help buying irs beta

The ET speakers might be a good value option, though I would take a pair of mint Infinity IRS Omega's over the ET's 5 times out of 5, but then again I am an Infinity lover. The IRS Omegas were the last Infinity IRS speakers released in Infinity's heyday in 1998 & were heavily upgraded with new Auricaps, coils, DH Labs cables etc, but are very rare in the US as they were only sold in Europe and Japan.

There are a couple of pairs available on this site, you use to be able to buy Irs betas a few years ago for under 6k, times have changed, I would check for the same things as mentioned by other members, I have IRS epsilons and also had in the past IRS sigmas, renaissance 80’s and renaissance 90’s so I know the sound of the newer infinity emit’s and emim’s, I auditioned a pair of IRS betas a few years ago and thought they sounded awesome, they had a big 3d sound stage, great imaging and the best bass I ever heard, I had to lower the bass level down to the 10 O’clock position or less for it to sound balanced with the high frequency drivers, in comparing the IRS epsilon to the IRS betas, obviously the betas had way more bass output but the bass was not as quick as compared to the epsilons bass, I believe this had something to do with the epsilons improved SCU box , the sound stage was deeper and slightly wider on the betas being that they are dipole and because of the semit, that said the newer style planar drivers used in all the above mentioned infinity speakers have way less coloration than the older style planar drivers used in the betas, to me the betas planar drivers have a ringing sound to them compared to the newer planar drivers used in the infinity renaissance 80, renaissance 90, IRS omega, IRS sigma and the IRS epsilon, If you didn’t have one of the newer infinity speakers to compare to you probably might not notice the ringing sound, that said if you have a big enough room for the batas I say go for it, I have my epsilons in a 19x15 room and it’s still too small for them.

@okeeteekid, You've owned some classic Infinities. I previously owned a pair of Reference 60's and Ren 90's. As good as the Rens were, technology moves on. My current Magico S5 Mk2's have all the magic the Rens had, but taking it much further. I've got a friend who thinks the Legacy Audio Focus SE speakers are the heir apparent to the Ren 90's...i'm not so sure.

Melbguy1, the guy I bought my epsilons from bought a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE, I only spoke with one time after the sale was made and he said he liked the Legacy speakers because they were easier to run and there was more bass output than the epsilons, Those Magico S5 Mk2’s are beauties but can you really compare a $38,000 plus speaker to a $3600 speaker that you can buy used for $1500 for a decent pair? if the Magico’s do in fact take it much further... is it worth spending the extra $36000 plus for the upgrade? I would think the S5 Mk2’s would blow the ren 90’s away, I know a guy who had ren 90’s and thought he would upgrade to wilson audio max 2’s, when he compared the two speakers side by side he liked the ren 90’s better, he wanted to buy my epsilons, I had ren 90’s and compared them directly to the epsilons and all I could say is that everything you liked about the ren 90 is there and more with the epsilon, wider more 3d sound stage, on a good recordings the image is so good... you would think the person is right in front of you, the epsilon has way more detail from top to bottom than the ren 90, the L-emim and the 12" servo woofer make a huge difference.

I was curious about the comparison between the Ren 90’s and Focus SE’s. The Rens are a demanding load & don’t move as much air, or go as low as the Focus SE’s. Though I was amazed by the sound of the Ren 90’s at their price point, so I can only imagine how much better the IRS Omega and Epsilon sound. They are remarkable speakers. And given the similar cabinet design of the R90’s compared to the S5 Mk2’s (ie: wide, flat front baffle with a curved cabinet), their speed, staging & excellent off-axis response, I thought the S5 Mk2’s were fair game. I don’t know how Magico manage to achieve the stellar speed, staging and off-axis response of the Rens with ’conventional’ drivers, but they do. But overall, the Magicos leave the old Infinities for dead. A side by side comparison with the IRS Epsilons would be interesting though.