Legendary Epos speaker brand acquired, new speakers on the way

By Becky Roberts
last updated

"Be prepared to see more unconventional ideas in our new Epos loudspeakers," says new owner Karl-Heinz Fink

Karl-Heinz Fink acquires Epos Loudspeakers
(Image credit: Epos)

British speaker brand Epos has been acquired by Karl-Heinz Fink, founder of German speaker designer firm FinkTeam.

The brand is no longer under the ownership of Creek Audio, who purchased Epos in 1999, with Karl-Heinz Fink concluding negotiations with Michael Creek to take over Epos Loudspeakers with immediate effect.

Epos operations will be run from Germany and the UK by the team of Karl-Heinz Fink and former Epos Sales Director David Jefferys, who are working on introducing brand-new speakers to the market to revitalise the renowned brand name. 

It's exciting news considering the previous successes of both the Epos brand (which has turned out legendary speakers such as the Epos ES11) and Karl-Heinz Fink (who has been behind the design of many well-reviewed speakers). 

Creek Audio will continue to sell stock on existing models and be responsible for spare parts on all models produced by Creek prior to 2020.

Fink commented: “I’m happy to continue a well-established British brand that started its life with some great products, showing the unusual ideas of the founder, Robin Marshall. When he started Epos, it was not just a brand like many others, but unique in many ways. Be prepared to see more unconventional ideas in our new Epos loudspeakers."

Details on new Epos speakers are promised by the owners "as soon as we can".

MORE:

High End Munich 2019: Show report and pictures

The most important speaker company you've never heard of

Finkteam launches Borg loudspeaker at High End Show 2018

Monitor Audio's acclaimed Bronze speaker series enters sixth generation

The best 30 hi-fi speakers of What Hi-Fi?'s lifetime

Becky Roberts
Becky Roberts

Becky is the managing editor of What Hi-Fi? and, since her recent move to Melbourne, also the editor of Australian Hi-Fi magazine. During her 10 years in the hi-fi industry, she has been fortunate enough to travel the world to report on the biggest and most exciting brands in hi-fi and consumer tech (and has had the jetlag and hangovers to remember them by). In her spare time, Becky can often be found running, watching Liverpool FC and horror movies, and hunting for gluten-free cake.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bristollinnet
    As a former owner of the legendary ES14, and a current but still satisfied owner of the ES22, its really sad too yet more of our great British heritage in HiFi loudspeakers just relegated to a ‘brand’ flogged off to an overseas name most of us have never heard of.

    Creek did a half-way good job in keeping the name and (until recently) most of the spirit alive but you only needed to look at their accounts to know how it was going to end.
    Reply
  • Skonnect
    bristollinnet said:
    As a former owner of the legendary ES14, and a current but still satisfied owner of the ES22, its really sad too yet more of our great British heritage in HiFi loudspeakers just relegated to a ‘brand’ flogged off to an overseas name most of us have never heard of.

    Creek did a half-way good job in keeping the name and (until recently) most of the spirit alive but you only needed to look at their accounts to know how it was going to end.

    This doesn't make sense. Epos haven't been introducing a new product the last five or six years if we're discounting the puny, tin-can sounding K5 and and the K1C, that was just a single K1 for center-channel uses. I don't know if the 'i' has done anything, but it was likely just a marketing stunt to change the internal wiring for something even cheaper. You want them gone and dead in the gutter?

    The K2 floorstander was a seriously decent speaker, it had its flaws, but in the price-range it managed some impressive feats of musicality, but that was in 2014. I think it's been four or five years where Epos has continually teased active versions of their speakers, which now are completely without merit on the current market. It's the same with Creek, they've managed to do nothing to keep up with the quick moving market of digital-connections and streaming, and haven't been close to class leading in sound either. Decent, sure. But decent doesn't cut it any longer, the market has narrowed a lot the last ten years, and the old english brands better get their acts together or they'll be left "another brand" which is sold.

    Some british brands does modern Hi-Fi really, really well, and I could laud praises on the likes of Chord and Rega (and for many purposes KEF) for being true to state-of-the-art sound quality and giving the user exactly what he expects and needs from a modern product. However, there are so many old, 'great' british brands that are dragging their behinds along way too slowly and expect people to be loyal to their brand. Well, if that's all they can offer, a 'brand' is all they'll be.

    Now I hope that some british manufacturers, reads this and acknowledges that there are markets running a lot faster out there, than the conservative british market. The truth is, that if they continue to waste time and money on CD-players and ignore more clever speaker-solutions, they'll become 'a brand' or - even worse - an 'install brand'. Shivers!
    Reply