered by a little plastic dome to prevent damage.The Epos Lightning ELS130 bass/mid driver (seems to be a bit of a speed theme emerging in the naming) uses a 130mm driver, its piston made from an unspecified injection moulded polymer and behind it a die-cast rigid aluminium chassis.
They're augmented by a 130mm woofer (the one at the bottom with the round rather than the pointed dust cap in the centre) which is connected to the rest of the speaker in a two-and-a-half-way configuration (two similar or identical speakers handling bass and mid duties, as opposed to a three-way, which has separate dedicated speakers for high mid and bass frequencies). The woofer section is sealed off from the rest of the speaker and includes a 45mm bass port at the back (the midrange section is not ported). Also on the back is a brace of standard banana plug terminals with a gold-plated bi-wiring terminal should you wish to use two amps to power the speaker.
Performance
If it's heavy, pulverising bass you're after, these won't be the speakers for you. Big bass means big speakers, pure and simple, and these certainly won't be up to the job of dubwise trouser flapping bass shenanigans.
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| Bass port and terminals
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What you do get is an extremely well articulated and controlled bass sound and with a generally rich sense of tone. Despite the lack of a dedicated bass driver, there feels as though there's plenty of bottom weight on offer, giving the impression of rounding out the low end rather than augmenting what wouldn't be there naturally. There was a slight tendency towards some unnecessary bass 'thump' on occasion, although moving the speakers out from the wall by a metre or so, coupled with the time-honoured ritual of stuffing a (freshly laundered) pair of socks into the bass port at the back lessened this somewhat.
The clarity of the midband however, is startling. When things are smooth like on Richard Hawley's excellent new Coles Corner album, every note seems to be lovingly enunciated, with plenty of room for the notes to attack and decay on his sparse country arrangements, but without bottling out on the fuller orchestral numbers.
And when things get really busy like the deranged psychedelic guitar spanking on Bo Diddley's Bad Trip, there's no holding back, with every note held up for inspection, and no suspicion that the aural waters are being muddied by poor timing or smear. High-up cymbal taps and celeste notes meanwhile sound clear and full, but without the harshness that can result from an overenthusiastic tweeter. Basically, you get the feeling that what was delivered in the studio is pretty much what you're getting here.
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There are prettier speakers around, but very few can deliver the sonic goods at this sort of price. Epos's M22 with its Thunder bass drivers will certainly offer more low end, but for clarity and insight into the main listening area (ie the midrange) this is a beautifully articulate speaker that deserves an audition at your earliest convenience.
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