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Infinity SM-112

V

Vanmor

New Member
Went to look at some Klipsch KG-1s I saw on CL. Dude warned me that they were rough. Man were they ever. I had to pass on them. This guy's garage was full of old stereo equipment. He let me look around for myself. Lot of Kenwood and Sansui speakers. Don't care for those. I like a single tweeter/midrange/woofer set up if I'm going with a three way. In the corner were some Infinity SM-112 speakers that were in fantastic shape. Seller said for me to take them home and try them out. If i didn't like them, bring them back. If I like them, just send him some money and we're good. Brought them home and hooked them up to my old Sansui 30/30. Wow. I was impressed with what was heard. Got on this forum and turns out not many people like them. I'm old school about this stuff, so I adjusted the controls on the receiver and the L-pads on the speakers. Sounded really good after the adjustments. Think I'm going to like these speakers.
 
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Open them up and see if there is any insulation. .
Probably won't be any....
If not go to home Depot or Menards or Lowe's and get a couple of feet of carpet insulation....
Put it in the Cabinets..
And then you will be able to Really Enjoy ..

They're good Speakers... not the best but they are worth keeping

Here's a set of sm110 I rescued
IMG_20170729_143031452.jpg they have Cerwin Vega 10inch Woofers and kick ass
 
You kind of threw me with the Cerwin-Vega woofers. Then I read the caption. Hey if they work and sound good, so be it. Why the filler inside ? Thanks for looking at my post.
 
Funny SM story...My buddy had a few pairs from the SM line and was proud as a peacock. Sounded pretty good. When I was shopping for new gear around 1990 or so I mentioned them to a dealer who sold Polk and Klipsch to get his opinion. He said open em up and pull one of the woofers - the magnet is the size of a quarter. (I ended up buying Klipsch KG3.2s that day, btw). My buddy pulled a woofer from his SM 150 and was floored to see that the magnet was indeed almost non existent. He soon replaced them with some Forte II and never looked back. In his case, this was the start of the itch he has continued to scratch in his quest for better sound. I believe he’s still at it.
 
holyman772 said:
Funny SM story...My buddy had a few pairs from the SM line and was proud as a peacock. Sounded pretty good. When I was shopping for new gear around 1990 or so I mentioned them to a dealer who sold Polk and Klipsch to get his opinion. He said open em up and pull one of the woofers - the magnet is the size of a quarter. (I ended up buying Klipsch KG3.2s that day, btw). My buddy pulled a woofer from his SM 150 and was floored to see that the magnet was indeed almost non existent. He soon replaced them with some Forte II and never looked back. In his case, this was the start of the itch he has continued to scratch in his quest for better sound. I believe he’s still at it.
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Found this interesting article
http://www.emfcaraudio.com/blog/technically-speaking-gauss-may-not-be-what-you-think-it-is/
 
Vanmor said:
You kind of threw me with the Cerwin-Vega woofers. Then I read the caption. Hey if they work and sound good, so be it. Why the filler inside ? Thanks for looking at my post.
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The lack of having any type of insulation and dampening gives the speaker Hollow box sound and creates unwanted resonances at certain frequencies almost every loudspeaker ever made uses some sort of dampening in the cabinet to stop it.
 
holyman772 said:
Funny SM story...My buddy had a few pairs from the SM line and was proud as a peacock. Sounded pretty good. When I was shopping for new gear around 1990 or so I mentioned them to a dealer who sold Polk and Klipsch to get his opinion. He said open em up and pull one of the woofers - the magnet is the size of a quarter. (I ended up buying Klipsch KG3.2s that day, btw). My buddy pulled a woofer from his SM 150 and was floored to see that the magnet was indeed almost non existent. He soon replaced them with some Forte II and never looked back. In his case, this was the start of the itch he has continued to scratch in his quest for better sound. I believe he’s still at it.
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I'm not a speaker engineer, but sometimes a magnet doesn't have to be large to do it's job. Magnets can be made out of various material that affect it's magnetism. Most of my experience with speakers has been with music amplifiers. I have guitar amps that have large very heavy magnets. I have one that has a very thin light magnet in it. it gets very loud. I need to reducate myself on speaker or driver construction.
 
gladiator335 said:
But oh boy they can be loud!
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You got that right ! I think my Sansui 3030 is only rated for 20 watts. At 1/4 volume, the speakers really started to come on. At 1/3 volume they really came alive. !/2 volume was about all I could stand. Which was OK because I find after 1/2 volume on most of these old receivers, distortion starts to creep in. This might be due to the amplifier section or the speakers. I don't have the test equipment to see which is which.
 
