Please Post your Infinity speakers

[BBQDad]

Infinity SM 112 question

I recently acquired a pair of Infinity SM 112 loudspeakers.

I do not know anything about Infinity speakers and could not tell you where in the Infinity line these would rank.

These have Polycell tweeters and an adjustment dial for the high frequencies. This seems to do nothing.

These speakers seem to have very little bass. The highs are OK, but nothing to write home about. The mids are rich and warm with plenty of presence.

In comparison, my New Large Advents have plenty of bass and a more balanced sound overall. The only big win for the SM 112s is that they are more efficient.

Could you Infinity experts tell me if this is somewhat normal?

I had always heard great things about Infinity speakers and was somewhat unimpressed by what I heard from these. Is there an explanation?

The NL Advents and the SM 112s sound great together.

Thanks...
--- BBQDad
__________________________________________
New Large Advent Loudspeakers (One pair, soon to be three)
Infinity SM 112 Loudspeakers (One pair)

Onkyo Receivers: TX 2500 Mk II (drives the SM 112s), TX 4500 Mk II (drives the New Large Advents), TX 4500 Mk II (undergoing mod), TX 8500 Mk II (being cleaned, recapped, lubed, relamped, tested)

Kenwood KX 1030 Cassette Deck, Kenwood KX 830 Cassette Deck, Kenwood KX W8030 Double Cassette Deck

Dual 1237, 1257, and CS 620Q TTs, each equipped w/Microacoustics 282e cartridge/stylus

Onkyo EQ 35 Equalizer, Technics SH 8028 Equalizer.

 

[WmAx]

Question: Is this thread only for stock condition Infinity speakers, or may we also post radically modified Infinity speakers?

-Chris

 

[BrocLuno]

Modified is fine as long as you can explain the mods. We have Infinities from stock, to mildly mod'd, to pretty wild changes. With drivers and parts getting harder to find, mod'ding may be the only way to keep some running. It's all good if it sounds good

 

[BrocLuno]

Well ...

I recently acquired a pair of Infinity SM 112 loudspeakers.

I do not know anything about Infinity speakers and could not tell you where in the Infinity line these would rank.

These have Polycell tweeters and an adjustment dial for the high frequencies. This seems to do nothing.

These speakers seem to have very little bass. The highs are OK, but nothing to write home about. The mids are rich and warm with plenty of presence.

In comparison, my New Large Advents have plenty of bass and a more balanced sound overall. The only big win for the SM 112s is that they are more efficient.

Could you Infinity experts tell me if this is somewhat normal?

I had always heard great things about Infinity speakers and was somewhat unimpressed by what I heard from these. Is there an explanation?

The NL Advents and the SM 112s sound great together.

Thanks...
--- BBQDad
__________________________________________
New Large Advent Loudspeakers (One pair, soon to be three)
Infinity SM 112 Loudspeakers (One pair)

Onkyo Receivers: TX 2500 Mk II (drives the SM 112s), TX 4500 Mk II (drives the New Large Advents), TX 4500 Mk II (undergoing mod), TX 8500 Mk II (being cleaned, recapped, lubed, relamped, tested)

Kenwood KX 1030 Cassette Deck, Kenwood KX 830 Cassette Deck, Kenwood KX W8030 Double Cassette Deck

Dual 1237, 1257, and CS 620Q TTs, each equipped w/Microacoustics 282e cartridge/stylus

Onkyo EQ 35 Equalizer, Technics SH 8028 Equalizer.

SM (studio Monitor) series were Infinities "value" line speakers. They were built to get loud on less powerful or capable amps and receivers. Obviously built to price point and sold by the bazillions. They start to get serious around the SM150 and above range. Still not anything to write home about compared to the legendary Infinities, but OK for patio speakers or background at parties and such. Mod'd SM152's make pretty good family room speakers.

They can be made better. Recapping the crossover, bracing the cab, and in the case of your smaller ones, maybe a woofer change will get you more of everything. Are they worth the effort, only you can decide. Most don't do much to SM's - they mostly flip them for $$ to get others. Some have had real good luck mod'ding them and some are enjoying bigger SM's stock.

 

[Matt34]

Question: Is this thread only for stock condition Infinity speakers, or may we also post radically modified Infinity speakers?

-Chris

Like these?

