Ranking EMIT's

Interested where the R series emits from the KAPPA .1's would rank...

better than the cobalts in the IIIa/b's...?

The K being the best...?

The EMIT-R have a better dispersion pattern and we know Arnie must have thought they were an advancement and/or had a practical reason to change.

They're all 4 ohm drivers. Didn't they become more efficient as stronger magnets were adopted? How do the efficiencies compare of the Kappa EMIT versus EMIT-R?

Can EMIT-R replace 1980s EMITs? Taking into consideration that EMIT-R have big round magnets that would require cutting into older 1980s cabinets.


Edited images borrowed from eBay.

yeah those mags are huge...wowie...

always looking to improve...but not into cutting cabs at the moment...

the planar/ribbon-style emits had a horizontal dispersion of 30º and a vertical dispersion of 18º (according to arnie, earliest versions only 12º vertical). this accounts for why they were frequently seen stacked in the flagship models, and why the provision was made so they could be rotated in the single emit models, in the event the cabinets were laid on their side. infinity literature skirted around this by claiming "nearly perfect horizontal dispersion" but not mentioning vertical.

the emit-r is more akin to a leaf design, rather than a flat ribbon, and gives a full 30º X 30º dispersion. the round kappa emit-r seems to be the same as the standard emit-r, and the kappa branding may be just for marketing. there are variations in the "r" emits, even though they appear visually identical, as those used in the "6 ohm" kappas, the 6 ohm reference series, and 8 ohm crescendos all have different part numbers. if they do indeed all test at 4 ohm (well, my 10 emit-r's average 3.8), what the actual differences are i could only speculate. one thing is certain, the emit-r doesn't suffer from the wrinkling or delamination of the diaphragm the ribbon type is subject to, and they do throw sound better.

as a side note, if 30º was considered near perfect, then i'm guessing my infinity walsh tweeters' 360º horizontal dispersion must be perfect.



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Very nice blow up image of of the EMIT, and good info, thanks!

loquatious said:

as a side note, if 30º was considered near perfect, then i'm guessing my infinity walsh tweeters' 360º horizontal dispersion must be perfect.

Click to expand...

Why were the Walsh tweeters in Infinity so short lived? (...realizing I'm wandering from the OP...) Beside requiring they be mounted on top of a speaker to radiate properly.

I've not heard a model that used the Walsh tweeters. How do they compare to those using EMITs? It seems that the 360º pastern will put reflecting waves from a back wall out of phase and perhaps produce cancelling in some parts of the listening space (?) Rear firing EMITs are out of phase and reflect in phase to the front drivers. (Thinking of Magnepans too.) Sorry for the wandering.

wandering makes a good thread...

Seems Arnie had his own thoughts on tweeters and didn't want to use someone else anymore...

Perusing eBay shows EMIT-R with different impedances. The more common EMIT-R (902-4578) are apparently 3.2 ohms (approximately) where the "Kappa Series II" (902-7206 as pictured above) are 4 ohm which would be the better choice for attempting 1980s replacements. Also note some of the 902-4578 have letter variations attached to the end of the model number (902-4578x). It would be good know the differences.

Hmm. :scratch2:

What about the High Energy EMIT? When I compared them to the ones in my kappa 8's here is what I found, the HE EMIT'S sound like they go lower and give more body to what they are playing, the kappa emits have a little more air probably because they are smaller but lack what the HE EMIT excels at, the HE EMIT almost has the dynamics of a dome tweeter but with the sweetness of a emit K.

the HE's look to small to fill the hole....Are those the ones that are in the renaissance 80, and 90's...?

I think cutting the hole a little bigger and going the the 4 ohm emit r's could work...

i was thinking the letters at the end could be different production runs...

easiest thing to do would be to just swap in some emit k's and move the cobalt's to my RSe's...

I have trouble leaving things alone...ha

Newk_Yuler said:

Why were the Walsh tweeters in Infinity so short lived?...I've not heard a model that used the Walsh tweeters. How do they compare to those using EMITs?

