Infinity Classia C336, Classia PSW310W, PVA 4, PVA 5, PVA 7 Brochure
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T
he ba r fo r I n f i n i t y’s spe a ker
designs stands pretty high, for a
couple of rea sons. First, t here’s
tradition. Infinity’s history encompasses the imposing Servo-Static and Reference Standard Beta and Gamma models
from Back When Giants Roamed the Earth
(the 1970s a nd ’80s — high-end audio’s
glor y days) . These were among the most
sophist icated, c apable, and e xpensive
speakers then made. Second, there’s affiliation. As one of the Harman International
family of companies, Infinity has at its disposal some of the very best technical and
human resources in t he world.
Given all that, I was eager to put Infinity’s new Classia Series to the test. The system that the company sent me included
the C336 front left/right towers, a CC225
cent er-cha n n el spea ker, and a p a i r of
C255ES surrounds — Janus-headed dualtwo-way models that can be set for dipole,
bipole, or monopole operation by means
of a beh ind-the-grille switch. Round ing
out the suite under test was Infinity’s new
PSW310W subwoofer, a 10-inc h design
wit h the nifty feature of a w ireless con-
nection (although you still have to plug it
into the wall to make it go “boom”).
The Classias (Classiæ?) bear an obvious
family resemblance to Infinity’s still-current Gumby-browed, flat-panel-drivered
Cascade Series (reviewed in September
2006 and available on the S&V Web site).
But the newer models are larger, being an
inch or two wider a nd deeper, and several inches taller. They use conventional,
round dynamic drivers, although with
Infinity’s usual high-tech seasonings —
in t his case, a la minated, metal/ceramic
“C M M D ” comp o site f o r b ot h t w eeter
and woo fer d i aph ra g m s, and a newly
devised tweeter waveguide (a tiny horn,
sor ta) that’s said to ra ise sensitivity for
improved dyna mic head room a nd simplified crossover design.
Whatever its high-tech credentials, the
Classia suite certainly looks, well, classy.
These are st rikingly handsome speakers
with an assertively contemporary design.
Infinity supplied the full system in gloss
piano-black lacquer (real cher ry veneer
is also available). But the C336s’ sharply
raked tops precluded my habitual piling
up of CD and DVD cases, remote controls,
and coffee cups i nto teetering towers of
terror. What were they thinking?
SETUP
Run five speaker wires, and you’re done
wit h set ting up the main channels. The
PSW310W wi reless subwoofer sports a
little Wi-Fi-style stubby on its rear panel,
and its dec k-of-card s-sized t ransmitter
ha s a stub of it s own. The t r a nsm itter,
which accepts a single signal cable from
a receiver or preamp’s subwoofer output,
fou nd the sub im mediately. And once I
switched the transmitting channel a couple of times, I experienced no interference
on the audio system — or on my studio’s
Wi-Fi or cordless-phone systems.
MUSIC & MOVIE PERFORMANCE
I ran t he C336s by t hemselves in stereo
for starters, and I was quickly convinced
of their full-range abilities. But I was less
happy with t heir tonal balance where I
initially placed them — close against the
front wall and flanking my 52-inch Samsung TV. They sounded progressively better the f urther I moved them away from
the wall ; I u ltimately wound up wit h
nea rly 4 feet between the wall’s su rface
and the speakers’ front baffles.
The C336s have a neut ral sound, w ith
test reports
Daniel Kumin
PHOTO BY TONY CORDOZA
Classia Series home theater speaker system
–
+
Snapshot
This system’s eye-catching appearance
promises — and delivers — precise
performance, and it has a wireless sub
to boot
Plus
:: Controlled, detailed, transparent sound
:: Very good dipole/bipole/monopole
surrounds
:: Wireless sub delivers the low-end goods
Minus
:: Need to move speakers well out from
wall for best balance
:: Low sensitivity requires lots of amp power
The Short Form
Price $4,094 (as tested)
Infinity
LOGO WITH
NO
BACKGROUND SCREEN
66 SEPTEMBER 2008 SOUN D & V IS IO N soundandvisionmag.com
GRAYSCALE
Befo re Calib ratio n
test reports
outstanding transparency in the mid to
high frequencies. This yields the kind of
treble that doesn’t sound at all bright, yet
is all t here: clear, quick, a nd extended,
and not in the least bit forward or sparkly.
