Good sound from bass to mid to highs. Looks are a plus. However looks are in the eye of the beholder. Good sound for stereo listening and good sound for fronts in a surround setting.

Must have the RABOS system.

The speaker sounded terrible until I got the Rabos System and spent the time to adjust the speaker. Also be carefull of the phase switches in the rear. One setup correctly and placed properly they sound very good. I noticed most people love them or hate them. What I noticed that many people didn't have a problem with the sound but had quality control issues. It you have a pair that doesn't have the cabinet loosen or blow the subs, they are a good speaker. They are high end but not high-high end, for the money they are good.

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AR, JBL(terrible), Infinity RS5,

Tonal accuracy, ultra low end bass reproduction.

They are not kind to bad recordings!!!. There is very little coloration and therefore reveil the worst and the best the recording has to offer

I'm not going to be wordy with this reveiw except to say that these are great speakers. Position them carefully. ALWAYS leave the subs on!!. They are designed to be left on and go into a standby mode when they are not being fed a signal. I believe that many people are having trouble with the sub's for this reason. Adjust the subs properly. They are designed to compliment the drivers, not overbear them. When these speakers are properly set up and adjusted, they produce superb quality sound and are very detailed. They excel in all levels of audio reproduction and produce beautiful, smooth bottom end.

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Polk, PSB, Klipsh, Mission

Mixed reviews indeed! The IL-50s can sound dismal or quite good, depending on how they are wired. If your amplifier setup requires you to use speaker level inputs, find yourself another speaker. LFE outputs are sorta ok. What these speakers are optimized for, however, is use of a separate preamp and amp. You route shielded line out from the pre-amp to the Infinity sub amp, then run a second cable from the sub back to your main amp, which then drives only the mid and the woofer. This is true bi-amplification, and it eliminates a lot of distortion, and effectively increases the power of your amp. Google "biamplification" for details. A second factor is the RABOS equalization system. As shipped from the factory, and as I set it up by seat-of-the-pants adjustment, these speakers have 'way too much base, which tends to muddy up the midrange. I didn't realize this until I shellout out $80 for the RABOS kit, which is a test cd and sound level meter--you use it to set the volume on the sub, and iron out any overpowering areas of bass. Once you do that, the sound of the mids and highs snaps into much better focus. No, they're not $2000 speakers, but $500 is a pretty fair price.

In a class of their own. Can be adjusted to fit any room, any system, any listener. Very crisp highs. Very warm lows. Mids are clean. No distortion.

Hard to find outside of the US. Had to use JBL N26II's as surrounds to keep all 5 Tweeters as simmilar as possible.

I have read all the reviews on this site and I have to say that these reviewers are not aware of the product they have. These are not your average "plug and play" Sony product. These are fully adjustable. If you find them boomy, as many seem to complain about, then fix it. Each speaker can be fine tuned to fit your room by adjusting the Frequency, the width and the level. It's pretty hard to miss the volume switch glowing on the front of the grill. Turn it down. These speakers work best when you switch the sub input to speaker, turn off the low pass filter and incorperate a seperate subwoofer to use with the LFE output of your receiver. This will give you Audible layers in your low frequncies. We wouldn't put Porsche rims on our Honda and expect it to perform like a Carerra. So why do we hook Infinitys to our Kenwoods and Technics and expect to be blown away. The Infinitys will improve the sound but are very limited by the receiver. When connected properly to a quality, high current, receiver. Infinity Interlude 50's will out perform any speaker system in it's price range. Hands down. If you own these speakers, you are very lucky. Infinity has discontinued this line and now you can only find this technology in thier ,very expensive, Intermezzo and Prelude series. Have another look at your Interludes. You will be glad you did.

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Harman/Kardon AV Receiver. Sony SACD changer. Polk PSW404 Subwoofer.

everything

amp on subs i have heard is a problem

well it finally happened to me. Overall i have beeen pleased with these speakers SO FAR. I enjoy them everyday and use them alot. its only recently that my amp hasnt turned on and I am without the use of my second sub. this would be no problem as I have the warranty with them. The problem is i have to drive 130 miles to get them repaired.

All in one performance Flexable adjustments Sound Quality

Price for some is high but worth it.

Very Solid speakers very good full range sound. Heavy bass for a combo unit. Lots of flexability in tuning.Very good mid-high response.

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Infinity il30 " il25 " il10

Crisp Clear Handles large amounts of power with no problem. I can hook these up to my 110wpc Sherwood/Newcastle and turn it all the way up (no joke) and not even hear a hiss.

It is hard to find maple entertainment furniture to match. Bass can get a little loud (but you can turn off/or down the internal sub). $1700 is rediculous, but no one pays retail nowadays anyway.

