Transparent, fantastic mids, accurate sound reproduction.

Sure, you can find better speakers... but not at this price point.

If you like your audio colored (a la Bose), stay away from these speakers. Granted, I have only used these for about two months, but so far I am extremely pleased with their accuracy. As a musician and music producer, I listen for accuracy above all else. I realize that not everyone appreciates this... if you think Bose (which give an unnatural boost in the 2K and 4K frequencies) makes a great speaker, you'll probably be best served to avoid the Infinity. If you'd like to hear music (essentially) as it was recorded-- but don't want to drop $5-10K on a pair of speakers-- give these some serious consideration. I've also used them as mains in my Dolby 5.1 setup, and been pleased with them there as well (although, to be fair, I always ran this with the subwoofer).

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Bose, Mackie studio monitors

Smooth tweeter notes.

Compare to Boston''s 950''s? No way. Read the reviews on the Boston VR950 Lynnfield -ton''s of satisfied customers.

I, the reviewer, challenge you to audition these INFINITY Interlude IL40''s next to BOSTON ACOUSTIC''s VR-950''s. Price-wise, the INFINITY IL40''s are $1000 and BOSTON VR-950''S are $700. Don''t be FOOLED by the price. Just do it -take action if you care about your money. I personally went out to purchase a pair of these INFINITY Interlude IL40''s OPEN-BOX (meaning they have been brokening in/and sounded at their FULL potential). My buddy works at GOOD Guys (they don''t carry Infinity) and I auditioned them next to each other. I''ve gotta tell you (the truth -but it totally depends on your ears), the Boston VR-950''s will sound much clearer. The music sounds much more realistic and real -as if the musicians were in the room! The Infinity''s on the other hand (not to put them down -I did like them tons till I put them next to the Boston VR950''s), sounded okay. But the music notes are totally dull and not life-like, like what me and my GOOD-GUY''s buddy calls "muscian''s not even here, he''s in another room!". That means the speakers aren''t producing a realistic soundstage. Infinity''s CMMD tweeter is smooth and midrange''s okay. Compare to Boston''s AMD VR tweeter? No way. It simply lacks the cybal (tweeter notes produced by drums) and vocals don''t sound as GOOD as the BOSTON''s. You decide. $1000 Infinity VS. $700 Boston''s sounding way better (preferbly more realistic to the human ear). Take the challenge. Just do it. Both Infinity and Boston Acoustic''s are avaible locally. DOn''t let my 5 stars fool you, read Boston Acoustic''s VR950 Lynnfield reviews.

Similar Products Used:

Energy e:XL, Klipsch Synergy, Polk RTi, Boston Acoustics, Bose, JBL Studio Monitor.

Looks, design, clarity, build quality

Not much bass for the hard rockers out there.

Simply put the Il40 is an awesome speaker. Every detail is loud and clear. While the bass response is somewhat lacking, I seriously doubt most people would even notice. Incredible speaker. It handles music and movies with excellent attitude. I currently have these running with a harmon avr 520 and I have no problems at all. Great speaker.

Similar Products Used:

IL 10, IL 36c, IL100s

Clarity, Clean

NONE

The IL10''s make excellent surround companions to my IL40 fronts and IL36c center... and powered sub. The IL40''s are very nice, but do somewhat lack the clear deep bass. However, when combined with a powered sub, they are EXCELLENT... very clear and powerful. I''m really impressed by the full sound. Great dynamic range and clarity. The infinity system complements my home theatre system powered by a Yamaha RX amp. These are the first set of infinity speakers that I owned, and I''m very impressed with the quality and sound! I recommend purchasing all ''IL'' series for a complete surround package... Infinity did a great job sound matching the entire system. However, I was not impressed with the IL50''s due to the lack of adequate midrange. I recommend the IL40''s and purchasing 1 or 2 powered subs separately. It''s also a very good idea to keep the sub outside of the main speakers to achieve better clarity.

