Infinity Reference Standard 2.5 speakers

I've been ecstatically happy with the Leema Xavier speakers I bought on an "eBay whim" a few months ago, and this year's hifi budget allocated by swmbo was pretty much depleted anyway. So I was looking forward to the rest of the year settled down with the highly musical Xaviers. Life could be worse. :)

But a few days ago we came into a bit of an inheritance and swmbo allocated a top-up to the 2009 hifi budget (what a fine lass she is ;)). What's a box-swapper to do? .... I hoofed it on to eBay pronto, that's what, to see what was cookin'!

I saw these on auction with a couple of days to go .... did a bit of on-line research, and promptly fell in lust with them. A query to the seller resulted in the offer of personal delivery for £40 petrol money - you cannot be more reasonable than that.

So, here they are, arrived around noon yesterday.
I'll forego detailed sonic description for now, as after a few hours listening and positional tweaking they simply seem to be the best speakers I have ever heard. NMore realistic vocals I have not heard from a speaker. Maybe it's just a "1st day pride of ownership" thing. We'll see.

Here's an info link from an Infinity Fanboy site. http://www.bobbyshred.com/infinity/RS25.html

A few photos from chez-Jerry to get this review/blog going and then a few words about their intial setup tweaking here.

System setup as of now ....

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...nitysystem.jpg


And here's a photo from the eBay auction so you can get an idea of driver placement.

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...nfinity251.jpg

They sound just fine with the covers in place, so that's the way they are in my room.

Here's a closeup of the ribbon array ...

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...ityribbons.jpg

and here's the internals feeding the ribbons at the rear .. blimey! :scratch: :) ....

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...ityinnards.jpg

and finally a close-up of what is pretty clearly a fairly recently re-foamed woofer ...

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...nitywoofer.jpg.

Amplification .... from what I can glean these are power hungry monsters that go down to 2 ohms. I have a choice of 2 amps in-house - a pair of Cary 572-3SE monioblocks at 10-15 wpc, and a Bel Canto eVo4 class D amp at 400wpc. So far I have only plucked up the courage to use the Bel Canto! Any thoughts on that?

Initial setup. The speakers only have very small pads on the base, no real feet or spikes as such, so I just plunked them down on my carpet and left it at that. Initial impressions on the first disc I played (Loreena McKennitt) were "Wow, stunningly clear vocals". All was working AOK, so a large number of £20 notes exchanged hands and I was left on my own with them.

A very different sound to what I was used to, but generally excellent. Over the course of an hour or so it became evident that there was a very serious 'fly in the ointment' - a thickness and 'twangy' bloom in the lower mids / upper bass. Oh-oh. :( Probably a colouration from the 12 inch woofer being asked togo too high? Poo. Everything else sounded so good ....

Lovely day, so me and the missus went out for a cycle for a couple of hours. Jerry's mind pondering speaker placement issues and possible tweaks to overcome this colouration as I laboured up & down the forest tracks .... :scratch: What to do? .... check the woofer bolts for tightness, raise the speakers a bit to see if it was some sort of contact resonance from my floorboarsd .... :scratch:

Got back and placed each speaker on 3 1-inch high metal cones. Bingo! Colouration gone. Phew! :) They are a bit bass-heavy still, in the American fashion, but the bass is of the lean&mean variety - no unwanted bloom or waffle at all. I would guess this can be modified by raising them a bit further and the usual speaker-placement waltz. Loads of time for that - at the moment I am just stunned at having the best speakers I have ever heard actually in my living room! Now you cannot ask for much more than that.

I shall return with more sonic impressions and system tweaks as I settle down with the things.

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Oh, and they also came with the optional outboard electronic crossover box - I haven't even looked at that yet!

Great stuff, Jerry (and nice write-up) :)

It's obvious that you're a very happy bunny... There's nothing like the feeling when you hear something in your system that you know is just so *right*.

Get the Carys in at some point though - trust me, at normal listening levels you may be surprised!

Enjoy and keep us posted of progress :cool:

Marco.

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Originally Posted by Marco

Get the Carys in at some point though - trust me, at normal listening levels you may be surprised!

Marco.

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Well, OK ... what's the worst that can happen? ..... the amps go critical, blow up and take the speaker ribbons with them ... errrrr :mental:

Will the AoS undertake to put it all back together again? ;)

Amazing beasts, congrats. If I'm honest, a face only a mother could love IMHO but it's what they sound like that counts.

I do now have another problem though Jerry in that as well as being sceptical about mains conditioners and cables, I've always been a bit sceptical of cones and the like, (despite sticking focalpods under my CD player...) Looks like I'll have to try some more tweaks!

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

Amazing beasts, congrats. If I'm honest, a face only a mother could love IMHO but it's what they sound like that counts.!

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Well, with the covers on (and they sound fine that way) my wife says she likes the look of them! :) What a fine lass she is.

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Originally Posted by Alex_UK

I do now have another problem though Jerry .... I've always been a bit sceptical of cones and the like ... Looks like I'll have to try some more tweaks!

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Well, all I am really saying is that the speakers needed raising off the floor a bit to eliminate a resonance - I'm not claiming any magic foo properties for the cones. Or am I? :scratch: I dunno! :) But it certainly cleaned up the sound.

