Epos LS3 or Wharfedale Diamond 9.1?

The SB3 does use the same size woofer but it is a Peerless with a larger magnet. the difference between the two is not just in bass extension. the SB3 is better accross the board. the drivers complement each other better in the SB3. More attention is paid to the crossover in the SB3 as well. I personaly use teh Von Schweikert VR-1's that claim to go to 40Hz. The NHT SB3's go to 39. There should be little difference in bass extension. NOT true. The SB3's really do go to 39 while the VR-1's start to roll off after about 70Hz. Now what the VR-1's do in the midrange and highs is a different matter all together. But if you want a reasonably priced speaker that outperforms it's retail price by a wide margin... the SB3 is hard to beat.

Good luck!

Kck:

The SB3 does go lower in the bass than the SB2; is in a slightly bigger cabinet; and the position of the woofer is on the bottom for the SB2 and on the top for the SB3. Otherwise, they have the same tweeter and my guess the same woofer (at least they are the same size). If you are planning to use a sub-woofer, I would think that the differences would be negligible.

The SB2 is really something else and rises to the occasion when placed with better components. I had paired them with a Prima Luna Prologue 2 integrated tube amp and the sound was musical, engaging, nuanced, refined, etc. They were great with my Marantz receiver, but exceptional with the Prima Luna.

Regards, Rich

Well I am intrigued now by this SB2/SB3 thing... is there a noticeable difference in performance if one does not care about bass extension of the monitor? (using sub).

in regards to Bignerd's comments, I own the diamond 9.6's and can say from experiance that the difference between 10 and 100+ hours of solid break in is night and day.

I have a pair of the 9.1's here that I am auditioning. So far they are dreadful but they have not finished breaking in yet. Even straight out of the box the NHT SB2 blows them away as Rar1 said. In that price range you can go with the SB2, Kef Q1, or even some of teh Celestions and get a bigger bang for the buck. If you can afford the NHT SB3 you would probably not want to upgrade for a while.

Good luck!

the diamond

If my choices were only between the EPOS ELS3 and the Wharfedale Diamond 9.1, I would choose the Diamond 9.1 with no hesitation.

I owned the EPOS ELS3 and found them to sound somewhat boxy and congested in the upper bass. I also felt that the EPOS could not be driven all that loud before breaking up. I used them with solid state components ... a vintage Marantz 2240 receiver; an Audiosource power amp; a Music Hall CD 25 cd player; and a JVC 602 DVD player. I had the Diamond 8.1's in the same set-up and the differences were fairly noticeable. The sound was very clear and open and the Diamonds worked well in a variety of placements. The 9.1's offer improved sound, especially in the bass department ... a real step above both the Diamond 8.1 and the EPOS ELS3.

If you are open to other options, I would audition the NHT SB2's. These are the small monitors that I ultimately went with and have kept. I prefer how these speakers sound with both solid state and tube components ... very musical sounding.

Regards, Rich

I own several bookshelves as well (Focus audio FS688, TSW mini monitors, Castle Trents, Aperion 502b, PSB Alpha mini and Axiom Mzeroti) and briefly auditioned the Epos ELS3.

The Epos were driven by a budget NAD amp and CDP. I Thought they sounded very good and had some very good balance points. As Armstrod mentioned they are not bright or boring. Musical and involving. They also at their price point and for their size had excellent balance between bass, treble and midrange. Nothing really called attention to itself

I didn't buy the Epos because I was auditioning floorstanders and just auditioned the Epos out of curiosity. If in the market I Wouldn't hesitate buying the Epos.

BW Maxx

Thanks Armstrod. I *am* using a receiver, but it does not suffer from brightness; in fact, some users have claimed it has a tube-like sound in the top end, which I do not dispute. (JVC F10). Am also using a BG Radia (Z1?) center speaker with a ribbon tweeter and it sounds just fine with the JVC, even cranked up. In fact it replaced a Rocket Onix RSC200, partly because of its overwhelming size, but also because I felt I was missing some detail. The BG has me set for the center, very nice indeed. As you can see, I don't mind mix'n'match of my speakers.

One thing that does concern me about the Epos is the 4 ohm impedance, although the JVC is rated for 6 ohms and does not do badly in the impedance aspect.

Hope to hear more from others as well.

I haven't heard the Wharfedales, but I compared the ELS3s, Axiom M3tis, and Ascend CBM-170s, and I bought the ELS3s. The Axioms were much brighter than the Epos, and the Ascends were a little too laid back for me.

The kicker is I'm using a tube preamp. If you're using all solid state, like your receiver, it's possible that any titanium tweeter, like the Axiom and Epos have, might seem a little bright. As usual, synergy is the key.