Infinity Cascade Speaker System User's Manual
Contents
1. Theater ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM SEPTEMBER 2006 Infinity Cascade Speaker System Flat and fit BY MARK FLEISCHMANN How would you feel if you woke up one day in a perfect body You d pull back the blanket and look down on a perfectly flat tummy something I haven t seen in years although heaven knows I m trying Combination skin is a thing of the past you seem to have been remade in some wonderful mate rial Eager to check yourself out in a mirror you cross the room to find yourself resculpted in new and slimmer proportions And when you open your mouth depending on your gender you have either the purest soprano or the noblest baritone In fact you have both I think this metaphor may be getting a bit perverse The point I m meandering my way around to is that Infinity s new Cascade line reimagines every aspect of the loudspeaker The newest feature is a reshaped woofer a flat rectangluar dia phragm that s not cone shaped The woofer and the tweeter are both made of a proprietary ceramic aluminum blend not unfamiliar to Infinity fans The look is as distinctive as a finger print and the sound is superlative in ways that correct ailments common to most speakers Oh MoMA The Cascades could be in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art Their newly designed flat rectangular woofers share the front with a conventional dome tweeter Although they re trimmed in2. Absolute solidity flawless detailing It s impossible to compare this to other products Infinity s totally redesigned woofer makes its debut here Stand mounting is very easy Combination of wide sweet spot and tight image focus Ceramic metal woofers and titanium tweeters New technology doesn t come cheap R A B O S equalizes the big sub Heavy aluminum stands Low dynamic T compression bass Infinity s Cascade Series uses a newly designed flat diaphragm to muster a large and well defined 5 9 9 93 transparency definitive detail and strong dynamics Cascade Model Seven Floorstanding Speaker 799 each Cascade Model Three C Center Channel Speaker 799 Cascade Model Five Monitor On Wall Speaker 699 each Cascade Model Fifteen Subwoofer 1 499 Infinity Systems 516 674 4463 www infinitysystems com Dealer Locator Code IFY proportional and not excessive I found myself with a growing respect for both the star whether despite or because of his frosty reserve I m not sure and the delicacy of the mix Munich despite its heightened moral complexity came with an extravagantly ultraviolent proces sion of explosions and gunshots that tested the mettle of every driver in the system with the soundtrack s mourning female vocal and string orchestra and they never let go onation but an extended ballet of destruction It was convincing enough to be unn
3. Cascade Speaker System The Model Seven s listening window response a five point average of axial and 15 degree horizon tal and vertical responses measures 1 16 1 47 deci bels from 200 hertz to 10 kilohertz The 3 dB point is at 100 Hz and the 6 dB point is at 89 Hz Imped ance reaches a minimum of 4 81 ohms at 314 Hz anda phase angle of 45 23 degrees at 3 3 kHz The Model Three C s listening window response measures 0 82 3 62 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz An L R Sensitivity 84 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Center Sensitivity 86 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz Surround Sensitivity 83 5 dB from 500 Hz to 2 kHz average of axial and 15 degree horizontal responses measures 0 78 3 72 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz The 3 dB point is at 247 Hz and the 6 dB point is at 91 Hz Please note that while there is no boundary compensation switch the response appears to be intentionally tapered below 500 Hz to compensate for typical center channel placement anomalies which makes some of these results appear a bit unusual Impedance reaches a minimum of 4 39 ohms at 1 1 kHz and a phase angle of 55 17 degrees at 1 8 kHz The Model Five s listening window response mea sures 0 92 2 32 dB from 200 Hz to 10 kHz The 3 dB This graph shows the quasi anechoic employing close miking of all woofers frequency response of the Model Seven L R purple trace Model Fifteen subwoofer
4. blue trace Model Three C center channel green trace and Model Five surround red trace All passive loudspeak ers were measured with grilles at a distance of 1 meter with a 2 83 volt input and scaled for display purposes point is at 79 Hz and the 6 cB point is at 71 Hz Imped ance reaches a minimum of 4 79 ohms at 295 Hz anda phase angle of 44 16 degrees at 3 3 kHz The Model Fifteen s close miked response normal ized to the level at 80 Hz indicates that the lower 3 dB point is at 37 Hz and the 6 dB point is at 33 Hz The upper 3dB point is at 183 Hz using the LFE input MJP Infinity immediately scored ergo nomic points by reducing the assembly instructions for the Model Seven to one step Put the speaker on the stand Assembly time three seconds The smaller Model Five required two screws to attach a tri angular metal bracket that grips a metal tongue at the top of the stand Assembly time half a minute The stands are cast aluminum and extremely heavy They give the speakers a nearly resonance free foundation and would make excel lent murder weapons Round gold nut binding posts face directly downward in the Model Seven and diagonally upward in the Model Five providing access for spade lugs but not for banana plugs Blobs of plastic in the holes block banana plug insertion These are a requirement for sale in Europe and are removable I used an elderly but reliable set of Monster THX ribbo