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Well, OK ... what's the worst that can happen? ..... the amps go critical, blow up and take the speaker ribbons with them ... errrrr :mental:

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I've never heard of that happening before (presuming everything is working ok), but I'll ask someone who knows for sure (such as Anthony TD) to offer his thoughts on the matter :)

The main thing is that in the meantime you seem to be enjoying them enough with the Bel Canto :smoking:

Marco.

Its always great when you get something that stirs the soul and sounds like is happening

Jerry, if that 2 ohm load is in the HF then your valve amps will cope without any problems. :)

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Originally Posted by Mike Homar

Jerry, if that 2 ohm load is in the HF then your valve amps will cope without any problems. :)

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OK, OK - jeez, it's like Being nagged by the wife :lol: - I plugged 'em into the Cary's and .... KABOOM !! The bill will be heading AoS-wards. ;)

Nah, actually it works fine so far .... OK, I've not plucked up the courage to do full orcheatral-scale music, but on moderate levels it's just fine - and sounds great. Well, at first listen the bass is a bit woolly and ill-defined - but the mids and top-end are really nice - open, fast, transparent.

Can they be bi-wired? If so,use the Bel Canto for the bass and the valve amps for the ribbons.

hi jerry,
as with all valve amps if the load they are driving deviates from the desired impedance then you will get a mismatch of power transfer, i presume your cary amps have output transformers [not OTL] so damage to your speakers is not realy an issue, if your amps did go pop in the worst posible scenario your output transformers would have to develope a catastrophic failier between primary and secondary, this rarely happens.
hope this helps.
anthony,TD...

Yep, thanks Anthony.

The Carys do surprisingly well and haven't yet run out of juice, although I've not been brave enough yet to push them to the full extent I sometimes want from my music (i.e. big orchestral at realistic levels) - but they clearly don't 'grip' the 12 inch woofers to a great extent.

Must admit that I fancy giving a Krell amp a go - ime they excel on tricky loudspeaker loads when they become very musically capable - they do sound horrid on easy loads though ... I seem to recall reading a techy explaination for that somewhere, but can't remember what it was! :doh:

As such I am buying a Krell 400xi integrated to try on the Infinitys - I should get it on Monday! :smoking:

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Originally Posted by jandl100

As such I am buying a Krell 400xi integrated to try on the Infinitys - I should get it on Monday! :smoking:

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That explains the For Sale thread on the Bel Canto then!

<wanders off muttering> I will not be tempted... I will not be tempted... the serial box-swapper will not lead me astray! :)

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Originally Posted by jandl100

Yep, thanks Anthony.

The Carys do surprisingly well and haven't yet run out of juice, although I've not been brave enough yet to push them to the full extent I sometimes want from my music (i.e. big orchestral at realistic levels) - but they clearly don't 'grip' the 12 inch woofers to a great extent.

Must admit that I fancy giving a Krell amp a go - ime they excel on tricky loudspeaker loads when they become very musically capable - they do sound horrid on easy loads though ... I seem to recall reading a techy explaination for that somewhere, but can't remember what it was! :doh:

As such I am buying a Krell 400xi integrated to try on the Infinitys - I should get it on Monday! :smoking:

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hi jerry,
if you ever see any of the big [old now] LUX amps for sale try one, [if you havent already] you may be surprised!.
regards,anthony,TD...

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Originally Posted by jandl100

Must admit that I fancy giving a Krell amp a go - ime they excel on tricky loudspeaker loads when they become very musically capable - they do sound horrid on easy loads though ... I seem to recall reading a techy explaination for that somewhere, but can't remember what it was! :doh:

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There's an Audio Analogue Maestro for sale 'elsewhere'... that WOULD grip those 12" drivers without any problems. Sounds wonderful, like a Krell but a lot sweeter. Even heavier too! :eyebrows:

Cheers...

I had a demo of an AA Maestro a few years back - a mk2 I think - and it sounded a bit grainy and 'impure' to me.

Yes, I do fancy a big Luxman, though - def on my Want List.

Good user reports received from 'elsewhere' on the Krell 400xi (aside from the many rave reviews), I'll get to judge for myself on Monday, hopefully. :)

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Originally Posted by jandl100

Good user reports received from 'elsewhere' on the Krell 400xi (aside from the many rave reviews), I'll get to judge for myself on Monday, hopefully. :)

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I'm sure I've seen one of those for sale somewhere recently, too... :scratch:

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Originally Posted by Mike Homar

I'm sure I've seen one of those for sale somewhere recently, too... :scratch:

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You've probably got your premonition turned on, and are foreseeing my For Sale ad in a few months time when I start lusting over a big Luxman amp :lol:

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Originally Posted by jandl100

when I start lusting over a big Luxman amp :lol:

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You've already seen one... 'elswhere'! :lolsign:

I've received a PM from a newbie about these speakers, but a PMed reply doesn't work, so I'll post it here.
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Enjoyed your comments on your new speakers. I have recently inherited and restored my father's 2.5s purchased new in 1981. He did not purchase the external crossover and I was wondering if yours may be for sale?

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Hi

I do have the external crossover, but I have never used it (so it is untested).

I don't wish to sell it though, as that would diminish the value and sellability of the speakers should I decide to sell them on sometime.

Regards, Jerry