So my wife and I are bringing in the groceries the other day at our condo when a neighbor comes up and asks, "Do you know anyone who's into really big, old..." so I'm thinking, "Say speakers, say speakers." And my wife is thinking, "Say anything but speakers." And he says, "...SPEAKERS." So of course, I'm like, "Yup, I'm your man." The wife instantly shoots me the death stare.
He takes me to his garage (which he's obviously cleaning out) where he has a pair of these Infinity RS-2B's. I'm not sure what they are right away, but I know they look exceptional, despite the cabinets not being in the greatest shape -- with some ugly water seepage on the bottom of one and some dings in the wood here and there on both. But the woofers and surrounds look tight, the midrange drivers and tweeters are most intriguing, and he has this EQ unit, which he insist is required.
Anyway, these things are destined for the basement, as I already fought hard enough to get the Maggie's in the living room, nevermind trying to get these into the bedroom. So I've got a section of the basement carved out with two layers of insulation and sound absorbing foam on the ceiling, and a thin, industrial carpet on the concrete floor (for home recording purposes).
I get them set up down there and run them through a heavily modded Dynaco PAS-3 (with nice Telefunken 12AX7's) into the Infinity EQ and then a Carver Pro ZR1600, which puts out a more-than-ample 600 watts per side at the rated 4 ohms (off the top of my head, but I'm sure it's up to the job, since the manual I downloaded says they only need between 75 and 400 watts).
Well, they sound AMAZING, but my question is this: Are these the single least efficient speakers ever made? To really make these things sing, I have to turn the Dynaco preamp volume up past its famous 'sweet spot' at around 12:30 to get them to open up. They can take everything the amp gives them, and it sounds very good at the lower volumes. But is the heavy damping on the ceiling having that much of an effect, or are these speakers just that power hungry?
BTW, I was running a pair of Dynaco A25's through the same preamp and two Dynaco Stereo 70's in mono bridged mode in that exact same space before, and they didn't require any extra juice. Granted, the A25's are much more efficient (I think). I think the Infinities are rated at 87 db, and I would have to guess that the A25's are around 91 (without the power handling, obviously).
Either way, I'm very pleased to have stepped into such stellar sounding speakers for FREE. Thoughts???
He takes me to his garage (which he's obviously cleaning out) where he has a pair of these Infinity RS-2B's. I'm not sure what they are right away, but I know they look exceptional, despite the cabinets not being in the greatest shape -- with some ugly water seepage on the bottom of one and some dings in the wood here and there on both. But the woofers and surrounds look tight, the midrange drivers and tweeters are most intriguing, and he has this EQ unit, which he insist is required.
Anyway, these things are destined for the basement, as I already fought hard enough to get the Maggie's in the living room, nevermind trying to get these into the bedroom. So I've got a section of the basement carved out with two layers of insulation and sound absorbing foam on the ceiling, and a thin, industrial carpet on the concrete floor (for home recording purposes).
I get them set up down there and run them through a heavily modded Dynaco PAS-3 (with nice Telefunken 12AX7's) into the Infinity EQ and then a Carver Pro ZR1600, which puts out a more-than-ample 600 watts per side at the rated 4 ohms (off the top of my head, but I'm sure it's up to the job, since the manual I downloaded says they only need between 75 and 400 watts).
Well, they sound AMAZING, but my question is this: Are these the single least efficient speakers ever made? To really make these things sing, I have to turn the Dynaco preamp volume up past its famous 'sweet spot' at around 12:30 to get them to open up. They can take everything the amp gives them, and it sounds very good at the lower volumes. But is the heavy damping on the ceiling having that much of an effect, or are these speakers just that power hungry?
BTW, I was running a pair of Dynaco A25's through the same preamp and two Dynaco Stereo 70's in mono bridged mode in that exact same space before, and they didn't require any extra juice. Granted, the A25's are much more efficient (I think). I think the Infinities are rated at 87 db, and I would have to guess that the A25's are around 91 (without the power handling, obviously).
Either way, I'm very pleased to have stepped into such stellar sounding speakers for FREE. Thoughts???