Rex81
Well-Known Member
I figured I’d start my own thread for this one. As stated in a previous thread, I mentioned I was on the lookout for some RS II’s, and sure enough Goodolpg alerted me to a pair for sale an hour away. Thanks again, bud!
I picked them up from Misfitz Audio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you ever have a chance to stop by there, I encourage you to do so. Great people, great space, and lots of great vintage gear for sale. In fact, they have a pair of QLS-1 there currently and were happy to demo them for me. Wow! That’s an amazing speaker. The punch, fullness, and clarity from the entire audible spectrum is just jaw dropping. Unfortunately they’re both out of my price range and far too large for my listening room. I was happy to “settle” for the RS II.
I’ve been a long time Infinity fan, owning various models like Reference Five, Reference Six, RS 6000, Kappa 5.1, 6.1, RS5, WTLC and Column II. I still own the WTLC because they’re freakin’ cool, but I think the Column II edged it out sound-wise. So I wanted to break into the “big” Infinities. An audio acquaintance of mine acquired some RS II and let me stop over for a listen. He was powering them with a Krell KSA-100 and they sounded very, very good. They had the full, dynamic Infinity sound with the ultra clear, smooth sound of the EMITs, but that midrange and big presentation is what sets them apart from “lesser” Infinities, in my opinion. I told myself I’d pick up the next pair that came along. Luckily I didn’t have to wait that long.
I got them home and did a quick once-over. All the drivers appear to work as they should and they have newer foam on the woofers. Best of all, they’ve recently been fully recapped, so that’s one less thing I have to do to them. I was happy to see they came with completely unbroken grills, front and rear, and the foam in the back around the mids is completely intact and pliable. Rear feet are good too.
Issues:
1. Good amount of veneer peel on the bottom front of each cabinet – I filled in with a stain pen which helps hide it, but I may eventually just glue on a matte black trim piece to hide it altogether. It’ll look like it’s always been there.
2. A slight buzzing out of the top woofer on the right speaker at certain frequencies when pushed beyond moderate volume. It seems to be coming around the dust cap. It appears the gold glue has deteriorated a little bit and that might be causing it. Anyone else have this problem? Did you simply add more glue around it? That’s my first thought.
3. Air leakage around back plastic control panel. I’ll probably just run a bead of Loctite Powergrab glue around the edge. It dries clear so should be pretty much invisible.
4. Dried out finish. I’m not a huge fan of the medium oak that comes on these. I much prefer walnut. Oh well. To compromise, I applied a liberal amount of Howard’s Restore-a-Finish in Mahogany, followed by a coat of Howard’s Feed-N-Wax. This darkened up the oak nicely and gave a nice warm red undertone. Huge improvement if you ask me. I love Howard’s.
So now I’m on to amplification. And this is where it gets interesting. I’ve been reading about how these are right on the cusp of being classic Infinity amp-killers. Sure, they’re no Kappa 9 or QLS 1, but they drop to right above 2 ohm here and there and are about 85db sensitive. That certainly warrants caution. But I have a collection of amps that don’t care too much about difficult loads and I’ve never had issues driving anything, including my Ohm Fs, which are 84db, and 3 ohm nominal. Another purported “amp killer”.
First off, I’m a Class D guy. I like the efficiency, I like the flexibility, and I like the damping factor (absolutely essential to control the Ohm Fs). I started off with my Class D Audio CDA-120c. 60 wpc into 8, 120 into 4. Big toroidal on board. It did a fine job. No issues whatsoever. Plenty of power to get the RS IIs singing. (I can’t stand overly loud music, so 75-85db with peaks up to 90 is my zone). Then I put on my trusty Crown XLS-1502. 550 wpc into 4. Rated down to 2 ohm. Soundstage opened up with greater clarity and smoothness in the mids and highs. Maybe slightly less control of the bass (that’s one thing the CDA is great at), but overall a preferable sound.
Now onto something that will likely surprise you. Just for giggles, I put the big amps aside and plugged the RS II directly into my Bluesound Powernode 2. If you’re not familiar, it’s a streamer/DAC/preamp/amp in one. It weighs 4 lbs. It’s the size of a paperback book. It runs off of NAD’s HybridDigital amp technology which is based on a class D Hypex core. It delivers 60 wpc into 8 and 4 ohms. According to NAD’s white paper on it, it doesn’t “see” a load like traditional amps. Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is this unit does some amazing things. And it has some sophisticated protection onboard so I’m comfortable experimenting with it.
It powered the RS II beautifully. Volume got uncomfortably loud at about 45% and it seemed to keep fine control over everything throughout. Bass was a little bit looser than with the previous amps, but nothing bad by any means. It just seemed to blossom a little more. Mids and highs were forward and crisp. After an hour of play time, not a single glitch, and the amp was cool to the touch. Although I’ve never known it to heat up past room temperature, regardless of how long I run it or what speakers I’m running. It runs the Ohm Fs just as well. I wanted to know how the Powernode 2 would stack up against the Krell KSA-100, so we listened to the Krell, then switched over to the Powernode. The Krell was better obviously, but the difference was remarkably small.
I might bring some class A/B back into the house again for some more experimentation. But I was very impressed with what that 4 lb Powernode does for these, and in the short term, I’m keeping it in the system because it’s so easy to live with. In fact, this system is in the living room and is the main family home theater at the moment. My wife and daughter only need a single remote to control everything (the TV, Amazon Firestick, and Xbox all run into the Powernode like a receiver) and it uses a half watt of power when it automatically goes into standby when not in use.
