Infinity RS II vs Polk SRS 3.1 TL thoughts?

GTIanz

Active Member
I have a line on a pair of Infinity RS II (not a or b according to the listing) for $300 in good condition according to the seller. Would this be a score for a pair in good condition?

My mains are a pair of polk SRS 3.1tl that are in perfect condition and pretty heavily modified (everything but the crossovers at this point). I also have a pair of dahlquist dq10's that im mirror imaging and redoing the crossovers on.

Not looking for arguments here. I have heard some of the bigger infinity RSIIIb and kappa 9's and was always impressed with them. What are your thoughts?

Specifications for the two speakers are very comparable.

My components are Parasound p5 preamp and emotiva xpa2 amp.
 
RS-II's are fantastic speakers IMO, and certainly higher end than RS-IIIb's (which are very nice also). The full dipole mids and full dipole EMIT tweeters really make a difference and create an amazing 3D soundscape. $300 is a screaming deal on RS-II's.

My Emotiva SA-250 (400 wpc at 4 Ohm) does a great job driving the RS-II's, so your XPA-2 should be a good match too.

For more info on RS-II's, see this thread:
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=621716
 
thats a price that seems to good to be true...

hope its true, if so pull the trigger if you can...
 
Having owned both the RS-II's and several variants of SRS's over the years, my opinion would tend toward a more transparent, airy and accurate midrange in the Infinity's. Between those two speakers, I would choose the -II's over the 3.1tl's. Your ears, of course, might disagree with me.
 
Those would not last a half hour on cl in most of the country. Very good price. I would buy them no matter how many speakers I owned.
Jim

I managed to be the first to reply to the listing on CL. Answered about 30 min after they were posted with no photos or anything. I was figuring they were going to be beat to hell and have rotten surrounds/missing grills.

Boy was I wrong!

They are in beautiful shape and the woofers were replaced by the original owner with Watkins woofers from infinity.

Pictures or it didn't happen:
image.jpg
 
Very clean indeed. Interested to hear your impressions vs. the 3.1tl's.

Just so you know, the RS-II didn't use Watkins woofers. The -II's woofers are single voice coil standard woofers, with the lower one rolling off at a different point than the upper one. It looks like yours have the 902-2279A's.
 
Very clean indeed. Interested to hear your impressions vs. the 3.1tl's.

Just so you know, the RS-II didn't use Watkins woofers. The -II's woofers are single voice coil standard woofers, with the lower one rolling off at a different point than the upper one. It looks like yours have the 902-2279A's.

You are exactly right.

The PO had the original product flyer that he gave me with the speakers. On the back of it was written 902-2279a $99.39.

I assume that was the price for the replacement woofers (likely each).

I remember reading that the back of the speakers / midranges are left open for the dipole effect. These speakers have a high density foam covering the back of the midranges with a cutout for the rear firing tweeters.

Any idea if they are meant to run with the foam or without? I'll try it with and without to see which way I prefer. I presume this was from the factory as the foam looks perfectly cut/shaped. Im just curious if it may have been for shipping purposes or if it is needed.
 
They are ment to run with the foam in. Most however (mine included) no longer have the foam. It rots away and makes a mess so they all got tossed years ago. Those were a steal at three hundred. Maybe the nicest pair I've seen. Many have paid several times that price and still had no buyers remorse. Be sure to keep that receipt because someone may question if the woofers are proper replacement if you ever sell them.
Jim
 
Look at the fuse first. It protects both tweeters. Another possibility is the rotary potentiometer.
 
Very clean indeed. Interested to hear your impressions vs. the 3.1tl's.

Wow! What a deal! Burning question in my mind "HOW DO THEY SOUND?!?!"

I managed to find fuses at Fred Meyers in the auto section (what are we going to do now that radio shack went out of business?).

First and foremost I placed the speakers in almost exactly the same position that i had the polk's set in. I removed the acoustic panels that i had behind the polk's since the infinity's are dipole. Beyond that I haven't done any fiddling with placement or toe.

So now that I have the tweets all singing sweetly. The thing that I remembered most about my previous listening experiences with infinity speakers was how precise yet delicate and balanced emit tweeters sound. Brilliant tweeters (and these aren't even the best ones right?)

As far as the mids go they sound great but, I think that there might be one mid rubbing slightly on the left speaker (I can't pin it down yet).

On the low end I am finally getting the kick that i was after. At high volumes the polk 3.1's delivered good bass but, at regular TV and quiet listening volumes I felt the bass was almost non-existent. With the polk's I was running 2 m&k mx-70 subs. I unplugged the subs and don't think they will be needed with the infinity's for anything.

Bottom line: the polk's have been surpassed. The SDA effect is cool and at times does some jaw-dropping imaging tricks. The rsII's still image very well - a lot like my dahlquist dq10's (open baffle / dipole design?). In my room I don't even think it is a very close comparison. The infinity's are better - hands down. I paid more for the polk's and I have spent even more upgrading them. Far more than what I will be able to get selling them. I like the polk's and I think they do a lot of things well. But, I never managed to achieve the balance that I'm getting on day 1 with the RSII's.

(My Polk's were upgraded with rdo-198 tweeters, upgraded binding post w/ a speak-on interconnect cable, Larry Rings, black hole 5 cabinet dampening, dynamat'd speaker baskets. I had upgraded basically everything except for the crossovers.)
 
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please ignore the dust. eeek!
 
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