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2699461&postcount=258

 

[BBQDad]

Thx for the info, BrocLuno

I will not be pouring any money into these SM 112s. I have been using them for late-night listening. My NLAs make too much bass and then my wife yells at me, so the SM 112s are a good way to listen to some mellow jazz and enjoy a little of The Balvenie Single Barrel 'til the wee small hours... just a small dram...

Thanks, and happy listening.

 

[apogee]

Somehow or another I guess I turned into an infinity guy since I now own a pair of sl40's a pair of reference threes and a pair of reference e-l bookshelfs. Man I gotta quit going to goodwill.

 

[dcmaster]

Hi all,

here I will show you my actual Infinity models:
RS1B, InfiniTesimal 0.1, RS 4000, ServoStatik 1

 

[Yamahalic]

I recently acquired a pair of Infinity SM 112 loudspeakers...These speakers seem to have very little bass. The highs are OK, but nothing to write home about. The mids are rich and warm with plenty of presence.

I have a pair of SM-122 (3-way, ~12" woofer) speakers still that I bought new. I found that the bass in the SMs is/was a bit "relaxed" when compared to their main competitor which I think was the similar Cerwin Vegas. The SMs have a musical bass, just not quite as loud (SPL) and deep (dB) as the C-Vs. However, I always liked the mids and highs of the SMs in comparison, especially when hooked up to higher quality electronics (Yamaha stuff in my case). So, I enjoy my SMs with an added subwoofer (problem solved).

 

[Scott24b]

QLS-1's and RS-2001's

I have a set of RS-2001's I bought back in college. Need to refoam the woofers. Got the kit from Ebay just recently. Awesome little book shelf speakers. Been considering using them as the rears on my HT system.

Of course the more interesting speakers are my QLS-1's. Got these from a friend about 17 years ago. It wasn't until years later than I realized they are NOT a mirror-image pair but I believe two right speakers (EMIT bank on the right).

They needed serious work then. For a while I replaced the Watkin's woofers with dual voice coil subs but soon realized that was not the way to go. I was not dumb enough to discard the original Watkin's woofers (plasticized paper version) so I had them refoamed. I fixed one of the midrange tinsel wires. Easy fix. All the mids worked great after that. The EMIT's are a mixed bag. Some are really bright while others are less so. I need to get in there and reflow the solder on the diaphrams. Not a huge job but the worst part is getting them back together. I need to build a jig with several smooth rods to guide the two halves while putting a few screws back in at which point they can be removed from the jig and completed. If you have ever taken one of these apart you realize they simply do NOT want to go back together. The magnets will fight you fiercely and you can easily damage the magnets or diaphragms in the struggle.

None of the EMIT's are blown to my knowledge - just built up series resistance because of those crappy solder joints. The rear firing EMIT's ( a slightly smaller version) are perfect.

The mid-base couplers are also perfect.

The cabinets are in excellent shape. When I got them A WHOLE GRILL WAS MISSING!!!! How do you lose something that large. :bash: My Dad and I got out the torch, many feet of steel dowel and other materials and duplicated the original Infinity grill structure. I then put new cloth on both and even got the original gold logo's from Infinity.

My problem is the crossover's. The components are fine except for those rheostats (POTS). They are shot and only work in a few positions.

I recently got a very good buy on some Polk RTi-10's which are excellent and MUCH smaller speakers. I have gone back and forth about selling the QLS's or maybe even parting them out. The EMIT's alone are worth some serious coin on Ebay.

They are beauties though from the truly Golden Age of audio. How many speakers can you buy now with 34 drivers per pair. They are still something to behold. People aren't used to speakers the size of coffins.

Scott

 

[Ken Boyd]

Hey Scott, still have those QLS-1's, its good you deceided to keep them, you would have probably missed them.

Just purchase a pair if QLS-1's for my collection from Craigslist. I missed that set the guy had in Tampa, had to get mine out of Cleveland, but they are a one owner pair. The shipper is enroute now with them along with a second pair of RS-1b's I got off of Craigslist as well. I like that Criagslist as you get a better price compared to audiogon or ebay.

Also got a new pair of Kappa 9's off of eBay, they are in Florida so I don't have to pay to ship them.

Hope you don't ever part them out Scott as its a real shame when people part these nice classic pieces of audio gear.

Oh well going back to enjoy my QLS-2's playing Evanescence "The Open Door', and then maybe a little Lucia Micarelli and her wonderful violin.

 

[Ken Boyd]

By the way if the EMIT's are are the right, you have a pair of Left hand speakers, in case of mirror image speakers I think the manufactors intend for the hi frequency drivers to be placed more to the center of the room.

