I love the Nightingales!!!
I haven't heard the Epiphonies, so a comparison is impossible for me.
But I can tell you the Nightingales image like madmen!
Stanley and Bunky are correct.
I will be getting the Loreleis....over the next few months, but I refuse to part with the Nightingales! I have three rooms where there will be gear (Livingroom, my home office and a dedicated two-channel/HT room)
Much will be dependant on your gear, placement and room acoustics; as with just about any other speakers out there.
I found that placing the Nightingales roughly.... 9 feet apart, 18 inches (give or take a few inches, it is room dependant) off the sidewall and 28-29 inches off the backwall, provided for the best sound and best low end extention, in that room, in my previous house (17' x 13' ). Superb!
As mentioned by Stanley, I encountered some brightness and edgieness when first setting up the Nightingales. Even after 100+ hours of break-in. But I soon found out it was not the Nightingales. The cause for the brightness and edgieness in that room was the windows (three of them) and a plethora of decorative glass and metal knicknacks my girlfriend had placed around the room.
I bought some relatively cheap, but thick flannel twin-sized comforters (which were onsale for clearance) and placed it over the plastic window blinds, but under the curtains. I also removed most of the decorative knicknacks or threw a thick throw towel over the remaing knicknacks. No more brightness or edgieness!!n The sound was smooth, musical and oh so melodic...tunefull.
Then I experimented with the placement till I came to the distances and placement mentioned above. The soundstage opened up drastically and instruments and notes seemed to evelope me and seemed to be coming from my immediate left and right, as well as a full, deep soundstage in front and behind the Nightingales. They basically disappeared and imaged like crazy. Music seemd to be coming from all sides...in a good way. Not in a reflective messy way.
My friend who came over to listen with me, was convinced that I had a pair of small bookshelf speakers hidden somewhere to the right and left of our chairs, or angled somewhere behind us. The sound was so ....I don't know how to decribe it...... 3D?
The Nightingales have such a rich, beautiful sound. They won't knock you in the gut and hammer the breath out of you, with their bass response. But they can go down fairly low....at least lower than I expected them to go. But the tone and richness of acoustic bass (see The Ray Brown Trio-Soular Energy) is wonderful. As is well recorded electric bass. This is not a one-note bass thump. The bass for the most part is well intergrated into the soundfield and is more of a balanced presentation. Although, one some recordings where the bass is recorded and mixed in a more forward or dominant manner, the Nightingales can surprise you with their output. Like I said, they won't knock the teeth out of your head with the bass, but it is nice. I suppose personal preference will play a larger role in the bass.
Summing up, the Nightingales are wonderful speakers that get my toe tapping and really have a groove to them. They have a very musical...tunefull sound, which I enjoy very much.
So much so, that I'm selling my Quad 22L (in Yew finish) because no matter how I try or what equipment I experiment with, the Quad 22L can't match the Nightingales sweetness of melody.
This is my experience with the Odyssey Nightingales.