Sorry for the long story. The short of it: I love the sound of these RS II, and they may blow up monster vintage receivers, but my Powernode 2 is very happy with them. For now, 4lbs and 60 wpc are doing just fine.
I picked them up from Misfitz Audio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you ever have a chance to stop by there, I encourage you to do so. Great people, great space, and lots of great vintage gear for sale. In fact, they have a pair of QLS-1 there currently and were happy to demo them for me. Wow! That’s an amazing speaker. The punch, fullness, and clarity from the entire audible spectrum is just jaw dropping. Unfortunately they’re both out of my price range and far too large for my listening room. I was happy to “settle” for the RS II.
I’ve been a long time Infinity fan, owning various models like Reference Five, Reference Six, RS 6000, Kappa 5.1, 6.1, RS5, WTLC and Column II. I still own the WTLC because they’re freakin’ cool, but I think the Column II edged it out sound-wise. So I wanted to break into the “big” Infinities. An audio acquaintance of mine acquired some RS II and let me stop over for a listen. He was powering them with a Krell KSA-100 and they sounded very, very good. They had the full, dynamic Infinity sound with the ultra clear, smooth sound of the EMITs, but that midrange and big presentation is what sets them apart from “lesser” Infinities, in my opinion. I told myself I’d pick up the next pair that came along. Luckily I didn’t have to wait that long.
I got them home and did a quick once-over. All the drivers appear to work as they should and they have newer foam on the woofers. Best of all, they’ve recently been fully recapped, so that’s one less thing I have to do to them. I was happy to see they came with completely unbroken grills, front and rear, and the foam in the back around the mids is completely intact and pliable. Rear feet are good too.
Issues:
1. Good amount of veneer peel on the bottom front of each cabinet – I filled in with a stain pen which helps hide it, but I may eventually just glue on a matte black trim piece to hide it altogether. It’ll look like it’s always been there.
2. A slight buzzing out of the top woofer on the right speaker at certain frequencies when pushed beyond moderate volume. It seems to be coming around the dust cap. It appears the gold glue has deteriorated a little bit and that might be causing it. Anyone else have this problem? Did you simply add more glue around it? That’s my first thought.
3. Air leakage around back plastic control panel. I’ll probably just run a bead of Loctite Powergrab glue around the edge. It dries clear so should be pretty much invisible.
4. Dried out finish. I’m not a huge fan of the medium oak that comes on these. I much prefer walnut. Oh well. To compromise, I applied a liberal amount of Howard’s Restore-a-Finish in Mahogany, followed by a coat of Howard’s Feed-N-Wax. This darkened up the oak nicely and gave a nice warm red undertone. Huge improvement if you ask me. I love Howard’s.
So now I’m on to amplification. And this is where it gets interesting. I’ve been reading about how these are right on the cusp of being classic Infinity amp-killers. Sure, they’re no Kappa 9 or QLS 1, but they drop to right above 2 ohm here and there and are about 85db sensitive. That certainly warrants caution. But I have a collection of amps that don’t care too much about difficult loads and I’ve never had issues driving anything, including my Ohm Fs, which are 84db, and 3 ohm nominal. Another purported “amp killer”.
First off, I’m a Class D guy. I like the efficiency, I like the flexibility, and I like the damping factor (absolutely essential to control the Ohm Fs). I started off with my Class D Audio CDA-120c. 60 wpc into 8, 120 into 4. Big toroidal on board. It did a fine job. No issues whatsoever. Plenty of power to get the RS IIs singing. (I can’t stand overly loud music, so 75-85db with peaks up to 90 is my zone). Then I put on my trusty Crown XLS-1502. 550 wpc into 4. Rated down to 2 ohm. Soundstage opened up with greater clarity and smoothness in the mids and highs. Maybe slightly less control of the bass (that’s one thing the CDA is great at), but overall a preferable sound.
Now onto something that will likely surprise you. Just for giggles, I put the big amps aside and plugged the RS II directly into my Bluesound Powernode 2. If you’re not familiar, it’s a streamer/DAC/preamp/amp in one. It weighs 4 lbs. It’s the size of a paperback book. It runs off of NAD’s HybridDigital amp technology which is based on a class D Hypex core. It delivers 60 wpc into 8 and 4 ohms. According to NAD’s white paper on it, it doesn’t “see” a load like traditional amps. Your guess is as good as mine. All I know is this unit does some amazing things. And it has some sophisticated protection onboard so I’m comfortable experimenting with it.
It powered the RS II beautifully. Volume got uncomfortably loud at about 45% and it seemed to keep fine control over everything throughout. Bass was a little bit looser than with the previous amps, but nothing bad by any means. It just seemed to blossom a little more. Mids and highs were forward and crisp. After an hour of play time, not a single glitch, and the amp was cool to the touch. Although I’ve never known it to heat up past room temperature, regardless of how long I run it or what speakers I’m running. It runs the Ohm Fs just as well. I wanted to know how the Powernode 2 would stack up against the Krell KSA-100, so we listened to the Krell, then switched over to the Powernode. The Krell was better obviously, but the difference was remarkably small.
I might bring some class A/B back into the house again for some more experimentation. But I was very impressed with what that 4 lb Powernode does for these, and in the short term, I’m keeping it in the system because it’s so easy to live with. In fact, this system is in the living room and is the main family home theater at the moment. My wife and daughter only need a single remote to control everything (the TV, Amazon Firestick, and Xbox all run into the Powernode like a receiver) and it uses a half watt of power when it automatically goes into standby when not in use.
Sorry for the long story. The short of it: I love the sound of these RS II, and they may blow up monster vintage receivers, but my Powernode 2 is very happy with them. For now, 4lbs and 60 wpc are doing just fine.