Vintage Infinity`s anyone?

[Michael F]

Picked up a pair of Reference Standard 7 Kappa`s on a whim a little while back, 3 ways with a sealed 12" woofer, 4" dome midrange and ribbon tweeter. God damn, $400 speakers are not supposed to sound this good, what a pleasant surprise. I`ll refrain from describing them in detail for the time being as I`m still in the Honeymoon period but I will say that these are some of the finest sounding speakers that I`ve heard, and believe me when I say I`ve heard many.

I have the Yamaha driving them at the moment while I finish up a protection circuit for the 700B, looking forward to that experiment

 

[laatsch55]

Mike, that Yamaha is no slouch, they should sound good with it!!

 

[jaetee]

Kappa 7's are great speakers... My roommate in the Air Force had a pair of those, powered by Onkyo 506 amp. Very, very nice sounding combo. Congrats!

 

[Gepetto]

Picked up a pair of Reference Standard 7 Kappa`s on a whim a little while back, 3 ways with a sealed 12" woofer, 4" dome midrange and ribbon tweeter. God damn, $400 speakers are not supposed to sound this good, what a pleasant surprise. I`ll refrain from describing them in detail for the time being as I`m still in the Honeymoon period but I will say that these are some of the finest sounding speakers that I`ve heard, and believe me when I say I`ve heard many.

I have the Yamaha driving them at the moment while I finish up a protection circuit for the 700B, looking forward to that experiment

Very nice speakers...not surprised at all that you like them.

 

[62vauxhall]

I have the later incarnation 7.1i and overall, they may not be the best speaker I've heard (I was in the HiFi biz for nearly 30 years) but they're the best sounding speakers I've owned and that includes Altec A7 500's.

If you start to Google search, you will find references about how the Polydome mid ranges change color over time, They start out nearly clear, I bought brand new in 1993/94 ($500 for the pair - a special price from the distributor rep) and at about 5 years milky streaks appeared and they are now a solid pale yellow like yours. apparently this is not something to be alarmed by as long as the material stays pliable and if it does harden - DON"T TOUCH THEM!!!

Like mine, yours may be position sensitive. When I first got them, it took a couple of weeks to dial them in and I was surprised at how much effect just an inch forward/back and a degree or two of toe in/out had on them. Oddly, in the room they were in when I first got them, the best sound was obtained with the right speaker about two inches farther forward from the back wall than the left speaker. Now, I'm not so fussy.

7.1i's use a 10" and ported at the back and a newer generation EMIT. Are yours ported too?

I used to sell Infinity's and the original EMIT's did not give any warning before they blew. They sound real good until it's too late so be careful.

If yours are so equipped, remove the jumper and try bi-wiring them. I thought it made a noticeable difference and I'm not one to pay much heed to the Tweekophile stuff. Selling HiFi for as long as I did makes you cynical.

This a photo I grabbed online but they're exactly like mine including the milky Polydome.



EDIT: BTW, I have a WOPLized 700B (thanks to Lee and Jerry) and they've never sounded better.

 

[Michael F]

This is my first experience with Infinity as I`ve been a hard core JBL fan all my life. Some of the models that have graced my living room include the 4425,4430,L112,L36,4311 to name a few.
I`ve had more than a few "Hifi" speakers from the likes of B&W, Dynaudio, Spendor, JM Lab/Focal etc as well.

What gets me is that these lowly speakers sound better than most of those mentioned, some costing more than ten times what the Infinities did.

 

[laatsch55]

Amazing id'nt it?? I like my budget K's too....

 

[Michael F]

I have the later incarnation 7.1i and overall, they may not be the best speaker I've heard (I was in the HiFi biz for nearly 30 years) but they're the best sounding speakers I've owned and that includes Altec A7 500's.

If you start to Google search, you will find references about how the Polydome mid ranges change color over time, They start out nearly clear, I bought brand new in 1993/94 ($500 for the pair - a special price from the distributor rep) and at about 5 years milky streaks appeared and they are now a solid pale yellow like yours. apparently this is not something to be alarmed by as long as the material stays pliable and if it does harden - DON"T TOUCH THEM!!!

Like mine, yours may be position sensitive. When I first got them, it took a couple of weeks to dial them in and I was surprised at how much effect just an inch forward/back and a degree or two of toe in/out had on them. Oddly, in the room they were in when I first got them, the best sound was obtained with the right speaker about two inches farther forward from the back wall than the left speaker. Now, I'm not so fussy.

7.1i's use a 10" and ported at the back and a newer generation EMIT. Are yours ported too?

I used to sell Infinity's and the original EMIT's did not give any warning before they blew. They sound real good until it's too late so be careful.

If yours are so equipped, remove the jumper and try bi-wiring them. I thought it made a noticeable difference and I'm not one to pay much heed to the Tweekophile stuff. Selling HiFi for as long as I did makes you cynical.

This a photo I grabbed online but they're exactly like mine including the milky Polydome.

View attachment 19642

EDIT: BTW, I have a WOPLized 700B (thanks to Lee and Jerry) and they've never sounded better.