That's funny because most of the speakers I've eve owned didn't have any insulation in them. Except a pair of Soundesign cheapie boxes that were rated for 5 watts. LOL.
 
Vanmor said:
That was interesting. I knew speaker magnets were like that but not to that degree. Wow.
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I only post that because sometimes people dont understand speakers.

My Infinity SM-155 kick the butt of the Klipsch KG5.2s (the big brother of the 3.2) In every single parameter, sorry. Klipsh is a good speaker.
 
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mataratos said:
I only post that because sometimes people dont understand speakers.

My Infinity SM-155 kick the butt of the Klipsch KG5.2s (the big brother of the 3.2) In every single parameter, sorry. Klipsh is a good speaker.
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Your right about speaker construction. A lot of people don't understand how they work much less how they are made. Suspension and cone construction are another subject. This is my first pair of speakers that have poly cones instead of paper.
 
Those Infinity's don't get a lot of praise here on AK.I had a pair of the 112's and a pair of the smaller ones,I forget the model #.I refoamed both pair and tried them out.They weren't bad but a bit hollow and boomy sounding,so with one pair I braced the interior and and stuffed it with insulation.vast improvement. I ended up giving them away,not my cup of tea.
If you decide to keep them I would suggest you go with some kind of batting or insulation and some stiff bracing.
 
don philipe said:
Those Infinity's don't get a lot of praise here on AK.I had a pair of the 112's and a pair of the smaller ones,I forget the model #.I refoamed both pair and tried them out.They weren't bad but a bit hollow and boomy sounding,so with one pair I braced the interior and and stuffed it with insulation.vast improvement. I ended up giving them away,not my cup of tea.
If you decide to keep them I would suggest you go with some kind of batting or insulation and some stiff bracing.
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I'm just getting back into audio after a lot of years. Decades to tell the truth. So I imagine my ears will like just about anything right now. My living room has that thin flooring that snaps together. So it's pretty "live" as apposed to a carpeted room. My audio experience has been playing guitar in small bands. So open back amplifiers and closed back speaker cabinets are what I'm used to. I believe in using the knobs on a piece of equipment. They are there to make adjustments for any shortcomings of the system. The biggest problem right now is to keep my cats from using the grilles as a scratching post ! It's fun to crank it up when they get too close to them..
 
I've enjoyed reading your thread, like don I think most of us Infinity guys pretty much scoff at the SM line of speakers, your enthusiasm has me thinking why I don't have a pair for the pure fun of it all, crank it up and let Rock...LOL !

Wishing you the best rediscovering everything !
 
7.62 said:
I've enjoyed reading your thread, like don I think most of us Infinity guys pretty much scoff at the SM line of speakers, your enthusiasm has me thinking why I don't have a pair for the pure fun of it all, crank it up and let Rock...LOL !

Wishing you the best rediscovering everything !
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I can see why. They don't seem to be an expensive speaker. Though I think someone said they were about $600 for a pair at one time. Maybe that's why I didn't buy any back when. In the 1980's I shared a house with two other guys. I had a Kenwood receiver with some ESS speakers. One of the guys had a Sanui 8080db. Can't remember the brand of tower speakers he had. The guy who owned the house had home made speakers with a home made power amplifier. The preamp and tuner were Hitachi I think. Anyway, after listening to the home brew stuff, my little system seemed like junk. So after that, iInever bought any stereo equipment after that. I learned about speaker construction. I also learned that you don't have to have a lot of power to drive efficient speaker designs. ..
 
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