dinon

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 2.00 votes

Price Paid:  $120.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I bought these little bookshelf speakers about 6 months. These sound so neutral and clean. Within $200, I bet you can find better ones. The cross-over is really high quality compared to JBL, Polk Audio. I have these set up in my 6.1 system and they make me happy everyday when I come home from work. It sound very familar to B&W 303 which I had before with a little less bass. I have these set up with my Yamaha Receiver HTR5869 together with Velodyne CHT120. All of these make up a best system for the money. It sound so neutral for the music. I don'tn know how Infinity make profit if one pay $120/pr for the Primus 150s.

Strengths:
Very neutral and crispt, Cross-over build quality

Weaknesses:
Port could be done better

Similar Products Used:
B&W DM303, Energy, JBL, Polk Audio, Klipsch, Acoustic Research,

DaveJ

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $70.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
The Infinity Primus 150 is a very high quality speaker even at its regular price of $99. On sale, the deal is obviously better. 2 or more of these and a decent subwoofer will get you performance that many big "full-range" speakers can't achieve regardless of price. Even without a subwoofer, they are surprisingly good. Just keep in mind that, because of there size, you can't expect them to deliver real bass or real high sound levels by themselves. But, because they are not excessively small, they can blend very well with a number of subwoofers. Also, they are magnetically shielded so they won't creat serious issues around CRT TVs.

Strengths:
Surprisingly high quality sound for the price. Very well built for the price. Big enough in size to make subwoofer matching an easy task.

Weaknesses:
Being a 5 inch two way speaker, a subwoofer is obviously benefical, but not mandatory in all cases.

Similar Products Used:
Various homemade spekers. That activity got a little out of hand and a little boring over the years.

Price Paid:  $70.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I wanted some decent speakers, but could not have "big monsters" in the room. The Infinity Primus 150s answered that call. These may not be a real audiophile's dream, but the sound quality is much better than the price would suggest. Two or more of these and a decent subwoofer will get you quite a good system. I wouldn't be surprised if such a combination would put many big speakers to shame. For example, I have heard a few small speaker and subwoofer combinations that blew the doors off the big speakers that used to be commonplace in home audio That's why I went this route and I don't regret it. The Infinity Primus 150 is great example of what is possible nowadays.

Strengths:
They are small enough (but not too small) to put just about anywhere that good sound quality is desired. But, they are big enough to blend very well with quite a few brands and sizes of subwoofers. While that eases the chore of choosing one, be a little careful here. There build quality is nothing to make fun of. By the way, there is something that I didn't consider at first. They are magnetically shielded, so you can use them near CRT type TVs. They have brackets on the back so they can be mounted on a wall. The Primus 150's port is on the front, so wall mounting won't be an issue.

Weaknesses:
Being a 5 inch two way, they do benefit from the use of a subwoofer. But, in some smaller audio systems, that may not be a must. Again may not be a real audiophile's dream. But, being someone who dabbled in audiophilism for a short while during college, are audiophiles ever happy with anything?

Similar Products Used:
Homemade loudspeakers.

Richard Golladay

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.00 of 5, 10.00 votes

Price Paid:  $160.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I finally decided to do a home theatre system on the cheap. I have been a high-end two channel guy and never really took the video thing too seriously. Shopping for speakers, I was looking for something inexpensive yet something that sounded decent. I settled on the Infinity Primus 150's and was actually pretty amazed at how good they were when hooked to a mid-level Sony Surround Receiver. I thought, what the heck, let's see how good they really are, so into the high-end two channel system they went. Pass Labs pre-amp, big Krell power amp, top of the line Sony SACD player, Krell Refrence phono pre, Nottingham table & Clearaudio Signature MC cartridge and Nordost cables. Now, I realize that no one is going to use these $200/pair speakers with 30 grand worth of electronics, but what better way to really find out what the Infinity's can do? The real strong point of the little Primus 150's is mid-range purity of timbre and resolution of inner detail. Solo violin was open and airy without a hint of etch or hardness in the mid-frequencies.There was even a bit of the sound of wood and body to go along with string and bow. Female vocals were delivered without strain or fatigue. Rickie Lee Jones and Jennifer Warnes were very convincing with pretty darn good image and placement in the soundstage. Not state-of-the-art but certainly state-of-two hundred bucks. The top end of this speaker doesn't extend to the stratosphere but the tweeter didn't exhibit harshness or etch either. The last two octaves or so of the lower frequencies were non-existant but the upper bass was taut and controlled but, let's face it, Krell amps put a death grip on controlling speakers in this area. Overall, I would say this speaker gives a great big heaping dose of what's right for damn little money, and rather than do a lot of things wrong it just chooses to no do that part at all. Like I said earlier, state of the $200 art. If this is the class speaker you are shopping for, buy 'em. You'll spend more than their cost in gas trying to track down something better.

