Well guys I feel like an idiot. I have listened to these "boring neutral" speakers compaired to my Infinity 2.5s for well over a year. . . . . and the other day I decided to look at the fuses. All 4 fuses for the emims and emits were sagging in the glass and they were tarnished and corroded. The wire was soooo thin....being only 1 1/4 amp fast blow fuses. Well anyway I replaced the fuses and WHAZAMM!! CRYSTAL CLEAR DEEP BEAUTIFUL SOUND. I think the fuses were original...25+ years old??? When I first set up the speakers I put my ear up to all the drivers and they all worked....so I thought the fuses were ok. I have thousands of dollars worth of preamps, amps and interconnect and all of the sound is going through a hair width wire. Sorry for the confusion above. Larry
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
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
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- 24 posts total
The RSIIA/B does come with a bass contour box. The manual states the high pass does nothing and if you have two preamplifier outputs, you can go direct to your midrange and high frequency amplifier. What the bass box does is allow you to adjust the overall volume and it has an adjustment at about 100HZ. I use balanced connections; any device where one is able to adjust the gain will work, even a gain on the amplifier. For a better set-up, a bass contour with gain and eq setting control will do the same as the box. |
I've had 4.5's and RS11b. The RSllb is far superior. The higher and lower mids are wired to limit high frequency, so vertical dispersion is not beaming. The middle EMIM goes up to a higher frequency. The 4.5 loses focus if you are not at exact center of the midrange. The RSllb does not have that problem. If you really want the RSllb to be a world class speaker, disconnect the two 10" woofers. Get a 36"h x 24"w 3/4" wood panel and mount an open baffle 15" Eminence Alpha 15 woofer. You'll need an electronic crossover. This will provide a seemless open and box free natural sound to match the EMIMs and Emits. Of course you'll need to biamp. One more thing, the open baffle woofers will only go down to about 50 hz, so add a good sub for the bottom octave. I use a HSU 15" |
Ladycharnet, the EQ box does more than boost below 100Hz. I have studied mine extensively and also modded it extensively, and here are the facts: 1) bass gain adjusts bass boost below 100Hz, especially from 50Hz down 2) contour adjusts the slope downward below 2000Hz Without both of those adjustments the RSIIbs will not be flat in response. The non-EQed speaker has a rising response below 2kHz that peaks at 50Hz and then falls like a rock - the contour adjustment knocks down the rise and the bass gain fills in the area below 50Hz. Here is my in-room frequency response without the EQ: RSIIb no EQ and here it is with the EQ: RSIIb with EQ Here is a plot of the frequency response of the EQ unit itself when fed a pink noise signal from 20-20kHz: EQ Response If you have another EQ unit that allows you to plot the in-room response you may be able to come up with settings that approximate the stock unit. |
Marchand Electronics has been around as long as I can remember (we're talkin' half a century!) and it wouldn't surprise me to learn that Infinity "borrowed" their equalizer from this unit, although in a "watered-down" version. Come to think of it, Marchand produces many, many OEM components, and quite possibly made the bass EQ unit for Infinity! Look here: http://www.marchandelec.com/wm8.html And check out their other stuff -- they're a rock solid, straight up, Amerikan company!! Y'know what I'm talkin' about?! . |
- 24 posts total