Infinity Systems IL120s Subwoofers

Infinity Systems IL120s Subwoofers 

DESCRIPTION

video-shielded 500-watt amp 12" front-firing driver Bass Optimization System frequency response 28-150 Hz (±3dB)

USER REVIEWS

Showing 1-10 of 15  
[Jul 12, 2004]
djbeaubien
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

great looks in my opinion doesn`t look like just another box,lots of versatility as far as rabos eq etc... very powerfull and moves lots of air, price is right

Weakness:

very big if you can find room, almost couldn`t carry it upstairs to my appt it`s box is very large

i live in an apartment (i know overkill) so to try to test its capabilities i brought it over to a freinds house and hooked it up to his low budget reciever(pro-logic) but had to crank the volume on the sub as his unit had no sub level control, i did not have a chance to use rabos so i used the bypass switch.after about 6-7 hours of partying in his garage and my brother in law passed out,now 3 in the morning we desided to put in top gun turned it waaaaay up and was pleasantly surprised to hear it rip my freinds house apart,well close,movies were falling off their racks the walls were actually moving not vibrating,things outside the house were rattling and my passed out brother inlaw woke up and joined us for the rest of the movie still drunk but totally awake and cheering.the amp didn`t get as hot as i thought it would just very warm, i`ve always believed more is better even if you don`t use it, better quality of sound at a lower volume, it was a little boomy, now if i`d used rabos and a better reciever you bet it would sound much better, i`m very happy with this sub and read somewere online that it goes down to 17Hz at 85db ?? i would recommend this if you can get it for around $300-$400 shipped

Similar Products Used:

i`m ashamed to say???????????? KLH 125 watt sub

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Apr 29, 2004]
tcoley
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Uhhh, aesthetics, maybe

Weakness:

See review

Well,, I have owned a pair of IL120's for and I have owned a pair of IL110's for my home theatre. I thought with as fantastic as the IL110's were that a pair of 120's would be even better. Unfortunately that is not the case. The 110's (which I still own one of for my smaller HT upstairs in the living room) totally kicked the 120's you know what! The 120's actually crack and pop when the action is the most intense. Yea, they play slightly lower, but christ, I have actually been embarrassed by them because they pop when I try to show people my system. I am sick of this! The IL110's never did this! They (the 110's) hit much harder and believe it or not seemed to move more air and never ever popped or gave out! I actually miss them. Thank goodness I still use one upstairs (it still spanks the 120). I have ordered a set of SV 16-46 pc plus to hopefully rid myself of ever having this problem again. Oh, if any of you feel that I probably should have tried to tune them better don't! I actually moved them around, and around, and around, etc. using the provided RABOS that Infinity sent me, tuned the receiver, and had a rep from Circuit City come over to help, but, well here I am writing this report! They stink!

Similar Products Used:

IL110

OVERALL
RATING
1
VALUE
RATING
1
[May 16, 2003]
Sean
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Good for music. Low cost. 500 watt digital amp. Built in fancy EQ. Innovative driver design

Weakness:

Size. For it's size, it should be a 15" sub.

Let me start by saying that I believe in using subwoofers for music and not movies. A true test of how well a sub is made comes through when playing a variety of music. My first sub was a M&K75. Since it was a sealed sub it sounded good with music, but lacked volume. Also it cost way too much for what you get, a flimsy, low tech driver and weak amp. I've also listend to the Velodyne CT100 and that was a mistake. The CT line is made for movies only. It was too slow for music use. Don't let the reviews fool you. The same goes for DefTech. subs and the Klipsch KSW12. They are movie subs only. I've also owned a M&K 125, and for some reason it never sounded good. It was hard as hell to get positioned right. Also, the components used doesn't justify the price. I have no respect for M&K anymore. They hype their product and sell cheaply made subs at a high price. Sure they sound good with music, but they push the envelope and try to make something innovative to push up the volume level. I've listen to Velodyne FSR-12, and it was tight and went low, but again lacked volume. Also it would easy sound boomy is set wrong. I listed to the Boston 600 sub and it sounded pretty good for a ported 10 but the asking price was MSRP and I have yet to see it go on sale anywhere. Which brings me to my new sub, the Infinity IL120. I bought this because for $305 it was hard to pass up and I know Infinity makes solid, innovative products. I also liked the 500 watt digital amp and the built in EQ to tweek the sub's sound. When I first got the sub, I was shocked at the size. It looked like I bought a Star Wars robot. I'm turned off by big sized subs. The black finish is more like a tiger strip of dark grey and brown/black. I personally don't like the look. I should have gotten the maple instead. My main sound system is currently not available so I just hooked up the sub using speaker line input to a old Sony system using tiny wires. My preliminary listening shows that this is a high qualtiy sub. For a 12" sub in a large ported box, it keeps up very well with the mains. It must be the high dampening of the amp and the low mass of the driver. I haven't even tweeked the RABOS EQ yet or even positioned it in an optimal spot, but it sound pretty darn good. It sounds good with all types of music. So far i'm very satisfied with the sub.

