Infinity C336 Key Features, Infinity Classia speaker system, Bottom Line, testreports, Test Bench

testreports

Infinity Classia speaker system

	Test Bench							rior ambience, and subtle musical score. Is
								there any higher praise for a soundtrack or
								a sound system?
	15					the center speaker’s bass-to-		Last but not least is the PSW310W sub,
								which has an active 10-inch driver com-
						treble balance rises at slightly
	10							plemented by two 10-inch cones that serve
						less than 1 dB per octave, with
								as passive radiators (ports, more or less).
						reasonably uniform directivity
	5							It also incorporates Infinity’s RABOS sin-
(dB)						up to ±30º. Both speakers’
								gle-band parametric EQ, which can help
	–5					mid/tweeter arrays emitted
decibels
	0					fairly acute noises when given		to reduce a primary room resonance. (A
						our ramped test signals at fre-		kit that includes a test-tone CD and setup
						quencies below their specified		graphing tools is a $60 option.)
	–10					bass limit. The C255ES sur-		The PSW310W didn’t get much of a work-
						round speaker displays the nar-		out from Gone Baby Gone, so I turned to a
						row bandwidth and irregulari-
	–15 20							handful of my favorite subwoofer torture
						ties typical of bidirectional
		100	1k	10k	20k			tests from classics like Godzilla and The
			hertz (Hz)			speakers. The PSW310W sub-		War of the Worlds. The verdict: impres-
						woofer has response up to
								sive. The woof goes admirably low with
	L/R ■■ 51 Hz to 19.1 kHz ±3.7 dB		Surround ■■ 135 Hz to 16.1 kHz ±6.7 dB			400 Hz when its crossover is
								substantial power, and it sounds clean and
	Center ■■ 156 Hz to 17 kHz ±3.9 dB		Subwoofer ■■ 32 Hz to 130 Hz ±3.2 dB			bypassed, making it useful for
						pairing with small satellites.		tight all the way down. The ’zilla footfalls
	The C336 tower’s measurements indicate a wide					The sub has relatively limited		lacked some of the wall-bending 20 Hz of
	floor bounce centered at 200 Hz, followed by nar-					dynamic capability and low-fre-		my everyday sub (a 12-incher about twice
	row band irregularities beginning at 800 Hz. The					quency extension, but its		the Infinity’s price), but they had plenty of
	CC225 center displays a similar character at					sound-pressure abilities are		slam just the same. It’s a solid sub — and
	higher frequencies, along with low-frequency					uniformly distributed over its
								did I mention that it’s wireless?
	response that falls quickly below 400 Hz. Overall,					bandwidth.	— Tom Nousaine

outstanding transparency in the mid to high frequencies. This yields the kind of treble that doesn’t sound at all bright, yet is all there: clear, quick, and extended, and not in the least bit forward or sparkly. Voices were unfailingly even, balanced, and, well, neutral. Most speakers, even high-end ones, “romance” the vocal range with a subtle extra helping of warmth in the 100- to 200-Hz octave, but not the Clas- sias. This occasionally made them sound a little “cool,” but it also encouraged close, high-resolution listening — the kind of sound you hear in a good recording-stu- dio control room.

Something analogous seemed to be hap- pening in the bottom octaves, too, where the C336s delivered solid output to 40 Hz or so, but with less of that penultimate- octave response hump that enhances the impression of bass on so many speakers. The overall effect on material like Richard Thompson’s “Hide It Away” (from you? me? us?) was intensely but effortlessly intimate, without the tinge of low-end bloat that this midbass-heavy track can often reveal.

On the multichannel front, Infinity’s lay- out demonstrated some welcome abilities. The CC225 center speaker’s tonal match

68 SEPTEMBER 2008 SOUND & VISION

to the C336s was excellent — not perfect, but impressively close for a two-way hori- zontal design. For instance, comparisons of TV and FM announcers between sin- gle- and dual-speaker mono revealed only modest shifts of vocal weight and “hoo,” even among baritone male voices. The tonal stability wasn’t quite as good when the center speaker was listened to off-axis, but it was still well above average.

The C255ES surround speakers per- formed admirably in both dipole and bipole settings. They delivered plenty of clean level in my fairly large listening room — even in dipole mode — and made a tight enough tonal match to the C336s in bipole position to please even the most demanding multichannel-music maven.

Gone Baby Gone is one of those 2-hour films that demand full-bore, all-channels excellence for only about 90 seconds — but those 90 seconds are absolutely crit- ical. The brief action interludes are all the more shocking and powerful for the dynamic range they carry, and the Infin- ity suite delivered this with heart-stop- ping conviction. For the rest of the film, I was entirely engrossed by its seamless tapestry of dialogue, street-scene and inte-

BOTTOM LINE

With the Classia speakers, Infinity has managed to combine high sonic capabili- ties with striking appearance and respect- able value. Visually, this system might not satisfy every taste (for the record, I dug them), but for those to whom its uncon- ventional looks speak, it should appeal strongly. Better yet, they’ll also enjoy

sound that’s just as striking. S&V

Key Features

C336 ($1,798/pair)

::1-in tweeter; 4-in midrange; (3) 61⁄2 -in woofers; 483⁄4 in high; 56 lb

CC225 ($499)

::1-in tweeter; (2) 51⁄4-in woofers; 313⁄4 in wide; 16 lb

C255ES ($998/pair)

::(2) 1-in tweeters; (2) 51⁄4-in woofers; 113⁄4 in high; 9 lb

PSW310W ($799)

::10-in woofer; (2) 10-in passive radiators; 400-watt amplifier; 171⁄2 x 15 x 14 in; 50 lb

INFINITYSYSTEMS.COM ::

516-674-4463

soundandvisionmag.com