Infinity Reference 253 Review (speaker)

[amirm]

I just left a note for them via their support email. Maybe they respond and we will know more.

For now, has anyone seen a tear down or pictures of the internals we could examine?

 

[Frank Dernie]

Maybe the sale is for all the speakers fitted with a dodgy tweeter?
Cheaper than scrapping them all.

 

[sweetchaos]

Source

Source

Plus, discussion on audioholics forum, with some teardowns on page 1.

 

[napilopez]

Thanks Amir!

Just as a reference, this is the harman spin.

So something is clearly out of spec. The response is this review would give me total hearing loss in about 10 minutes! You could argue that the out of spec performance is one of the risks of cheaper equipment, but perhaps it's a fluke.

Won't know unless we ever get good anechoic data again! But it does remind me that this is a good reason to know how to do basic quasi-anechoic measurements, to verify if your speaker is performing as expected.

 

[Doodski]

The first pic is a 253 and the 2nd pic is a 263.

 

[YSC]

Actually for an EQ for neutrality, shall we EQ it to be flat in our room or targeting like the estimated in room response to be sloping down?

 

[Doodski]

Awkward to get to the crossover. Warranty claim it looks like.

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

Actually for an EQ for neutrality, shall we EQ it to be flat in our room or targeting like the estimated in room response to be sloping down?

Sloping down.

 

[YSC]

Sloping down.

Right, but seems for say genelec GLM they are targeting for a neutral flat response on listening position? So say if one mix in this condition will likely result in a bass heavy and treble light sounding track in our sloping down response?

 

[DuncanTodd]

As pointed out on the review, the tweeter is not measuring as expected, especially as he had also reviewed/measured the R152 & RC263 and neither had this issue. It also of course is looking nothing like the published Harman Spinorama in the tweeter region.

Are those forthcoming reviews?

 

[Doodski]

Are those forthcoming reviews?

R263 review @ ASR.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/infinity-rc263-center-speaker-review.12442/

 

[Vini darko]

Infinity reference....how the mighty have fallen
Jokes aside I didn't even know Infinity are still a thing. Speaker at the sale price seems a real bargin , hopfully amirim just got a bad sample.

 

[DuncanTodd]

R263 review @ ASR.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...s/infinity-rc263-center-speaker-review.12442/

Thanks.
RC..not R. No wonder I couldn't find it Tried the index but looked at the electronics chart instead of speakers lol *face palm*

 

[MZKM]

Thanks.
RC..not R. No wonder I couldn't find it Tried the index but looked at the electronics chart instead of speakers lol *face palm*

R162 review:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...62-bookshelf-speaker-review.12333/post-363193

 

[MZKM]

Sale ends in 3hr 53min...

I guess they aren’t selling, the timer now says it ends in 46.5hr (Monday 3am EST).
The RS152 bipole surrounds are also somehow back to being available (back ordered) with 682 pairs.

 

[sweetchaos]

I guess they aren’t selling, the timer now says it ends in 46.5hr (Monday 3am EST).

I watched the website timer ran out, while the discount stayed the same.
I guess they extended the timer to cover Cyber Monday.

Also, I can't figure out how you're up at 4:30am!? Don't you sleep?

 

[tuga]

View attachment 96259

Shame about the directivity mismatch between the mid and tweeter.

The RC263 didn’t have this as the mid was a 4” whereas this tower has a 5.25”.

It's not just the balance tilting upwards from bass to treble, there's BBC dip exposing a > 3dB midrange resonance peak at 2kHz and a tweeter that is more than 5dB too hot above 4kHz and rising from 6kHz onwards...

These definitely wouldn't go on my shopping list, even at 30° they're bad.

 

[MZKM]

It's not just the balance tilting upwards from bass to treble, there's BBC dip exposing a > 3dB midrange resonance peak at 2kHz and a tweeter that is more than 5dB too hot above 4kHz and rising from 6kHz onwards...

These definitely wouldn't go on my shopping list, even at 30° they're bad.

As discussed, it shouldn’t measured like this, look at post #5 for the Harman Spin.

 

[tuga]

As discussed, it shouldn’t measured like this, look at post #5 for the Harman Spin.

The Harman spin shows the peak at 20kHz but it's still there.
It also shows a BBC dip, a tweeter that needs attenuation and the overall rising trend from bass to treble.
How much smoothing does Harman use in its spins?

@amirm it looks like your FR plost could match Harman's if you adjusted the horizontal scale so that the tweeter oil can resonance hits 20Hz.
Could something have been wrong with the settings, or a glitch with the Klippel software?

 

[Lorenzo74]

I do not unfortunately.

in this case having pair would have helped to confirm specimen issue. considering it is on sale for 159$ a "quick" reply from Infinity is appreciated. they should send a pair to Amir for evaluation.
we trust Amir expertise and klippel device and I struggle to accept infinity design such faulty speaker even at this low price point.

so what next? @amirm are you leaving your friends with this doubt?
I'm sure not. looking forward
my best
L.