Just pulled the trigger on Infinity RS 2.5's

flyers13

Member
Okay, my Infinity RS-IIIA project has turned into swapping those speakers, plus some albums, maybe an Onkyo turntable and some cash, for a VERY nice pair of RS 2.5's! I'm stoked to get these speakers, and will be driving from Harrisburg, PA to near Cleveland to pick them up in a few days! I'll be setting up a dedicated 2-channel room in my house...probably moving my bedroom set into a smaller room so I can have a larger listening room.

My listening room will be 16'1" by 11'6" by 8'. I have a brand new Oppo BDP-105 for the source. Until I get some dedicated mono amps, I'll be lugging around my Anthem A5 and use 4 of those channels to bi-amp the 2.5's. The A5 puts out 200 watts per channel. I plan on getting a Luminous Audio passive preamp, but until then I'll use my Anthem D1.

So...I would love to hear from all of the RS 2.5 owners out there, or anyone else who has heard these speakers. What size room do you have them in? How do you have them set up? What kind of difference do the rear-firing tweeters make? What do you drive them with? Any insight would be great!

Thanks!
 
Welcome to the club (and AK)! I'm NW of Harrisburg and got my 2.5's in June. You're lucky to find a pair nearby - mine came from CA (62sunbeam). As others here will surely chime in, the 2.5's are amazing speakers. It's the difference between listening to music and being in the audience listening to the actual performance. Mine are in a 13.5' x 14.5' room with the woofer dustcaps 40" out from the front wall and 29" from the side walls, toed in. I'm currently driving them with a Rotel 990BX, but I plan to eventually pick up an active crossover an biamp them. I'll probably push the woofers with a Soundcraftsmen A5002 I recently picked up. For the highs I'll have to choose between the Rotel, my restored Sansui BA-F1 or a Soundcraftsmen PM-860. For now the Rotel does a wonderful job.
 
Congratulations, I think I saw that pair in Ohio on ebay no? They looked very nice for sure. Safe traveling!
Jim
 
Welcome indeed.

I got my RS 2.5's locally and have had them for about 5 years. They are set up as the the primary speakers in my Home Theater rig which some may see as blasphemy, but I would add that I have also incorporated as part of that rig the oldest piece of vintage audio gear I own, A Fairchild 412-1B turntable with a Shure/SME tonearm, both purchased new by me in 1963 and that when in use is strictly two channel analog with nothing added by my current A/V receiver except amplification. That having been said, the speakers are spaced for their primary purpose at about 9.5' center to center at a distance from the wall behind them of between 20" and 24" with toe-in.

I use the original electronic crossover that Infinity had optionally available with the RS 2.5 along with two Soundcraftsmen amps to horizontally bi-amp them using an A5002 on the bottom and an A2502 on top. I have pairs of Soundocity spiked outriggers mounted to the RS 2.5's for stability as I found the narrow profile of the bases was a bit too unstable on carpet, especially out here in earthquake country. I also added oak toppers that I made to cover the crossover control panels and give them a more finished look like the RS 4.5's.

For the remaining speakers in the Home Theater setup I think I managed to come up with the perfect contemporary matches to the RS 2.5's with their EMIT's and EMIM's with a Martin Logan Fresco i as center and Sunfire CRM-2BIP surrounds, all of which have ribbons as part of their driver compliment. The surround soundstage they create is seamless. The sub-woofer, almost not needed with the Watkins woofers, is a very basic 10" HSU.

The two channel performance is outstanding even though it is not the primary purpose for this setup as I have a dedicated two channel vintage setup in the same room with a pair of Infinity RSM's and other Infinity equipped two channel rigs in other rooms, but the performance as surround primary's for Blu-ray concert titles or DVD-A is nothing short of amazing.

So I guess my best advice is to see what information you get from other enthusiastic RS 2.5 owners on the forum and then figure out what works best for you. And above all enjoy them - and we know you will.
 
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I have had at least one set for 32 years. Now only have 1 set. I used them for 2 channel and home theater (mains and surrounds). Excellent speaker no matter what the size of room. Two things made the biggest improvements to me - real high current amp and better speaker wire. Bi-amping helped but those 2 made the biggest differences. You can bottom out the woofers during extremely loud movie passages and cd source very low and loud frequencies.

To me these speakers evoke that Infinity sound more than any other.
 
Good point on the speaker wire, kurtgo. Just the other night I finally got around to replacing my 14ga speaker wire with 12ga Dayton fine strand wire I bought a while back. I didn't expect such a noticeable improvement, especially considering that my wire runs aren't very long. The bass really tightened up at the low end. Considering these speakers already put out the tightest bass I'd ever experienced, I was very pleasantly surprised.

The most noticeable improvement was in the areas that I thought were due entirely to room resonances. My placement is based on the the old "least cubes" ratio (to minimize room resonance peaks), with distance between speakers/from front wall given preference. The current placement helped smooth out the bass response a lot over the initial placement - which wasn't that much different. I wish I had a larger room where these could really shine. On the plus side, lack of a larger room keeps me from bringing home even larger Infinities, like IRS-1's.
 
