The New Infinity Prelude Forty

i saw the AVREV tidbit this morning by chance. just made a post about it in another thread tonight. the news must've been newer than i thought! something tells me no active Infinity forum members will be buying these anytime soon, but hopefully someone gets a chance to hear them and report back!

chris
 
Twin 8" woofers? $12K is an awful lot of money for a pair of speakers that will probably need a subwoofer.
 
You could say that about any high-end speaker (needing a sub). But, its pretty amazing what can be accomplished with a pair of 8's I think they look awesome and can't wait to hear them.

When I first saw them, it almost looked like they were using planar drivers again, but I guess they are going to be the ones from the Cascade line. Almost going back to the line-array design... I bet they sound great.
 
Looks like they'll have an optional gloss black finish. That'll probably push the 12K price tag up to 15K. Who knows, maybe more. The ecoustics article said that it uses "premium grade internal components, including.....laminated steel inductors." I don't know about anybody else, but I'm always curious about the 'premium grade' components that many manufacturers claim to use. Too bad there isn't a dealer near me; I'd love to audition these. The whole city of Seattle, and no Infinity dealer. :(
 
IF I was going to spend that kind of money on speakers, I'd buy a plane ticket to go hear them first.

They may sound wonderful, but the side firing woofers make for some placement problems in some environments? Wonder what the optimum room dimensions and placement are for these?
 
Looks like a bigger and prettier version of the Cascade line, using the same drivers. I don't think those drivers compare well to Emits or Emims for the highs and mids. CMMD cones are good drivers, but I like the sound from the older Polycones and IMG's better. At that price point, you can almost get a new pair of Legacy Audio Whispers. I would still love to hear them.
 
Well, if they are a worthy successor to the Prelude MTS, then I'll venture that these may well be something quite special.
 
I have Prelude MTS and Cascades. I also have IRS Beta and Kappa 9s. I like the sound of all of them, even though they're all different. Each has strengths and weaknesses, even the Betas.

It's common for people to think that the newer stuff isn't as good as the old, because it's built by a big corporation instead of Arnie and Cary, but that has not been my experience. Infinity still seems to innovate, and their stuff is still well-regarded.

I expect the two 8" woofers to perform well, because it would have been terribly easy to put in the same great 12" woofer that was in the Prelude MTS and others, at very little cost difference. To go to the trouble of engineering a new driver wouldn't make sense if it wasn't some kind of improvement.

I'm still hoping to hear from anyone who has actually heard a pair!
 
I was surprised how much the new Preludes
tn_6183_10.infinity-prelude.jpg


look like the discontinued European Kappa 600.

image_mini
 
Wish I could have found a better picture of the Kappa. It has a sloping front and a curved top.

BTW, is the new Prelude powered like the previous models?
 
The White Paper on the MRS driver is interesting reading. Infinity may have finally developed a worthy successor to the legendary EMIM.

Never heard the EMIMs, but I did hear the MRS on some Cascades and was not that impressed. These do look like they are much nicer than the Cascades though.
 
Ugg...Look at those specs...

Looks like Infinity missed the boat again trying to resurect their name. The low end extension of the 40 leaves much to be desired...especially for 10k. If I was stuck on Infinity (revel) I would look for some used Revel Salons...deep in the 20hz region.

Just not impressed whatsoever...at least with the paper specs :thumbsdn:
 
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