Infinity Primus P363 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review

[admin]

The Infinity Primus P363 is a 3-way floorstanding speaker featuring dual 6.5" MMD woofers, a dedicated 4" MMD midrange and a 3/4" MMD dome tweeter. Infinity seems to have taken a well-balanced approach in designing the Primus P363 speaker system. Sure I had some nits to pick, but the fact that these speakers were able to hit high SPL levels in my nearly 6,000 ft3 room without bottoming out or sounding completely shrill was truly amazing. The P363's produced great high frequency detail, fluidic midrange and punchy bass response. At the retail price of $758/pair, there are certainly other options to consider. But, realizing the P363's can usually be had for $400/pr on sale (sometimes even cheaper), they are truly a remarkable value. What they lack in aesthetics, they make up for in sound quality and value. Recommended!

Discuss "Infinity Primus P363 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Review" here. Read the article.

 

[templemaners]

On my 362's, I found the easiest way to get out the plastic plugs in the binding post was to use a very small flathead screwdriver - something slightly bigger than an eyeglass screwdriver. But yeah, they're a pain to get out...

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Holy crap. All this time, I didn't even know the speaker post accepted banana plugs (if you can remove those stupid plastic covers) !

Now it makes sense. I had to remove that stupid plastic cover on the speaker posts of the Harman Crown XLS amp too.

About it being 4 ohms and difficult to drive. I used to drive them with a cheap Denon AVR-13xx. They sounded just as good as they sound now with the Denon 3312. So I guess I don't put too much stock into that impedance.

I used to own the DefTech CLR3000. It had a minimum impedance that went down to around 2 ohm (I think 2.2 ohm). The BP7000SC also has a minimum impedance of ~ 2.7 ohm I think. I had them hooked up to a HK receiver that was 50wpc. Sounded great.

For $400/pr P363 and $320/pr P362, it's kind of incredible.

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_108PC250BG/Infinity-Primus-PC250-Black-grille.html?search=infinity+primus

 

[gene]

On my 362's, I found the easiest way to get out the plastic plugs in the binding post was to use a very small flathead screwdriver - something slightly bigger than an eyeglass screwdriver. But yeah, they're a pain to get out...

Dude I tried everything. In the end, I had to drill them out and they completely disintegrated before I could free them from the posts.

 

[zieglj01]

Dude I tried everything. In the end, I had to drill them out and they completely disintegrated before I could free them from the posts.

Quality control is amazing.

 

[GranteedEV]

That being said, I’d love to see what Harman could do with Infinity on a higher end line-up to bridge the price gap between Infinity and Revel.

Sad thing is, they've got a wicked-good midrange driver that doesn't break up until 12khz, has ultra-wide dispersion up to around 3-4khz or, and can play down to around 300hz with high output despite low efficiency. ......What'd they do with it?

........ Make a lifestyle speaker

Infinity - Home Audio

and then discontinue it, like everything else.

 

[shadyJ]

Dude I tried everything. In the end, I had to drill them out and they completely disintegrated before I could free them from the posts.

Why didn't you just thread some bare wire?

 

[gene]

Why didn't you just thread some bare wire?

Why should I? I've never reviewed a pair of speakers that wouldn't accept banana plugs. These accept them if you can remove the pegs. All of my premium cables I use are terminated with bananas.

 

[slipperybidness]

Why should I? I've never reviewed a pair of speakers that wouldn't accept banana plugs. These accept them if you can remove the pegs. All of my premium cables I use are terminated with bananas.

Well, it's good to know. I wasn't sure if they came out at all and I was scared to damage my new speakers so I just used bare wire.

 

[MinusTheBear]

The differences in the impedance graph between each individual speaker is interesting. I'd like to see this comparison with more of your reviews with other speakers.

You mentioned driver tolerances but do crossover component tolerances have any combining effect on seeing such differences across individual speakers as well?

