Two Weeks with the Infinity Primus 150s

[Steve1000]

Okay, I am going to try to write this really fast, cutting and copying from some of my other posts and adding an update.

Two weeks ago I bought the Infinity Primus 150s, $160 / pair at circuit city, which I just bought for polite living room listening. From about 80 hz to about 4,000 hertz they are, to my ears, stunning. I've added about 3 db treble with my understated living room $100 receiver's tone controls for optimal results. My living room may be a little on the dead side, with carpeting, couches, curtains, etc. The sound is exceptional for my taste, extremely enjoyable. Both the woofer and the tweeter use the patented Infinity metal matrix technology, FWIW. Sometimes I up the bass a little (2-3 db) too on the receiver. Also, for low volumes, it's nice to perk up the bass and treble a little.

So, my subjective impressions are, bass lines in jazz recordings are remarkably natural and easy to follow. Vocals are remarkably natural. Symphonies and soundtracks sound rich and exciting and vibrant. Highs in my room are a shade subdued, hence, judicious use of the treble control. Everything sounds balanced and nice recordings sound great. The sound is luxurious compared to what I'm used to up here. I should add that they fill the medium-sized room up very well, and the sound is good from many listening angles.

This is not a critical listening room by any stretch. It's the family / living room. The speakers are good enough so that when the family (wife & three young kids) is out or quiet (rare!!!!), the sound is good enough to sit back and listen to music closely and really enjoy it.

The pleasing and natural sound of the Primus 150 midrange down to mid-bass is really something I had to hear to understand. I don't have words for it. It does not scream out to you, and most quickly reveals itself with classical music, acoustic guitars, vocals, etc... The bass is exceptionally clear and natural down to about 80 hertz (judging by following acoustic bass lines in jazz recordings and stereophile's measurements). All this in a 12 1/2 inch tall $160/pr bookshelf speaker. My only reservation is that without a little dash of mid to upper treble added they can be dull with some recordings at low to moderate volumes in my room, and of course you are not going to get bass in the subwoofer range with these.

I am just using an old $100 Technics SA-EX140 100-watts-per-channel two-channel reciever in the living room. The tone controls seemed to go quite well with the Infinities, so I dug out the manual. The tone controls are a bit unusual. They appear to be shelved controls, with maximum effect at 50 hz in the bass and 20 khz in the treble, plus or minus 10 decibles. This appears to be a really nice match for these speakers, as they really don't need any help in the heart of the spectrum. The bass control extends the bass response just a little and the treble control spices them up just a little.

The living room speakers get a ton of use in this house, for TV, DVDs, CDs, ipod, minidiscs, radio, and XMradio. So two weeks means a lot of listening.

I don't have any measurements. Here are some from stereophile along with a review. I take their reviews with a grain of salt, BTW. But the measurements are hard to ignore with these:

Review:
http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/404infinity/index.html

Measurements:
http://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/404infinity/index4.html

During my recent auditioning, the best-sounding speakers I ran across for my taste were a pair of $1000 floor-standing Infinity Beta speakers. To my ears, they were the only things that went toe to toe with the mid-bass to midrange of the Primus 150s. Plus the Betas had a more elevated mid-to-upper treble and great bass extension. If I were to buy a new pair of full range speakers I think they would be all I would ever need. In fact, given how much I am enjoying the Primus 150s, it's difficult not to think about moving up the Infinity line for the downstairs. Their professed philosophy on their website is accuracy / neutrality. It seems to pay off.

I did bring home a pair of more expensive and slightly smaller JBL E20s for audition just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. The JBLs were an improvement over my old speakers, but the bass was less natural than on the Primus 150s and bass extension was less and the lowest part of the bass was slightly exaggerated in a not so pleasant way (I'm guessing to make up for the lack of extension) and the mids while nice were not quite as magic as those of the Primus 150s.

After a while I hooked up my old pair of Pinnacle AC400s, which the Infinities are replacing, and the impression was, the AC400s sound like drek compared to the Infinities. Drek. Or Dreck. However you spell it.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Steve1000]

Well I see that everyone has been riveted on the edge of their seats for the past four weeks by this thread. It's been six weeks with the Infinity Primus 150s and a cheap subwoofer in my living room now. I actually rearranged the furniture a little to get them right at ear level because I was so pleased with the sound and wanted to optimize them. They look decent too. I've gotten used to listening to them with the treble setting on my receiver at zero. The tonal balance on the Primus 150s is as good as a very fine set of headphones (minus the low bass). As a headphone enthusiast, that's about the finest compliment I could give them. The Stereophile review talking about resolution of inner detail actually makes a valid point. (I am not a fan of Stereophile.) You can pick out the details and craftsmanship of performing artists and recording artists with these speakers in a way that is most unusual. If you are into hearing what a fairly flat set of transducers sounds like, with perhaps slightly rolled-off treble (which perceptual studies show that people tend to prefer), these are quite nice. Although the Stereophile measurements showed them to be quite flat into the extended treble, so maybe my room is just a little on the acoustically flat (as opposed to live) side. Anyway, if you are looking for nice bookshelf speakers of any price and you don't try these, you might be missing out on something special, IMHO. When I close my eyes I can imagine a very expensive set of speakers in front of me.

 

[Reverberocket]

Re: Two Weeks with Infinity Primus 150's

Thanks for the great review of the 150's!

I came across your post when I was searching for info
on the Primus line.

It's pretty amazing (to me) what the results can be
when good technology happens. I have a pair of old
Infinity RS1000's. No pair of speakers I've listened to
over the last twenty some odd years have provided
as wonderful imaging capabilities. The upper frequency
dispersion is excellent and the highs are detailed
yet smooth. I'm not in the music biz, but I love music
and I've listened to many speakers over the years, including
AR, KEF, Klipsch, Bose, Polk, Yamaha, Sony,Altec, etc. Of course,
the 1000's have little bass output. Adding a sub helps greatly,
but (with my setup) there'll be missing upper bass/lower midrange
detail.

Anyhoo, I've taken a small plunge and ordered the Primus
360's from Vanns (on sale for $400/pr right now). I based
my decision mostly on the reviews I've read, since no
local retailer carries that model. As a bonus, there's a
current promo going on for spending $398+ on Infinity speakers,
you get a pair of the Primus 150's free. Couldn't pass
it up.

The last pair of speakers I bought based on positive
reviews were the Polk R30's. They look fantastic, particulary
considering the price, delivered, under $200. Their bass
extension is very good for a speaker with a 6 inch driver.
The bass is not well defined however, and no one will EVER
turn their head thinking someone at the end of the room
just clicked a drumstick on a cymbal. What a shame. Worth
modding due to their WAF type appearance.

I'll post a review of the 360's and possibly the 150's in
a few weeks.