Click to expand...

i've heard infinity lost the licensing rights to the walsh name and that's why production stopped. personally, i believe the walshes were so fragile and easily damaged (even on the production line) that they were just too much trouble. the emits were already in the pipeline, and as an in-house design were totally under infinity's control.

my monitor IIa's use the walsh as a super tweeter. the IIa's are very nice speakers, and are very easy to listen to. the walsh adds a very pleasing extra dimension to the already good peerless dome tweeter. the walsh adds a noticible sparkle, and extends up to 28khz, but it's no emit.

when the walsh-equipped WTLC was supplanted by the column II, with its front and rear-firing "specially modified, hand treated" piezos, infinity described it as a sonic advancement over the WTLC. i've never personally compared the two, but i know what they meant. my own column II's sound noticeably better than the monitor IIa's in the upper frequency ranges (crisper), but again, can't sonically compete with my emit-equipped infinitys.

the walshes, which infinty literature of the time called "probably infinity's most stunning achievement", were around from 1975 to 1981. the column II was around about the same time (but those hand modified motorola piezos never found their way into other infinity models). the original type emit was in production and in the QLS 1 by 1977, and i'm guessing the handwriting was on the wall…





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loquatious, always bringing the knowledge...

So...I've given this a lot of thought...I enjoy experimenting with this stuff but I think it would be a bad move to modify the cabs for this...After reading a lot about it I think a portion of the reasoning with making the R also came down to cost....The rectangle EMITs are expensive to make because of the material used in the magnets and production costs are an important factor to manufacturers...The consensus seems to be the R obviously has better dispersion but its a tad inferior overall to the K...The HE's seem to get the most praise...But would be hard to find and ridiculously expensive...

My birthday is around the corner and my mother-in-law gave me a gift certificate and i used it on a nice pair of K's...So I'm going to do a side by side comparison between the Cobalts and the K's...

the loser will end up in my "mancave" RSe's

more to come...

if you look at the diagrams posted, the 'old' emits appear to have been a push-pull design, whereas the emit R were only push.

I do not know about the High energy Emits, and I damn sure am not tearing mine apart to find out!


What I'd like to know is how do the circular planar drivers Parts Express sells that look exactly like Emit Rs compare?

Anyone?
http://www.parts-express.com/hivi-rt2c-a-planar-isodynamic-tweeter--297-406
http://www.parts-express.com/beston-rt003c-round-ribbon-tweeter--277-114 these
http://www.parts-express.com/hivi-rt1c-a-planar-isodynamic-tweeter--297-400
jaz

jazzmans said:

if you look at the diagrams posted, the 'old' emits appear to have been a push-pull design, whereas the emit R were only push.

I do not know about the High energy Emits, and I damn sure am not tearing mine apart to find out!


What I'd like to know is how do the circular planar drivers Parts Express sells that look exactly like Emit Rs compare?

Anyone?
http://www.parts-express.com/hivi-rt2c-a-planar-isodynamic-tweeter--297-406
http://www.parts-express.com/beston-rt003c-round-ribbon-tweeter--277-114 these
http://www.parts-express.com/hivi-rt1c-a-planar-isodynamic-tweeter--297-400
jaz

Click to expand...

The HE emit's are a push pull design, I called infinity a long time ago and spoke with one of the guys that orderd parts for Infinity, he said that the reason infinity switched to the emit R was because the company that supplied the parts to make the original style emits went out of business, he told me their name but it's been years and I just can't remember..

This thread is a great example of the collective knowledge held by the members and the power that knowledge can bring. Keep it coming folks! I love classic Infinities and am relying on this community to help me keep them going for years to come. perhaps in 10 years, I might have something to contribute.

i have a pair of the EMIT-R tweeters and had marked them 6 ohm for some reason.so- they are indeed 4 ohm? marked as follows:

902-4578
72652

903TNP

EDIT: found this in my searches-
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=6140615&postcount=3

give them a test...

4 ohms it is-

Hmm, why say that they are 6...? who knows...

i just replaced the Cobalts in my IIIa's with K's...had to mod a bit because the plate is a little smaller, yes, thats an upgrade...

since things roll downhill the Cobalts went into my mancave RSe's...sounds awesome...