Infinity Speakers crap or cool

PS: The Ren 90 was also made in a special edition hi gloss black lacquer that looks absolutely stunning. They are very rare, not many are seen for sale, but Infinity is popular in Germany and there was a pair for sale on Ebay a few days ago. I was SO tempted, but shipping from Germany to New York wouldve cost a fortune. (by the way, Infinity also made a smaller version, the Renaissance 80, which has an 8" woofer).

http://cgi.ebay.de/INFINITY-RENAISS...ryZ23323QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

They sound like crap and are made in who-knows-where. I would recommend Triangle speakers. Made in France, priced to sell, awesome sound, highly sensitive so they don't require a lot of power to drive, open & airy sounding.

If you are talking about the old, pre-Harman International Infinity, that is a different story entirely--great sounding, innovative, US made speakers from, essentially, a company that no longer exists . . .

 

http://www.infinitysystems.com/homeaudio/product_detail.aspx?Prod=PosII&cat=&Typ...
POSI became POSII Qa replaced POSII 43Hz-19kHz +/-3.5dB
Crossover 1600Hz 8 ohms installed EMITs from RSjr 32 kHz

I remember the Qa -good speaker, The POSII are similar in looks the tweeter is centered above the 10 inch.woofer and the speakers are ported. By installing the EMIT from the RSjr
the speaker is almost the same as the Qa. The stands are the same I believe they are made of graphite NASA stuff and screw on to the back of the speaker leaving them free standing rocking horses. Strange thing they are black and the original grills on the POS II are black matching nicely, the stands were intended for the Qas & they had dark brown grills that did not match as well IMO
Also there is a tweeter control on the back of the POSII, so I can tame the EMITs the flat setting is best! cheers Thanks again everyone for your input, hope for more!

 

What I mean by this is that a lot of these companies have been reduced to mere "brands" within the Harman rubric. JBL, Infinity, and Revel are designed by the same group of engineers and produced on shared production lines. Other Harman "brands," such as AKG, are a little more independent. Still others are more or less independent, but have been "merged" with other brands--ie, Mark Levinson and Lexicon share engineering and production lines, but are seperate from Harman/Kardon. It is complicated to say the least, and my understanding is not complete . . .

 

POSII info I can't find on the web:
7930 Deering Avenue Canoga Park CA 91304>label on back.> made mid 70s
approx: 25H 13W 11D 37H>with stands attached.

Infinity speaker creators started in a garage because they were turned down by speaker makers at the time (around '68?) who called their speakers a piece of s-crap The first line of speakers priced for wide consumption were called POS because of this slap in the face. (urban legend could be tagged here) I remember this story from the dim and distant past.

mid70s>POS= late70s>Q =80s&90s>RS-Reference Standard

For the Infinity files! P-Q-RS

 

Infinity speakers are cool! and that ain't crap

Jaw drops! Looks Ok I'll say it "Infinity speakers are cool"

 

Kind of like Polk, Inifinity used to be a major contender in United States speaker production, but the mass marketing got to them. Imagine a VoodooPC computer being mass-produced and sold at Circuit City... would it not drop in quality? A Ferrari, were it mass produced and sold at numerous dealers per state, would drop in price considerably, but also in quality... JUST like Infinity.

Even their vintage models, to me, are a bit too colored for my tastes.

Just make sure of this: Don't be fooled by the Circuit City people! If you are in the market for NEW speakers, the Infinity speaker line MOST LIKELY will not be the best you could get at any price range. This is all in my experience, so remember to do the testing for yourself.

 

Fair enough! I have ear tested (new phrase?) the latest lines from Infinity and it is the sound of the tweeters I am bothered by. They sound like the tweeters in my TV! EMITs tamed do sound cool though!

 

My recommendation, once again, is Triangle Electroacoustique speakers. Here's the acclaimed Titus bookshelf speaker:

http://www.triangle-fr.com/uk/enceinte-esprit.php?modele=titus

 

With respect to the IRS Betas...I think they can be decent speakers when set up properly but they rarely are. Then there is the issue of cost. At the time Watt/Puppies were a better deal.

 

...added the link to my favorites (I will check them out, if I can find them, for a listen) Thanks!...

 

The Betas were easy to set up -- meaning that they slid around on the carpet fairly easily and the knobs that adjusted the EMITs turned without much effort. However, it took me about 10 years of experimenting to get them "right."

I think I read that the Watt/Puppies were the largest selling high end speaker of all time. I am probably in the minority because they have never been to my sonic taste. (I find the high frequencies a bit etched.)

 

I've a got a pair of RS 3000's from 1988 I still love.

The foam dry out, oh yeah that happened with these and really not much will prevent this from happening but they can be fixed with a little patience and a repair kit.

