Infinity Portable Speaker Cascade Speaker System User Manual

ELECTRONICALLY REPRINTED FROM SEPTEMBER 2006  
Infinity Cascade Speaker System  
Flat and fit.  
in ways that correct ailments  
common to most speakers.  
Oh MoMA  
The Cascades could be in an  
exhibit at the Museum of Modern  
Art. Their newly designed, flat,  
rectangular woofers share the front  
with a conventional dome tweeter.  
Although they’re trimmed in plas-  
tic, the drivers actually attach to  
the underlying wood. The Model  
Seven floorstanding speaker pre-  
sents an unbroken front surface;  
the high-gloss black of the speaker  
transitions to the stand’s gray  
matte aluminum.  
The top of the Model Seven  
tapers back, making it appear  
slightly smaller than it really is. This  
tapering reappears on both ends of  
the Model Five monitor, the Model  
Three C center speaker, and the  
Model Fifteen subwoofer. The sides  
and the rear are constructed of  
curved extruded aluminum in  
matte black. When I knuckle-  
rapped the enclosures, I heard var-  
ious pitches in various places, but  
they were all muted compared with  
the pitches of my fiberboard-  
enclosed reference speakers. These  
speakers are solid.  
Conspicuous in its absence is  
the cone-shaped woofer that 99 per-  
cent of speaker designs employ.  
Round cones and sharp-cornered,  
rectangular speaker enclosures are  
easy to manufacture, but fitting  
the former into the latter is a waste  
of space. Boxy enclosures also  
BY MARK FLEISCHMANN  
have either the purest soprano or  
the noblest baritone. In fact, you  
have both. I think this metaphor  
may be getting a bit perverse.  
How would you feel if you  
woke up one day in a perfect body?  
Youd pull back the blanket and  
look down on a perfectly flat  
tummy (something I haven’t seen in  
years, although heaven knows I’m  
trying). Combination skin is a thing  
of the past—you seem to have been  
remade in some wonderful mate-  
rial. Eager to check yourself out  
in a mirror, you cross the room to  
find yourself resculpted in new  
and slimmer proportions. And,  
when you open your mouth,  
depending on your gender, you  
The point I’m meandering  
my way around to is that Infinity’s  
new Cascade line reimagines every  
aspect of the loudspeaker. The  
newest feature is a reshaped  
woofer, a flat, rectangluar dia-  
phragm that’s not cone shaped.  
The woofer and the tweeter  
are both made of a proprietary  
ceramic/aluminum blend not  
unfamiliar to Infinity fans. The  
look is as distinctive as a finger-  
print, and the sound is superlative  
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Infinity immediately scored ergo-  
nomic points by reducing the  
assembly instructions for the Model  
Seven to one step: Put the speaker  
on the stand. Assembly time: three  
seconds. The smaller Model Five  
required two screws to attach a tri-  
angular metal bracket that grips a  
metal tongue at the top of the stand.  
Assembly time: half a minute.  
The stands are cast aluminum  
and extremely heavy. They give the  
speakers a nearly resonance-free  
foundation and would make excel-  
lent murder weapons. Round gold-  
nut binding posts face directly  
downward in the Model Seven and  
diagonally upward in the Model  
Five, providing access for spade  
lugs but not for banana plugs.  
Blobs of plastic in the holes block  
banana-plug insertion. These are a  
requirement for sale in Europe and  
are removable. I used an elderly  
but reliable set of Monster THX  
ribbon cables with bare tips.  
izontal shape that’s designed to sit  
close to a wall. Inside is a quartet of  
6-inch, square, down-firing woofers  
in an enclosure that’s tapered at the  
sides, like the other speakers.  
Equalizing the sub was part of  
the setup process. Infinity calls this  
R.A.B.O.S., the Room Adaptive  
Bass Optimization System. Sup-  
plied R.A.B.O.S. accessories  
include a test-tone CD, a sound  
meter that specializes in bass, a  
plastic overlay, and a set of instruc-  
tions. The latter seems formidably  
intricate at first glance, but the  
process is fairly simple.  
aware of the sub’s existence except  
at peak bass moments (and that’s  
how it should be). The handoff from  
sub to speakers at the crossover fre-  
quency was seamless.  