5. by Pro Logic II while the band lingered slightly behind It was like looking at a richly colored object against a black and white background Akkerman s supple intonation was a living breathing dancing sonic creature Although visual responses to sounds are routine for me in this case I also tasted the guitar It tasted like dark chocolate They looked great They were easy to set up There was no screeching no distancing and no sweetening The equalized subwoofer nimbly sidestepped my room s bass hump Broad off axis response from the flat woofers and waveguide enhanced tweeters lib erated me from the sweet spot and with any kind of material and for that I am both surprised and grateful T Audio editor Mark Fleischmann is also the author of the annually updated book Practical Home Theater www quietriverpress com 250 Crossways Park Drive Woodbury NY 11797 USA 516 674 4INF www infinitysystems com H A Harman International Company Posted with permission from the September 2006 issue of Home Theater www hometheatermag com Copyright 2006 PRIMEDIA Inc All rights reserved
6. ducing room interaction soon paid dividends Eliminating this distraction freed me to focus more intently on story lines and musical moods I was rarely aware of the sub s existence except at peak bass moments and that s how it should be The handoff from sub to speakers at the crossover fre quency Was seamless My reference gear as usual included a Rotel RSX 1065 A V receiver The Rotel combines dynamically potent high current amplification with a scrupulously defined top end don t use the Cascades with anything less Because the speakers are so fond of high rez signal sources my Integra DPS 10 5 universal disc player took on a more prominent role than usual Strange Work if You Can Get It In search of something dynamically taxing I rented Get Rich or Die Tryin based on the life of rapper Curtis 50 Cent Jackson and got an unexpectedly nuanced drama instead As the movie started with Jackson s voiceover I turned up the volume I wanted to catch the softly but precisely enunciated con sonants that are part of his signa ture vocal style affected by the bullet lodged in his tongue At some point I figured as the all too realistic violence kicked in I d have to engage the Dolby Digital midnight movie mode or at least drop the volume But the subse quent gunplay was dynamically Plenty to catch the eye nothing to offend it Gets the most out of high rez SACD releases
7. ers and mess up the stands The more of them I review the more I dread a floor full of pieces waiting to be assembled SUBWOOFER MODEL FIFTEEN Connections Enclosure Type Line level stereo input and output Vented Woofer size in inches type 6 ceramic aluminum cone 4 Power Rating watts Crossover Bypass Available Finishes 800 No High Gloss Black High Gloss Silver Cherry These listings are based on the manufacturer s stated specs the HT Labs box below indicates the gears performance on our test bench Type Tweeter size in inches type Woofer size in inches type Nominal Impedance ohms Recommended Amp Power watts Available Finishes Dimensions H x W x D inches on stands Weight pounds no stands Price hardwood Dimensions H x W xD inches 13 x 37 X 8 5 Weight pounds 98 Price 1 499 Two way floorstanding Two way monitor surround 1 ceramic aluminum dome Two way center 1 ceramic aluminum dome 1 ceramic aluminum dome 7 75 X 3 4 ceramic 7 75 X 3 4 ceramic 7 75 X 3 4 ceramic aluminum panel 1 aluminum panel 2 aluminum panel 1 8 8 8 10 100 10 150 10 100 High Gloss Black High High Gloss Black High High Gloss Black High Gloss Silver Cherry veneer Gloss Silver Cherry veneer Gloss Silver Cherry veneer 47 X 10 5 X 11 5 5 5 X30 75X6 30 25 X 7 75 X 8 5 9 18 135 799 each 799 699 each HT Labs Measures Infinity
8. erving as a movie on this subject should be The next thing I played after Munich was the stereo SACD of Bernard Herrmann The Film Scores by Esa Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic It includes excerpts from six of the sound tracks Herrmann wrote for Alfred Hitchcock including a suite from Psycho a string orchestra master piece that could outgun any heavy metal band Going from angst ridden terrorism and assassination to a soundtrack that evokes some one being stabbed in the shower was a soft landing of sorts I could almost hear Sir Alfred saying Don t worry dear It s just a moooovie Even with no surround mix and just two speakers operat ing I could sit directly in front of the left speaker and still hear continu ous imaging with no hole in the jokes middle The voluptuously disso nant string and brass textures that open the Vertigo suite billowed like the sails of a clipper ship caressed by the wind the ostinatos evoking the opening credits unforgettable spiraling graphics An SACD surround mix of Beethoven s ninth symphony didn t fare as well The 1977 analog recording by Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic was mastered in 96 24 PCM before its transfer to SACD In my opinion the string sound is less refined than that of a native or straight from analog SACD and the Cascades didn t hesitate to tell me how they felt about that Despite the skillful perfor