Similar Products Used:

M&K 75, 125 Velodyne CT100, FSR12

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Sep 17, 2002]
football
AudioPhile

Strength:

RABOS Price/Value W/ RABOS engaged - fast, clean sound

Weakness:

Limited low frequency extension (25-28Hz)

I have only had the sub for a couple of weeks now, but one thing is for certain - RABOS is not an option - it is a requirement. Without it, the sub was actually loudest in the lower frequencies (30-35Hz), but it was so bloated, it sounded awful. After RABOS, the sub sounds more natural and well-integrated. I've got them working with planar speakers, but they do a pretty good job keeping up. For the price I paid on ubid, this sub is an absolute steal. While it doesn't compare to the Paradigm Servo-15 or Martin Logan Descent, you cannot do better at the price. If you can get it for under $500, you can't go wrong.

Similar Products Used:

Listened to PSB, Paradigm, Martin Logan, Sunfire

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
5
[Jul 10, 2002]
vh1979
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

R.A.B.O.S system, hi and low-level inputs, really loud and clean

Weakness:

Breaks, Poor warranty service

I love the way the IL-120s sounds. Shakes the entire room during movies - cranks any kind of music from Bach to Fear Factory to Ludacris. Bad news... mine failed. 5-year warranty so no problem right? I take the unit to the service center and it's been there for four months. The service center has made several repair attempts and each time has found the damage to be more extensive. Each time they have consulted Infinity, the tech service reps keep throwing more parts at the thing instead of just replacing it. Meanwhile, the repair shop works on contract so they're only getting $50 to fix the unit - Infinity refuses to let them return it to them so the repair shop is stuck trying to fix it even though it's obviously shot. Meanwhile, I'm sitting at home with two Interlude tower speakers and no sub for FOUR MONTHS. I played this sub really hard to be sure - but I never let it play while distorted. Despite this, the power supply, power transistors, some type of microprocessor?, and at least a half dozen other components fried. If you don't like it loud like I do, then this sub is fine. Otherwise, shop around for something more durable or at least hope it never goes out becaues Infinity's warranty service is lame.

OVERALL
RATING
2
VALUE
RATING
2
[Jun 07, 2002]
rudelini
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

clean, powerful, low. Bass Optimization System, it really does make a difference!

Weakness:

Pictures falling off of the walls, it really happened. (my wife wasn't too happy)

This is one awesome subwoofer. It is honestly all that I could ever want out of a Subwoofer. It has plenty of power and controls to get the desired sound for your system. I love a lot of bass during movies, and this one does it! I had two fifteens in a custom built box before this and I can honestly say that this sub does twice as good as my two fifteens. If you are looking for a nice powerful sub, take a look at this one, I now know why someone might pay the $900 dollar price tag.

Similar Products Used:

Two custom built fifteens (car subs)

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
4
[Feb 24, 2002]
mdjoy
AudioPhile

Strength:

Tight, clean, accurate bass, with some serious punch.

Weakness:

Is not a sealed enclosure, so 20hz is a struggle.

