Speaker Demos and Value Infinity QLS (quick response needed!)

[Mag84ilfully]

Hey everyone,

Need a quick response to the below message.

I have an opportunity to buy a set of Infinity QLS-1's. The seller's price is high but he has no way of to demo the speakers. I have a couple power amps that could be used to demo, but transporting them to and from the sellers house is a royal pain. I probably know the answer to this, but how would this effect an offer. (Seller wants $1650 Obo). Definitely not going to pay $1650. What's a fair offer?

Seller states speakers were "serviced" 10 years ago.

Thanks so much for a response!

 

[bshorey]

$100?

Honestly, without verifying those EMIT's, those speakers could be a great deal, or they could be in need of $2,000 worth of drivers. You either need to bring an amp, or resign yourself to pulling each and every driver and verifying it with a voltmeter. That's something I wouldn't want to do as a buyer, and wouldn't allow as a seller.

They are fantastic speakers, but they're loaded with very expensive drivers that have been known to fail when clipped. At a hundred bucks a pop, you could be looking at $1600 just to replace the EMIT's if none are good. I know that's worst case, but when you're the buyer..

I wouldn't throw anything near what they're 'worth' without being able to verify them in some way. You really need to just be able to put a little power to them, enough to verify that something is coming out of each and every driver, especially the tweeters.

So my answer is, I don't know. $500? Roll the dice?

I have a Carver cube amp that comes in very handy in situations like this. Cube amp, speaker cables, signal cable, and iPhone, easy to carry around. I don't know where in the Wild West you are located, but if it's anywhere near Gilroy, California, you're welcome to borrow my little amp. Heck, I could probably be talked into coming along for the ride.

Good luck with them.

bs

 

[Mag84ilfully]

Got 'em! And talked seller down to a little more than half of asking price. Both function but need some minor work. These are some beastly speakers! My Marantz 2500 was struggling to feed enough power! Turned out the seller lived closer than I thought. Easy enough to bring an amp over.

Thanks bshorey et. al. for the quick input

 

[bshorey]

Nice! They look very good!

They can present quite the load on an amplifier, you need something that's comfortable with 4 ohm (and lower) loads. If you find your amp is shutting down, find another amp that is better suited for them. They're worth it.

What kind of work do they need?

The Watkins woofers and EMIT tweeters are great drivers (the rest are no slouches either). I've got a pair of RS 2.5's that I bought to repair and enjoy for a while, but I can't seem to get rid of them. Even the wife likes them.

Have fun!

bs

 

[Mag84ilfully]

Maybe a little more work than I thought... Time was tight when I bought these had to breeze over some testing. I have an silent bass coupler in the right (front and back), a couple mid ranges need to have the domes repaired, and maybe 3 (out of the 18 total for the pair) EMITs are silent. Some are lower volume (I heard there was a fix for this).

I think the seller drove these hard...

Watkins woofers are in excellent condition! Bass is very tight. Wow they sound great! Much better than the Rola woofers in my Marantz HD-88's. I have service records indicating a recone was performed 10 years ago on both woofers.

Cabinets are in good to very good condition. Still taken by the shear size of these! First time owner of "giant speakers"

I have the feeling that once these are brought back to full working order, they will be my best sounding speaker setup. Definitely happy! Seller came way way down on the price (think greater than 40% discount)

I'm guessing there may be a resource for repairing much of the above. If any threads come to mind, please feel free to share

 

[Mag84ilfully]

And my amp for these QLS's will be a Rotel RB-5000 (rated at a hefty 975 watts into 4 ohms!)

 

[tubed]

They do look good.
The coated tinsel wire sticking out of the the mid dome breaks and the broken wire can be repaired.
If one of the Emits has a broken trace, that also can be repaired(hopefully a loose connection?)
These speakers are worthy of new capacitors and once running optimally are superb.
Enjoy and watch your back.

 

[goodolpg]

The faulty EMITs might benefit from reflowing of the solder "buttons".
Info in the Infinity subforum.