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Restorable? Infinity RSIIIa

L

lightfall

New Member
Hello, I am new here (longtime lurker). I am in the process of restoring a Phase Linear 400 series 2 / 2000 series 2 with the kind help of Lee over at Phoenix Forums.

Anyway, I decided I was having fun and wanted to restore a set of Infinity RSIIIa speakers that have been in my storage closet for 5 years. But I have some questions for the experts:

Do the ribbons age well?
The tweeter surround foam is completely dried up, what to do about that?
Is there a recommended woofer foam kit?
What can I use as a replacement knob on the crossover pot (one is missing)
One of the speaker wire terminal tabs broke off, is there a replacement kit?
Am I missing anything else that should be gone through? The unit was last in good working order roughly 5 years earlier.

Thanks for your input!
 

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3 additional images of the damage
 

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I will snap some crossover photos in the AM when it is light out! What am I looking for in there? Forgive my questions that probably sound stupid.
 
lightfall said:
I will snap some crossover photos in the AM when it is light out! What am I looking for in there? Forgive my questions that probably sound stupid.
Click to expand...


No, questions are good! As far as the ribbons, I really hope someone more knowledgable than me on these Emit tweeters will chime in, but do you see how the first one looks like crumpled aluminum foil, and how the second one looks like, well, a ribbon? That's all I'm talking about.
You'd be looking for maybe a burnt component. And it's good to know how complex it is if you get them going and decide to put better capacitors in there.
 
Cool speakers, well worth your efforts I expect.

The ribbons are prone to warping as one of yours has, I'm not sure how much this degrades the sound sorry. Second hand replacements can be purchased on auction sites etc if necessary. Do they both work now or can you at least check continuity?

A different replacement knob that fits should be easy to find, usually the shaft is a standard size. A second hand one will turn up if you look in the right places for long enough.

I don't like spring-clip terminals on a high quality speaker and prefer to use binding posts and would consider finding some replacement terminals with these. However you might want to check if that could affect resale value. Again second hand is an option.

Crossover capacitors can be worth checking on older speakers, these may or not need that. Electrolytic capacitors often degrade significantly over the years, plastic caps much less so.

It would be worth doing some searching here, especially in the Infinity forum where there are other threads about these. Actually it might be a good idea to move this post there.
 
I purchased the refoam kit, and I am trying to understand more about these now. I have also been reading this other forum post: I would suggest that an amp of 100 Watts, with (say) 30 Amps of current ability, should work better with the RSIIIs, than one with (say) 200 Watts and 20 Amps of current ability.

I wonder if some dynamat type product would work well for replacing the tweeter surround foam on the faceplate.

Now to try and find what capacitors need to be replaced...and if there is a direct fit replacement for the speaker wire terminal.
 
Be sure to measure continuity on both tweeters. And once you get the refoam kit, I highly recommend NOT shimming the voice coils but simply using a 30Hz sine wave.
 
I wouldn't worry about the wrinkling in those Emits. It is common and doesn't seem to affect the sound as long as they aren't buzzing against the metal face or have holes in them. You could easily damage them trying to do something rash so take caution. I had one like that and it sounded perfect. I love those Emits. To me, it looks like all you need is woofer foam. The knob is easy too. the broken tab- not so much. I believe that crossover is integrated into the plastic input terminal box. In my RS-4000As, those terminals were sandwiched in between circuit boards. Might be a bear to get to.
 
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Cool! I hope the ribbons are OK, but I want to restore these the right way before turning them on.

A friend of mine on phoenix posted a service bulletin to me from infinity suggesting the hardwiring of a resistor at the speaker terminals to prevent amp damage so I will probably do that mod also.

Could you explain. What you mean by the shimming/sine wav comment or will that be apparent to me from the refoam tutorials on speaker central?
 
I wish you luck in your endeavor. IMO those Infinities' are superb speakers. However, EMIT tweeters are not ribbons. They are planar magnetics much like Magneplanars. With those EMITS it actually says "Planar" on the front

With a ribbon speaker the voice coil is the entire diaphragm. With planar magnetics the voice coil is printed/glued/added/etched to the diaphragm. Ribbons generally have the magnets mounted to the side. Planar magnetics have magnets mounted in front (single ended) or front and rear (double ended). Magnepan has some good diagrams showing the difference.

Using a sine wave while re-foaming: A low level30Hz tone directly to the speaker keeps the voice coil centered while you are gluing the new foam surround. You can use a CD with test tones for this. Just set it for infinite repeat on the desired track.

If you can't really hear the tone don't worry.
 
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Thanks for the clarification - regarding the centering of the voicecoil, at what stage does that come off center? I have been watching a lot of how to videos, and if I don't mess with the cone do I have to shim that voice coil? It seems like it could damage it. Basically is it essentially if I move the woofer around in the frame too much while gluing on the new foam that will manage to imbalance the voicecoil where it sits below that cone?
 
lightfall said:
Thanks for the clarification - regarding the centering of the voicecoil, at what stage does that come off center? I have been watching a lot of how to videos, and if I don't mess with the cone do I have to shim that voice coil? It seems like it could damage it. Basically is it essentially if I move the woofer around in the frame too much while gluing on the new foam that will manage to imbalance the voicecoil where it sits below that cone?
Click to expand...


As soon as you remove the old foam, the VC is off. Because the spider is still there, using the tone makes the VC align in the gap. You don't have to shim. Don't worry too much about damaging the cone, if it's that fragile it wouldn't be avery good speaker. Just take you time and don't over-think it.
Oh, and you probably know this, but to get to the crossover just take out the woofers, which you'll need to do anyways.
 
Agreed, if you use the tone no shimming is necessary.

The cones generally tend to align themselves properly unless they've been misused. Using a shim or a test tone is just making sure. I would use one of them. But then, I'm a belt and suspenders type.
 
Search the Infinity forum here. There is a lot of info on restoring these. Unscrew that panel on the back and the crossover is attached to that. Very easy to get to (A's, not so much the B's), as the B's you must remove the woofer(s) to get to the crossovers. Obvious things to look for are swelled, bulging or blown up caps. When I got my A's there was a cap that had completely come apart. Recapping them was the biggest improvement to me.

My A's are earlier models with factory binding posts instead of the clips. But those are well worth restoring!

Also, these speakers are not that difficult to drive. I drive mine with a 165 wpc power amp. But I have had lower wattage receivers running them without any issues.
 
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