2. speakers
  3. 1244721591

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
okeeteekid's avatar
okeeteekid
142 posts
 
if you where to run your Fet nine + OCM 200 on one of those cheap speakers with all paper cone drivers, tweeter included (vintage radio shack), and compare them to the ren 90's driven by any bottom line brand receiver, i think that the ren 90's would still sound better, someone should run a blind test. LOL
greg
melbguy1 OP
1,438 posts
 
Hi Timpani, You're right. Thanks for clarifying what you meant..I had that "Ah ha" moment!..Kudos to the IRS Epsilon & Carie Christie..what a genius (shakes his head with smile). Yup well I say if you spend $14000.00, you deserve a little extra sugar in your coffee (or an extra membrane in your Tweeter!) Damn straight Timpani, we are getting old aren't we! I can still vividly recall old Stereophile articles going back to the 80's (scary). Your comments on the Rens and Emit/Emims are very interesting!

I digress, thanks for the tip on the set up of the Rens. I'll start out at 90° and then work in small increments up to 1/4 of an inch as Okeeteekid suggested. I do agree with upstream electronics & the weakest link theory. Weighing up weather to plug all my high end pc's into a cheap powerboard, or invest in a high end filter, i've decided to snap up RS's new Jaco 'Elite' power filter. The new Elite incorporates much of the guts of the Dmitri filter & other design features and does look good. I also like the idea of being able to buy high-end US grade Oyaide plugs on my pcs (otherwise unavailable to the OZ market), alas I wont hijack a thread on the 90's..there is another chewing on that subject.

After upgrading all my cables, power supply & isolation this year, it will be fun saving for my big Classe & AR next year. Now that certainly is a Ferarri (with a pretty sexy body too).
melbguy1 OP
1,438 posts
 
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!
timpani
40 posts
 
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.
clavil
254 posts
 
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 ?
More to discover