Similar Products Used:

Bose, Boston

Great highs, mids ,good lows. sub picks up where the IL40''s fall short.

none really

These speakers ROCK! Full blast, handled the power, rock''in the walls,windows and floor. My intial impression was that they sound great, but low and behold , they sound even better after jammin for a few months Money well spent ! my set-up : H/K AVR520, H/K DVD50 , 2 IL40''s, 2 IL10''s , IL36c, IL100, all monster cable connections. Totally impressed with the whole setup! Now theres mention of weak bass from these , but look at the size of the speakers , I turned up the bass control and the bass is all there. I keep my tone settings flat and let the sub do the work for the lows

Flat frequency response producing neutral sound, good imaging after broken in, appearance, magnetically shielded for HT use

Bass is a little light for organ music, needs long break-in period

I bought these because of Peter Aczel''s recommendation. I have purchased several pieces of equipment over the last 23 years based on his judgment and test results and I haven''t been disappointed. His review of the IL-40 in The Audio Critic #27 was so enthusiastic that I figured I had to check them out. I auditioned them versus the Polk tower speakers and was surprised at the difference. The Polks sounded much brighter. They actually sounded a lot like my old Polk Model 10 speakers. They had a large tweeter peak at 15,000 Hz and a bass peak at 60 Hz. I put up with the colored sound because of their great imaging. The Infinity IL-40''s sounded dull and not very impressive relative to the Polks, but I knew my ears were used to colored sound. Aczel emphasized the smooth response and neutrality of the IL-40, so a lot of the impression I got came from my familiarity with inaccurate sound. I held off buying at Circuit City and picked up a pair new on eBay for $699. My first inmpression was not good. They still seemed dull compared to the Model 10''s and the imaging wasn''t as good. I grumbled and decided to break them in with TV sound. I bought them in July and didn''t do any serious music listening on them until November. I put on a baroque guitar album and was shocked at the difference. I was breaking in a new amp, turntable and preamp at the same time, so I''m not sure what needed breaking in the most. I any case, the sound was so good that I stayed up all night going through my LP collection. The imaging had greatly improved. I can now pick out the location of all the harpsichords on a recording of Bach''s concerto for three harpsichords. On the MHS album "The Classical Guitar" it sounds like Eliot Fisk is sitting on a stool in my living room. I did find some weakness in the bass region. These are not really kick-ass rock speakers. Organ music really requires subwoofers. Aczel''s review indicates the bass is only flat to 44Hz.I bought a Velodyne HGS-10 and I can now knock all the dust off my ceiling fan. Now I know what Aczel was raving about. He said, "The IL40 proved to be more neutral, balanced and transparent than any other speaker under $1000 the pair that I can recall." He found the response to be flat to plus/minus 3dB from 44 to 20,000 Hz. A lot of speakers claim they are flat, but this one tested that way. (I miss the old Julian

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio model 10, Advent Loudspeaker

Price. The interlude line does an awsome job on high frequency sound. Best speakers under $1000.

Does not have much bass reponse with my ONKYO575 Receiver.

Best paired with Infinity's new 12" sub which I shall soon get.

Mids sound very tight and punchy due to the high speed ceramic cones. An asthetically appealing speaker.

Just about everything else... Price is high for what you get, Tweeters are harsh and tend to be tinny, mids are not as soft as they should be, making them not great speakers for classical, acoustic, and jazz... oh yes and WHERES THE BASS?

1st thing, I am an audiophile, but I am one on a tight budget...hence I will keep the comparisons to speakers in a similar price range, and not rant and rave about $10,000 audiophile speakers.

2nd, I do not, nor will ever, own these.

Not to diss infinity, but these speakers are not high end, even though from the price you may be tempted to think they are. I demoed a pair for about 2 weeks driving it with a rotel 2 channel amp, krell CD player, and for HT a JVC-Rv888 (great HT amp...for music go with a 2 channel Rotel)

The whole IL line really don't sound very good, to be quite honest. The sound in a word, Thin. I can recommend a whole slew of speakers in the price range of the IL 40 which absolutely blow these poor tinny speakers out of the water. In fact, I will list them for you in a bit.

