The Untold Secret of the 20-Year-Old Infinity Speaker 

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Infinity is owned by Harman, and one of their main speaker gurus was Dr. Floyd Toole, who did extensive research and blind listening tests with focus groups, and he found that the majority of listeners prefer speakers with a flat frequency response. The entire Primus line was always well received by Stereophile, and JA's measurements were always very good, even on their low priced bookshelf models. Another Harman brand is Revel, which are universally praised by all reviewers.

If you're 21, these speakers are old; the further you are past 40, the less old they actually become lol

I appreciate how you still explain your reasoning and measurements and what matters, even though you've definitely gone over it dozens of times before.

I still can't believe you reviewed a set of speakers I own! I've always been very happy with these towers. I used them primarily with my Yamaha AX-700U amplifier. No loudness control on, no EQ and just the on board bass & treble turned up about half way. I listen to everything from classic rock, heavy metal, 90's rap, drum & bass and even a little bit of jazz and classical. These Infinitys are one of the few speakers ive ever owned that seem to sound good with all of these genres. Thank you so much for reviewing these speakers. Its so cool to the technical data on them and your opinion too. Very, very much appreciated this video my friend 🍻👍👍

Reviewing older speakers is pretty awesome Erin! Great to see what the past had so we can hold the future accountable!

Man, I would love to see more videos of older speaker designs vs what we have today. I think you’re on to something here. I think your subjective opinion and the data would be really cool to see. As I always want the new best thing that I can’t afford but I think there is a lot of older designed speakers that are much more affordable and available. Such as Advent, JBL, Infinity, KLH, DCM, Paradigm and Mission just to name a few. Sadly, I’m sure a lot of them just end up in landfills. Hope some people around your area reach out to you with some babied classic boxes ! Thanks Again for taking the time to do all of these measurements and give your honest take on everything.

I don't understand why Infinity just dropped off the map. They made such superb speakers 30-40 years ago

I had these with the matching center, 32" RCA crt TV, velodyne SMS-1 and a DIY bill fitzmaurice Tuba HT sub. That seems like a lifetime ago. Thank you for making me feel like the old guy that i am.

I gave a pair of these to my son many years ago because I'm a nice dad......I want them back

I got the P363 towers, 4x P163 bookshelves, and PC351 center during a Fry's clear out sale back in 2015/16 all for ~$1000. I still can't justify changing them for anything else.

"little bit sweet on"

Hi Erin, Thank you for looking at this older speaker. I loved Infinity's 1980s and 90s speaker models, so remember when these came out in the early 2000's. I always had thought these were likely just cheaper branding from Infinity to fit the Circuit City crowds. I'm glad I was wrong. Well done sir!

And these were the entry level line from Infinity. I remember the bookshelf model from my old hi-fi magazines I used to buy.

Pretty cool to verify that affordable speakers 20 yrs ago got it done!

Two companies that no longer exist, but made great speakers were Infinity and Boston Acoustics. Wish they were still around.

This speaker was designed and built by Harman International Industries, that used extensive double blind testing and leveraged the research documented by Floyd E. Toole that he published in his excellent book "Sound Reproduction Loudspeakers and Rooms". Another great bargain speaker from this design house is the LSR-32 and LSR-6332 studio monitor. These can be had for around $500 each as they come out of recording studios. They often need a new tweeter which is still available from JBL Pro. Erin finding the gold even when on vacation!

My main speakers, that I'm sitting in front of right now, are 44 years old :D

Would like to see some of the older classics that were innovative and well regarded for their time that have held up. My current daily drivers the are Kef 104/2's and ADS L710's, powered by the Yamaha A-S1100.

Strange that 20 year old speaks don’t have holes at the bottom that needed to be plugged 😂

I like the high end Infinity speakers from early 2000s.

Those old CMMD drivers were great. Had some Infinity IL60’s with them and they were great bang for the buck speakers. Not up to the level of my current IRS Epsilons but for the money, they were hard to beat.

Wow! Awesome speakers and review! My takeaway is that, as consumers, we should not accept badly designed speakers. The technology and know how have been out for decades!

These were modest drivers, modest cabinet ... but exemplary design. Weren't these sone of the first generation of JBL/Infinity designed, voiced, utilizing double blind loudspeaker shuffler? Simply a solid design, using modest materials.

My first pair of legitimate speakers were Infinity Alpha 50's. I haven't had them connected to an amp for awhile and this video reminds me to do something about that.