 

[sholling]

A very interesting review. I have to agree with the conclusion that for the price when on sale between $250 and $400/pr that it's a hard deal to beat. I'm also not surprised that an $800/pr ID speaker was able to beat a $700 big box store speaker. A big box speaker has to leave room in the cost structure for the big box stores to make an enticing (to get it in the showroom) profit margin.

What surprised me were the discrepancies between claimed and measured impedance and sensitivity. That's just not acceptable.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

What surprised me were the discrepancies between claimed and measured impedance and sensitivity. That's just not acceptable.

This is unfortunately more common that we'd like to admit and almost everyone is on the optimistic results game

 

[zieglj01]

What surprised me were the discrepancies between claimed and measured impedance and sensitivity. That's just not acceptable.

Well, it is the game that the marketing people like to play

Cambridge states that the S30 is 90db sensitive - well they
came close, it hits 85 db sensitivity around 15khz
From the lows to about 15khz, it is around 83db sensitivity.

 

[shadyJ]

I have been driving some p362s with an Onkyo TX-SR707, which isn't recommended to use with 4 ohm speakers, and so far I have not had any problems. I haven't heard of p360/2/3 speakers causing any problems thus far, so I wouldn't worry too much about their impedance dips. Of course, any extra heat isn't good for the electronics long-term, but the way technology is moving in receivers these days, that wouldn't seem to be a big problem.

 

[gene]

The differences in the impedance graph between each individual speaker is interesting. I'd like to see this comparison with more of your reviews with other speakers.

You mentioned driver tolerances but do crossover component tolerances have any combining effect on seeing such differences across individual speakers as well?

I always measure impedance of both speakers and never seen as much of an impedance variance like I have here. Since it's happening at the peaks its likely an issue with driver tolerances or possibly a leaky cabinet. I sent my concerns to Harman about this but they were left unanswered.

I probably could have investigated this further but my time was limited as I am preparing to write 4 different reviews of very high caliber equipment.

 

[MinusTheBear]

A very interesting review. I have to agree with the conclusion that for the price when on sale between $250 and $400/pr that it's a hard deal to beat. I'm also not surprised that an $800/pr ID speaker was able to beat a $700 big box store speaker. A big box speaker has to leave room in the cost structure for the big box stores to make an enticing (to get it in the showroom) profit margin.

What surprised me were the discrepancies between claimed and measured impedance and sensitivity. That's just not acceptable.

I'm surprised the Harman engineers wouldn't have accurate specs on the products. If my calculations are correct shouldn't the rated impedance spec according to IEC standard should be around 4.75ohm?

If you want to be conservative it should be rated at 4ohm. 6 ohm rating at the most. 8 ohm is specmanship.

 

[gene]

I have been driving some p362s with an Onkyo TX-SR707, which isn't recommended to use with 4 ohm speakers, and so far I have not had any problems. I haven't heard of p360/2/3 speakers causing any problems thus far, so I wouldn't worry too much about their impedance dips. Of course, any extra heat isn't good for the electronics long-term, but the way technology is moving in receivers these days, that wouldn't seem to be a big problem.

It all depends on what volume levels one listens at and if they are running 5 additional speakers on the same receiver.

 

[gene]

I'm surprised the Harman engineers wouldn't have accurate specs on the products. If my calculations are correct shouldn't the rated impedance spec according to IEC standard should be around 4.75ohm?

If you want to be conservative it should be rated at 4ohm. 6 ohm rating at the most. 8 ohm is specmanship.

As Dr. Floyd Toole says "You can get more useful information off the side of a tire than on a manufacturers website about their speakers". Sadly this also applies to Harman Consumer as well.

 

[GranteedEV]

For anyone considering buying these speakers with some spare time on their hands, this thread may be of interest:


http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/diy-corner-tips-techniques/46286-primus-360-mod.html

 

[matteos]

Nice review Gene, how do these compare with the Fluance XL7F that you just reviewed? Are they pretty similar or is one sonically better than the other?