Strengths:
Incredible value. Musical. Well built.

Weaknesses:
At $1000/pair a few. At $200/pair none.

Similar Products Used:
Klipsh, B&W 301, Paradigm Atom, Polk, Difinitive.

ProRecordingGuy

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
4.10 of 5, 10.00 votes

Price Paid:  $140.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
Yes, another bookshelf loudspeaker review from me (see Hafler, Minimus 7 (RCA), Paradigm Atom). I love small speakers, and was excited to find an open box pair of Primus 150s for about $70 each. Stereophile gave a glowing review of these little speakers so I did enter this with some preconceptions. First, let me say that I approach loudspeakers differently than electronics in an audio system. They're much more emotional and subjective, and are subject to many more variables than most of the rest of our signal chain. So I will speak of technical issues but more so to how I felt about these speakers. So keep in mind, this is definetly my subjective opinion, not fact! These are a 5 1/4" two way with Ceramic/Metal composite drivers. They are fairly largish for 5 1/4" speakers, being about 20% bigger than my dimunitive Atoms. Like most contemporary speakers with serious aspirations these are rated to handle something around 100watts. They are 8 ohm speakers. The Primus 150 is a delight on first listen. They have considerable, open high end (more on that) that opens up the source, the soundstage, and really jump out at you. Now, I've always found Infinity speakers a bit bright, so this was no real surprise. At first they sound light on bass, which they are, but once they loosen up and you listen in a bit you realize they're pretty solid down to about 70hz, below which there isn't much of anything. I auditioned these through a variety of CD's, driving them with a capable Yamaha surround receiver and using my Pioneer DV-563A as my source for most listening (using the Yamaha's DAC for CD, the analog outs for SACD and DVD-A). I focused heavily on some known discs, including Steely Dan "Everything Must Go" on DVD-A and Pink Floyd DSOTM on SACD (using the two channel layers on both). I also did some classical, including a good recording of Rutter's Requiem, and jazz, using Victor Wooten's "Yin and Yang" double CD. Well, I have to say that these speakers excel on imaging. You can place stuff from side to side, front to back, out into what seems like infinity. They also glaringly show limitations of source and equipment, often exacerbating sibilance and any digital audio artifacts. In fact, after nearly a month of auditioning, I finally had to give in and admit that their was just too much high end. Too bright, never brittle but definitely hyped. Interestingly, the spectral analysis that Stereophile did shows this too, which puzzle me on their glowing recommendation of these little speakers. These are not -bad- speakers, by any measure, and for some they may enjoy how revealing they are. But agaist my Hafler reference monitors or my Paradigm Atoms, these ultimately proved to strident and too often lacking even the hint of lower bass response that the Atoms so expertly sugggest.

Strengths:
- Incredible soundstage and imaging - Make even the dullest recordings come to life - Good composure at higher levels - Attractively finished (matter of taste)

Weaknesses:
- Hyped, over-done high frequency response - Lack of even suggested lower bass - Spectral balance changes a lot with level - Many capable contendors at this price point.

Similar Products Used:
Paradigm Atom, JBL S-26ii, Hafler M5 Reference Monitor, Samson Resolv monitors.