I got these for my Birthday over a year ago now, and in the Christams that followed have also got the IL10's for the rear channel, the IL36c for the center channel and the IL100s powered subwoofer. I read all the reviews that have been posted on these speakers and really do not know what people are talking about. I do think that at times they have to much bass, but you can turn the 10" subwoofers off or even down, so that should not be a complaint. Musically they are crisp and clear, cosmettically they are beautiful. I have the maple with the gray/silver/whatever it is cover and they look amazing, I could see how if you bought the plain black speakers haveing a silver cover would look odd, but you can order new ones. For the retail price they go for they are a ripoff, but who the heck pays retail anymore anyways, these are a great deal to anyone. The only reason I can see why people would not like these speakers would be because of the amp/receiver they would be running. I read about how people are putting their Kenwood (POS) receivers and Technics (cr*p) to power these things. You can not expect to hook up a great pair of speakers to a crappy amp and expect it to sound good, think about it. If you want crap go buy a Home Theater in a box system from best buy. If you want good speakers, then buy Infintys with a good receiver (like my Sherwood/Newcastle) it provides great clean power to these speakers for pure audio enjoyment. I actually had a Sony receiver for 1 day, the power from it was not up to par for these things, and it made it sound shotty, muddled, not even the same. MAKE SURE YOU GET A GOOD RECEIVER/AMP.

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Acoustic Research DBX Bose

Appearance-and if that's the high point of a speaker you're in trouble

lack of clarity through entire range of sound

After an unexpected move I found myself suddenly needing to replace my large cabinet speakers as the wall that had to hold my entertainment gear was not wide enough for them. I have a friend with the last generation of infinity towers with powered subs and both he and I have always been quite impressed with all aspects of their performance save a relative lack of bass. So, when I found these on the web for less than a third of retail, and noticed the subs were two inches larger and powered by 150 more watts than my friends fine speakers, I immediately bought them. I had wanted a similar level of Definitive towers, but would have had to wait for months to afford them. I should have waited. While I've had no complaints about quality (except for the fact that a wire came loose during shipping; a quick fix for anybody with a screwdriver and a few functional brain cells), the sonic characteristics of these speakers should embarrass Infinity. The highs are brassy, the mids are muddy, and the bass is boomy and prone to distortion. As several other reviews have said, if I had paid retail I'd be sick. As it is, I'm trying to figure out how to get my wife to let me replace these speakers in the next couple of years, despite having told her they'd be our last purchase for a decade or two.

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klipsch, cerwin vega, definitive (tested, by them if you can!)

Good looking speaker with lots of bass.

The cabinetry is cheap and could use lots of internal bracing. Female voices (Jewel)sound chesty at times.

I read many of the reviews prior to buying the IL50's. I decided to risk it and purchased on UBID. They are neither great or crappy. The equipment they're hook up to makes a big difference. I've had them hooked to a Kenwood receiver 100w x 5 and they sounded like SH*T. I then hooked the up to separates...Adcom GTP 760 and a Parasound 85w x 5. They sounded much better but they suck a lot of juice and distorted the amp and med-hi levels. I then hooked them up to my Sunfire amp with the same Adcom pre amp. The Sunfire is rated at 200w x 5. Major difference. I can't say that they are audiophile material but theu don't sound as bad as many of the reviews I've heard. HomeTheatre magazine rated these very high (93 points). I will eventually upgrade the Def Tech or Energy Veritas. These speaker do go lound and clear with good ampliphication. I have a separate subwoofer but the 250w bass amp is sufficient to rattle the house.

Just can't think of any

I sure can think of a lot

My wife and I stumbled across these speakers at an electronics wholesaler. The guy said that these were previously owned speakers and that the previous owners only had them for about 2 months. He also mentioned that they originally costs close to $2000 a pair, so we though we were getting a hell of a bargain. Not until the guy talked us into getting these speakers and we paid for them, that he said the previous owners returned them because they didn't like the sound and quality of these speakers. We decided to give these speakers a try anyways. From what I have read, it was probably someone who posted on this forum who was the previous owner. Well after a year with these speakers, we must say that we wish we never bought them. Several of my friends have commented that they heard about the poor quality of Infinity and didn't like the sound of our speakers. I just had to agree. We aren't satisfied with these as well. The plastic grill has broken and fallen off. And the plastic feet tend to rattle, even at low volumes. The sound of the speakers are ok. They aren't very accurate. I have decided to put these speakers down in the basement playroom and get another pair of speakers for the family room. I am thinking about a pair of Polk's or Klipschs. I have heard both at a store and like them a lot.

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I have sound tested a lot of speakers in the past month. From Polk, Klipsch, Advent, Fluance, a/d/s, and many more.