Infinity Primus 150 vs. Alpha 10

[randyk]

I am seriously considering the purchase of the Infinity Primus 150's because of their review in Stereophile. However, I have noticed some very good prices on the Infinity Alpha 10's which seem very close to the Primus speakers in size and specifications. Does anyone have any experience with these two choices or any other recomendations for similar sized speakers?

 

[TRUCKGUYGMC23]

I have a pair of Primus 150's and they are actually a very good sounding bookshelf. The work great for my surround setup and they are very bright and clear. No complaints.

 

[JJNab]

Hey Randy,

I can't speak to the Alpha 10s, but I have two pairs of the Primus 150s, along with Alpha 50 fronts, an Alpha 37 center, and a PS-12 sub. To my ear, after about 3 weeks of breaking in, they are all excellent speakers. Right now, you can get a free pair of Primus 150's with any Infinity speaker purchase over $398. So, what I did was bought the fronts and got one free pair, then added the center and sub and got another free pair (both times from Crutchfield). It was really a great deal, since the Alpha 50s and 37c were deeply discounted as well.

Good luck,

John

 

[Leprkon]

the Alpha's are actually a better speaker, once they loosen up, but the Primus make a great surround.

you can still find a couple of places that have the Alpha 20's in stock, if you can make a small leap in budget. I use 20's for the front in my bedroom HT and the Primus 150's for surrounds.. the 20's are an outstanding value and a great performer.

http://www.shopping.com/xPC-Infinity_Alpha_20

 

[plhart]

The Infinity Alpha 10 is a closeout model that were originally designed and built in Europe. The alpha series did not go through Harman's multichannel listening lab environment when they were designed ~4-5 years ago. The Beta 10 is the replacement model for the Alpha. I was the Beta 10's designer and, when going through the MLL double-blind listening, the Beta 10 easily bested the performance of the Alpha 10.

Here's the catch. My buddy Bill designed the 150's which were meant to be a less expensive version of a 5" two-way than the Beta 10. I never listened double blind to the Beta 10 vs. Alpha 10 vs. 150 because that is not how the tests at Harman are set-up.

I can tell you however that the 150 desearves every accolade it's been given. It can easily best the Alpha 10 when listened to double-blind under exact conditions.

Also note that I've seen printed tests of the Beta 10's frequency response since I left Harman. The problem with that model was that the Europe-based cosmetic designer had specified a box that was almost too large to properly integrate the woofer I was given to work with. That meant, if in production the Thiel-Small parameters varied too much from what I had designed, you would see a broad suck-out in the woofer's response from ~150Hz to ~500Hz. Look at the response from the print mags a few months back and you'll see what I mean.

That said, to my knowlege Bill had no such conflicts when he designed the 150's. This is a stable design that measures terrifically and therefore sounds great on every type of music within its design limitations. I consider the 150 to be one of the great speaker bargains in audio today.