first infinity Speaker?

OmegaHyperio

Active Member
So, i have decided to buy myself my first infinity speaker, so how the question, is which one. I am saving up for a IRS Gamma, but that is in the distant future.

My budget is around 200 $ (now 600-700 euros which is about the same in dollars at the moment.). One speaker I found were the infinity Qe, but I am unsure if they are any good, the squealers in the offer do look in good condition, but i an unsure if they are any good. I have also not asked if the EMIT tweeters are intact, from the outside they look good, and the fuse is not blown, so I think they work.

My amp can produce 45 Win to 8 ohms.

I am open for opinions and suggestions.

Also would Re-caping the only cap in the X- over improve the sound of the Qe, I would use mundorf supreme capacitors. Or are the original infinity caps good enough.

also is about 100 euros a reasonable price for a pair of Qe's without the speaker grills?
 
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The Qe is a very good speaker. I owned a set for several years (way back in the early Late 70's and early 80's) and I always liked them a great deal. As old as these are by now I would think that a re-cap is in order and Mundorf's would be great. 45 watts is plenty as the Qe is fairly efficient for a small speaker. I ran them with a 40 watt Kenwood and they played plenty loud. As for price, I'm not too sure what they go for these days. $150 to $200 US dollars would seem about right for a set in good condition?
 
I don't how the market is there so as far as price goes I can't help you there. I would verify that the EMIT's are working and in good shape as it can be expensive to find replacements. For that price I would expect them to work and be in good shape.

I have a pair myself and a good precaution is to reseal the cabinet, recap and add some poly fill to the interior. It helped mine quite a bit. They are getting on in years now and Infinity didn't spend a lot of money on the cabinets to begin with.

If you are new to the EMIT experience they're a great place to start!
 
The EMITs are something special, any speaker in their line using them are worth a look. I really like Infinity speakers, I've had one of my sets for 24yrs and they still amaze me. One of my more affordable pair are the RS-325, while not sporting an EMIT, the polycell tweeter stills sings sweetly. I've owned three sets of this marvelous little over achiever, if u able to get the QE's you could do worse than the 325.
 
RS5000 or RS6000 is a nice place to start.

As much as i would like to get a Infinity RS6000, its sadly out of my price range. for the time anyway. The few times i have seen the RS6000 it was usualy in the 400 to 800 euro range.

Also would my not be to week to drive the RS6000 to its best?
Also sorry for my "interesting" grammar used in the above sentence, but i could not think of a better way to wright it.

But thanks for the advice though.
 
Qa, Qb and Qe are good places to start.

Actually, if you can find Quantum Jrs in your price range, I'd go for those. The set I fixed up for edroom were very impressive. One of the only Infinitys that I really liked.
 
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I searched for the other speakers mentioned, and i think i can get the Qe at a reasonable price. So i will contact the seller. First to ask about the conditions of the EMIT's as well as if he still has the Speaker Grills. The fuses for the EMIT's look good (well the one he showed)

I amuse the Qe will be a good introduction to the Infinity line of speakers. Heck anything is better then what i have at the moment, my current speakers are some cheapo speakers from a German electronics store. I also killed the tweeter in one of them when changing the wiring as well as the crossover caps. But seeing as the tweeter only cost 2 euros...
 
to mars volta:
What are the reasons you prefer the RS4000 over the Qe?

Or rather what aspects do you prefer from the RS4000 over the Qe?

I asume you like the wider frequency response?
 
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don't know what the market is like in germany, but $200 for Qe's is very high to me. here in california i see the superior Qb's regularly go for $100. RSb's and reference four's are also regularly below $200.

the RS6000 mentioned are nice, but well above your price point. personally, at that $200 price point i'd be looking at the reference five or reference six from the early 90s.

one warning, infinitys with emits want power, and most are lower impedance than 8 ohms. if you want that infinity emit sound, that 45 watt amp is going to be the weak link in the chain.

another option in that price range would be the column II from the 70s. no emit, but wonderful sound and a better match with that 45 watts.



.
 
The EMITs are hungry little buggers, definitely a good idea to have a stout amplifier if you want all they can give.
 
Thanks for the information, i will check to see if i can find some of them. The market for infinity's is insane in terms of price. I am so jellos of you guys in America who can get them inexpensively. But sadly importing them would not be an option.

Also the last Qe i bid on on Ebay went for about 100 euros.

Also my amp is also able to deliver 65W into 4 ohm if that helps.

But thanks for the suggestions so far.

The amp is a Optonica SM3636 that's currently my most powerful amp.

Also Infinity speakers tend to be quite rare, especially with EMIT'S.
 
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prices for some models are quite high, but there are bargains to be found. obviously, infinity was a california company so we have a lot of them here, but my impression was they are very popular in germany:
.

Here is the interesting thing i found out about that, just by watching auctions. The most popular ones are the IRS series, and some top end RS stuff. The RS2000 - RS6000 are rather popular but get high prices usually. I have never in my year of watching auctions seen a Column Series speaker, and only with relative rarity a Quantum series speaker.

I was looking into the inexpensive infinity as a sort of bridge betwene my low end cheapo speakers and a IRS Series (they pop up with surprising regularity). Seeing that i more or less killed a tweeter on my cheapo speakers in an tempt to make them better (which actually worked for the woofer and mid range, not so much the tweeter).
 
The Qe's will give you a "taste" of the Infinity "sound" since they have EMIT's.
And they are rated down to 47 HZ so you may or may not feel the need for a seperate subwoofer.
Your receiver should be fine since it is rated for 4 ohm usage.

I'm assuming you have seen this info at Klaus' site....
http://www.infinity-classics.de/models/Quantum-series-1976/index-Quantum.htm

You can click on the "Modelle" for information on other Infinity speakers.
 
Hm, based on what has been written hear, it seams my best option is to wait for a RS6000 or RS6001 to pop up near me for a reasonable price. I assume the RS6000 is much better then the Qe?

Also thank you for the link!
 
Qa, Qb and Qe are good places to start.

Actually, if you can find Quantum Jrs in your price range, I'd go for those. The set I fixed up for edroom were very impressive. One of the only Infinitys that I really liked.

I agree, I owned Qb, Qe, RS6000, Kappa 8, and Quantum 3. The Quantum 3 were by far the best..
 
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