Following on from the ES-14N, Epos, the company now under the ownership of respected audio consultant and speaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink, unveiled the Epos ES-7N, a small bookshelf speaker designed to fit inside a flatpack bookshelf from a particularly popular Swedish outlet - it can also, of course, make good use of a good speaker stands.

That said, we were told at The Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2024 that the "baby Epos" (29 x 20 x 27cm (HxWxD)) has been predominantly designed to work well sat inside a bookshelf or close to a wall without compromising the sound.

Enabling this feat is a neat switch on the rear, allowing you to select the correct crossover filter and choose between two versions of tonal balance to best suit the speaker's position. Flick the switch upwards if it is sat 30-50cm away from a wall, and nudge the switch to the down position if it's going against a wall or sitting on a bookshelf. For those of you considering placing the Epos ES-7N on stands, you're recommended to use one 70cm tall.

Beyond the trick crossover, the asymmetrical ES-7N is a two-way design featuring a hybrid ceramic/aluminium tweeter with a 28mm voice coil as used in the ES-14N. This is partnered with a low-hysteresis 5-inch mid/bass driver made of a new mica-loaded polypropylene material developed for ES-14N's 18cm woofer cone.

Meanwhile, the cabinet uses 2x8mm MDF panels with a high-loss damping layer in between to control unwanted resonances of the box itself. We're told that an additional wooden block on the top helps to optimise the stereo image. Additionally, only a single brace was necessary to make the cabinet quiet. The cabinet is finished with a double front baffle with chambered edges to reduce diffraction errors.

The front port tube was apparently a challenge as it sits on the side of the cabinet – not ideal when you want to minimise the tube output of the standing wave modes inside the cabinet. The solution is a bent port ending centrally between the two side panels. It features selective damped ventilation holes in the middle to control the output in the critical mid-band.

The speaker comes delivered with silicon rubber spikes for sound isolation between the speaker and the ground.

The ES-7N put on an excellent show in Kog Audio's room at The Bristol Hi-Fi Show at the end of some rather lovely equipment from T+A.

Even better news for those of you with larger rooms is that Epos's website says that the ES-7N is "the second model out of three", with a "larger floorstander" coming to join the series.

The Epos ES-7N is marked as coming soon and is available in three semi-matte finishes of orange (our choice, natch!), white, and black, alongside a walnut wood option and has an SRP of £1,890.

Visit Epos for more information