Wow I can't believe you reviewed this.... I now own the P363 which is three models newer, wish I could send them to you to make a comparison on the changes they made if any over the years.... I find these speakers to be stunningly good for the price and my friends keep asking me why are they so good,.... They all noticed the midrange.... I listen to them about 12° off axis and they are very consistent from seat to seat.... Stereophile, Audioholics and Absolute Sound had raving reviews for them.... Fun Fact, Andrew Jones was at Infinity, at the time when this line was developed and it's believed he and Floyd Toole had a hand in the Primus line. They are simply brilliant

Speakers are the one thing in this hobby that ages well. Beyond element foam edges ^^. Electronics has become more advanced and better but not really speakers (beyond new tweeter technology et.al.)

Rather than testing vintage speakers, I'd rather see occasional testing of the mainstream loudspeakers that are beginning to dominate the market. That would be the flagship soundbars of Sonos/Nakamichi/Bose/Samsung, Sony Bravia Quads, and their plasticky ilk. Depending on the source, they're apparently a bigger market than the hifi loudspeaker space. We know they don't perform as well as hifi speakers, but how far is the gap and is the gap closing? That would be an invaluable calibration tool to understanding the consumer marketplace.

The Infinity of the 90s was absolutely incredible. Kappa 7.1 was a favorite. I still have the IL40. Great sounding speakers. Harman should have done more with the brand.

Wow... Now I think there is no reason to release bad speakers at any price.

Infinity Kappa car audio stuff was awesome back in the day!

I’m more of a “these speakers sound bright but punchy or they have a big soundstage or something along those lines” kind of reviews fan. Outside the graphics and ultra objective measurements but this was really informative. No answer to the original question of why they stopped making them though. Thanks for the video.

Good info Brother.. How's it going?? I own a pair of E.V. 3 way passive speakers. They were made in 1984 & Sound Amazing.. they are High Output, 1,750 watts RMS. Continuous 135 spl and a high Spl of 139.. each speaker has a high SPL 18" woofer 10" sealed back midrange and a sealed back High Output Baby Cheek Tweeter. It sounds like you're competing in a car stereo competition.. Lol

i've been using their newer siblings, Revel Concerta2 series (F35 and M16) with a Concerta center for a while now. There's better speakers for sure but just haven't found anything so spectacularly better that i'm willing to spend the money on. It would probably be a set of KEF R Meta's if i ever did pull the trigger.

What is everyone's opinion on the mid 1970's Dahl Quist DQ10's? I acquired a very nice set of DQ-10's about 12 years ago for free. My former boss was going to throw them out because they were old and the surrounds on the woofers were gone. I adopted them, put new surrounds on, new caps and resistors on the crossovers and replaced all wires from the crossovers to the driver's with silver wires. I have Spendors, Michael Green Rev 6's and personally, I think the DQ 10's sound better than my other speakers. I'd love to hear what others think, that have had or still have a pair of Dahl Quist DQ-10's.

infinity made great speakers , amd way ahead of his time relative to technologie , the kappa .2 series for example, the kappa 7.2i was a tremendous good one, i suspect to buy such a speaker today , would cost a lot of dosh

I had a pair of Primus bookshelf speakers from this series. Our company was owned by Harman Kardon at the time and we got a killer deal on all the HK brands. I think I got them for $45 for the pair? I gave them to my brother. Hopefully, they're still in use!

I loved many of the old Infinity speakers. Many new speakers have issues. Really, how much has new technology made speakers better? It all seems like old tech to me. Yeah, many of the best speakers are still paper. Infinity had lots of interesting tweeter that do not really seemed to be surpassed today. People keep saying, oh that speaker came out 6 years ago, technology has changed so much since then. BS.

im glad you did this review it means alot to those who thing you have to have the latest and greatest im an audiophile for many years here in Toronto Canada been to some audio shows at the KING EDWARD hotel and back then early 80s this thing happened at one of the shows someone put up a black curtain and used vintage audio gear behind it more people gravitated towards that sound than any other i have many canadian made audio gear oracle turntable speakers amps from bryston ETC but still have others from around the world kef 101s the first speakers in the world designed by a computer they still sound great i kid you not and heres the secret to maintain a great sounding gear/speakers never allow sunshine in the room it destroys speakers especially

That's a really good speaker. If they located the bass drivers near the floor (to prevent floor bounce) it would a great speaker. Trouble is that would make the front grille much more expensive. Do you have a list of older inexpensive speakers worth investigating?

