Powering Infinity Prelude MTS

Thanks, I will check the bases and see if I can source the screw on spikes. Speaking of SET amp friendly speakers, have you compared these by any chance to Avantgarde or similar horn speakers? Any thoughts?

I connect the entire system direct to the amplifiers (Wyetech Labs Topaz SET mono-blocks or Bryston 14B-SST2 s/s amp). Nice speakers, but one of the mid-range drivers and a tower woofer has started buzzing with certain types of music... hope I'll be able to source new drivers...

Hi Joysjane, thanks for the heads up re the woofer and tweeter. I don't think it's an amplification issue as I can hear a slight scraping sound when I push the particular mid-range and woofer manually with my thumb(with no music playing) to simulate an excursion. There is no scraping with the other drivers.

Where did you source the mid-range unit from last year?

No, I have never tried hooking the pre-amp direct to the woofer. I use these speakers as a secondary system and therefore haven't experimented with them much in the year and a half or so that I've owned them. One thing I haven't been able to nail perfectly with regards to speaker positioning is image stability and focus - my PMC speakers always seem to 'lock' vocals more tightly between the speakers than the Preludes - do you toe in your speakers, and if so, at what angle from the listening position? Also, how far away have you kept them from the back walls?

I have done very little experimentation thus far with these speakers as I haven't had the chance to use them much. I originally set them up almost face forward and about three feet from the back wall. I later tried toeing them in significantly and pushing them back closer to the wall, which resulted in a smaller but more precise and focused sound-stage. I have also only applied RABOS only once, before I adjusted their positioning, so I need to do that again at some point. The volume control of one of the woofers has come off, which I will have to get fixed - yes, the QC issues are a bit tiresome. I'll probably spend more time experimenting with them one of these weekends.

Agree that these are very good speakers in a number of ways, especially for use with lower power amps. They are a bargain used - a very neutral speaker with innovative design features for relatively little money on the used market.

Hi Jburidan, I didn't know that, thanks for the heads up. Will try positioning them as advised. No, I'm not the first owner, I bought these last year (or was it the year before?) for a second set up used but in good condition. I was looking for a reasonably efficient speaker with an active sub and a small footprint, and these checked all the right boxes on paper. I have enjoyed their relatively uncoloured and lively presentation, and certainly feel I can as yet get more out of them with a bit of work.

The volume control was working fine until last month when I gently turned it to lower the sub's volume and it fell back into the sub enclosure. The sub spikes have also come off as they were glued to the base, and aren't the screw on variety. So I do feel that Infinity packed in the technology but scrimped on build quality relative to its high price tag when new... even though the couple of problems I've had (other than the mid range driver) are niggles, such an expensive speaker should function flawlessly for years. Glad that it sounds good though.

Those Tannoys are studio monitors, correct? They look huge. I also own a pair of studio monitors, the PMC MB2s, and no home speaker I've owned matches their lack of compression and clarity. Unfortunately they require a good few hundred watts of clean power and a medium sized room to come alive, hence my foray into efficient speakers for a tube based second system.

Hi Joysjane, my understanding is also the same as Jburidan's... feeding the signal from the amp does not cause the sub-woofer amps to be over-ridden by the external amp, the subs are always self powered. I'm guessing what you may be hearing is the difference between the amplified vs the unamplified signal. Perhaps it may be worth checking what the speakers' user manual recommends between the two?

I don't believe so, but I've never tried.

Winslowst, I've just logged on to AG after a very long time, but FWIW I have never found the Preludes to be bright in any way - they work very well with my tube amps, neutral but not at the expense of musicality. The problems I've had are a buzzing mid-range driver and a broken sub volume control. Otherwise I don't think I could've done much better for what I paid for them.