Polk vs. Infinity

StopherJJ1980

OK I know That "infinity" may be a bad word to say around here but oh well, Im new and dont know any better Here's my question.

I love Polk.. From my first pair of R50's I knew they made a quality product for a great price. For home theater I wouldnt think to go to any other brand unless I won the lottery tomorrow and had millions to blow. Even then I would still keep my RTi's.

Anyways, as far as car audio I have always had Infinity because I loved the sound when I first got them put in my old Camaro. My Camaro got stolen and I got a new truck, so I figured hey, why not go Polk all around and put in Polk db speakers and subs. Well I did and Im sorry to say I wasnt impressed at all. Polk had infinity beat as far as bass response, but it was somewhat boomy and the tweeters were harsh to the point they were almost unlistenable, they gave me headache. I went back to Infinity.

So I am wondering if anyone has had much experience with Infinity's home speakers. I have had side by side demos in the store and believe Polk is by far superior. Do you think Infinity matches up with Polk in home audio at all? Or does anyone share my views on Polk vs. Infinity for car audio? Forgive me for not posting this in the car audio forum, I felt this question really addresses both home and car audio.

I just think the Polk vs. Infinity question is interesting since I think they are Polk's main competitor in their price range/market. Forgive me if it has been addressed before.

PolkThug

On the home audio side, Infinity needs to redesign their Beta Grills ASAP, they are like ear muffs.

cmy330go

PolkThug wrote:

On the home audio side, Infinity needs to redesign their Beta Grills ASAP, they are like ear muffs.

Amen on the grills. On top of that I think they are just plain ugly.

As far as sound is concerned. I think the current Primus and Beta series are decent sounding speakers. They are far superior to their predecessors. I do slightly prefer the Polk RTi line over either of the Infinity lines. However I could certainly see where some might lean the other way.

Different Strokes.....

dorokusai

Infinity stopped making good speakers ages ago.

aaharvel

I like the Prelude MTS towers.

um... that's about it

RuSsMaN

dorokusai wrote:

Infinity stopped making good speakers ages ago.

Yes.

markmarc

I have owned 2 sets of Infinity speakers, and have regretted them both. First was the RSa's in 1980. I bought them because they looked better and were $100 cheaper than the Polk 10's. Took me two years to correct that mistake.

Then this fall, I bought a pair of Infinity Kappa 200. Sound was fine, though very British-like since they were made in Denmark. I just sold them, and now will go with either the LSi9 or Totem Rainmaker.

I have always felt that Infinity just doesn't quite go all the way into unleashing their potential.

MacLeod

Their car audio speakers are horrible. Super thin and bright.

I had a set of Reference speakers in my truck for a while and hated them. I can usually get used to any set of decent speakers but these were horrible. Alex Lifeson (Rush) sounded like he was playing a kazoo!

aaharvel

With the aformentioned Prelude MTS towers I also like their Kappa monitors. Other than that, nothing.

pbc74

I have both Infinity and Polk. I had originally traded in my Polk R series speakers for the Infinity Alpha Series at Circuit City when it when on sale and I was able to trade up. I only traded up because Infinitys went on sale from $1000 down to $599 and I only had to shell out $16 based on the difference between the sale price and the trade-in value for the speakers I was trading in.

Anyways, Outpost.com then had the R50 and the R30s on sale so I bought them for my bedroom because I still missed that Polk sound. It's hard to explain but here goes:

My infinity alphas sound better than my Polk R series but that's not fair because it's not a fair match in terms of price point and product level. It would probably be more fair of a match with the Infinity Alpha 50s against the Polk RTi10s (which I think the Rti10s are better by far).

I don't think my current Polk speakers sound better but I do think that Polk gives you more for your money at every level of speaker. I also think tweeters sound better with Polk speakers. Polk highs seem to be silky smooth where my Infinitys seem to just give good highs but nothing special.

The best thing in my opinion about the Infinitys are that they seem to be more accurate overrall (example: watch the second scene in the movie Hero and listen to the rain drops) and have better mids than comparable Polk speakers (just my opinion, obviously not fact). Sometimes my Polk speakers seem tinny compared to other speakers I have heard but then again I kinda like that tinny sound out of the Polks because I like a clean sound rather than a boomy sound.

So in the end, I would take the Polks based on bang for buck while still maintaining quality. ...but the Infinitys are no slouch :-)

kmartin971

Any comments?

