infinity rs 4b opinions
- Thread starter cheezball
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
Donkey Karma
Super Member
Congrats on a great pair of speakers and welcome to AK!
You might want to post this in the Infinity forum. Those folks are grand master level at all things Infinity. I'm sure you will learn alot when it comes to your new additons
goodolpg
Just an old fart trying to help.
If they have not had the woofers refoamed they will probably need to be done in the future.
They are also old enough a recap might be in order.
If they sound good then I'd leave the caps alone. For now.
If they are harsh or muddy then it might be time for caps.
They are also old enough a recap might be in order.
If they sound good then I'd leave the caps alone. For now.
If they are harsh or muddy then it might be time for caps.
432HzBob
Lunatic Member
Good catch!
I am a lifelong Infinity fan of the sound
I have enjoyed a pair of recapped and internally braced RS-6B's and they still stun me with their sound.
They are fast, tight, accurate and if even sometimes clinical sounding, that handle... nay, emand.. alot of power and took a 220wpc Yamaha P-2200 to finally do them justice..
Mine have smoked 3 receivers before getting a worthy amp.
2 woofers = more bass than the 6b.. but these were built before sub's were common that could do the grunt work.
Enjoy them they are awesome clean sounding speakers and then look into some Infinity RSM's some day..
12" Infinity poly woofers + EMIT's and a better, more modern than 1981 midrange take the whole "Infinity" sound to the next better level..
Or Kappa 7's or 8's..
I can already safely say that once that EMIT + Polydome sound gets in you you will be hooked as well...
also..... you can clean those clear poly drivers, including the dome and "tune" them with pure, rejuvinating silicone applied with a Q-tip or cloth..
You can also attenuate some of the tweeter or mid sear with felt applied to the front baffle.
As long as the surrounds are good that matters most..
And not smoking the tweeter with a crappy that clips and has distortion..
I never knew until the RS series how sluggish the rubber surround Qa and Qb series really were..
Fast foam surrounds are big part of the Infinity Magic™
Just a cost of doing business with Arnie Nudell and his crew
I'm blathering on forgive me, I love old Infinity's alot.
I'd take RS4b's any day over equivalent same era HPM's, or JBL's
*PS: Internally brace them to make a huge coherence difference..
1" rods side to side and F-B baffle.. Better bass, drops any "harsh" and a HUGE difference
I am a lifelong Infinity fan of the sound
I have enjoyed a pair of recapped and internally braced RS-6B's and they still stun me with their sound.
They are fast, tight, accurate and if even sometimes clinical sounding, that handle... nay, emand.. alot of power and took a 220wpc Yamaha P-2200 to finally do them justice..
Mine have smoked 3 receivers before getting a worthy amp.
2 woofers = more bass than the 6b.. but these were built before sub's were common that could do the grunt work.
Enjoy them they are awesome clean sounding speakers and then look into some Infinity RSM's some day..
12" Infinity poly woofers + EMIT's and a better, more modern than 1981 midrange take the whole "Infinity" sound to the next better level..
Or Kappa 7's or 8's..
I can already safely say that once that EMIT + Polydome sound gets in you you will be hooked as well...
also..... you can clean those clear poly drivers, including the dome and "tune" them with pure, rejuvinating silicone applied with a Q-tip or cloth..
You can also attenuate some of the tweeter or mid sear with felt applied to the front baffle.
As long as the surrounds are good that matters most..
And not smoking the tweeter with a crappy that clips and has distortion..
I never knew until the RS series how sluggish the rubber surround Qa and Qb series really were..
Fast foam surrounds are big part of the Infinity Magic™
Just a cost of doing business with Arnie Nudell and his crew
I'm blathering on forgive me, I love old Infinity's alot.
I'd take RS4b's any day over equivalent same era HPM's, or JBL's
*PS: Internally brace them to make a huge coherence difference..
1" rods side to side and F-B baffle.. Better bass, drops any "harsh" and a HUGE difference
Last edited:
Thank you for the reply. I need to refoam one of the drivers, and I don't think I'm pushing them with enough power. I'm running them on a sanyo jcx 2900k reciever and they just don't sound as good as my klipsch speakers. Just not enough bass for me. I will try a couple of the things you mentioned. Thanks again
Make sure the woofers are wired correctly. If someone has been in them before for a re-foam or other work the woofers may be hooked up incorrectly. This is a common problem with dual woofers Infinitys that have been re-foamed by less than knowledgeable owners/shops.
I also suspect many speakers might struggle a bit to match the bass of Klipschs depending on the model.
Last edited:
. RS-4b's were my first "real" speakers, and were responsible for starting my lifelong love affair with Infinity speakers. I'd still have them if not for a divorce settlement 
.