9. ey have six times more surface contact area than the typi cal round cone coil combo making for better driver control Try to visualize this When a single round voice coil pushes and pulls a cone woofer motion is greatest in the center where the moving coil is attached and least at the sides The sound waves that these different areas generate are out of phase with one another resulting in time domain smear When the Cascades two long loop coils push and pull the woofer the surface moves in a more uniform way and the sound waves that this surface generates are in phase Using computer aided visual ization the Infinity people noticed that some parts of the diaphragm were reacting to the underlying magnets in different ways The edges were not as well controlled To smooth out the differences they added ribs to the surface and gussets to the sides This strength ens the diaphragm and enables it to move more like a single piston minimizing the uncon trolled motion which is audible at high volumes as breakup And because the diaphragm more effi ciently dissipates heat the coil temperature stays low and steady even with higher voltages That endows the speakers with greater dynamic range and less dynamic compression Taking a Stand Like a nation that wins the war and loses the peace speaker makers in search of friendlier forms often AT A GLANCE oO O i design good speak
10. mance what should have been a rich assortment of vocal and instrumental tone color came out monochromatic and lacking in spa tiality I wouldn t call these speak ers ruthlessly revealing code language for products that make a large percentage of recordings sound unpleasant nor did they add any sweetening of their own They were just finicky and truth ful as an audiophile should be In this case I think they were actually disappointed in the recording They cheered up when I got to Sinatra at the Sands on DVD Audio I could hear the effect of cigarettes on Sinatra s lungs and throat the precision of the consonants that flowed delicately and precisely through his teeth and lips the way all of this interacted with the microphone and the acoustics of the club and individual voices in the audience laughing at his awful Of the dozens of CDs I played the most memorable was 10 000 Clowns on a Rainy Day by Jan Akkerman The former guitarist of Vinfinity TECHNOLOGY e PERFORMANCE DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS Innovative flat woofer diaphragm Ceramic metal driver materials E Best looking Infinity speakers ever Focus has lived down his former band s 1971 yodeling hit Hocus Pocus to pursue a lengthy solo career His trusty Les Paul is the focal sorry point of this mainly instrumental live double CD set The Cascades brought it to the front of the mix slightly in front of the speakers in Dol
11. n cables with bare tips Grilles come in the form of a scroll like object made of the thinnest softest most lovely mate rial ever used to cover a baffle Although it s synthetic it feels like silk The ends attach magnetically I tried one and it was beautiful but not as interesting as the unadorned speaker I decided to leave the grilles off The subwoofer has a unique hor izontal shape that s designed to sit close to a wall Inside is a quartet of 6 inch square down firing woofers in an enclosure that s tapered at the sides like the other speakers Equalizing the sub was part of the setup process Infinity calls this R A B O S the Room Adaptive Bass Optimization System Sup plied R A B O S include a test tone CD a sound accessories meter that specializes in bass a plastic overlay and a set of instruc tions The latter seems formidably intricate at first glance but the process is fairly simple As each test tone plays you plot points on a frequency response graph When the curve is complete connect the dots to determine the correct settings for the sub s volume and crossover controls To deter mine the width that is how much of the audible spectrum the correc tion will affect place the plastic overlay atop the graph A few simple calculations are necessary I did them on scrap paper but there s also an online calculator Twist three knobs and you re done Thus re
12. plas tic the drivers actually attach to the underlying wood The Model Seven floorstanding speaker pre sents an unbroken front surface the high gloss black of the speaker transitions to the stand s gray matte aluminum The top of the Model Seven tapers back making it appear slightly smaller than it really is This tapering reappears on both ends of the Model Five monitor the Model Three C center speaker and the Model Fifteen subwoofer The sides and the rear are constructed of curved extruded aluminum in matte black When I knuckle rapped the enclosures I heard var ious pitches in various places but they were all muted compared with the pitches of my fiberboard enclosed reference speakers These speakers are solid Conspicuous in its absence is the cone shaped woofer that 99 per cent of speaker designs employ Round cones and sharp cornered rectangular speaker enclosures are easy to manufacture but fitting the former into the latter is a waste of space Boxy enclosures also Cordero Studios encourage sound waves to bounce between their parallel walls In contrast Infinity s newly designed diaphragm and slim irreg ular acoustically hip enclosure are tailor made for one another The flat well nearly flat diaphragm doesn t require much depth in the enclosure Even the voice coils that propel it into motion a pair of long loops of thin wire behind the driver take up little space Yet th
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