Well, if as said earlier in the comments, it was built by Harman using its own extensive research carried out by the likes of Floyd Toole, none of this should come as a big surprise.

Awesome review as always! we definitely like to see you measuring old speaker like this one. I find speakers made between mid 90s and 2010 have more neutral sound especially less exaggerating bass in the 50hz to 100hz region. I think the reason is that modern speakers are having smaller woofers to fit in a smaller boxes and that has its own limitations and trade offs, therefore designers are intentionally boosting that higher bass region 50hz to 100hz so speakers will seem to sound more powerful. Myself I'm still enjoying my all time favorite JBL ti10k, 4 way Design that was made in 1999, very neutral, and extremely capable of playing as loud as your ears can handle without breaking a sweat or sounding harsh.

I have 9 lol in my main system. Nobody gets what a bargain these are. I actually offered to send Erin a pair like a year ago and he wasn't interested but glad he's caught on. I'm picking up some Il60s in a week to see how they compare to my P360/P362/P363

I had a whole matching set of the infinity beta from that era… did just fine!

One of the things that I recently realized that was interesting about my old Interlude 50 towers is that the front baffle tapers in (narrows) as you move up from the mid/woofer towards the tweeter. For the longest time I just thought it was an aesthetic decision, but in the last couple years learning about the theory of speaker design here and a few other places around the 'net made me realize it was probably an intentional engineering decision!

Awesome! This is where people can actually learn something! I once chatted with a reviewer who said, and I am paraphrasing, "I understand we could build a kit speaker that crushes a similarly priced product, but if I highlight this point I will become estranged from all the manufacturers who would send me stuff, so I have to say No...". On the other end of the spectrum, Erin is a freaking honey badger reviewing something 20 yrs old just as a learning experience! Keep up the good work!

I think this is a cool idea for a video. I would love to see what the crossover looks like though.

The name sounded familiar so I went out to the garage/workshop and looked at a pair of bookshelf speakers I bought 15 years ago at a pawn shop for $70. They're Infinity Primus 150s. Same series! These little things punch way above their weight! Also, proof I have too many sets of speakers because I'm not sure exactly what I have.

I own 7 pairs of infinity primus P163. 5 pairs remain unopened. 14 speakers for 390 dollars. I also have infinity classia c336 fronts (200 dollars per speaker). They have upgraded tweeter and crossover compared to primus and the cabinet are sturdier with better lacquer and bracing than 3000 speakers today. I am not exaggerating. The two qualities of primus/classia speakers that remain superior to newer low-cost speakers are: 1 the construction of the cabinets, which are solid. 2. Durability. The CMMD woofer material and cone assembly are very stiff and durable. Meaning these speakers last a long time without deterioration. They also don't add unwanted resonance. I have compared these speakers to many newer speakers. One area where they are superior to other mid cost speakers is when you give them some power and get after it. Where other modest speakers are starting to fly apart and emit nasty resonance sounds these speakers hold on and dont distort very much. I also mod the ports. To make the classia really sound good in low end and I bi wire and use 150 wpc. My infinity set up is in Florida 40 meters from salty ocean. Just this year I purchased JBL HDI-3800 set up for my home. This system is a refinement of Infinity cmd technology with horn tweeters. It does sound better then classia but it cost alot more. People are often attracted to speakers having alluring names like mozarts totem pole rain makers. I have always used Infinity for home and car and put the money into ATI or fosgate amplifiers.

For one reason or another, I've gravitated towards Infinity speakers that are in the 20-25 year old range, as the ones I don't like are few and far between. They aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they perform pretty well without emptying your bank account. I wish Harman (Samsung) would do something with the line for home audio again.

Erin those speaker were on sale often at $399 for the pair

What do you think of a diamond in the rough series of videos? Reviewing used audio that’s well designed like this.

Losing Infinity was a big kick in the pants. 😫 Those monster speakers that PS Labs has, fah-get-about-it. Kappas, Gammas, crazy good stuff.

Now you got me digging the secondhand market in my country like a damn dog. FML.

LOL. I bought some Primus 363 towers new from Frys Electronics for $99ea in 2016. And check out the review in Absolute Sound.

Infinity Kappa 9s were outrageously good. Please try and find them!

