Infinity (well-reviewed and highly regarded) reference series home theatre speakers are extremely low priced right now.

swingdjted

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2008
Messages
274
I'm not meaning to spam. Therefore I won't include a link as you're smart enough to figure things out if you're interested. I have been an Infinity fanboy for a long time, especially since I mostly listen to a pair of speakers I bought in 1995, that have been pounded through DJ jobs that they weren't even designed to do dozens of times per year. They're in my living room and they are played every day that I am home, and they have amazing sound.

Right now, Harmon International, the parent company of Infinity has their Infinity home theatre series selling the entire line at a fraction of their original cost. This includes floor standing towers, subwoofers, bookshelf speakers, surround speakers, and center speakers. I just ordered two of their 12" powered subwoofers for under $340 for both total, and that included free shipping, and they didn't even tax me. They were released at $600 (or $1200 if you wanted two), then dropped to $500 apiece ($1K) about a year later and the price stayed there for a long time, and now for some reason, I was able to buy two for $340.

Audiophile grade? To many reviewers, yes. To me, not sure yet; haven't tried them and I know they have a 30 day return policy for people that simply don't like them enough to keep them.

I just thought the price was unusually low enough to let you home theater people know. They say on the web site that the sale ends in only a few hours, but then you go back the next day and it says it again, so I'm not sure how long this will last. It's on the Harmon International web site.

One issue I've had so far; I ordered them November 27th, and they said they'd arrive at around the first or second of December. In reality, the web site is showing that they haven't even been shipped/picked up yet. They say that the pandemic is slowing things down. I hope that it doesn't take too much longer. I'll let you know my thoughts on them when they arrive and I connect them with the rest of the home theater system. If this is considered spam, please let me know and I'll take the post down without argument. I'm in no way benefiting from telling you this; just informing you in case you want something like this at an unusually low price.
 
I have a pair of R263 towers, they can pump out decent sound for the price, which right now ($199 each down from $599) is less than I paid for them in the scratch/dent section of crutchfield years ago. 89 sensitivity and 6 ohms they aren't terribly difficult to drive, these aren't maggies after all. Can get alright amounts of bass from them but best set as small and crossed over to a sub. I know some members of AVSforum bought the R253 towers and seemed satisfied with them.

I paired the R263s with a mid range Klipsch sub, wanted a center to go along with the set but the entertainment/TV stand I bought from art van(defunct company) is working against me, probably need to fashion a center stand.

I know this sale (that I think) also includes a number of JBL models always gets a lot of attention over at AVSforum where the JBL 590s are sought after for home theatre.

Someday I'd like a Rythmik sub and a Salk center to match the Dennis Murphy towers I have in another setup.
 
I have a pair of JBL S38BE that are almost as old as my 1995 Infinitys. They're surround speakers for the same system, even though they don't aesthetically match. They're in a different part of the room, so it still looks ok. I like them quite a lot for their clarity, and since their woofers are eight inch, they're not bad for people that want some oomph without trying to enrage the neighbors. I still like the Infinity sound better mostly because they are less directional and fill the room more evenly without much change in sound. The JBLs, despite having a nice waveguide with their tweeters, are somehow directional and need to be aimed carefully. The Infinitys have 12" woofers and do pretty much whatever I need them to do, and the polycell tweeters spread the sound well even when I use them in crowded gymnasiums and ballrooms. Granted I'm comparing old speakers with even older speakers, so today's Infinitys and JBLs are likely much improved.

My just-purchased speakers are still not shipped from the November 27th purchase date. I called them and they said they'd check up on them and see if there's a new expected ship/delivery date. They did confirm that the items are in stock, and said they'll email me within a day to tell me whether or not there's an estimated date. Even if it ends up not shipping until December 24 as mentioned by the poster above, it'll still be worth the wait consider the price/performance factor.

I've read that the R263 speakers are amazing except that they lack some bass response, but I think that was by design to make sure you buy the subwoofer(s). Some earlier models had side-firing subs in the tower, but now very few companies do that. When I bought my old speakers, it was common to just have big woofers right up front and subs were still a new thing that not everyone was ready to try.
 
Also, sorry about not including a link; it's just that at some forums, you can get a warning of being banned (or banned if not first offense) for posting a thread advertising something for sale (spam). Another poster did the favor of posting the link though, and thank you for that. I really think this is a once in a lifetime thing though, looking at the fact that it's never-used high end gear for the price of low-grade stuff. I look at speakers as often as a car junkie looks at cars, not that I buy almost ever, just a hobby to check out what new technology is out there.

The biggest problem I have with this little hobby is that speaker reviews drive me nuts. I have to read through tons of verbal vomit to get to the actual performance data and design/engineering details. I don't need to know if a writer thinks a speaker produces a sound that tastes like warmed caramel.
 
I tried to order five times and all orders were cancelled. Whatever harmon.
 
Hmm I decided to order an Infinity center channel yesterday, hope that doesn't get canceled, was 70% off regular price. Bad enough can't get any computer hardware, orders being canceled left and right, out of stocks, bots, etc. If it happens to other indoor hobbies and forms of entertainment this winter is going to bite hard.

I am thankful I haven't needed to run the snowblower yet here near the tip of the mitten.

