Infinity Primus 362

[the DRIZZLE]

So I'm looking at picking up a set of these as part of my first home theatre. I was planning on getting the Polk R50s, but my friend just got a set and I was really disapointed with their performance with music. They seemed ok for watching movies.

I can get the Infinitys for $125 each locally. How much better will they be for music then the polks? Also what is the best matched center for these?

 

[sdifox]

Have you listened to them? That is the key factor. They could be 100K speakers but if you don't like the sound you don't like the sound.

 

[Tiamat]

For the best center, it will be the same speaker as the front L and R. As for if they are better than the Polks, only your ears can decide that. If you get any of the horizontal center speakers, you will have tons of off-axis nulls (lobbing) due to the dispersion pattern that MTM's have. Even their 3-way center speaker will have lobbing since it is WMTMW. I think this would be the C350.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I haven't listened to them yet. Hopefully I will be able to at the store. What are some other options for floor standing speakers under $300 a pair?

Tiamat, can you explain a little more, I'm not familiar with the terminology you're using?

 

[StarsFan4Life]

You damn well bet they sound good. I happened to "START" my recent Home Theater upgrade with both of these and a Sony STR-G520 receiver. Only I got the receiver for $129 (on sale from $350) and the Infinity P362's for $99 each on sale (normally $250-300 each) at Fry's. That was about a month ago.

Since then I have managed to add the PC350 center channel speaker, the P142's for rear and I just picked up my PS-10 today. I have a FULL Infinity Primus home theater system. Holy crap!

Oh...about the sound....just turn them up....they can handle it. Piss your neighbors off....I already have.

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: the DRIZZLE
I haven't listened to them yet. Hopefully I will be able to at the store. What are some other options for floor standing speakers under $300 a pair?

Tiamat, can you explain a little more, I'm not familiar with the terminology you're using?

Sure, when you have two mono sources outputting the same signal, they will interfere with each other in some way. Think of this as similar to if you drop two rocks into a pool of water, the waves will interfere with each other.

In an MTM setup with 2 midranges flanking the tweeter, the dispersion is limited in the direction of the array. For vertical MTMs, the vertical dispersion is limited (which is typically fine since most people are within a tight distribution of listening height). For horizontal MTMs, the horizontal dispersion is limited.

In the case of the center speaker, the idea is that it should be a speaker with excellent horizontal dispersion. This refers to the ability of people sitting in an arc in front of the speaker and all of them being able to hear the speaker as equally as possible. When a speaker has poor horizontal dispersion, the sweet spot is very narrow, and only the person in the center gets the goodies. This goes against the purpose of the center speaker which is to give everyone good dialog. Instead, when you have poor horizontal response, only 1 person gets good sound quality where everyone else are in between the lobs of the response and what they hear is a frequency response full of holes. Why is this design so prevalent? Because people want a horizontal speaker as their center speaker for cosmetic purposes. When you compromise for cosmetics with low cost, you really lose the sound quality. Choose two of any three: cost, performance, cosmetcs.

Many times WMTW horizontal arrays are considered "better" because the two woofers, even though they should interfere with each other, they don't (nearly as much) since they do not reproduce the frequencies that would become canceled. This has to do with the spacing of the drivers with respect to the band of frequencies they reproduce. The lower the frequency band, the more distance you have to play with (between the two mono sources).

Hope this helps!

 

[herm0016]

tiamat is just talking about a center channel, which is the main piece in an HT setup.
I have bookshelf versions of the infinities and a friend does have the older version 360s. I am a big fan of them. I do think they sound better than the polks. My roommate had a set of the bookshelf polks, we did an a/b test of them and my infinities, the infinities were slightly more forward due to their metal cones and 4th order crossover. they also handled base much better and the highs were more accurate.

 

[SlickSnake]

Infinity Primus is superior to the Polks.

I have both Interludes and Betas of various flavors and for movies AND music you just can't go wrong with Infinity.

Harman Audio Web Store with JBL for New and Refurbs

Harman Audio Ebay Store with JBL

And frequently the speakers sold by them on Ebay are new and sold as refurbs so they don't undercut their retail market. But you won't know what you get until you get it. Refurbs are marked as such on the box and speakers. Either way, they have the same factory warranty as new.

And I would strongly urge you to get a front center that is a 3 way versus a 2 way. 2 ways are suitable for the rear centers in a 6.1 configuration, though. And a bit smaller and easier to wall mount on a shelf.

 

[manimal]

frys has these for 100 bucks each this weekend if a B&M is near you. Fantastic deal at that price.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

I just bought them for $127 each. They sounded good in the store to me. Not great, but I dont think I would be able to do any better without spending a lot more money.