Why are Infinities the Rodney Dangerfields of spe

Thesoundbroker explained the Rodney Dangerfield thing well re Infinity speakers in general, but if you really like the Infinities, buy them, enjoy, and don't let others opinions bother you. Good Luck. Craig

here here (beemer)on the great OLD Infinity's..My wife polishes my RS1b's once a month and they are still going strong since 1988,and I can't get enough of them..At one time I did demo the Beta's ion 1989 but couldn't justify the extra money between the two.As a matter of fact there are a pair of Beta's for sale on AudiogoN now for a pretty good price.Not many people know about them since they are from the olden days of Infinity.To quote one person on them(if you come across the Beta's or RS1b's run to the bank don't walk.....)

Nice post by Plugged/Sound Broker. In addition to what he said, I will add that when the shop I used work at during the early/mid 90's added the Kappas as a lower priced line, I thought they plainly sucked compared to other things we had at the same price points, such as the lower priced Snells or B&W's (guess they wanted that Infinity name to bring 'em in). So I suspect it's not just that Infinity made mass-market stuff, but also that it wasn't very good stuff for what it was.

I must add my 2 cents also.....I have a pair of "originnal" RS 1B's (they were 1A's but upgraded completely to 1B's). I have listened to numorous speakers over the years and the Infinity's still stands tall against the speakers of today. Sure, they may lack certin qualities but, like the folks said above,...you got to dig deep into the pockets to get something much better. Does anyone remember Arnies' Servo Static 1A's??? Not the 1's BUT the 1A's?? Boy, what a system.......

I think the mass market approach is definitely a double edged sword for Infinity. On one hand, it allows a good source of revenue for funding R&D but on the other hand, it creates a perception that their entire line is geared for the masses. How many companies could afford to create a whole new line of drivers, let alone create whole new technologies to improve their drivers? Check out the white papers on the Infinity site and you'll find that most every technical hurdle that affects speaker performance has been addressed.

Still, the proof is in the pudding and if they don't sound right, they won't garner the respect they deserve. This is where I think they make a mistake by selling their top-of-the-line speakers in the mass market stores. When I auditioned a pair of Prelude MTS at Ultimate Electronics, they were positioned less than a foot away from the largest media center I'd ever seen, there were NO acoustic treatments in a very bad room and the source was a cheap DVD player. Not pretty.

Never-the-less, since I'm an employee of Harman International and could get a good deal, I took the plunge and let me tell you, I'm glad I did. Properly set up, in a good room with good electonics, they sound more like real music than any other speaker I've ever heard. I've been an audio enthusiast for 25 years, I'm a hack musician, and I develop audio algorithms for a living and I think they're amazing.