The tweeters are just plain harsh...this has been a long time problem of infinity speakers, and it doesnt seem that they are addressing the problem. You will find, even if you dont wince like I did, that you will fatigue listening to these speakers after a short period. And Techo or industrial?? Forget it... my ears ring just remembering it.
Alas, this also makes the IL series not great for classical, jazz, or new age... this music simply cannot soften the tweeters.

Mids: The only good thing about this speaker is the midrange, and I stress good, not great. Still sound tinny to my experienced ears...good thing is they are one of the fastest mids on the market, making them very punchy and accurate...bad thing is they are too fast, and hence are unyeilding in softer music (I stress the word MUSIC).

Bass: Well, what can I say? I dont know how they did it, but Infinity robbed this cabinet of all bass altogether. It simply isnt there, and the midbass does not blend well with the rest of the speaker. When 1 1st demoed these speakers, I really was taken by the bass coming out of these cabinets...was deep! Then I sniffed around and realized the used-car-dealer-type salesman had "accidentally" fired up the IL120 Sub with the IL40. Clever, he knew how much these poor speakers needed a sub for the sale. Then I had a chance to demo a pair at home for 2 weeks. They absolutely must have a sub to sound full. That's really the thing about the IL40, is that they really lack imaging. When I fired up by dual 20-39PC SVS Subs (Fantastic subs, top end truly)I found the IL40 much easier to stomach, but still were just too harsh and thin. For HT they seem to function well, but as I said, can be super harsh in many treble loaded DVD's. **wince**

Verdict: Thin, harsh, lack imaging and bass. Dont get me wrong, if you are accustomed to listening to Bose and Yamaha, the the IL40's will sound almost holy to you. They can play exremely loud without distortion (whoopty).They are pretty to look at. But, if you demand your $$$ worth, you simply will get much more for the same $$$ out of some other speakers, which quite frankly, are on a whole different level altogether in terms of accurate sound reproduction and uncoloration. They are listed below:

Alternatives: (not all inclusive, but close to it)
-Same price range and sound alot better: Klipsch reference towers, Polk towers (avoid the towers with polk's powered subs, they are a joke), Boston Acoustics VR series.
-Same price range to slightly cheaper, and sound amazingly better: Paradigm monitor series, B&W DM series, Definitive technology PowerMonitor series, NHT VT series,
-Same price range and are the holy grail of $1000 speakers: Dynaudio audience 60's, Definitive technology 2006TL and protowers, Energy eXL, Paradigm studio series, Sound Dynamics RTS-P100.
- a Tad more expensive, but a whole different dimention of musical perfection: Definitive Tech 2004TL (I own these, bipolar is holy), 2002TL, B$W CDM-NT series (salivating over these), Dynaudio Audience 70 through 82's (about the best speakers out there short of serious audiophile and rediculous $$$ speakers), Sonus Faber Concertinos (oh my, drool, soooo beautiful).

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Alot...heard and played with most of the higher end speakers.

Clear

Too much emphasis on high frequency information producing a thin sound.

This speaker has low distortion but is bright and difficult to listen to on a great many CDs. People seeking a natural round sound should avoid this product. Perhaps with radical room treatment in the form of eliminating all sound reflecting surfaces the IL 40 may sound alright but who wants something that is not more user friendly than this. People with normal hearing will find themselves turning down the treble on their amplifiers. Buy this product at the risk of having a product that cannot play most of your music.

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AlomII, Tannoy S6

great look - not huge size. full sound

you must add the il100 sub to get the real low end rummble.

Excellent sounding speaker. . The tweeter is a cut above any similar priced speaker with a neautral midrange. The bass sounded tight, and given the price I can't think of anything else going much deeper. i added the il100 sub to add to the low end. il36c for the center and older qps-1 surrounds. these i speakers to die for. go get yourself a set as soon as possible. i got my complete system at www.sounddistributors.com. ask for eric he was great!!

Similar Products Used:

older infinity - jbl - polk audio