Very good speakers. I'll be honest and say that they aren't my favorite vintage Infinity. However, that being said one thing I've learned for sure is that for the money the value speakers like the 2.5 provide is utterly astounding. You're sure to love them. I'm no selling mine. That's for sure.
 
@Jim: Yep, them's the ones!

Thanks to all for your feedback! I'm having fun already, and I don't even have them yet! ;-)
 
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Congratulations! I passed on a set of 2.5's to get QLS-1's...can't say I regret that decision but still, I'd love to experience the 2.5's. The rear firing EMIT is a tool to be harnessed. And aren't the EMIMs open back....so that they'd be dispersing a rear wave (dipolar)? Either way, make damn sure you don't have an absorptive surface behind the speaker. Ideally you want some diffusion, but as long as the surface behind is reflective that's a step in the right direction. Try to get them out in the room a bit....I'd say at least two to three feet. This will help facilitate the rear wave's ability to embellish the sound stage dimensionality and add ambiance.

And you mentioned you haven't yet picked up a preamp.... I'm not sure about EMIM's but I really, really like what a tube pre did for the EMITs in my QLS-1's. I can only think the EMIMs would respond just as favorably.

Hope you enjoy them!

- Michael
 
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I saw those too. Do they look as good in real life as they did on eBay?

As others have stated, watch your levels on movie soundtracks, especially Blu-Rays, or you will be spending a lot to repair or replace a damaged Watkins or two. I filter all the low bass out of mine, 50 and below for music but 90 and below for Blu-rays, and use a small army of DIY subs for the low bass. Glorious sound and I don't have to worry about breaking anything.

You need at least one good, beefy amp to drive these, but I have eliminated the entire passive crossover, except for the Watkins circuit, and tri amp them with a very affordable electronic crossover and the amps in my sig. This is expensive and a bit of pain to get right, but the difference in sound is huge, easily verifiable in AB testing, and well worth every penny, IMO.

Congratulations! You now have high end sound on a mid fi budget. I just love the presentation the 2.5s lay down, very lifelike, dynamic and spacious.
 
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Yes, they look as nice as the pictures! the wood is nearly perfect. Just the foam that needs replaced, and I found a nearly perfect replacement for the foam. Not planning on using them at all for home theater...I have Paradigms for that! Using these strictly for 2 channel! I was considering upgrading all of the caps...but...now I'm seriously considering getting an active crossover, such as the Rane AC 22S. The optional Infinity crossovers did not come with my 2.5's, so the Rane unit just makes sense to me. I'll appreciate anyone chiming in if they see any reason why this wouldn't make sense. It would save me spending all kinds of crazy money for metalized polypropylene for all of the caps. Alternatively, I was considering electrolytics for the bass path, and the polypropylene caps for the mids and highs. Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
What's the rest of your system? Those electrolytics are not your average super low end crap and may not need attention. What does need attention is the hole for the wires going from the bass cab to the crossover, which is almost always leaky. Also, play it with lots of bass (after you refoam the woofers) and the top end disconnected and listen for rattles in the crossover area and cabinet and fix it. I would keep them stock unless you know what you are doing. Even stock, these are my favorite affordable speaker.
 
Yeah, I did notice the hole for the wires coming from the bass box. I believe I read where someone installed a speakon connector for that. I imagine just putting silicon around the wires would solve it? Which would be the better solution? So...you wouldn't replace any of the capacitors...even after 30 years?

As of now, and after reading your post for my other thread, I plan on having 4 Outlaw Audio 2200 mono amps (read lots of good things about them) to bi-amp, but haven't decided on an active crossover yet. I will probably use my new Oppo BDP-105 for the source, but would love to get one of the nicer Wadia units...probably the 381...down the road. Also thinking of a Luminous Audio passive preamp. Of course, with either the Oppo or a Wadia, I may not need a preamp. Just not sure if I'm crazy about digital volume controls. If I do decide to tri-amp (my other thread), which part of the Watkins path in the passive crossover needs to remain? I do plan on getting test equipment to get everything as correct as possible.

I did notice one thing about the front tweeters...the tweeter for the left speaker is not pointing exactly forward...it is skewed a bit toward the listening position...the tweeter for the right speaker isn't exactly straight forward either, it is skewed just slightly toward the right wall...I would think this is something that should be addressed.
 
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...the tweeter for the right speaker isn't exactly straight forward either, it is skewed just slightly toward the right wall...I would think this is something that should be addressed.


This might be the time to shoot some pictures.
 
Totem...I can do that when I get back home...right now I'm at my parent's house...unfortunately my father has terminal cancer, and his time is short. When I get back home I can try to take a couple pics to show you what I mean.
 
Before altering anything in the crossover maybe just get the amps and listen to the speakers. They are very fine speakers without any mods and the crossover is most likely working. I just finished a recap on my RSIIb and only one capacitor (out of 16!) was out of spec and not by that much. The sealing of the cabinet is very important like Audiomagnate said, do that and give them a listen.

Sorry to hear about your father. Will be praying for your family.
Jim
 
4yr old thread?..stir it up...my 2.5 on luxman cl35mklll..Van alstine model 1...yup..they are that good!!!.disregard all my clutter pls.
 

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