My reference gear, as usual,  
included a Rotel RSX-1065 A/V  
receiver. The Rotel combines  
dynamically potent high-current  
amplification with a scrupulously  
defined top end—don’t use the  
Cascades with anything less. Because  
the speakers are so fond of high-rez  
signal sources, my Integra DPS-10.5  
universal disc player took on a more  
prominent role than usual.  
As each test tone plays, you plot  
points on a frequency-response Strange Work if You Can  
graph. When the curve is complete,  
connect the dots to determine the  
correct settings for the sub’s volume  
and crossover controls. To deter-  
mine the width—that is, how much  
of the audible spectrum the correc-  
tion will affect—place the plastic  
overlay atop the graph. A few  
simple calculations are necessary. I  
did them on scrap paper, but there’s  
also an online calculator. Twist three  
knobs, and you’re done.  
Thus, reducing room interaction  
soon paid dividends. The peak in  
response at my room’s resonant fre-  
quency pretty much disappeared.  
Eliminating this distraction freed me  
to focus more intently on story lines  
and musical moods. I was rarely  
Get It  
In search of something dynamically  
taxing, I rented Get Rich or Die  
Tryin’, based on the life of rapper  
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and got  
an unexpectedly nuanced drama  
instead. As the movie started with  
Jackson’s voiceover, I turned up the  
volume. I wanted to catch the  
softly but precisely enunciated con-  
sonants that are part of his signa-  
ture vocal style, affected by the  
bullet lodged in his tongue. At  
some point, I figured, as the all-  
too-realistic violence kicked in, Id  
have to engage the Dolby Digital  
midnight-movie mode or at least  
drop the volume. But the subse-  
quent gunplay was dynamically  
Grilles come in the form of a  
scroll-like object made of the  
thinnest, softest, most lovely mate-  
rial ever used to cover a baffle.  
Although it’s synthetic, it feels like  
silk. The ends attach magnetically.  
I tried one, and it was beautiful—  
but not as interesting as the  
unadorned speaker. I decided to  
leave the grilles off.  
The subwoofer has a unique hor-  
INFINITY CASCADE SPEAKER SYSTEM  
OVERALL RATING  
Build Quality  
Value  
Features  
Performance  
Ergonomics  
>Absolute solidity,  
>It’s impossible to  
compare this to other  
products  
>Infinity’s totally  
redesigned woofer  
makes its debut here  
>Gets the most out of  
>Plenty to catch the  
flawless detailing  
high-rez SACD releases  
eye, nothing to offend it  
95  
95  
>Ceramic/metal  
woofers and titanium  
tweeters  
>Combination of wide  
sweet spot and tight  
image focus  
>Stand mounting is  
very easy  
>New technology  
doesn’t come cheap  
>R.A.B.O.S. equalizes  
the big sub  
>Heavy aluminum  
> Low dynamic-  
Infinity’s Cascade Series uses a  
newly designed flat diaphragm to  
muster a large and well-defined  
soundstage with exceptional  
transparency, definitive detail,  
and strong dynamics. For imag-  
ing, it is the reference against  
which we will judge speakers in  
future reviews. Add equalized  
monster bass, and you’ve got a  
product that amazes.  
stands  
compression bass  
95 90 96  
98 93  
General information  
Cascade Model Seven Floorstanding Speaker, $799/each; Cascade Model Three C Center-Channel Speaker, $799  
Cascade Model Five Monitor/On-Wall Speaker, $699/each; Cascade Model Fifteen Subwoofer, $1,499  
Infinity Systems, (516) 674-4463, www.infinitysystems.com > Dealer Locator Code IFY  
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proportional and not excessive. I  
found myself with a growing  
respect for both the star—whether  
despite or because of his frosty  
reserve, I’m not sure—and the  
delicacy of the mix.  
middle. The voluptuously disso-  
nant string-and-brass textures that  
open the Vertigo suite billowed like  
the sails of a clipper ship caressed  
by the wind, the ostinatos evoking  
the opening credits’ unforgettable  
spiraling graphics.  