I`m aware of the whole Polydome thing . Some folks have had success using Meguires rubber conditioner to clean up and preserve the domes but that requires disassembling the dome in order to get to the back side. Fortunately mine are still in good shape, I will attempt that procedure only after I find some spares at a reasonable price.

I haven't spent a whole lot of time positioning the speakers (too busy listening to them ) The thing is that I have a very limited floor space foot print to work with due to the high traffic in the area.
I did need to toe them in more than other speakers to get a stable center image, and that effort really paid off.
They don't project as far front of the plane as I`m used to hearing but man, are they deep and wide.
As for the mid and hi drive levels, they are still at their nominal factory settings.

 

[jaetee]

This is my first experience with Infinity as I`ve been a hard core JBL fan all my life. Some of the models that have graced my living room include the 4425,4430,L112,L36,4311 to name a few.
I`ve had more than a few "Hifi" speakers from the likes of B&W, Dynaudio, Spendor, JM Lab/Focal etc as well.

What gets me is that these lowly speakers sound better than most of those mentioned, some costing more than ten times what the Infinities did.

I mentioned before that my USAF roommate had K7's... When I was shopping for speakers back in the day, I was actually going to try to get a similar pair, or maybe the K6 (more in my budget when they were new vs. the K7's). I was shopping at the Base Exchange on Rhein Main air base and instigated a sound comparo between the slightly smaller JBL L80T and the K6 (source was one of my tapes, played through a Nak BX-125, just like the one I owned at the time). We're talking 1988 here, but I do still remember being basically equally impressed with both speakers. The thing was, the JBL's were on deep discounted clearance sale for $175 each (normal price was close to $400 each) because they were the floor models and the woofer center dust covers were pushed in and speaker covers were missing... I didn't want "damaged" goods and was leaning towards the more expensive Infinity speakers for that reason. We were not in one of the actual sound rooms at the time and got kinda loud in the store, and a small crowd formed around. It turns out the JBL Rep for Germany who traveled to all of the military installations for demo's and such happened to be there was eavesdropping and overheard me hemming and hawing back and forth with my friend. The JBL rep introduced himself and had nothing but good things to say about the entire Kappa line from Infinity. The tipping point was when he gave me his card and told me he had a set of mesh speaker covers for the L80T's at his office and that if I bought that last set of JBL's he'd replace my woofers for me under warranty, and sell me the speaker covers at cost. I went through with the deal and went to visit the JBL office in Frankfurt later that week. Had to pay around $40 for the covers and got two new woofers. My speakers were like new, for less than half the MSRP!

Had I not run into that JBL rep at that time, I'd probably be telling you about how great the Kappa 6 is.

Ironically, two weeks later, my dorm roommate decided to downsize all the "stuff" in his life before shipping off back to the States and he sold all of his Onkyo gear and his Infinitys. Could have had the Kappa 7's way below retail at the time. But they were side by side with my Yamaha R-9 powered JBLs for those two weeks and we had some fun sound battles. Both systems sounded great, but his had more power. I remember the Infinity Kappas being very efficient.

I would still love to own a set of those. Congrats again.

 

[Michael F]

Jaetee

Interesting that you brought up the L80t, it just so happened that I had a pair on hand at the time of the 7K acquisition. Not to take anything away from your experience with the JBL`s, but I found the two speakers to be a league apart in terms of build and sound quality, which should not be a surprise at those price points, $400 vs $750 each and as such, cannot be compared fairly. The JBLs did sound nice though, much more listenable than the 4311s they replaced..

 

[jaetee]

Interesting that you brought up the L80t, it just so happened that I had a pair on hand at the time of the 7K acquisition. Not to take anything away from your experience with the JBL`s, but I found the two speakers to be a league apart in terms of build and sound quality, which should not be a surprise at those price points, $400 vs $750 each and as such, cannot be compared fairly. The JBLs did sound nice though, much more listenable than the 4311s they replaced..

JBL 4312 "studio monitors" were also on my his list back then... based on reputation. I like the L series much better.

I really wanted the Kappas, but just could not afford them. The prices were so far apart it became a no-brainer financial decision for me, being a lowly enlisted dude with an expensive car repair habit at the time.

Also, I just did some looking around online and my roommate back then had the dramatically taller K-8's or K-9's, not the 7's. I would put the K7's in size category with the L100T's, and the Kappa 6 with the L80T's.

I just found a pair of black-finish kappa 8.1's for sale locally for $300. Very tempting... but that would be too visible of a difference and family would notice. Plus, I'm about to spend five figures on a new tile roof for the house. And I do like the synergy of my JBLs and the Yamaha amp. Best to not rock the proverbial boat right now.

 

[stuwee]

Many years back, my roomie Dale had saved a pair of JBL's from a local radio station, I think they were L-36's?? There is a thread somewhere ??

10" white surround woofers, anyway one day with the magic fungi, I had them and the Martin Logan Sequels playing together with the old Yammie amp, pushing the speaker buttons back and forth Hehe!!

I believe there is a pair of the badass RS Infinity's up in PHX that my SAE A1001 will push within an inch of their life!! He has many other nice vintage Infinitiy's!!