The biggest problem I have with this little hobby is that speaker reviews drive me nuts. I have to read through tons of verbal vomit to get to the actual performance data and design/engineering details. I don't need to know if a writer thinks a speaker produces a sound that tastes like warmed caramel.
I know the type of review you are referencing, something along the lines of Stereophile, spouting out more nonsense than a drunk on St. Patricks day, and using a theasarus like a college student writing a term paper. Everyone has different ears, and that's why I applaud anyone on AVSforum who suggests to people buying their first audio equipment to go and listen to speakers, whether it's in a store, at a friend's house, anything to get an idea what they might like, and then start looking at different speakers with horns, ribbons, silk domes, so on. I also don't buy their bull about needing $10k DACs, AMPs, speaker cables, power cords, or installing a sub station next to your house for "pure" energy.
 
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You know, I think that center channel C263 has identical drivers to the towers. I'm curious to know what they do to account for the difference in enclosure space. It should be a very good center speaker though.

Some good news, some bad news, some worse news:

Good news, as of today, they said they shipped my subwoofers, and gave me a UPS tracking number, saying "package received by carrier." Hopefully that means these subs will be here contributing to some hearing loss soon.

Bad news, the UPS web site doesn't recognize that tracking number. Perhaps it'll take a day or so for them to see that they have it?

Worse news, I don't see sale prices anymore on that site, so I guess if you didn't bite yet, you'll have to pay much, much higher prices now.
 
Now I have a delivery date, so things are looking up. If you made an order, this post will hopefully renew your faith in the process.
 
It's definitely worth it to buy speakers around thanksgiving. I've been very happy with the R12 sub, although I only got one, and paid $180 for it, two years ago a couple days after thanksgiving. I'm no audiophile, but it sounds good to me, and the wife accepted it after she put a plant on it, so good enough :)
 
I only bought two because they will be placed under my main two speakers. Hopefully my measurements worked out well and they'll fit just right. The price was low enough that buying a second didn't break the bank.

Wife doesn't mind at all considering I just replaced an old home-grade NordicTrack treadmill with a commercial grade treadmill for her. She killed the 4th motor on the old one (3rd replacement) and it had gone through 2 running belts, 2 drive belts, and had its motherboard replaced. When it came time to get a 5th motor, we decided to bring it to the scrap yard. I think that older treadmill was meant for new-years-resolution people that stop using it after a few hundred miles. This new one is designed for much longer use, and carried a different price category as a result, thus making it easier to justify spending a dollar or two on myself.
 
They arrived today. They both appear to have no defects and so far seem good. I've been running a lot of tests for the purpose of aiming them and setting gain/crossover/etc. levels, so it's been mostly tone generator tests and white noise tests so that I get a balanced flat response in as much of the room as possible. This part of the job kinda sucks, but if it's done well once, I never have to worry about optimizing again. I haven't done much with real music just yet, but I'll likely do more of that tomorrow. So far, I'm happy with them.
 
Ordered a second R12 sub. So I finally have a dual sub system for my pc. It shipped next day. That sub deal is a top 1 or 2 all time budget buy for me. Excellent sounding. Good amp. Not boomy at all. For $200? Yeah.
 
Both for under $340 total here. They're clean sounding, as if they were in sealed, non-ported enclosures, and yet somehow they make that sound out of ported boxes. They don't really match my other speakers with the grilles off, and they look like space heaters with the grilles on, so they're definitely not meant for aesthetic value. Plus the lighting was bad - bright white winter day outside, not much light inside, and the flash cast a shadow over the camera's hood making my carpet two toned while whitewashing the walls. I wish I could find a way to convey the sound though. They're pretty good. One advantage of having 12s in the towers and 12s in the subs in that I can drop the subs' crossovers very low to strengthen the low frequency rolloff of the towers without adding too much mid or high bass when adding the subs. That makes the sound very balanced even when you need extremely low frequencies to be present without cranking everything else up.

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Had been checking my Harman account regarding the Infinity center channel that was on backorder, logged in the other day and found my recent order page was empty. Seems my order was quietly purged from their system, no notification email whatsoever. So I guess I try fall 2021 to get a matching center for my towers or, I order a matching center for my other towers which would have to be from Salk Sound and cost approximately as much as a gaming computer. Kicking myself daily that I did not order a Philharmonic center from Dennis when I had the chance. At least I have my wonderful Philharmonic slims towers to enjoy in any case. Would have been nice of Harman to at least send a cancellation email. I still wonder what Samsung's long term plans are for Harman/JBL home audio.
 
I would recommend calling them. I had to call them to get the ball rolling. Be sure to make mention of the black Friday price so that they don't overcharge you. Kinda sucks the a manufacturer of such good products has such terrible communication and logistics.
 
Alright so as I said in earlier post, no messages from Harman, order had vanished from website history, and now the RC263 appears on my doorstep 🍀:woot:

No idea at all what this company is doing. They charged me the 70% off sale price. Now I need to redo my setup, was using right left speakers with Schiit Freya and Van Alstine stereo amp. Use my Klipsch sub as a stand for the center?
 
Couldn't hurt, as long as you have some kind of rubber feet in between to keep the upper speaker from sliding off the lower one. The vibrations of a sub could cause that to happen if it's loud for a while. How is the sound and coverage from it? I've never actually heard music from this R series of speakers other than from the subs that I pretty much bought blind. I'd like to know what people think of them, because it could be a decent buy next black Friday if the prices are low again. My basement could use a good sound system. Do they blend well with other speakers in the system?
 
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