I have owned a pair of the RS 4b since they were brand new in 1986. I had to re-foam the woofers in 2004, replaced the vinyl covered fiberboard bases last year, and recently replaced the crossovers because the electrolytic caps went out of spec, making the bass was weak / muddy. With the new crossovers they sound better than ever. You need an amp with some grunt (high current) to make them sound their best- I'm currently running them with a 275 watt Parasound 2250 V2.
Small update since it has been two years since I replaced the crossovers. This summer I installed some 1/4" thick closed cell foam around the mid range & tweeters (like the foam on the RS3b) and that sweetened up the top end. I was listening to the classical station out of Santa Fe tonight and was in a state of sonic bliss for three hours...the old girls sound so good, I'm glad I never parted with them (my magnificent new to me Magnum Dynalab DT-5 tuner has a lot to do with the improved sound on FM). The remodel of the office with wood flooring and a thin throw rug seemed to pay sonic dividends too.
Updated pic of the office/man cave: I have the RS4b hooked up to a Parasound 2250 V2 amp, Parasound P6 preamp, Magnum Dynalab DT-5 tuner (using XLR balanced outputs to the P6), Yamaha S303 CD player (using digital output to P6) and a Klipsch R-12SW subwoofer. The stand mount Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers are hooked up to my old Onkyo M-508, Onkyo P-304 preamp, Onkyo 9090II tuner and the Yamaha CD (analog output to P-304) and a Polk HTS-10 subwoofer.
Both sound very very good, but different-- the RS4b have a much better (open) midrange - I listen to mostly classical / jazz with these. The Monitor Audio Bronze 2 sound really good with general FM stations and rock CDs.
Both sound very very good, but different-- the RS4b have a much better (open) midrange - I listen to mostly classical / jazz with these. The Monitor Audio Bronze 2 sound really good with general FM stations and rock CDs.
Last edited:
I realized how ridiculously top heavy the office stereo rack was, so I added a shelf back in (super easy with the Pangea Vulcan racks) and put the heavy amps down low. I had to change up the preamps so that everything would fit nicely- the M-508 is now hooked to a Parasound 2100 preamp and the 2250 V2 is hooked to a Parasound New Classics 200 pre (I love having remote volume control and subwoofer outputs for both now).
Last edited:
I was bored out of my gord yesterday/this AM so I swapped around equipment and location in the office (now called the "Sound Room" by my wife). I moved the rack and speakers to a different wall to get the speakers farther apart, then swapped in my Parasound A23+ and P6 from the family room where they were seldom used. The Family room now has the Parasound 2250 V2 amp and 200 Preamp. I also put my old Marantz 6200 turntable back in rotation (it needs some work on the cartridge alignment).
I have the Onkyo M-508 amp / Parasound 2100 preamp / Onkyo 9090II tuner / Yamaha CD-S300 (using analog outputs) playing a set of Monitor Audio Bronze 2 with a Polk 10" HTS sub, and the the sound is marvelous... I can play it all day and never get tired of it.
The A23+ amp / P6 preamp / Magnum Dynalab DT-5 tuner (all three using Balanced XLR cables) Yamaha CD-S300 (digital output) is playing the Infinity RS4b with a Klipsch 12" sub. I loved the sound of the RS4b's when powered with the big Parasound 2250 V2 amp (275 WPC) in the new location, but I then swapped in the A23+ / P6 combo and discovered a whole new world of sound: I now have a super wide and deep soundstage, deeper bass, crisper highs. I played Dark Side Of the Moon (CD) and Vivaldi's Four Seasons (CD) and then just listened to the Classical FM station out of Santa Fe for a couple hours, marveling at the significant improvement. I used the Balanced XLR inputs between the tuner and preamp- wow old school FM can still sound great !
The A23+ is just a wonderful little amp (160 WPC), and it now seems like the big 2250 V2 would be better suited to playing a set of speakers with huge woofers and horn tweeters where you want Volume and don't really care about the sound quality.
I have the Onkyo M-508 amp / Parasound 2100 preamp / Onkyo 9090II tuner / Yamaha CD-S300 (using analog outputs) playing a set of Monitor Audio Bronze 2 with a Polk 10" HTS sub, and the the sound is marvelous... I can play it all day and never get tired of it.
The A23+ amp / P6 preamp / Magnum Dynalab DT-5 tuner (all three using Balanced XLR cables) Yamaha CD-S300 (digital output) is playing the Infinity RS4b with a Klipsch 12" sub. I loved the sound of the RS4b's when powered with the big Parasound 2250 V2 amp (275 WPC) in the new location, but I then swapped in the A23+ / P6 combo and discovered a whole new world of sound: I now have a super wide and deep soundstage, deeper bass, crisper highs. I played Dark Side Of the Moon (CD) and Vivaldi's Four Seasons (CD) and then just listened to the Classical FM station out of Santa Fe for a couple hours, marveling at the significant improvement. I used the Balanced XLR inputs between the tuner and preamp- wow old school FM can still sound great !
