Fairly flat response.
Decent bass extension for a small speaker.
Very good in-house drivers.
Don't have to be in the sweet spot.
High value.
Conservative styling.

Best mounted on speaker stands that will not be cheap due to the P162s weight.
Need a subwoofer to become full range.
Conservative styling.

These are the largest bookshelf speakers in Infinity's entry level (formerly Primus) line. I bought them to replace an entry level pair of Paradigm Phantom V.3 floorstanding speakers. Why? First, the Paradigm's very very easy to tip over, and I was concerned my newborn would soon be attracted to them. By placing the Infinity's on sand-filled stands, I've at least made it more of a challenge. Second, the Paradigms were a little large for my small living room and my wife. Visually, the smaller Infinitys look less imposing, even when placed on stands.
Third, I had read a lot about Infinity and parent company Harman International's R&D. Harman has the most sophisticated measurement and testing facilities in the United States (if not the world), and employs Floyd Toole and Kevin Voecks. Trained listeners evaluate the companies' speakers in blind tests where different speakers are repeatedly rotated in and out of position behind a screen. The bottom line is that you can be sure you are buying quality loudspeakers--even when it is a budget-friendly bookshelf speaker that embodies numerous compromises. For example, Harman manufactures the speaker's Metal Matrix drivers in house (and one wonders the difference between the MMD and the Ceramic Metal Matrix drivers in the step up Beta series that look identical). Such economies of scale allow Infinity to offer a high quality product with which smaller manufacturers simply cannot compete.
The speakers sound consistent with the published measurements I have seen: fairly neutral and transparent in the upper, mid, and at least the upper bass regions, both on and off axis. These speakers have decent low frequency extension, supposedly going down to 49Hz, but I recommend a subwoofer if your budget allows, particularly if you listen to bass-heavy music. The imaging in my small living room is great. The soundstage extends evenly across the room, too. A nice feature of these speakers is the waveguide around the tweeter. Essentially a minature horn, this improves horizontal directivity beyond the stereo sweetspot, which obviously aids multichannel setups.
Are these Infinity bookshelf speakers good enough to be your main stereo and front left and right channel speakers? They are for me. Unless you are going to spend a lot more money, say for Harman's Revel division's comparably sized bookshelf model, I doubt you are going to greatly exceed the P162's performance. I am quite happy with them and have no desire to upgrade, unless, that is, I someday can afford the Linkwitz Lab's Orion dipoles.

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