Infinity Renaissance 90 questions


Hi fellow AG'ers, I have just pulled the trigger & purchased a pair of Ren 90's in black ash & had some newbie questions for more experienced members. Firstly as they are still shipping from the US, I'd love to know what finish (Black ash or blonde oak) you prefer? In my case, a micky mouse pair came up for sale at the right price in Black ash, so I grabbed them..

Also, I will be initially running my Rens with a Classe Cap-2100 integrated amp which has been bench tested at 235watts/4 ohms. I know most punters advocate giving them 400 watts per channel, so what do you think? (although the Classe has a truckload of current to compensate). I should mention I plan on upgrading to a Ca-2200 pa & AR Reference 3 in a few years, but for now, the Cap will doing regular duties.

Finally, I would be interested to hear from any members who have re-wired their Rens & had a high-end external crossover built & what results you got? I am planning a very high end x-over mod & re-wire of my Rens with Acoustic Zen wire next year and would appreciate any suggestions.

Cheers!
melbguy1
Hi Okeeteekid,

Thanks for the comments. Yes as indicated in an earlier post I made a dedicated EMIT crossover using Mundorf SIO and copper foil inductors. I have also tried Claricaps. My favourite are the Mundorfs but they need a special DC bias generator to sound their best. I'm sure there are quite a few caps that sound better than the Solens but IMO they are not too bad and if they do err it's on the polite side so they might be more listener friendly for most people. But then it's more about personal choice when it comes to caps and there always seems to be a diversity of opinions. Nice work on the K9's though. They are a great bang for buck speaker.
Cheers,
Timpani
hi timpani,

i may try your tweeter crossover mod in the future on my ren 90's, like i said after completing the k9 mod and comparing it to the ren 90's, you can really hear how the high frequencies roll off on the rens, being that the k9 has the smaller and faster semit in it, i don't know if you can get the rens to equal the k9's performance over 10 k, but i think i can equal or better the k9's dynamics as the rens tweeter is a little larger.
greg
The main issue with the EMIT as I see (hear) it is that they become very directional above 10kHz and they are too hot on axis and too rolled off when off axis. The tonal balance from 10KHz down is best when 30 dgrees off axis and for that reason I have always found them to sound most accurate when firing directly down the room without any toe-in. These emits are the same as used in the Epsilon but in the Epsilon they are used with a specially designed dispersion membrane which increases their horizontal and vertical dispersion and eliminates the hot on axis response, making them more accurate over a wider listening window. As you would have read in my previous posts my ultimate recommendation is to use a supertweeter to augment response above 10kHz but you need to have some technical expertise to implement this correctly.
If you want to experiment another option is to slightly modify the existing EMIT crossover. If you can locate the 5.6uF solen capacitor then solder a 1uF 2% polypropylene film cap in parallel with it. Then locate the 0.5 ohm (2x1 ohms in parallel) closer to the EMIT crossover input, and remove one of the 0.5 ohm resistors so that it becomes 1.0 OHMS. (Do not touch the 5W 0.5 ohm resistor at the crossover output.)
This mod will remove a saddle in the response between 4 and 8kHz and will allow you to toe the speakers in a bit further without them sounding as peaky in the 10 - 12kHz region.
Timpani
i tried firing them directly down the room without any toe in and i also find them to be more accurate and to me the sound stage also improves, but with 1/4 of an inch toe in i find that they image slightly better in my room, do you angle your speaker back? i like mine about a 1/4" angled back, a laser comes in handy when measuring, i also like them with no angle at all, its amazing how 1/4 of an inch angled back can effect the sound, thanks for the advice, i think your right, the super tweeter is the way to go.
greg
Yes I agree with you re the tilt. None or just a little works best for me too. I also discovered early on that close proximity to side walls kills the soundstage. You need several feet (1m) as a minimum.