Here's a good place to find the right size repair kit:


http://www.speakerrepair.com/

 

I've owned a pair of the Renaissance 90s since 1995. Prior to that I owned a pair of KEF 104.2 and B&W 802FS. The Ren 90s were a step forward in all respects and still hold their own against many respected and expensive speakers of today. Actually IMO they're able to present a better soundstage than almost any other speaker I've heard, including a friends B&W 800Ss. The EMITs used in the Ren 90s are a revised design and were used in the last IRS models (Sigma and Epsilon). Stereophile rated the Epsilon - class A, in a glowing review about 5 or 6 years ago.
To make one thing perfectly clear, the Ren 90s are not a bright or coloured sounding speaker. Yes, like all speakers they do have a slight signature but the overall balance is close to dead flat and definitely not bright if the right amplification is used, which applies to most speakers anyway. These speakers don't use foam surrounds either and are built to last a long long time. I like them so much that I've bought a spare set of EMITs just in case ...
because I intend to have them forever.
The only downside is their relatively low sensitivity and difficult load impedance, but with the right amplification they're capable of spine tingling and real to life dynamics. The EMIT tweeters have a 50KHz bandwidth and deliver perfect transient performance which makes them ideal for SACD and DVD-A.
BeatleFred is correct. These speakers are worthy of legendary status.

 

Nice one! I love my EMIT tweeters, no doubt! Infinity

 

Anybody heard these Infinity Primus speakers? They received a very good review from Stereophile a couple months ago:

http://www.infinitysystems.com/homeaudio/product_detail.aspx?prod=PRIMUS360BK

Chris

 

I have three pair of the Studio Monitor series from 1989. The SM 100 and 150 are still in perfect condition. The 120's rotted in the spot mentioned. I bought them at the same time and they were always together, go figure. At the time they were expensive for me, but nothing even came close to them in terms of quality for price.

 

On earlier models I would agree. Recent models sound good in this respect.

 

Infinity Speakers

This is not meant to offend anybody,as we all hear things in a very different way.Without sounding to modest I could afford to buy many of the speakers out there.Often I have attempted to do so by bringing speakers home for long auditions.Not going to name names suffice to say they were all in the $2000 to $4000 range.This brings me to the reason for my reply on this thread.I have owned a pair of Infinity KAPPA 7.1 since 1998 and to date have not found a better all around speaker.If driven by good amps the Sounstage is short of phenomenal the bass in a league of it's own,and on the contrary of what many of the people posting say not bright and I can and do listen for long periods of time.Keep in mind that you must also not forget cables and interconnects,as the can mellow out or over brighten the sound coming out of speakers.It's a shame that the new Infinity lines don't hold a candle to the older models.
Regards to all Ross

 

I think it all depends on your ears, budget and in what format/application you plan to use them for (car, home, etc).

For example, for the car, I love Infinity...so much so that I'm getting some 3.5" 2-way Kappa speakers installed in my headrest seats tomorrow (Thursday). My front speakers are (2 years old) 3-way 6.5" inch Kapas with tweeters plus an Infinity subwoofer. At present, my 2.1 set up sounds...decent but need to up the ante. Can't wait till I get that rear channel sound. Woof!

On the other hand, once I get my own place, I plan on getting Definitive Technology (aka Def Tech) speakers (not sure which ones) for a simple SACD/DVD-V/DVD-A set up, or unless someone here convinces me otherwise! I was at a Mangolia HiFi demo room a few months back and was blown away at the sound difference, especially with those overpriced Bose P.O.S. speakers. There were other speakers almost as good as the Definitives (can't rememeber which ones), but they weren't as...smooth.

 

I own a pair of Kappa 9a and Kappa 9.2i. The 9a had woofer refoaming recently after 14 years of faultless operation. It is a very nice and fun sounding speaker. It does not have the resolution of modern speakers, but it has the capability to create soundstages in 1:1 real dimensions. Orchestras are big and not tiny. The 9.2i has a metallic sound in the tweeter. I would not recommend that speaker. I had the opportunity to listen to the big IRS Infinity Reference Standard. Not worth the huge amount of money IMHO. But looks very impressive. Nice for my bar in the basement .

 

They can't compare to some of the brands like Paradigm or Axiom. Which are just as cheap, if not cheaper.

 

I have a pair of Overture II's that I bought new. They're great for watching movies.

Yet...

I bought them before I found this site.

I'm stuck with them a while longer.

 

I recently found a pair of Studio Monitor 100s at the thrift store for $15. Surrounds were rotted out and one of the tweeters was dead. I got surrounds from http://www.speakerworks.net (~$25 shipped) and a pair of working tweeters (now I have a spare) from eBay (also ~$25 shipped) and they are back in business.

They sound quite nice. They have a high-frequency adjustment that I turn all the way down (I guess they were bright way back when) and that seems to suit them. I found out that you can't set them too close to a CRT monitor because the magnetic field on the woofers will make it change color.

Not bad for $65. I love fixing up classic pieces of hi-fi gear.

 

I have a love-hate relationship with my Infinity Kappa 5 speakers. See this thread for more details....

If anyone can find a solution to the problem I describe in that thread then I'd love to hear from you!