Infinity IRS Omega

[Brealytrent]

Hey all,

As some of you may know, I recently purchased a pair of Infinity IRS Omegas. There's not too many around and as such there's not lots of info on them on the internet. Curiosity got the better of me today, and I decided to take a peek inside one and figured you'd all like to see as well.

First off the cabinets. They're very beefy: The front face varies from 3/4" MDF (the mounting surface for the woofer) out to 1 3/4". It should be noted that the screen adds an additional 1/2" of MDF to the front to add a flare for the midbass coupler and make the EMIT-B and EMIM-B sit flush with the surface. Bracing inside is 5/8" thick.

The tweeters and midrange drivers have the top 1/3 of the cabinet to themselves

Drivers: The 12" watkins woofer is very nice. The cone is a paper and kevlar mixture, and the frame is cast. The magnet is beautifully machined. The 6.5" driver has a similar basket and magnet, but differing cone material. Both use butyl rubber surrounds. There is no info on who made these drivers, except for a sticker on the midbass with internal production codes.

Crossovers: There are two separate boards inside. The woofer board sits at the bottom of the cabinet underneath glassfiber insulation, and utilizes some huge values. The largest capacitor has a value of 880 uf. I suppose this has to do with the use of a Watkins woofer and also being a sealed enclosure. While there's no namebrand stuff down here that I can see, it appears to be custom made for this application with tolerances better than what you can get in the aftermarket for the most part.
The other board is for the other four drivers. There's one air core inductor, some nice polycaps, but also some NPE.

See the pictures attached for your viewing pleasure!

 

[Brealytrent]

One additional note: after looking at schematics available online for the crossover, I think there's a third board hidden somewhere for the tweeter and midrange. The one air-core inductor that's in the photos is for the midbass coupler, and there should be two more on the board along with a slew more of solen polycaps as well. The midbass crossover board says Rev. B, and the crossover design blueprints online are for Rev. C which does say there's changes to the crossovers. Now I'm wishing I peeled back more of the fiberglass before putting it back together!

EDIT: I'm stupid. It shows clearly that there are two boards, one on each side. I'm gonna have to open it again!

 

[RVT1K]

Good for you!
I've always lusted for Infinity speakers since I was a kid but never had the resources to own any of them.

As an aside... I spent about 8 weeks (over three trips) in Cambridge during the summer of '07. I was there for training and to help facilitate the company that hired me moving from the UK to the US. A very, very nice town.

 

[Brealytrent]

Tweeter/Midrange board. Looks like the board is from 1999, so I guess this is a later pair of speakers?

 

[7.62]

That’s pretty cool to see a paper coned woofer, it it’s a Watkins then it should be made by them I’d guess. I bet it sounds really good. Crossover’s look to be nicely laid out too, say compared to a kappa 8-9….LOL.

Thank you for sharing with us and Congrats to you, what great find.

 

[Zarathustra]

Was the IRS Omega made in Denmark or the USA? Or maybe for the European market by Infinity Systems A/S Birkerød DENMARK and for the US market in Northridge California?

 

[Henk_]

Mine, bought in Germany, are made in the US.