Such a great review, thank you so much! In my opinion, the fact that it is "merely academic" as you say gives it an added value, the kern relies in fundamental concepts of speaker design - in other words: I consider EAC to be special precisely because sth like this does have a place in this channel

The Infinity towers (and bookshelf) with the powered subs in them were pretty interesting too, they had a lot of neat speakers back in the 2000s era.

I remember people raving about the 362's in the 2000s, especially considering the price.

I wouldn't call 20 years ago an "old" design, they had the MLSSA loudspeaker test system then. Old for me would be the 1970's designs, and modern speakers are definitely better than those.

Time to do the Alpha50 and I have a pair 😁... My college house parties were some of the loudest, bass heavy parties thanks to these and some velodyne subs. I use to work for an AV Integrator and they always made fun of me for the Alpha50, but it didnt have $5k for Monitor Silver Towers or Genelec's. The Alpha50 were very power hungry, one day I got my hands on a two channel Rotel amp from work and they came to life compared to my Marantz 7003. I am now relegated to KEF inwalls by the wife - which honestly work better in my space anyway and sounds pretty good for what they are (The poor Alpha's just sit in the corner in my office now). Great and fun review Erin

These are the speakers I own. Bought about 6 years ago off Craigslist for about $100 for the pair. They were barely used. Are you telling me that in order to gain an obvious and significant upgrade to these, I'm going to have to spend multi-thousand dollars to find something worthy? Doesnt surprise me because they sound phenomenal. I cant believe how good of a deal I found. I have them in my dedicated theater, but I also use them for 2-channel music listening. I have embarked on a quest to find enough Infinity Primus bookshelf speakers to completely fill out a 7.4.6 Dolby Atmos system. I have been pleasantly surprised how easy these speakers have been to find. But not after this review goes viral. Gee, thanks Erin. These are suddenly going to become rare. I still need to buy a pair of P160s for my rear surrounds and 2 pair of P140s for my height channels. Oh by the way.......I also settled on pulling them out about 18" from the wall and with about 15° of Toe-in........about 3 to 4 years ago. 😂

Awesome video. I think many people would agree that Infinity has made some good "budget" speakers in the past. I even think Sean Olive did work for them for a while. I recently pulled a pair of the Infinity IL40's out of my storage room to list for sale...gave them a listen 1st & I was like wow. Kept at a reasonable volume all the information was there & enjoyable. It has ceramic/metal tweeters. I listed it for $90 bucks & it was gone within a couple hours. I always felt the older Kappa, IRS, RS1 speakers were cool. Most out of my price range & amplifier quality though. I'd like to see the measurements on the 35lb Infinity IL36c center channel. The RC263 center was pretty decent too.

I'd sure love to see a review of my Energy RC-70 speakers. Would cost a fortune to ship em to ya tho....

Hey thanks for your detailed explanations, glad I found your channel. I was wondering if there is a reason why the 360 horizontal contour plot is not visualised in a circle. I think it might help making it easier to visualize in real life. Although reading the graph is fine too :)

Thanks for the review. Glad to see older speakers still sound good. I loved my old speakers. They just dried out over time and the trim on the cones rotted and some of the cones puckered. My Cerwin Vegas gave it their all for many years. I bought new speakers and Hope my kids are using them someday. Good luck with your sweetie. Rock on!

These are almost free in the used market, absolutely wild.

I love that you’re just having fun with your channel. Always learn something new with every video.

Chocolaty, crispy, buttery sound. Yuck! Who farted?

I already knew these were good, but not this good. For the price when new and especially for what you can find them for second hand now its quite amazing.

I remember the bookshelves getting hyped

Great review Erin, I owned these speakers 15 years ago, and your right they are fantastic, i kept them until the RBH R55TI's Tower's became a real monster in the sub 1000 market back in 2013, they were a slight step up over the infinity's top to bottom and looked much better also..... That said 3 years later the Fluance signature series towers debuted in jan 2016 and IMO they blew both the infinity's and RBH's out of the water, build quality sound and looks wise. They are still avaliable today, at only 800 bucks. That said I would really like to see a review of the Fluance signature series tower speakers(from you)...they are a bit long in the tooth (they predate most major av channels), but does not seem to have a successor on the horizon. I would say it is for sure one of the best speakers i have heard under 5000 bucks. I have gone out and listened to many great speakers under 10k(sonus faber sonetto 8, GE triton1) and see no reason to upgrade. I would be willing to bet they crack your top 5 despite being less than 1000 bucks. Please consider reviewing these, I know your busy man, keep up the good work.

Thank you for posting this. I bought these back in 2005 and haven't used them more than 40 hours. I have been considering whether to replace them and my Denon AVR-3805 with newer gear but I think you just changed my mind. I haven't even gotten around to setting them up properly in my media room in twelve years. I have an Infinity PS 212 400-watt powered sub to help out the lower frequencies and I always thought they were a bit lacking in the higher frequencies. Your data will be a very helpful starting point to setting everything up. I don't think my wife or cat are going to be very happy with me.

Hey Erin, love you channel and website, Can you also please put these speakers on your review list: Wharfedale Elysian 2 Wharfedale Evo 4.2 Focal Theva N°1 Bowers & Wilkins 606 S3 Mission QX-2 Mk II Pro-Ject Audio Speaker Box 5 Klipsch R-50M Denon SC-N10 Monitor Audio Bronze 100 6G Magnat Transpuls 1500 And a couple of active speakers: Tannoy Gold 8 Antelope Atlas i8 (3-way, Coaxial, Isobaric speakers) Thanks

Stig Carlsson, Lincoln Walsh, Edgar Villchur, Jon Dahlquist, Peter Snell, Henry Kloss, Roy Allison, Paul Klipsch, Arnie Nudell, & Brian Cheney knew how to make speskers. Somewhere in the very next three, to four years, I’m building my own (console) monitor with a little help from the good folks at Parts Express. No Wilsons, no Tidals, no Rockports, and no Everests from JBL. Just raw ingredients from PE.

That is the beauty of speakers. Unlike amplifiers getting outdated with tech, speakers can be brought forward. 20 years old and given they are looked after will sound the same as day 1. I have my Infinity Beta 20's as PC speakers lol and they do near field so good with great imaging. I yet have to discover something better...I am itching and doing shopping. I am just afraid of getting something inferior XD. They are powered by my Rotel RB 1582MKII and using a Rel T2 for LFE. My home theatre I still use a full set of Boston VR range (VR3, VRC, VRX and VRB) speakers.

Wow, some of those Infinity speakers around those years did indeed sound very good. In Europe around 20 years ago Tannoy & Wharfedale went head to head in battle in budget class speakers. This era gave birth to some fascinating speakers that are still very widely in use in Europe: Tannoy F1/F2, older Tannoy Reveal speakers, Wharfedale 9.1, Wharfedale 10.1 (also Bronze BR2/BX2 from Monitor Audio belong in this category btw). It would be nice to see some Klippel or anechoid measurements and so on understand how these speakers still have such a firm foothold.

BZZZ! The answer is- because of the marketplace! Now hear me out. That speaker has a nice big box for high sensitivity AND bass extension, b)right-sized midrange & baffle c) crossover points chosen with directivity in mind. Do I win a lollipop? For Bonus points - I’ll double down. Can manufacturers do that now? Sure! Samsung, who now owns Harman and its subsidiaries certainly could, but since the advent of bigger & thinner TVs that are getting cheaper, fewer wom… err… living room decorators, want big speakers. They want something they can hear, but not see. Sean Olive once said that home hi-fi market is very small- the headphone and automotive-audio market eclipses it. So like mechanical watches, big speakers are now boutique items... it’s got to look like fine furniture to command 4+ figures… so this is where the BOM goes. So don’t blame the manufacturer- its the market.

Erin, thanks for doing this review. I bought two sets of Infinity Primus bookshelf speakers and woofer many years ago, and picked them up new, on closeout really cheap. I still use them in my 2nd system in my den and I still like them a lot. Lately I've been curious how well the design holds up to modern speakers so I LOVED this review and I'm glad they did so well. If you ever get the chance to review either Electro Research (John Iverson's company), Qysonic or Lantana (built by my best friend but also got good reviews in the hifi mags), or Spica TC-50 speakers, all of which I've owned in the far past, I'd love to know how they stand up. I sold the Electro Research 320s to a friend probably around the time you were born and he's still using them when he has a backyard BBQ. I still own the Spicas and the heavy iron speaker stands designed for them but that work for any bookshelf speaker. Sadly my speaker building friend, Mark Merlino, passed away earlier this year but I still come across fans who owned them and are still using them or remember them as sounding great. They hold two design patents, one that prevents speakers with ports from 'farting'. Anyways, the occasional review of some past speakers, especially ones with some design differences, like this one I listened to at a dealer showroom that was a box with a bunch of speakers of different sizes and facing different directions. Can't remember the name though. There are the electrostatic speakers, you'd ever find a pair but John Iverson was working on a speaker that used a plasma element. Supposedly it was capable of knocking you across the room if you touched the plasma stream. Thanks again, Erin!

I guess they were never popular in Europe, and it's easy to understand why. If we go back to the 80's, infinity was one of the top brands in loudspeakers, and they targeted an higher end of the market (like JBL did). During the 90's, several European brands (mainly from the UK) started to increase their market share, and the "British sound" became more desirable along consumers. It wasn't only the sound, but also the styling, with narrower baffles, which had a much better WAF. 😉 At the same time, both JBL and Infinity (both from the Harman Group) started to focus more on less expensive products, and in several European countries, they had a hard time selling products above the entry-level price level. JBL and Infinity slowly (but surely) became synonymous with budget gear, and this was particularly damming for Infinity, since they were once known for their amazing build and finish quality, which was impossible to accomplish at those lower price ranges. Going back to the original price when they were new, it seems like they did have the performance to justify their price (or even more), but they look a bit like those cheaper Japanese loudspeakers, which was certainly not what the market was looking for. Being part of the Harman Group was also a good and s bad thing, since it should be clear by now that Infinity was not the brand to have a lot of focus or marketing promotion. I'd say that Harman didn't invest that much in their own JBL consumer products over here, maybe because they saw where the market was going. Harman Kardon portable speakers with the iPod dock gave them the first sense of what was about to happen, and JBL has been the major player in portable Bluetooth loudspeakers and several market segments of headphones. That market segment is bigger than the "traditional" loudspeaker market could ever be, and by an insanely magnitude! So it's no wonder that most of the product development and marketing budget goes into what gives a faster (and most guaranteed) return, leaving several other product segments and brands as a second (or 20th) thought inside the Harman Group. It's easy for us to lose perspective of how small this loudspeaker/separate HiFi components) really is in the grand scheme of things, but the numbers speak for themselves. 🙂 Going back to the main review (which was great, as always), I would love to see how a $1.000 or $1.200 loudspeaker from JBL measures against these Infinity's. Coming from (basically) the same house, are they such a great value, or did JBL/Harman followed similar trends to several other loudspeaker manufacturers? 😉 How does the Lintons compare to these Infinity? I'd say that over here (Europe), the Lintons can be usually found for what I believe to be a similar value (when adjusted for inflation), which helps to get an additional perspective. Thank you for your hard work!

Those speakers are what I use for my side and back surrounds. I picked up the 5.1 setup of the 4-primus 360 speakers, 8" Primus PS-8 Subwoofer and Primus PC350BK Center channels for $80CAD.

Hi, hi acquired from my father in mint condition a pair of old B&Ws DM220i from 1987 with new caps changed recently, they are pretty old but they sound very flat and neutral and I love it! if you ever find ones I would like an opinion from you, i didn't find anything on RU-vid, best regards from Portugal.

Thanks for this review, Erin. I just found a pair of 362s locally for $150. The crossover PCB says "primus 360" so I imagine these perform very close to the 360s. I agree they sound a tiny bit hot up top but otherwise a great speaker - especially for the money. Going to look for more of these to buy.

and dirty cheap!! Back then you could buy a flagship tower speaker for $2k or $3k!! Nowadays, the $2k-$3k bracket is the entry level of the entry level (even for bookshelves) and many companies don't even want to put products on that bracket afraid of being perceived as mid-fi. Crazy industry.

Excellent review as always - thanks for what you do. I've found a few Primus pieces at thrift shops. Personally I always found the looks a bit cheap (I prefer something like NHT's glossy black or Snell's black ash veneers). The performance doesn't lie though! They impress where it matters.

Hi Erin, I believe in a idea that’s not spoken off. Isolate in and outside, stiff frame, funiture cloth wrapping: sounds better from the start for every room/ situation. Source isolate, less unwanted sound. Greets Michael (Z-Laser-Audio)

Got S312's and S38's around '02. Still love them, had to refoam a woofer on the 12's and a mid died on a S38, but they still rock! Very similar to the Primus, is my understanding. Not my primaries anymore though.

Hi Erin, thank you so much for your videos. After watching this video I started looking for these speakers and found the Infinity Primus 250 for sale. Could you tell me about them? Thank you very much! Greetings from Peru!

Cool. I slept in so my brain is foggy, but isn’t what you’re calling the back wall, what other reviewers call the front wall? No, It doesn’t really matter, especially since you clearly define what mean. Just something I’ve noticed watching too many RU-vid vids. Maybe it’s a European vs American thing?

If you ever come across a set of KEF Q50 SP3174 floorstanding speakers from the early 1990s, please run the Klippel gauntlet on them. They can be had for cheap, I picked mine up for just $50

I'm convinced that affordable home audio peaked in the early 2000s. We had just the right combination of economies of scale, consumer demand, modern materials and engineering, and competition between manufacturers. Now, most of the manufacturers have been consolidated and less people care about passive home speakers than before and everything's worse. Speakers made more cheaply and the lack of competition means there's no reason for manufacturers to try to make their products better. Of course companies still make excellent speakers, but they're all geared toward the high end price-wise. I say find an older pair of Paradigm Studios or Infinity Primuses or JBL Studios and you'll have a better speaker for less money than most speakers on sale today.

Growing up in the 70's I listened to an old AM radio with an elongated woofer inside and dangly wires hand-soldered to vacuum tubes. It used to take a minute to start. The sound was gorgeous though. My current B&W rig reminds me of that sound when I play the same (old) music. Always makes me wonder how I got such great sound from that old gear - or was it my childhood hearing was so much better that I was fully immersed in the music! Then came an onslaught of small "transistor radios" and the world became obsessed with how clunky the old devices were and how sleek their new incarnations were, forgetting sound quality in the debate. SMH

I have a surrounded sound system with speakers from Sony bought on 1998 and a Yamaha receiver connected to them and it has better sound than these days speakers. What i only had to do in recent time is substitute all capacitors on the crossovers of the speakers, so that i can have excellent sound and also changed caps on the receiver with ones that are better and sound better. And i have 200w RMS speakers and two subwoofers. My sound frequency goes from 25hz to 70000hz.

If you can find a way to demo and measure some KEF Reference 205/2 speakers then you absolutely should. KEF's sound from that period of time is some of the best you could ask for if you like reference neutral tuning.

My first serious speakers were Infinity Beta 50s that I bought at the same time as these Primus were available. What Harman did to the Infinity brand is unforgivable. Why didn't they just brand Revel as Infinity?

Hin Erin, Acoustic Research AR-90's, early 80's speaker. Sonically clear & detailed..NY is quite ways.Too bad you don't have an email that i can find. Thanks J.

I rather wonder whatever happened to Electrostatics. Am I slumming it by hooking Bose 901s to my Carver Silver Nine Ts? Probably something more in the range of Mirage M5 would be better?

Nice! I have these speakers and still have them in active use. I also have the center channel and the subwoofer. I never picked up the bookshelf and kick myself for not doing so. I picked these up circa 2004/5. I got mine for 170 each, so I guess I did good at the time.

This just shows how little speaker designs have changed in the last 20+ years. Same bass response, slightly too high tweeter crossover, and output capabilities as modern speakers. The drivers are probably the cheapest they could get and the only thing that changes is the look. It’s not until the $2k+ mark where you see real engineering decisions being made. That’s what you get when manufacturers need to sell the speaker for 5x what it costs to build. I’d make the same decisions if I only had $250 to build a pair of tower speakers.

I am only trying to help. You do great reviews on great drivers, you need to do reviews on speakers that use those great drivers. But the reviews you do on speakers that you say are your top picks, they are not as good as speakers that use the other top drivers you tested. You need to test Scanspeak drivers, too, & speakers that use them. You test seas drivers. The best speakers in the world use them, at a decent price. review this stuff. Mofi 8 speakers are too harsh & cabinets too wide. Polk is a middle of the road speaker. People can have their own cheap speakers & install these top drivers that dont cost much in their old speaker cabinets & have the best speakers possible. The Andrew Jones speaker guy has expensive speakers that give only fair performance. The Kef speakers are a joke. B & W is way over rated. Now Revel, Sonus faber, & especially Vandersteen have all been around for awhile & blow the speakers you review away, for a great price. Magnepan are great cheap price speakers. A decent amplifier will cost at least $2,000, just get a Krell amp. Also, speakers should never be placed closer that 4 foot from walls.