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Rave or not, my report in Vol.11 No.9 (September 1988) on this Infinity flagship system ended on a note of uncertainty, concerning an audible difference between the sound of the two mid/high-frequency–range panels which was messing up the imaging and exacerbating program grundge in one channel.

When I phoned Infinity president Arnie Nudell and reported that my upper-range panels weren't matched, he didn't believe me. "Why," he asked, "didn't any of us notice it during our visit?" I explained it was probably…

There I was in audiophile hog heaven, faced with the greatest collection of amplifier pulchritude I could imagine—plus four pieces of masking tape. Amplification was by Vacuum Tube Logic (VTL 500s), Krell (KSA-200), and Mark Levinson Audio Systems (No.20.5s); tape was by 3M. The amplifiers retail for over $25,000, the tape for less than 5 cents—but each side of the equation was equally important.

Now, I already knew from JGH's experience with the Betas (Vol.11 No.9) that choice of amplification was crucial…

Before I listened at all, I decided to right the Infinity manufacturing wrongs uncovered by JGH. One of the knobs of his equalizer had come off, and it's not simply replaced. I had to remove the equalizer cover, with difficulty remove three screws holding on the milled-from-solid-aluminum front cover, and carefully reposition the knob so that, when tightened, it lined up with the appropriate numbers on the front panel (which was removed). For good measure, I filed a flat onto the switch shaft so the knob would not subsequently come loose, and I tightened all…

Editor: Larry Archibald's review indicates that, when equipped with the right components and properly set up, the Betas are the best speakers he has heard in his home. This points to the potential of the system's musical and analytical ability.

There are a few areas that we would like to clarify:

The individual drivers have a mass approximately 1/20 that of conventional dynamic drivers, and are driven over the entire radiating area. In their operating band, they are extremely detailed and well-controlled. The overall sonic transparency and neutrality…

As I had dragged my motley collection of test equipment (footnote 1) over to Larry's listening room to carry out a set of measurements on the Mirage M1 loudspeaker he reviewed elsewhere in this issue, I thought it might be a good idea to quickly take a look at the measured performances of another of the high-end models that happened to be in Santa Fe, Infinity's $12,000/pair IRS Beta, which J. Gordon Holt had discussed in the September 1988 and January 1989 issues of Stereophile (Vol.11 No.9 and Vol.12 No.1, respectively).

You…

Description: Five-way, four-piece satellite/subwoofer dynamic loudspeaker system. Rated frequency response: 25Hz–44kHz ±2dB. Minimum recommended amplifier power: 75Wpc. Sensitivity: 87dB/W/m. Drivers (per side): 4 12" cone woofers, 1 large EMIM, 1 EMIM, 1 EMIT, 1 Super EMIT. Level controls for uppermost 3 drivers & woofers. Crossover frequencies: 70Hz, 700Hz, 4kHz, 8kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Subwoofer crossover network: electronic (line-level), with hard-wired feed to fullrange amplifier.
Dimensions: woofer columns 65" H by 15" D by 16" W; upper-…

Driven by Tenor Audio tube amplification, the sound in…

Description: Three-way, reflex-loaded, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (25mm) soft-dome tweeter; 6" (152mm) plastic-cone midrange unit; two 10" (254mm) doped paper-cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: 150Hz, 1.8kHz. Crossover filters: third-order, woofers-midrange; first-order, midrange-tweeter. Frequency range: 20Hz-20kHz. Sensitivity: 89dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Power handling: 20-600W.
Dimensions: 52" (1333mm) H by 17" (432mm) W by 18.1" (465mm) D. Weight: 210 lbs (95.5kg) each.
Finish: Dark mahogany veneer.
Serial number of…

Analog source: Linn Sondek LP12-Cirkus-Trampolin-Lingo-Ekos-Arkiv LP player on a Sound Organisation table.
Digital sources: Mark Levinson No.31.5 CD transport; Mark Levinson No.30.6, Benchmark DAC 1, Lavry Engineering DA2002, Nagra DAC D/A processors; dCS 972 upsampler; Arcam FMJ CD33 CD player; Technics DVD-A10 DVD-Audio player; Philips SACD1000 SACD player with Meitner EMM6 D/A processor; Apple 15" Titanium PowerBook with iTunes and Metric Halo MIO 2882 digital interface.
Preamplification: Linn Linto, Sutherland PhD phono preamps; Mark Levinson No.…