The A23+ is just a wonderful little amp (160 WPC), and it now seems like the big 2250 V2 would be better suited to playing a set of speakers with huge woofers and horn tweeters where you want Volume and don't really care about the sound quality.
Last edited:
I got the Marantz 6200 Turntable working as it should-- the grooves in the headshell were a mess and the cartridge was moving around (not good!) A couple small washers, an alignment, and rebalace and all is well. The slightly warm Shure M97xE cartridge works well with the P6 built in phono amp, and the old RS4b's sound heavenly.
I still love the look of the Bubinga wood plinth...
I still love the look of the Bubinga wood plinth...
The foam woofer surrounds had rotted into mush in hot humid Mississippi, so I put on new foam surrounds about 12 years ago- they are still fine as they have been in hot/dry AZ and NM since then. In 2020 I replaced the crossovers as some of the caps were out of spec and I always HATED the factory speaker connections- now I have the option of bananas, spades, or pins (I use locking bananas).
Last year I added 1/4 thick dense foam around the mids & tweeters like the factory did on the RS IIIb. Finally, I built new bases out of 1"x4" oak because the old MDF bases had fallen apart over the years (hot/ humid locales struck again). I'd had them sitting on some stands originally made for Dynaco A25's for awhile but they were only a stop gap measure that didn't satisfy visually or sonically.
Currently they are in my office (after retirement, it is now known as "the music room") being driven by a 275 WPC Parasound 2250 V2 amp and Parasound 200 preamp and they have never sounded better. I had tried my 150 WPC Parasound A23+ amp with them, but that amp didn't seem to have quite enough juice to make them happy (It is now in the family room happily playing some Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers & sub).
Last year I added 1/4 thick dense foam around the mids & tweeters like the factory did on the RS IIIb. Finally, I built new bases out of 1"x4" oak because the old MDF bases had fallen apart over the years (hot/ humid locales struck again). I'd had them sitting on some stands originally made for Dynaco A25's for awhile but they were only a stop gap measure that didn't satisfy visually or sonically.
Currently they are in my office (after retirement, it is now known as "the music room") being driven by a 275 WPC Parasound 2250 V2 amp and Parasound 200 preamp and they have never sounded better. I had tried my 150 WPC Parasound A23+ amp with them, but that amp didn't seem to have quite enough juice to make them happy (It is now in the family room happily playing some Monitor Audio Bronze 2 speakers & sub).
Wow, I just stumbled over this thread... I own a pair of rs4b's. Bought iIrc in the mid 80's by my brother. I took them over about 20 years ago, had the woofers refoamed, rest is original. Over the years, I caught myself remembering how I used to love the sound, I still do, but not to the same degree anymore. Somehow, the tonality has become unbalanced, low end a bit weak, high range not quite as airy as I remember (hope it's not my ears). So I started to wonder if some DIY would improve things a bit, started to search a bit and came here.
Krautmaster, thanks for your posts!
The work you did on the crossovers seem to have done a great deal for you. Also the posts, I hate the original posts since always. It seems, what you did to your rs4b's is something I would love to do to mine as well. Would you be willing to share some more details on your crossover change and the post replacement?
I never did anything to speakers except listening to them and taking them with me, when I moved.
Your post also shows the importance of how to drive theses speakers. I do not have many options there, I am stuck, with what I have, but I think in terms of power, I will not run into a problem there. Preamp is a gryphon belcanto and the amps are gryphon M-100s ( bought used in the mid 2000's for about twice the original price of the rs4b's). Connects are MITs.
Krautmaster, thanks for your posts!
The work you did on the crossovers seem to have done a great deal for you. Also the posts, I hate the original posts since always. It seems, what you did to your rs4b's is something I would love to do to mine as well. Would you be willing to share some more details on your crossover change and the post replacement?
I never did anything to speakers except listening to them and taking them with me, when I moved.
Your post also shows the importance of how to drive theses speakers. I do not have many options there, I am stuck, with what I have, but I think in terms of power, I will not run into a problem there. Preamp is a gryphon belcanto and the amps are gryphon M-100s ( bought used in the mid 2000's for about twice the original price of the rs4b's). Connects are MITs.
MarkRSIIIa
Active Member
On a side note, the foam around the tweeters and mids I always thought it was to prevent air from making noise around the outside of the tweeter and mid. Come to find out it also has something with the foam being intended to absorb the off-axis sound or something like that.
I bought the crossovers from a guy that used to go by the moniker "loudspeakerchef" but now goes by "crossoverchef-com"- His website is currently gone-his Facebook page said he was hacked and had to change names and domains (and it is not working). I found him on Ebay again, here are his RS4b crossovers for $327 Pair (about $85 more than when I bought mine several years ago). He is not fast (took 4 months), but knows what he is doing:
Moderator edit: removed link to an eBay auction as per AK rules.
Auction links:
Any post that contains a link to any current eBay, CraigsList, or Audiogon auction must go in Dollars & Sense
Last edited by a moderator:
