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
Timpani, what a difference a day makes in the life of an audiophile. After weighing up the benefits $4000.00(AU) was going to make to my system invested in either a line filter or in a high end re-design/re-wire & external x-over mod to my Rens, I realized ok, they're in great shape BUT they are 14 years old, and wiring and caps would have degraded to a certain extent...added to which, that's an opportunity to replace $8 per meter internal cable with $800.00 per internal wire & replace the 5% standard value caps with the best sounding sounding caps around. All the comments from IRS-Sigma owners I admit at first made no sense to me, but with your clarification, yeah obviously their superior crossover does make a noticeable difference. The re-design I am planning however is on a much higher order & results should be stunning. The new x-over will make the Rens more efficient as well. This is significant in itself in with this mod, I should be able to achieve the same stunning results as guys like Clavil running a single big iron amp & pre. I think that is a smarter solution to bi-amping, do you agree? And yes, I will proudly wear my gold medal for the backflip, thank you!
Hi Melbguy,

I actually responded to you on AK which you will see before you read this but it was without the benefit of your latest comments here. IMO 4K on a line filter is insane but even more so in your case if you buy the Classe CAP because it is so well designed. Read my other comments and digest them. The mods will work out fine if your AE knows what he's doing but the best approach - be it single or bi-amp may not be apparent until the design work is partly underway. I'll explain further tomorrow.
Hi Timpani,

very interesting!

concerning Krell I had a strange experience, I heard following set up:

EVO 900 + preamp EVO n° ?
EVO 505
MIT Oracle
Magico V3
all in a prepared room

and it was ... bad to very bad!

I know a little bit the Mini magicos and the V3 and never before I heard such a dry sound ...

could it be that everything is still more complicate ... like between humans with personal "sympathies and antipathies" between speakers & electronic ?
Hi Clavil,

I've not heard the latest Evo amps but from my experience the really big Krells usually don't sound quite as nice in the mid / treble as the smaller Krell's. My favourite Krell is the FPB300 which is also pure Class A. I heard that the Evo are now class AB ?.

Sometimes a room can also cause a dry and rather bland treble - if there is too much carpet and soft furnishings as well as room treatments that absorb too much treble.

Hi Melbguy1,
Need to give you an update. Switched out amps to a Luxman M-05 Pure Class A 105 Watts per channel into 8 ohms. When I said wow before, double it! The bass extension has been the best I've heard through them. Seems that the best power combination I have found is a tube pre-amp with a hefty class A amp. Hope this helps.