Contemplating Selling My IIb's... Suggestions?

Infinity!

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, haven't been on here for a while. So as my title says, I am thinking about selling my IIb's. My reasoning(s) for selling them are 1) I rarely (pretty much never) listen to them since I bought my Kappa 9's and 2) I want to downsize to bookshelves paired with my Infinity Intermezzo sub. Been wanting to buy a pair of Kappa 5's as I have fallen in love with the Kappa line, but they are so expensive ($380-550). What do you guys think I should do? Any other brand of bookshelves worth looking at?
 
I know what you mean. My K9s sounded great with the 2 carver amps and when I had one amp get a full rebuild, it's simply incredible. I try not to listen to them too much as I will sit there every other day and neglect the other systems. I try to give each speaker some love now and then. The 2bs don't eat much just takes some space. Who knows maybe in the future they could sit in another room one day. You might regret selling them.
 
I don't know how you could let go of a set of RS-IIb speakers. For me, those are what I aspire to - kind of my "Holy Grail" speaker. They are big enough to do everything well, but somewhat compact in their design. I suppose some would say they are on the verge of being "obnoxiously large", so I guess I could understand downsizing. It would just be very difficult for me to part with them.
 
Although that price range does sound a little on the high side for Kappa 5's or even 6's, you should certainly get more than enough (and some cash to spare) for your RS IIb's. The problem is that it basically has to be a local sale, as they are difficult and extremely expensive to ship. I had RS IIb's, but let them go for a set of RS Ib's and what eventually grew into a "collection" of 3 pair of Kappa 9's--the RS Ib's and 2 pair of the Kappa 9's eventually went away too (kept one pair of the Kappa 9's) to make room for more "variety" in my stable. I am fortunate that I am within reasonable driving distance from the Cleveland, Erie, Buffalo and Pittsburgh markets, and own a business that requires trucks, vans and trailers, so I could arrange delivery for a nominal fee, rather than real packing/shipping costs, so they sold relatively quickly. Your market/location may vary.
 
Better make sure they are the lesser speaker, you may never see another pair for sale. Every year I see a couple pairs of k9's and 8's near me but never another pair of IIbs in the last 8 years or so.
 
Sorry for this digression .. just wondering if anyone can compare Rs 2 to 2B in sound charachter .. ??? ( Cone mids vs EMIM ) There was , and probably still is a pair of rs2 near me for only 675 .( If they were Ren 80s id have grabbed them ) Just curios as to difference particularly mid wise ??
 
I have both, RSII is more forgiving to a sub par recording, the RSIIb will make you hate much of your record collection. IIb has tighter bass and must have the eq that goes with them. Over all the IIb is superior in every way and was meant to be as it retailed 1k more. RSII come up for sale more often, are generally cheaper, no eq to worry about, and easier to maintain.
 
Last edited:
Well I've never heard RSIIB's but I have Infinity RSIIIA's and recently downsized to some bookshelves for my room, saving the big boys for later.

I bought some Infinity Reference R162
(the new ones) and find them to be very adept.
They don't do what the big boys do (duh), but they're still breaking in and I already like them. So far they're not a lot of "majic" but they sound very "right" with everything I've thrown at them so far. No midbass bloat, everything sounds very whole. No gaps or big dips that I can hear. Bass is robust with no audible port noise, and from reviews I have read, the treble get to be rather special in its extraction of detail.

My Infinity PS310 subwoofer is in for warranty service right now, but I suspect when I get it back and dialed in with my then broken in R162's I will end up wondering whether I need to store my big speakers for later...
IMG_0788.JPG
 
Last edited:
I have both, RSII is more forgiving to a sub par recording, the RSIIb will make you hate much of your record collection. IIb has tighter bass and must have the eq that goes with them. Over all the IIb is superior in every way and was meant to be as it retailed 1k more. RSII come up for sale more often, are generally cheaper, no eq to worry about, and easier to maintain.
I'd love to have the opportunity to hear a pair of RSIIa//bs to compare.
The lower bass response capability would be a huge plus for my tastes.

Curious that I find the RSII revealing enough to make poor recordings rather unlistenable.
Perhaps there's such a thing as a speaker being too revealing as to make the majority of recordings unlistenable :dunno:
No doubt the RSII would be easier to maintain and less expensive but I wouldn't chose the word "cheaper" to describe a very fine speaker system .
Our mileage may vary:)
 
I'm not saying the RSII is not a fine speaker. I meant "cheaper" compared to the IIb when new and in the used market but not in build quality. They have a finely built nice looking cabinet, two separate enclosures for each woofer, five way crossover, fine selection of drivers and sound terrific. They are not a laid back sounding speaker by any means but not as precise as the IIb.
The tighter bass of the IIb may be the trapezoid (if that is the right shape) cabinet or the xo and eq but it is better and deeper.
 
only problem with Rs 11b is if midranges go bad. They are hard to find and expensive when found. That is why I never upgraded from my RS II 's . Happy with them,
 
Thank you Slimpkins . Great to hear from someone who owns both .. Quite a stable you have !! Even my K6.1 makes me hate sub par recordings ..
 
I'm not saying the RSII is not a fine speaker.
The tighter bass of the IIb may be the trapezoid (if that is the right shape) cabinet or the xo and eq but it is better and deeper.
Deeper is better:beerchug:
It's got to be the EQ/Xover design that lowers the bass frequency.
That and I assume a single woofer cabinet with the woofers wired in series like the RSIIIa/b, assuming the woofers share the space.
As to SQ, I find I prefer the dipole RSII tonality and sound stage presentation to that of my dipole RS 2.5 which has one less EMIM than the RSIIa, I suppose I tend not to place the EMIM sq over the sq of a cone and visa versa.
 
One thing I notice with the IIb is on the Everything but the Girl song "Before today" there is a few bass notes (first around 0:57 then throughout the song) that begins to sound outside the room on the RSIIb. No other speaker i have including the qls does this better. First time I heard it I turned my music down because I thought my wife had come home.

The little eq is a nice unit. The one knob adjust the bass output from 50htz down and the other from maybe 200 down so you can get a pretty flat response.

The IIb is different then the 2.5 in that the middle Emim does most of the work while the lower and upper are crossed over lower. The midrange is not quite as "in your face" as the 2.5.
 
Thanks for all your comments! :) I couldn't agree more with slimpikkins in regards to how the IIb's sound in comparison to the II's and 2.5's (i've heard all 3).

The EQ box definitely makes the speaker! Without it, the bass becomes boomy and not as accurate and the highs become too smooth while loosing a lot of detail.

They are in great shape and I have the EQ box... thats why im having a hard time deciding to sell them. I'd hate regretting selling them in the future. I think i'll hold on to them a while longer. :)
 
I would keep them. Just my 2 cents.

I have RSII's and would like to find the RSIIb with EQ. That would be the only thing that would maybe make me get rid of the RSII.

The EMIMS are a little harder to find if they die.

Again, would love some 9 Kappa's. Prices are high and the dome mid-range is, as I'm sure you are well aware, fragile and hard/expensive to replace.

I only have room for two pair of "big" speakers, so something will have to be pretty special to replace what I already have.
 
Back
Top Bottom