Infinity IRS Gamma/Delta's in Da House!

Mark B:

You never posted what your news was.

It was interesting reading your adventures with trying to balance the sound of these grand Infinity speaks.

You never make mention of the Stereophile review of these speakers, so maybe you've never seen it. But in the article they explicitly state that they found the balance of these speakers to be too forward with solid state electronics. And as was mentioned by someone, these speakers were indeed "voiced" using tube electronics (Audio Research specifically).

The article also says that when using these speakers with solid state electronics, they recommend using tape over some parts of the EMIT drivers to tame the forwardness.

I realize you have restored the speaker's balance with correction of the woofer wiring phase. But if you still find the overall balance too prominent for your liking, you could experiment with the tape technique. You would want to use a type of tape that doesn't leave adhesive (such as "Gaffer's Tape").
 
Mark B:

You never posted what your news was.

It was interesting reading your adventures with trying to balance the sound of these grand Infinity speaks.

You never make mention of the Stereophile review of these speakers, so maybe you've never seen it. But in the article they explicitly state that they found the balance of these speakers to be too forward with solid state electronics. And as was mentioned by someone, these speakers were indeed "voiced" using tube electronics (Audio Research specifically).

The article also says that when using these speakers with solid state electronics, they recommend using tape over some parts of the EMIT drivers to tame the forwardness.

I realize you have restored the speaker's balance with correction of the woofer wiring phase. But if you still find the overall balance too prominent for your liking, you could experiment with the tape technique. You would want to use a type of tape that doesn't leave adhesive (such as "Gaffer's Tape").
The news was that I obtained an Epsilon servo unit.

The question is will the Epsilon servo unit work with the Delta's? From what I've read in the user manuals for the Eplison's & Delta's, and the crossover specs, I think that it will work. The crossover point to the woofers for the Epsilon's and Delta's are very close at 150Hz and 130Hz respectively. Now I just need to have some cables made and I'll give it a try.

I'm familiar with the Stereophile article, and I'm aware that the panels were voiced using Audio Research tube amps. I'm currently using the Yamaha MX-10000 to drive the Delta's full range. I prefer the balance between bass and the panels better with the one amp.
 
Hey Mark,
Still waiting for cables? While the sum of the parts is cheap, this is easier, and only $50.

And FWIW, I've have great luck with my Gammas on both tube and SS. I've been switching between and B-2 and a B-2x lately on the highs. No overly-forward highs. Emit & Semit pots at the 11 o'clock position. I wish I could hear the MX10k on the highs someday!

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?accstwek&1243382835&/Infinity-Irs/-Beta/-gamma/-bas
OK I'll admit it, I'm slow. :D

I've got everything I need for the cables except for a pair of 4 pin female XLR's. The XLR's connect to the Epsilon servo. Must remember to order these.
 
Alright, I read through this whole thing and...did you get the servo working?:scratch2:

Regards,
Justin Wade
 
Alright, I read through this whole thing and...did you get the servo working?:scratch2:

Regards,
Justin Wade

Yeah, so did you get the servo working, Mark? It's been a few years; I'm dying to know!

Glad to know your initial missing bass problem was woofers out of phase with each other. Actually, that's something I should check on my Renaissance 90, since I had the same problem, which I too fixed with biamping.

Edit: I checked and mine are just fine - both woofers are in phase. I wired them up again with just my 555 (i.e. without the Carver TFM-15CB on top), and sure enough they're well balanced. Maybe I wired one out of phase both when I auditioned them and when I first set them up at my apartment? I would have expected the mids/highs ought to have cancelled out too though.

Interestingly, when I stuck a 9V battery on the woofer terminals, they only went in/out momentarily. Looking at the woofer crossover, I see there's a capacitor somewhere on every signal path, so that would certainly filter out all DC. The same isn't true of the mids/highs, however.

Edit 2: The Adcom images far better than the Carver in my room, too. The center image was never stable with the Carver, despite tweaking the channels' gain with mono signals. I never did use an SPL meter, however.
 
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Hi! Cheating a little and putting this here, just to increase the chances of it being seen. Mark, I'll be in Portland later today (Dec 26th). Please check your PM and respond, if we can meet up. Thanks! (I'll delete this post later, so as not to permanently clutter up this thread. :D )


EDIT/UPDATE: Well, it's later now, as in several YEARS later, and I just found this. Completely forgot to come back and delete it, but I guess if all this verbiage hasn't clogged up and crashed the server by now, I can let it stand. It's a nice reminder of what turned out to be a great visit to Mark B's place! :D

FURTHER EDIT/UPDATE: I finally joined MarkB and others on AK as an owner of an Infinity Delta/Gamma, and followed up the speaker purchase with the IRS servo-controller box. Yay! :banana: It only took five years! :D
 
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I was just at an audio hifi store in San Antonio and picked up a pair of these for 1750 bucks after taking a listen to them connected to McIntosh gear (MC601 amps which I also have at home). These did not come with the servo control box, but currently being an 802 Diamond owner and not wanting all the extra complexity, amp clutter of the servo system, I was perfectly satisfied that they sounded damn near as good as my 802s, If not better just on the demo alone WITHOUT the servo box which sold me.

Hoping I did alright on these. They looked fantastic and sounded just as good. Picking them up early next week.
 
Anyone? I haven't picked these up yet so I can probably still return them. Just want to get some opinions.

For 1750 bucks why would anyone want to return them? A great speaker. If I were closer, I would take them off your hands if you decided as such ;-)

If I were given a choice between the two for the same civilized amount of money, I would certainly choose the Gamma (with the servo) over the 802.
 
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I would love to have the servo system. Just want to keep things simple for now. I was thoroughly impressed with what I heard without even knowing that there WAS a servo option. So I can go down that road later.

And yes, I think I am going to go through with it. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't some massive "if you have such and such serial number check for this" type of problem since I'm not an Infinity expert, but DO know how special these older Infinitys are.

Thanks.
 
I would love to have the servo system. Just want to keep things simple for now. I was thoroughly impressed with what I heard without even knowing that there WAS a servo option. So I can go down that road later.

And yes, I think I am going to go through with it. Just wanted to make sure there wasn't some massive "if you have such and such serial number check for this" type of problem since I'm not an Infinity expert, but DO know how special these older Infinitys are.

Thanks.

You should not have any problem as long as you checked them out good (original drivers etc...). Kinda like, they lasted this long and still sound that good right? As stated, they are a great speaker, along with others like the IRS, Beta, Epsilon, Renaissance, Kappas etc... The only problem you should ever have (with proper care) is not with the speaker but being able to not get grossly sickened when visiting Infinity's website and seeing their current offerings, as compared with their past.

I think we all suffer from that sickness.
 
I was just at an audio hifi store in San Antonio and picked up a pair of these for 1750 bucks after taking a listen to them connected to McIntosh gear (MC601 amps which I also have at home). These did not come with the servo control box, but currently being an 802 Diamond owner and not wanting all the extra complexity, amp clutter of the servo system, I was perfectly satisfied that they sounded damn near as good as my 802s, If not better just on the demo alone WITHOUT the servo box which sold me.

Hoping I did alright on these. They looked fantastic and sounded just as good. Picking them up early next week.
That's a bargain - they are great speakers!

I never did get a servo control. I'm quite happy running them as Deltas in extended mode.
 
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