If I only had one word to describe the Infinity IL120S, that would be accuracy! This beast will pound out clean, tight bass without boom. Many people may call a sub “boomy” but that is because of in room acoustical problems. Depending on the resonance characteristics of your room, you may or may not experience bumps in the frequency response of a sub. However, this sub includes a built in EQ to remove over exaggerated frequencies due to room resonance. The 500 watt digital amp is everything I’d expect from an Infinity/JBL digital amp. It is powerful, with a high damping factor, and incredibly musical. Anyone familiar with JBL car audio Class D subwoofer amps can tell you that these amps breathtakingly drive subs to their limits cleanly without loosing “grip” of the sub as would a conventional amp lacking high damping abilities. The musical reproduction of this sub is excellent even without equalization. Playing Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album is nothing short of amazing with the musical ability of this sub. A true test of any high end audio rig is the song “Money” from this album played at high volumes. The bass impact and stereo imaging on this song is difficult for any set of speakers, even high end 10k speakers. The most accurate rendition of this track I’ve heard was on some custom built speakers tuned by California Audio Technologies team of acoustic engineers powered by some amazing 500 watt mono block amplifiers in a custom home theater. The system literally gave me chills down my spine. This sub approaches the amount of clean bass produced by those speakers, although it doesn’t go as low because it is not a sealed enclosure sub. Movies sound equally impressive on this sub. It is hooked up to an AMC 1100 Preamp so there is not LFE decoding per say by a receiver, but Dolby digital in stereo provides just as much impact as 5.1, just more accurately. The imaging is much more realistic than any receiver I’ve heard under 600 dollars. I’d have to get a preamp/processor and more amps to improve upon the sound. Outlaw audio’s 950 pre/processor is definitely on my list of things to get. Bottom line, for ~330 I acquired an excellent sub that produces low accurate bass. If you can find this sub as a refurbished unit like I did for less than the 800-900 retail, it’s a great deal.

Similar Products Used:

JBL 12in 250 watt sub, Velodyne VLF-1012

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Feb 19, 2002]
Rob
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Great sound and desgin. The maple finish looks great.

Weakness:

None so far.

This is a very nice subwoofer. It is great for HT and music. I was able to purchase it for only $289 plus S/H on Ubid.com. The sub arrive within a week in perfect condition. The Circuit City price is $899.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne CT-120

OVERALL
RATING
5
VALUE
RATING
5
[Aug 27, 2001]
Mike Klein
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Loud, and relatively deep

Weakness:

Not all that clean, expensive

First, let me say that even though this site lists an MSRP of $750, this sub in the real world I haven't seen lower than $800 and indeed up to $900. Now on with the review.

I do not own this sub. I do sell this sub and have listened to it extensively. These are my conclusions. This is not a bad sub by any means. There are far worse things you could do to your system then add this sub to it. It is an athoritative sub, playing loud, decently deep bass. It has the potential to be an excellent product, but sadly falls just short.

My complaints against this subwoofer. First, although it is loud, it is not extremely clean, it's more boom than substance to the bass. Again, I'm not saying it's horrible, just not as good as other products I've heard in the same price range. Which brings me to my second point. This sub is WAY overpriced. At most, I think this sub should be going for about $600, and that's a stretch. At $500, the Velodyne CHT12 (formerly CT120) has the same frequency response with the same sized woofer, a moderately smaller amp, and cleaner sound. At $700, the Veldoyne CHT15 (formerly CT150) has a larger cone, lower bass response, a larger amp, and, you guessed it, cleaner output. Velodyne is not the only one for sure, just the only brand who's specs I am immediately familiar with. So for the price, this sub gets a low value rating, for performance, it really deserves a 3.2 or 3.4, but we can't do that, so the rating stands at a 3.

Similar Products Used:

Velodyne

OVERALL
RATING
3
VALUE
RATING
2
[Jul 25, 2001]
Mark Arnold
Audio Enthusiast

Strength:

Solid, musical bass

Weakness:

Size, NO RABOS KITS INCLUDED IN THE BOX

I finally picked up a sub for my system. I have a pair of Boston VRM 50's, which are great little monitors, but being monitors they lack the low end.

I decided to pick up the IL120s because at that price point it is tough to beat. So far I have been very happy with it.

But be warned, my sub did not come with a RABO's kit for adjusting, which is odd because it comes with a key to adjust the RABOS settings.

Similar Products Used:

Boston PV 600,

OVERALL
RATING
4
VALUE
RATING
4
Showing 1-10 of 15  

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