Schris22

i've heard sapphires and actually thought they were comparable to the Rti. They are very tonned down in loocks which is a plus depending if you like their glossy black finish.

They aren't a bad bang for your buck but when comparing them I would go with Rti's for movies for sure. This was 6 or so months ago where I was at tweeter comparing them. I liked the b and w 600 series compared to the sapphire though. Rti is just a different sound.

Chris

audiobliss

StopherJJ1980
I'm going to address your car audio situation, as that's what stands out the most to me. I can't tell you which manufacturer makes better speakers (from a sound perspective) because that's a subjective matter based entirely on personal preference. However, it's pretty much fact that Infinity's speakers (in car audio, though I believe it's much the same in the home audio arena) are much, much thinner and brighter than Polk's speakers (since they use metal for their tweeters). Polk's speakers are usually very detailed, but are also warm, due to having silk dome tweeters. So if, in your experience, the Polk db speakers you had (it'd be nice to know which ones in particular you had) were thinner and brighter than the Infinity's you now have are, there was/is something horribly wrong with the setup.

Again, I'm not saying one speaker is better than the other or that one sounds better than the other, since that's an entirely subjective matter, but if the Polk's were brighter than the Infinity's, something's not right. Polk is very warm when compared to Infinity.

shack

dorokusai wrote:

Infinity stopped making good speakers ages ago.

Back in the late 70s when I bought my Large Advents, Infinity was THE speaker to have. I wanted a pair of Reference Standard 1.5s but couldn't come up with the cash (about to get married and all that). I would love to find a mint pair now just to see how they compare to the Advents. You really don't hear much about the old Infinitys like you do the Advents.

reeltrouble1

I know infinity is offering up some kind of deal now, but as said their speakers are nothing compared to what they once were, the company has lost its focus and the bean counters run the place, sell mega units, built cheap, give them away if necessary. Not to say Polk has not had the occasional give away on their entry speakers. The Polk R-series are still the best entry level speaker on the market.

RT1

Nemesis

The Polk R-series are still the best entry level speaker on the market.

reeltrouble1

Damn right. I currently have my r15's as _fronts_ and I'm totally happy with them. Sound stage is fine in my room (like 13x15) with an HK 235 as receiver. One of my favorite HT moments: listening to the matrix reloaded in STEREO with the to. The sound just seemed right, esp the hair standing up on my arms "sickly sweet" sound of spent casings ringing off the ground. I was totally blown away.They work great for me, though I would certainly love to upgrade to RTi bookshelves. I'm in no hurry.

The comment of "ear muff" Infinity speaker grills is pretty interesting. I hadn't noticed that, but that would drive me crazy. I tend to be teh guy who takes the grills off for gigantic action flicks, after some tests that even Polk's grills muffle things more than I like.

screxer

For car audio, I can't stand either Infinity or Polk....Have had Polk in my cars and enjoyed them for what they were....a good entry level car audio speaker, but not much more than that (just my opinion). Infinity never got close to my car because of how bright and harsh they were....too difficult to tame so I wouldn't even come close to purchasing them. For car audio, do some shopping as you can find better for just a little bit more money. I personally run Focal coax's in my car and even the starter line of Focal offers a huge difference over the Polk and Infinity.

Now home audio is different. I am completely loyal to the Polk home audio line....great detail in the highs, as well as good midrange on their speakers (subwoofers are a different story...but that's why there are companies like Velodyne, HSU, and SVS to choose from). I have compared a few different lines to the Infinity Beta 50's and ended up purchasing Monitor 70's because they sounded so much better than the Infinity. The Monitor's made the Infinity sound muddy....on a warm receiver (H/K 635), the Infinity was simply too neutral to the point that the highs weren't very detailed, but the mids and lows seemed bloated. This has never been an issue with the Monitor being that it is a somewhat bright speaker. When paired with a warm receiver, the Monitor offers great detail that causes the Infinity to pale in comparison.

cmy330go

I've been out of car audio for quite some time...before polk offered car audio gear. But when I was into it...I used to have infitity Kappa 4x6 plate mount and 6x9 3 ways, ran off Rockford Fosgate series 1 amps. I was always very pleased with them. They had a real crisp sound without being too harsh. Have Infinity car audio speakers really changed that much in recent years??

Later,
Dave