Bought used, these are a great audio value. They also don't need a boat load of power. My NAD 50 watt integrated sounds great. Bass definition on these is really remarkable. Epos midrange is always great no matter which model. These are elegant looking to boot!

This review is for the original Epos M16.

My living room is perfect for a beautiful pair of speakers, but it's not easy today to find top notch speakers that don't look like spaceships or have high gloss Ferrari finishes that look silly with antiques, etc. Clearly I needed to look to the British!

I have owned several Harbeth and Spendor speakers, but today's prices are ridiculous, even used. I decided to explore Epos because they seemed a great value. I set out to buy the M16i or perhaps the larger standmount M12i. I was lucky to have a few dealers in town and was able to listen to the entire line. Pne dealer had a pair of the original M16 floorstanders as well as the second generation "i" version. He was kind enough to tell me that the original M16 had hardly hit the street before the "i" or "improved" version replaced it. I asked the difference and he stated that the original metal grills were loved by some but not by all. He also stated there was a slight change to the plinth and modification to the tweeter. I listened to both the M16 and the M16i in the same room driven by a 150 Watt NAD C375BEE integrated.

The sound of the two iterations was so similar I could barely tell the difference. I did feel that the M16 had a bit brighter tweeter. Then, I asked the dealer to add a slight rake ( adjust front spikes slightly to add a back tilt) to the original M16 and the two versions sounded not only the same, but the original M16 sounded better than the newer M16i. I asked if we could do the same to the newer 16i version and he was kind enough to do so. There was no improvement. They sounded great, but for roughly 1/2 the price all I had to do was adjust the rake on the older version and it sounded fantastic. This was not the first time I had added a bit of rake to a speaker to just take the edge off and improve sound stage.The dealer had a good laugh and said he was delighted to sell the M16s to get them out of inventory and also delighted that the guy who got them knew enough to sell himself the speakers.

The moral of the story is that the Epos M16 and M16i are basically identical great speakers. There may have been a few little changes to the M16 but the "i" may have stood more for price "increase" than "improved". If you see a pair of the beautiful original M16s for a great price, scoop them up and give them just a tad of tilt. You won't be sorry!