# AudioControl Epic 160 review/first impressions



## Hispls (Mar 12, 2008)

Since there's almost no info on these online, I figured I'd bite the bullet and try one out. I was mainly looking to just use the SPL meter function for testing and EQ-ing, but also curious about the "restoration circuitry"

My first beef with this is the mounting, although it's a half din height, it's a bit narrow to iso-mount and the brackets seem to be designed for under the dash mount. 

Besides that, it looks decent, seems solidly built, and the user interface is pretty basic and easy to use. No numbers on any of the dials, so you sort of have to guess.

To clear something else up that I'd seen mentioned elsewhere, the unit is NOT a line driver and won't amplify the signal coming in (at least as a through pass). The main knob on it is the ammount of restoration added to the signal, and at least with my setup, most of the time it's turned all the way down and if anything you kind of wish the knob went lower rather than higher.

All that out of the way, the volt meter is accurate to 1/10th of a volt and the DB meter which only reads to the whole DB (no tenths) seems accurate as well. Reports on the termpro forum suggest accuracy from .2 to 2 db. Without access to a properly calibrated meter, I'd have to way to tell. Either way, it should be accurate enough to EQ with fair accuracy.

As for the "bass restoration" function.... well it would have come in much more handy 10-15 years ago. I really like the effect with older recordings, it's particularly helpful with 80's metal. The early Megadeth and Metallica (pre- black album) will sound more like the newer stuff with more in the low notes. The widely available descriptions of the processor online seem pretty accurate as to what it does. Again, I find the effect nice with a lot of my old favorites but ultimately useless with modern mixes. 

The restoration certainly pushes a lot of low frequency stuff so having plenty of power and adequate x-max is probably a must. I run a substantial substage (pair of 15" TC-2000's in appx 6.5 cubes tuned to 28 hz powered by 4 Zed Miniliths) so extra power on tap and xmax isn't a problem....of course I probably have more output at 30hz than most folks anyway so I'm wondering if the effect of the processor would be less overpowering with a different setup?

Overall, a fun toy and should be useful for testing and EQ setting. I'd be pretty pissed if I paid full retail for it, but at the price they go for on eBay, I feel it's worth the money.

If anyone with some refs here has an o-scope, termlab, or any other equipment they'd like to test this thing out with, I'd loan it out if you pay shipping and don't keep it too long.


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## Mless5 (Aug 21, 2006)

So Epicenter less db and V meter?


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## Hispls (Mar 12, 2008)

Mless5 said:


> So Epicenter less db and V meter?


Near as I can gather from AudioControl site and marketing, yes, the epic is basically the epicenter "restoration" circuit plus the meters. I'm not going to say 100% certain that's the only difference as I don't have the epicenter to compare against, and I'm not sure what other small differences in operation there may be.


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## GlasSman (Nov 14, 2006)

I'm fairly certain thats an Epicenter with the addition of the meters.


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## ATOMICTECH62 (Jan 24, 2009)

I know this is an older than dirt thread but Ive been searching and cant find an answer any where.I just bought one of these new and I thought it was a single band parametric with an Epicenter.However all knobs are dead until the Restoration button is engaged.Then they all function.Is this normal?Or am I an idiot for assuming it should have a parametric EQ without the epicenter engaged?
Or is AC the idiots for not designing that way?
Does mine have a problem?
I have been using a Four.1 as a parametric on my sub out running to an epicenter so I thought I could just replace 2 for 1 with the Epic 160.I dont know anybody who owns one.


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## Hispls (Mar 12, 2008)

ATOMICTECH62 said:


> I know this is an older than dirt thread but Ive been searching and cant find an answer any where.I just bought one of these new and I thought it was a single band parametric with an Epicenter.However all knobs are dead until the Restoration button is engaged.Then they all function.Is this normal?Or am I an idiot for assuming it should have a parametric EQ without the epicenter engaged?
> Or is AC the idiots for not designing that way?
> Does mine have a problem?
> I have been using a Four.1 as a parametric on my sub out running to an epicenter so I thought I could just replace 2 for 1 with the Epic 160.I dont know anybody who owns one.


Pretty much turning off the processing feature bypasses the whole box.

I would like to revise this thread by saying that I currently use the Zed audio Ra bass restoration processor which has far supperior processing power, the effect of restoration function has much more flexibility and can be set to be much more subtle.

Ra also has a built in variable LPF, 9V pre-amp, and compressor feature that all work whether or not you add any effect. 

I would reccomend the Zed piece to anyone looking for a little low freq processing. I would suggest the SPL-Lab wireless bass meter if you need SPL meter and have a big budget, if you need a simple and inexpensive SPL sensor the makeitlouder.com one is as accurate as the DMM you attatch it to, so very capable and inexpensive compared to the other preassure sensors.


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