If Gumby were shopping for speakers, the new Infinity Cascades are what he'd choose. Their shapes quickly call to mind the green, bendable character — at least for boomers or SNL addicts who recall Eddie Murphy's classic routine ("I'm Gumby, dammit!"). But they're also among the most striking, elegant, and — with their smoothly laminated bentwood baffles — downright strokeable loudspeakers I've encountered. And another thing: They sound good, too — damn good, dammit!
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What We Think
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| A low-profile, high-end system with unique looks and technology, and truly elevated performance. |
Whatever you think of the technology or singular look of these speakers, their fit and finish are first-class, front to back and top to bottom, with heavy cast stands, high-grade, bi-wireable metal input terminals, and expensive-looking extruded structures to their rear and sides. Their sheer-cloth grilles are cleverly held in place by magnets, but these speakers are better admired in their birthday suits — a much more pleasing view.
SETUP I arrayed the Cascades in my usual fashion, with the Nines flanking my 50-inch rear projector (pulled a few inches out past the screen), the Three C just below its lower edge, and the Model Five surrounds on my high side-wall shelves. The sub went in my standard location to the left of the left-front speaker, long established as one of my room's best subwoofer spots.
MUSIC PERFORMANCE My initial impression of the Cascade array was a bit underwhelming: I heard no dramatic displays of imaging prowess, no dynamic wonders, no sparkling highs or romancing mids. But the longer I listened, the more I concluded that these speakers do just about everything well, most things very well indeed, and many things excellently.
Beginning with the Model Nines alone, in full-range stereo, I heard bass response that sounded very close to the claimed limit of 80 Hz (–3 dB). This is enough, barely, for satisfying casual listening on most pop music, but you'll want the subwoofer for anything more ambitious. Tonal balance was exceedingly neutral: the Nines reproduced the gamut of male and female voices with fine articulation and utterly without undue emphasis or obvious colorations — boring for the reviewer but good for the listener, and a principal goal of any responsible speaker designer.
With the Model Twelve subwoofer dialed in, the overall result was outstanding: perhaps a touch warm in the 50-100 Hz octave, but otherwise supple and natural-sounding. For example, on recordings like "Donkey Town" from All the Roadrunning, the duo release by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, the ability to call out a sense of natural detail and "space" on some instruments but not others was striking (this is presumably the result of the layered assembly of the recording). The sonic palette on both Knopfler's rich baritone and Harris's distinctive, almost nasal/breathy voice was ideally balanced, giving neither voice any hint of boxiness, "honk," or bloat. Overall presentation was very slightly less sparkling and out-front projected than I'm accustomed to hearing from my everyday speakers, though I hesitate to state a preference.
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The Short Form
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| $5,194 / infinityspeakers.com / 516-674-4463 |
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Plus
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| •Gorgeous looks, slim depth, impressive finish •Very well-balanced tonality •Excellent center-channel sound •Above-average blending of surrounds |
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Minus
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| •Requires powerful amplifier •Sub could use more low-end grunt for its price |
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Key Features
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| •Cascade Model Nine ($1,998): 1-in dome tweeter; (2) 7.8 x 3.4-in woofers; 47 in high; 28.2 lb •Cascade Model Three C ($799): 1-in dome tweeter; (2) 7.8 x 3.4-in woofers; 5.5 in high; 18 lb •Cascade Model Five ($1,398): 1-in dome tweeter; 7.8 x 3.4-in woofer; 30.3 in high (on supplied stand); 20.5 lb •Model Twelve ($999): 10-in driver; (2) 10-in passive radiators; 300-watt RMS amplifier; 20 x 13 x 16 in; 42 lb |
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Test Bench
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| Despite the Cascades' styling and technology, measurements show the same sorts of anomalies found in conventional speaker systems mdash; frequency response irregularities (including a 1.4-dB bump between 2 and 3.5 kHz), off-axis center-channel lobing that affects listeners away from the sweet spot, and relatively modest low-frequency dynamic capability. The subwoofer has better than average dynamic capability between 32 and 62 Hz, and the RABOS room correction circuitry works well but was fussy to use. — Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results |
MOVIE PERFORMANCE As center-channel speakers go, the Infinity Cascade Three C is a winner. It's a "two-and-a-half-way" design in which only the "right-hand" woofer reproduces midrange as well as bass — the left is bass only. Thus there was virtually none of the off-axis change in voice color induced by most horizontal, two-way dual-woofer centers. The Three C made an outstanding match to the Nines and was clean, intelligible, and dynamic at any volume up to real-cinema levels, as well as naturally balanced on every voice I heard.
The full system produced a surprisingly well-integrated surround "bubble," one more cohesive than that of many another system with conventional, non-dipole/bipole two-way surrounds. The Tommy Lee Jones vehicle U.S. Marshals is a pale reprise of the far superior The Fugitive, but the plane crash in Chapter 10 is tough to beat for all-channels surround-sound calisthenics. As various pieces of plane tear off, the rending noises come from all points of the compass, but I didn't hear much of the rear/side effects "sucking into" the surrounds — a good thing.
The Infinity suite could play quite loud and sound good doing so — THX-reference, real-cinema levels were perfectly possible — but it required a major dose of power to get there. These speakers are at least a couple of dB lower in sensitivity than most popular cone-and-dome designs, so figure on needing perhaps 50 percent more power than you might otherwise rely on to reach a given level. Substantial muscle is in order here — no mid-priced receivers need apply.
Despite its name, the Model Twelve sub employs a single 10-inch driver supported by dual 10-inch passive radiators. It proved more than competent, with substantial output to its specified 32-Hz limit and fairly impressive, artifact-free high-volume abilities. The sub comes with Infinity's RABOS (Room Adaptive Bass Optimization System), a single-band parametric filter you adjust with the help of a supplied test-tone CD, sound-level meter, and very clever protractor/graphing aid. This will certainly help in most rooms, as it did (a bit) in mine. Still, the Twelve did not quite equal my everyday woofer — a single 12-inch sealed-box design of roughly the same exterior dimensions but almost twice the price — which delivered palpably more deep-bass smackdown at higher levels. Nonetheless, this is a solid-performing (though not cheap) sub.
BOTTOM LINE Infinity is clearly reaching for the high end with this line, and there's no doubt you can buy a floorstanding system of similar performance using conventional drivers for a good deal less. And, to be frank, there are identically priced systems capable of even better cinematic reproduction, particularly from the sub and surrounds. But the combination of balanced sound quality, dramatic looks, and fashionable slimness offered by the Infinity Cascade speaker system make a unique statement. If that solves your equation, then I don't think you'll find many better answers.
Full Lab Results
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