 

[Scott24b]

By the way if the EMIT's are are the right, you have a pair of Left hand speakers, in case of mirror image speakers I think the manufactors intend for the hi frequency drivers to be placed more to the center of the room.

Ken,

Glad you found a set of QLS-1's. I think I will probably take some time and restore mine once I get a few other projects out of the way. I'm an electronics engineer and have worked on audio equipment since I was a kid so it's not technically beyond me. It's just about making the time. With some effort these things would probably blow away my Polk RTi's once again.

By the way... I have a photo from one of the stereo mags of the day... they were giving away a dream system which consisted of QLS-1's and other components. Their system is setup with the EMIT banks toward the far right and left as I would assume. From an imaging perspective we get most of our soundstage queues from high frequency info so it would follow that you would want the high frequency driver banks to maximize channel separation. I can't recall a speaker design where the high frequency drivers were placed toward the center of a matched pair.

http://www.infinity-classics.de/infinity/models/Quantum-series-1976/index-Quantum.htm

http://www.infinity-classics.de/inf...1976/Quantum-Line-Source-QLS-1/QLS_1_7_1a.jpg

Then again... there is a pic on the InfinityClassics pages by the late BobbyShred that shows them with the high frequency drivers inboard.

http://www.bobbyshred.com/infinity/QLS.html

So... do I have a set of left or right speakers? Hmmm... we may never know. I would assume the stereo mag would know how they were supposed to be setup with the little asian dancer and everything.


From a point of interest would you mind PM'ing me with a ballpark of what you paid for the QLS-1's. It would be helpful in determining how much work I should put into restoring them.

Thanks,


Scott

 

[Ken Boyd]

Hey scott, I suppose you can place them which ever way you wish but the audio standard for mirror imaged speakers are the mids and highs to the center. Yamaha NS1000m's Infinity RS1-b's and the quantum line are no exception. If fact Infinity still has all of their products manuals still on their website. You can go there and download the orginal users manual for the all of their products even the quantum line line. In the manual it states hi and mids to the interiour of the room, as does yamaha's manuals.

I am pretty dissapointed in the pair I have as the guy said all of the drivers were in good condition except the bass drivers need refoaming but almost all of the mids have problems the bass drivers have really bad voice coil rubbing and I have yet to test the emit's. Out of cleveland on craigslist he wanted 900.

 

[cdfac]

ouch, sounds like for $900 you didn't get too much. if you've got a very steady hand, you can try to repair the mids yourself, or you can get them professionally repaired for $25 to $40 a piece by the same guy that did about 12 of mine.

or, if you play your cards right, you could potentially part them out to make back what you spent and then find a better pair of QLS1s. that's probably what i would do in your shoes.

 

[Scott24b]

...In the manual it states hi and mids to the interiour of the room, as does yamaha's manuals.

I am pretty dissapointed in the pair I have as the guy said all of the drivers were in good condition except the bass drivers need refoaming but almost all of the mids have problems the bass drivers have really bad voice coil rubbing and I have yet to test the emit's. Out of cleveland on craigslist he wanted 900.

The more I look around the more it seems you are correct about that. Amusing that the sound mag's big system was setup incorrectly.

As for the QLS's... sorry to hear about the issues. What's wrong with the mids? All of my mids are still singing pretty. I had to repair a voice coil wire years ago but that was a simple fix. Not much goes wrong with those things. You could have some trashed caps in the xover or those horrible 5ohm 25W rheostats get really dirty. I'm going to take mine apart and clean them up with deoxit.

I found that the EMIT diaphragms can be reworked fairly easily but it's getting the EMIT's apart and the more difficult part... getting them back together is a bear. You really need to build a rig with several long steel dowels mounted on a wood block that will allow you to guide the halves of the EMIT back together as the EMIT will fight you every step of the way and can be damaged easily in the battle.

Hope the cabinets are in good shape. I have the common black-front QLS's. I would love to have a pair that had the veneer on the front but I think there were less common. Infinity seemed to realize that a speaker that impressive needed and equally impressive surface for it's drivers.

Scott

 

[Scott24b]

... the guy said all of the drivers were in good condition except the bass drivers need refoaming but almost all of the mids have problems the bass drivers have really bad voice coil rubbing and I have yet to test the emit's. Out of cleveland on craigslist he wanted 900.

