Ruark Epilogue II Bookshelf speakers

Any product of the British company Ruark can be the benchmark of build quality in modern acoustic industry. Therefore, opening the box with Epilogue II we again mentally prepare ourselves for the fact that now we will take two masterpieces out.

And it happened so. They are small, neat, made with extremely high quality. There is a black front panel with beautiful texture. Are the side walls made of wood? Outwardly - yes, but in reality they are made of 18mm MDF. A beautiful "medal" of the branded certificate is imprinted into the back panel and if not for the attached nearbymodest paper sticker says "Handcrafted in England", this shiny badge would look frivolous. Well, not the conveyor then churns these "Epilogues" out!

The system has 19-mm tweeters with a silk impregnated dome. 140mm woofer has the diffuser made of impregnated paper. The profile of dynamics is specially optimized, has a butyl suspension and high-impact polymer basket with powerful magnetic system.

The manufacturer doesn't give any information about the internal structure of the device. So we can only say that despite of small sizes, these speaker systems differ by big weight (6 kg per each), are available in four finishes and have two pairs of terminals.

In passport Epilogue II don't have high sensitivity, but it is quite enough subjectively. These babies are able to sound dynamically, freely - a bit of aggression is added at high levels, but there is no any dirt. Bass is biting, "dried", but starting from moderately low frequencies it is smooth - there no any bass reflex "humps", although the systems don't belong to the class of closed constructions. And although they need a bit low-frequency "base", it's easy to discern different bass instruments in sound palette. The plotting is like in very expensive models.

I did not like that some deficit of "meat" is transferred to the lower middle too - voices are not so bodily and alive like in other systems. Because of this the sound turns out to be a bit lighter that usually. However, the accuracy and clarity of playback weigh all the disadvantages out. The middle is unusually clear, linear and detailed. The top is accurate, strict and incredibly fast.

Sound scene is good too - compact, but accurately staggered, having not only the depth but also height. Sounds don't stick to the speaker systems. Attack is brilliant.

Ruark Epilogue II, starting from a certain point, sensitively responds to the approach to walls. If put them closer than 30 cm the scene will lose the depth, but the informative content of the playing won't decrease - bass will be more juicy. People say about such speaker systems, "Got out, put and enjoy"/ Set up is easy and simple. The variant of their installation on good and quite high racks away from walls, with not very wide stereo base and certainly with integration a powerful "fast" subwoofer (simple "theatre" won't fit - they are not musical) into the system is ideal. In such variant they will cope with any genres, and in their pure form they tend to classics and acoustic jazz.