H I G H L I G H T S  
Innovative flat woofer diaphragm  
Ceramic/metal driver materials  
Best-looking Infinity speakers ever  
Munich, despite its heightened  
moral complexity, came with an  
extravagantly ultraviolent proces-  
sion of explosions and gunshots  
that tested the mettle of every  
driver in the system. Right from  
the opening frames, the Cascades  
grabbed me with the soundtrack’s  
mourning female vocal and string  
orchestra, and they never let go.  
The sub did well with minor  
details, like the low ambient hum  
of trains and buses, but also stood  
up to the stiffer demands of the  
hotel explosion—not a single det-  
onation but an extended ballet of  
destruction. It was convincing  
enough to be unnerving, as a  
movie on this subject should be.  
The next thing I played after  
Munich was the stereo SACD of  
Bernard Herrmann: The Film Scores by  
Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los  
Angeles Philharmonic. It includes  
excerpts from six of the sound-  
tracks Herrmann wrote for Alfred  
Hitchcock, including a suite from  
Psycho, a string-orchestra master-  
piece that could outgun any heavy  
metal band. Going from angst-  
ridden terrorism and assassination  
to a soundtrack that evokes some-  
one being stabbed in the shower  
was a soft landing of sorts—I could  
almost hear Sir Alfred saying,  
“Don’t worry, dear. It’s just a  
moooovie.” Even with no surround  
mix and just two speakers operat-  
ing, the Cascades could throw  
out a convincing soundstage that  
dominated every seat in the room.  
I could sit directly in front of the  
left speaker and still hear continu-  
ous imaging with no hole in the  
[
An SACD surround mix of  
Beethoven’s ninth symphony didn’t  
fare as well. The 1977 analog  
recording by Herbert von Karajan  
and the Berlin Philharmonic was  
mastered in 96/24 PCM before its  
transfer to SACD. In my opinion,  
the string sound is less refined than  
that of a native or straight-from-  
analog SACD, and the Cascades  
didn’t hesitate to tell me how they  
felt about that. Despite the skillful  
performance, what should have  
been a rich assortment of vocal and  
instrumental tone color came out  
monochromatic and lacking in spa-  
tiality. I wouldn’t call these speak-  
ers “ruthlessly revealing”—code  
language for products that make a  
large percentage of recordings  
sound unpleasant—nor did they  
add any sweetening of their own.  
They were just finicky and truth-  
ful, as an audiophile should be. In  
this case I think they were actually  
disappointed in the recording.  
They cheered up when I got to  
Sinatra at the Sands on DVD-Audio.  
I could hear the effect of cigarettes  
on Sinatra’s lungs and throat, the  
precision of the consonants that  
flowed delicately and precisely  
through his teeth and lips, the way  
all of this interacted with the  
microphone and the acoustics of the  
club, and individual voices in the  
audience laughing at his awful  
jokes. The focus couldn’t have been  
tighter or the spotlight brighter.  
Of the dozens of CDs I played,  
the most memorable was 10,000  
Clowns on a Rainy Day by Jan  
Akkerman. The former guitarist of  
Focus has lived down his former  
band’s 1971 yodeling hit “Hocus  
Pocus” to pursue a lengthy solo  
career. His trusty Les Paul is the  
focal (sorry) point of this mainly  
instrumental live double-CD set.  
The Cascades brought it to the  
front of the mix, slightly in front  
of the speakers in Dolby Pro Logic  
II, while the band lingered slightly  
behind. It was like looking at  
a richly colored object against  
a black-and-white background.  
Akkermans supple intonation was  
a living, breathing, dancing sonic  
creature. Although visual responses  
to sounds are routine for me, in  
this case, I also tasted the guitar: It  
tasted like dark chocolate.  
Like waves breaking on a beach,  
reviewing these speakers was a long  
and steady succession of favorable  
impressions. They looked great.  
They were easy to set up. There  
was no screeching, no distancing,  
and no sweetening. The equalized  
subwoofer nimbly sidestepped my  
room’s bass hump. Broad off-axis  
response from the flat woofers and  
waveguide-enhanced tweeters lib-  
erated me from the sweet spot. The  
Cascades gave me an unparalleled  
freedom to listen from any spot in  
the room and with any kind of  
material, and, for that, I am both  
surprised and grateful.  
HomThater  
* Audio editor Mark Fleischmann is  
also the author of the annually updated  
book Practical Home Theater  
(www.quietriverpress.com).  
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