Infinity RS2.5 - fully working and ready to be renewed

[Martynka]

Hi,

I refurbish many of speakers, restored wooden boxes, renewed crosovers, repaired drivers. Few months ago I bought RS6000 and made it for me.



Woofers were refoamed, veneer was polished and oiled. Look like new and sound excellent:





I use it with my valve amp. It chinese PP on KT88 in class A. Amp was fully tuned by Lukas Fikus "Lampizator" in his workshop five years ago. I never heard better sounding amplifier. Gives strong bass on RS6000 and beautifull warm high tones. I love Infinity sound and I decided to feal more Infinity and I bought this:







All Watkins woofers, Emits and Emims work. It is higher league sound. Now I drive it with my fully rebuild Yamaha M4 + C4 set ( was disasembly, desoldered, cleaned, measured, asembled and regulated ). My valve amp is in ma friend home and drive his Kappa 8.2, it is first amp which can give strong bass on this speakers.
I will try RS2.5 with KT88 next week but maybe is to weak to drive Watkins woofers. Yamaha M4 has only 100W in 8 Ohm but can work with 2 Ohm impedance speaker and give enaught power for RS2.5, I'm in shock how strong is bass.

My RS2.5 has wood in good condition, but very dry. Need polishing and linseed oil. Watkins need clean from rust and new black paint. Foam suspension were replaced by previous owner. Masks need new fabric and frames have some cracks and need repair.

I need help with two things:

- First, foam around EMIT and EMIMs:



It is possible to buy some new or use some substitute material ?? I like perfect look.

- Second, caps in crossovers:



I think that now it is not possible to buy the same. Which company you propose ??

 

[Martynka]

Maybe my thread should be move by moderator here:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?forums/infinity-loudspeakers.129/

EDIT:
Already done by a moderator

 

[swechsler]

If you click report at the bottom of the post, you can send a moderator a message and ask them to move it.

I'm not sure about specific capacitors, but in general you should see what's available in Poland. For the foam, this has been discussed here before. I don't have an exact post, but if you peruse the Infinity subforum (maybe search there for foam) you should be able to find it.

 

[Martynka]

It's not a problem with any kind of caps in Poland. All of them can buy, if no... we have internet . I had KEF, Celestion, Marantz, BeO and many more audio - I bought parts directly on Denmark, Germany, UK, USA or Japan if I need.

I try to find foam in Infinity subforum.

 

[idadude]

PartsExpress has the replacement foam. It's a US company. I'm not sure where the foam is made. I have a couple pairs of RS 2.5's. Great speaker.


L.D.

 

[Martynka]

Thank you. I found it with shipping to Poland:

Sonic Barrier 1-1/4' 3-Layer Acoustic Sound Damping Material with PSA 18 x 24

From 37USD on eBay to 14USD on another online store.

 

[Bkphoto]

 

[7.62]

Just curious ? Why would you start replacing caps etc on them ? Do they not sound right, have you experimented with placement and using the controls on top. It’s just a suggestion that before you do that, play with them for awhile you might find that doing so you’ll find the sweet spot.

They have fantastic bass no doubt, finding the upper end can be a challenge but when you find it you might find that throwing money at caps that are pretty close to spec would be a waste.

It took me awhile with placement to find where they like to be, and I’ve measured a few caps in mine, I don’t know if 15% swing one way or another is enough for my ears to hear, just a suggestion before throwing money at them. The foam is easy to find there’s a thread or two here and one of a complete crossovers rebuild if you dig you’ll find them.

Congrats they look beautiful !

 

[Bkphoto]

It’s an odd crossover to work on because of the way it’s mounted...if they were mine and in that kind of shape I’d replace everything with better...but that’s just me...

 

[Martynka]

Congrats they look beautiful !

Thanks, but will look beautiful when I finish

I'm love wooden work in speakers. Here are few of my finished work :













You didn't want to look at these speakers before my work. Fully work documentation of most of this are on audiokarma forum. I know RS2.5 will be my best looking job.

Just curious ? Why would you start replacing caps etc on them ? Do they not sound right, have you experimented with placement and using the controls on top. It’s just a suggestion that before you do that, play with them for awhile you might find that doing so you’ll find the sweet spot.

They sound right, but I'm sure can sound better. I have good experience with few type of caps. I want replace 1100 uF and 700 uF with Mundorf Mlythic MLGO HV - 450V. Always then I used it bass was stronger and more powerfull. On EMIT I want use Clarity Cap or Auricap XO. I still think about 125 uF caps. I know it will be 1/5 speakers price but I know that sound will be better.

 

[Bkphoto]

The 125’s and 150’s in my rsII’s are a mix of big mundorf 100uf electrolytics and 25uf dayton poly’s

 

[Martynka]

I check it

 

[brunomarcs]

Thanks, but will look beautiful when I finish

I'm love wooden work in speakers. Here are few of my finished work :

You didn't want to look at these speakers before my work. Fully work documentation of most of this are on audiokarma forum. I know RS2.5 will be my best looking job.



They sound right, but I'm sure can sound better. I have good experience with few type of caps. I want replace 1100 uF and 700 uF with Mundorf Mlythic MLGO HV - 450V. Always then I used it bass was stronger and more powerfull. On EMIT I want use Clarity Cap or Auricap XO. I still think about 125 uF caps. I know it will be 1/5 speakers price but I know that sound will be better.

Beautiful work

 

[Martynka]

Today I connected my tube amplifier. Always sounds amazing, vocals, heights. The best sound I've ever heard with RS6000 and Kappa 8.2 but with RS2.5 sounds not that good. Bass is strong but hi tones.... muffled, weak, little. My second amplifier is the Yamaha M4 + C4, which even hurt with the treble and details on the Kappa 8.2 and RS6000. Here it sounds calm, subdued, high tones are as they should be. Does that mean the RS2.5 likes bright amps with lots of treble? Is it because of EMIT's and EMIM's ?? Do you have other experiences ?? Bass is the same strong in my valve and SS amp.

 

[idadude]

I used a single Solen 120uf on the EMIMs since the midrange is the main part of the music. I have 100uf + 25uf Clarity Cap CSA’s for my second pair of 2.5’s, but haven’t put them together yet to hear how they sound.I use a Mundorf Supreme on the tweeters. I’ve bypassed the pots and use Duelund graphite resistors in their place. I’m much happier with the sound now.

L.D.

 

[Bkphoto]

I usually replace the pots with the equivalent of the flat setting with a resistor also....standard operating procedure, also bypass protection devices...not cranking my amp up to clipping, well not since ‘86

 

[Martynka]

One question. I started work with wood. I removed Watkins woofer and inside... RS2.5 is fully filled with polyfill.
It is normal ?? Or someone put inside more than need.

 

[idadude]

The polyfill is normal. Both of mine were filled with it.

L.D.

 

[Martynka]

Ok, Thanks. I was shocked when I removed it from speaker:




I removed upper piece of RS2.5, and polished all surfaces. Here few photo from work:









After polished it oak was clean without colour blur. Looks like new. Here with old one on left side:



but wood need some new oil and wax layer to stay in good condition next 40 years. I used hard wax on oil in natural colour from OSMO company. Excellent effect. Nice in touch and beautiful in look. Comparison with old one ( old one still on left ):



And photo in 3 steps:

1) Old:



2) Polished:



3) With first layer of wax with oil:



Now I will clean and paint Watkins. After that, second layer wax with oil and and assembly everything.

 

[Martynka]

I finished with woofers. All cleaned, painted, and sealing foam changed :





Now looks nice