It's pathetic that people simply can't seem to be honest about anything if there's a dollar involved. Especially with something like this. You would think the seller would realize he has a very specialized buyer who would be immediately aware that things were not as described.

ARGH @#)(*&#)(%*#&)%(*&!!!!

 

[Scott24b]

ouch, sounds like for $900 you didn't get too much. if you've got a very steady hand, you can try to repair the mids yourself, or you can get them professionally repaired for $25 to $40 a piece by the same guy that did about 12 of mine.

Who repaired your stuff?

 

[Scott24b]

EVERYTHING you need to know to repair your Quantum's

Check this out! Searched around a bit and found this forum with excellent articles on how to fix everything from the EMIT diaphragms to the 25W rheostats to the dome wires, etc.

www.sound-thinking.org/index.php?showforum=20

Be sure to check both pages of the forum.

Excellent articles.

I still have to find the time but now I am sure I'm going to restore my QLS1's. I will never come across a set of speakers like this again. It would be a shame to let them go just because they need some work.

Yeah... they aren't a matched pair and indeed appear to be two left speakers but really... once the grills are on do you think you could tell the difference sonically? I wonder. Nevertheless... it's worth the effort. If nothing else I end up with a good set of QLS-1's that will sell for a higher price.

Scott

 

[Ken Boyd]

The QLS-1's I got were the walnut fronts which match my QLS-2's. As far as the cabs they are in pretty good shape just a few small spots of veneer splinters. The problem with the mids are that most of them not only have the small voice coil wire broken but the black coating that coat the cloth diaphram with is almost gone leaving it very soft and slightly porous. I think I can fix them but I am not sure just what kind of coating they used to coat the fabric with. It almost seems like a liquid dope like you would use to coat the handle of a wench, you know that black liquid dip stuff. As far as the Watkins drivers I have a spare set of them and Watkins still sells them brand new so thats not a problem other than the fact the guy mislead me on the condition. I am thinking I might just keep my eyes open for another pair and then make these into a hybrid set. I have already found a drop in replacement mid driver with titanium diaphrams which I probably woiuld like the sound just as much. I am interested in why some manufactors use such a soft dome for mids while others spend such great amounts to build cellouse and beryllium for their light, strenght so they respond quicker and have less deformation under loads. I really like my Yamahas hi, and mid presence and I wonder how such soft domes like these and their polydomes can sound as good as they do.

So I think is what I am going to do is try and repair these with as small amount of money as possible and keep my eyes for a real clean pair. When I find them I will use these all ones for the spares and then strip the cabinets of the veneer and replace the veneer with rosewood veneer. I will than purchase some new drivers and see what they end up sounding like. I will probably just take out the crossovers and tri amp them using a active crossover that eliminates any problems with caps and internal crossover parts as the crossover will allow me to control all the drivers to find the sound that I like.

I am going rearrange my living room and put some of the furniture in a spare room so I can set up the RS-1's that I got, and I will put up some pics, I still can't beleive the condition of them, they look brand new, not a scratch on them the finish on the wood looks like brand new as usually the varnish starts to yellow and turn darker as it ages. The guy threw in a huge box of all the wires and connection wires all top dollar all silver wire with gold RCA and bannana plugs and really good top quality speaker wires. Probably a thousand dollars worth of wire alone. Two crossovers for the RS-I's and they look brand new as well. All the bass drivers foams and cones perfect. All the EMIT's and EMIM's foil is perfect no waves or wrinkles at all. I would have just about paid what I paid just for the two crossovers but I still can't beleive how well someone was able to keep these. I did measure the drivers in the base towers, and they are slightly smaller than my RS-1b's They measure 7 inches from foam to foam where my RS-1b's measure 8 inches the Mid-high panels appear to be the same as far as the drivers but the crossover in them are slightly different in that they have less pots on them for controlling the drivers, and a different style of fuse knobs. The bass cabinets and the mid-high panels measure the exact same diminsions as my other pair. I will take some pics of them once I clear out some stuff in my room and hook up the amps.

If anyone knows what kind of coating those mids use let me know as I will start pulling all of the mids out tomorrow and fix the leads and test the high EMIT's in QLS-1's. I will also contact Phase Technology in Jacksonville tomorrow and find out what they use on their soft domes. I have a pair of their speakers that I purchased years ago and they really are pretty good sounding and they hold the patented on the soft dome tweeter so they might have a good idea, and they also build all of their drivers onsight and they make drivers for many other brands as well.