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Just Purchased Infinity RS2B / RSIIb owned RS 2.5

FYI Infinity Fans:
I have lusted after some RS2bs for 20 years after loveing my 2.5s. I thought the 2bs would fill in the middle and keep all of the strengths of the 2.5s. In reading the manual, I was unaware that the 2bs had a bass equilizer (not crossover) that was NOT optional. The bass equilizer has been lost. I hooked up my VTL compact 100s with several preamps & the sound was mud in the bass and boring in the emims/emits. One of the emits is even covered 50 percent, the top one in the front. These 2bs sound like monster cable . . . go figure. Monster cable was used in the speakers. Also, it turns out that ONLY the middle emim is hooked to the midrange control. The middle emim is the only one that sounds like the emims in the 2.5...they are running full out. The top and bottom emim are subdued and they are trying to mimic a good dome midrange....yes the lower vocals are better but who cares?? I have lost the magic of the emims. I have had some Infinity Sigmas in my room and one super emim did a better job than these three emims. Last night I hooked up a couple of transitor amps and the sound was MUCH improved... remember what older monster cable did to good solid state stuff? in the 80s. I guess I'm going to stay with threshold but I own several good tube amps that I love to hear the imaging etc etc. I might be nuts but the improvement I have gained with Kimber Kable 4TC and Audioquest jaguar interconects is lost in the old monster cable wire?? I am probably being to hard on these speakers, but I remember a german saying the 4.5s were the best of that vintage. How are the emims controled in the RS1bs?? are they all hooked to the crossover controls?? To be continued. Thanks for reading. Larry
apfdirtdoctor
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
I had both an RS 4.5 and later on a 2b (which I bought from someone who worked at the factory) I can't recall if I had a bass equalizer box, but I was biamping anyway, so maybe I didn't need one ;-) Otherwise you may need it along with the jumper cables. Assuming all the drivers are OK, it could be that the connectors (which were push-on IIRC) to ALL drivers including woofers need to be cleaned with DeOxit or similar. Ditto the level controls which you can get at from inside after removing the woofers.

To get the most out of the 2b's (and the 4.5's too as a matter of fact) biamping is almost mandatory, with tubes on top and solid state for the woofs.

Check out this site http://www.infinity-forum.de/rs_iia.html crossover schematics are here http://www.infinity-forum.de/download/RS_IIA_technical_sheet.pdf

They might be able to provide you with a schematic for the equalizer. BTW, don't sweat the Monster Cable, at those (short) length, it really won't matter what they use as long as it's heavy enough for the power. It's the connectors and rheostats that you should check.
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nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
Elizabeth, did you check out the URL's I provided? They show the internal and external x-over circuits including component values and the driver hookup diagrams. Should be a snap to build the equalizer box if one wanted to. However, using a good active x-over (like a Bryston 10B) either in mono mode or for biamping should do the trick. I'm not convinced the internal x-over caps are bad, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to replace them with better sounding ($$$) ones ;-) A better bang for the buck I think would be to change out all those cheap inductors Infinity used, for really good coils.
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