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Infinity reference six

J

John tucker

New Member
View attachment 965417 View attachment 965421 My name is john tucker, i bought a pair of the original reference six speakers in amazing condition for $350. The foams had been replaced nicely and the tweeters and speakers were all original. I used a light base deep black paint on all cones including new woofers.I replaced the woofers with a very unnexpensive but extremely outperforming woofer by goldwood. A goldwood gw-1034 or 38 cant remember if theyre 4 or 8 ohm. 35 dollars for a woofer and i also got 4 inch flared port tubes. I placed the ports on the left of one and on right of other. 2 inch from bottom centered. They are 2 inches from opposing side in depth with no screens. I usually place them so the ports are facing inside or together. I place each speaker in corners of room and turn speakers facing me and i use them with a denon reciever pushing 110 watts accepting all range of ohms so no performance flaws. The bass is so outstanding from anything i have ever owned. They will reach lowest of the lows and the famous emit-r tweeters are good but if treble is turned too high i have a flaw where they stop working. Until i turn stereo down a couple numbers. Overall they outperform most others. The bass shakes things off shelves and you can see your pant legs moving so im satisfied with my cheap investment. Id love for some input or pictures about anyone else originals or remodels.
 
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The "stop working" part is probably your amplifier going into a "protection mode". Is the bass control turned up when that happens? Boosting the bass takes a disproportional amount of power, and boosting the treble usually doesn't add nearly as much burden. I'd go a little easier on your equipment if you want it to last. Just friendly advice.

Welcome to AK! :)
 
sqlsavior said:
The "stop working" part is probably your amplifier going into a "protection mode". Is the bass control turned up when that happens? Boosting the bass takes a disproportional amount of power, and boosting the treble usually doesn't add nearly as much burden. I'd go a little easier on your equipment if you want it to last. Just friendly advice.

Welcome to AK! :)
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Actually its either too much power to the speaker or the tweeter alone i think. I have a bass and treble level from -6 to 6. I keep eq pretty close to flat and i turn bass level up to 6 and treble on 2. When i turn my amp to max or a couple numbers over max it will cause the left tweeter and only the left tweeter to stop working but i turn it down right under max and lower and it will start workig again. Those emit-r tweeters are old water cooled tweeters maybe they get hot? Thanks for the reply
 
Hi John, welcome to AK.

I have a lot of experience with the Infinity Reference Series. I have owned the Twos, Threes, Fours, Fives, and Sixes. Apart from the cheesy woodgrain vinyl finish, they are fine speakers and really sound great for the money.

I'm a little surprised your modifications actually make them sound better. Honestly, I'm skeptical. I have NEVER heard a replacement woofer sound better in an Infinity. The IMG (injection molded graphite) woofers that came stock on your speakers are some of the most advanced and highest quality woofers available. They are extremely lightweight, and therefore fast, and were designed to work specifically with the cabinet design and other components in that speaker. I'm also surprised that adding ports would help the sound. Again, there's a lot that goes into speaker design, and Infinity (at the time these were made) were some of the best in the business. I'm always skeptical that modifications as serious as cutting a large hole into the speaker could actually help anything. BUT! You're the one that's listening to them. If they sound good to you, that's all that matters. However, keep in mind that making modifications like cutting into them and replacing woofers with non-factory will greatly decrease their value on the market. That $350 pair may now be worth more like $100. Again, doesn't much matter if you love them so much that you plan on keeping them.

I would agree that the tweeter is likely cutting out because you're overdriving the amp, not because you're overdriving the speaker. You can do far more damage giving a speaker too little power than too much. You can look up the exact reason for this, but when an amp clips it sends a square wave to the speaker which the tweeters especially can't handle. They heat up very quickly and will fry for good. New EMIT-Rs are going for around $50 a piece on eBay. I recommend either getting a more powerful amp, turning down the bass control, or limiting your volume. Otherwise, you may take the value of those speakers from $100 to $0 if they're fried.

I don't mean to discourage you, because DIYing in this hobby can be a lot of fun. And of course they're your speakers so you should do what you want with them. If you want extra loud with tons of bass, more power to you. Just know those speakers weren't really designed to be that. Perhaps next time look for some Cerwin Vegas. They're more efficient so they won't clip your amp, and they were designed to take a beating pumping out heavy bass.
 
I readjusted the eq and turned the bass down some and they arent cutting out now. And i did destroy the collectability of them by cutting and porting them. But im all about stereo sound. I hate subs because theyre very sloppy and shake everything. These goldwoods arent as light but theyre still very light and they can sound like thunder without breaking the windows like a sub. I feel like these boxes perform much better than most other boxes that are dezigned with ports. When its stevie ray vaugh, john mayer or heavy bass dubstep and bass music. They perform almost perfectly in all genres. Actually before i ported them it seemed they lacked low end performance. After i ported its like sitting in a live show becayse you get all of the sounds the music has in it.
 
And goldwood is the only brand i use to replace any speakers with. I have spent hundreds on supposedly nice brands "" but goldwood has outperformed any other replacement out there.
 
Glad you're happy with them. I've never heard a Goldwood woofer, but now I'm curious. And I'm sure the ports help make more bass. Being an acoustic suspension speaker with 10" woofer, they were never designed to make thunderous bass, but rather tightly controlled, musical bass. I guess you found a way around that, haha.

Try one of the CV speakers with a 15" woofer and you'll likely find the bass you've been searching for. :)
 
I've always felt subwoofer design and build is a natural starting point for learning speaker diy. Once you've mastered the simple math needed to ensure compatibility between woofer and enclosure, then it's reasonable to tackle simple two-way designs.

If you haven't heard a good sounding sub, then perhaps you just haven't encountered a decent sub or at least not one that was set up by someone who knew what they were doing.

How do you turn your amp a couple of numbers beyond max? Is it an amp specially designed for Spinal Tap?
 
John tucker said:
Actually its either too much power to the speaker or the tweeter alone i think. I have a bass and treble level from -6 to 6. I keep eq pretty close to flat and i turn bass level up to 6 and treble on 2. When i turn my amp to max or a couple numbers over max it will cause the left tweeter and only the left tweeter to stop working but i turn it down right under max and lower and it will start workig again. Those emit-r tweeters are old water cooled tweeters maybe they get hot? Thanks for the reply
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Wow.
I didn't know EMIT-R's were water cooled.
I learned something today.
 
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