Voices were un failingly even, balanced,
and, well, neutral. Most spea kers, even
high-end ones, “romance” the vocal range
with a subtle extra helping of warmth in
the 100- to 200-Hz octave, but not the Classias. This occasionally made them sound a
little “cool,” but it also encouraged close,
high-resolution listeni ng — the kind of
sound you hea r in a good recording-studio control room.
Something analogous seemed to be happening in the bottom octaves, too, where
the C336s delivered solid output to 40 Hz
or so, but w it h less of that penulti mateoctave response hump that enhances t he
impression of bass on so many speakers.
The overall effect on material like Richard
Thompson’s “Hide It Away” (from you? me?
us?) was intensely but effortlessly intimate,
without the tinge of low-end bloat that this
midbass-heav y track can often reveal.
On the multichannel front, Infinity’s layout demonstrated some welcome abilities.
The CC225 center speaker’s tonal match
to the C336s was excellent — not perfect,
but impressively close for a two-way horizontal design. For instance, comparisons
of TV and FM a nnouncers between single- and dual-speaker mono revealed only
modest shifts of vocal weig ht and “hoo,”
even among baritone m a le voic es. The
tonal stability wasn’t quite as good when
the center speaker was listened to off-axis,
but it was still well above average.
The C255ES s u r round sp eaker s per fo r med ad m irably i n b ot h d ipole and
bipole settings. They delivered plenty of
clea n level in my fa i rly large l isteni ng
room — even in dipole mode — and made
a tig ht enoug h tonal match to the C336s
in bipole position to please even t he most
demanding multichannel-music maven.
Gone Baby Gone is one of those 2-hour
films that demand full-bore, all-channels
excellence for on ly about 90 seconds —
but those 90 seconds are absolutely critical. The brief a ction inte rludes a r e a ll
the more shocking a nd powerful for t he
dynamic range t hey carry, and the Infinity suite delivered this with hea r t-stopping conviction. For t he rest of the film,
I was ent irely engrossed by its seamless
tapestry of dialogue, street-scene and inte-
rior ambience, and subtle musical score. Is
there any higher praise for a soundtrack or
a sound system?
Last but not least is the PSW310W sub,
which has an active 10-inch driver complemented by two 10-inch cones that serve
as passive radiators (ports, more or less).
It also incorporates Infinity’s RABOS single-band parametric EQ, which can help
to reduce a primary room resona nce. (A
kit that includes a test-tone CD and setup
graphing tools is a $ 60 option.)
The PSW310W didn’t get much of a workout from Gone Baby Gone, so I turned to a
handful of my favorite subwoofer torture
tests from classics like Godzilla a nd The
War of the Worlds. The verdict: impressive. The woof goes ad mir ably low with
substantial power, and it sounds clean and
tight all the way down. The ’zilla footfalls
lacked some of t he wall-bending 20 Hz of
my everyday sub (a 12-incher about twice
the Infinity’s price), but they had plenty of
slam just the same. It’s a solid sub — and
did I mention that it’s wireless?
BOTTOM LINE
Wit h t he Classia spe akers, Infin ity h as
managed to combine high sonic capabilities with striking appearance and respectable value. Visually, this system might not
sat isf y ever y taste (for the record, I dug
them), but for those to whom it s unconventional looks spe ak, it should appea l
st rongly. Be t ter yet, they ’l l also enj oy
sound that’s just as striking. S&V
INFINITYSYSTEMS.COM ::
516- 674-4463
Key Features
GRAYSCALE
Test Bench
the center speaker’s bass-totreble balance rises at slightly
less than 1 dB per octave, with
reasonably uniform directivity
up to ±30º. Both speakers’
mid/tweeter arrays emitted
fairly acute noises when given
our ramped test signals at frequencies below their specified
bass limit. The C255ES surround speaker displays the narrow bandwidth and irregularities typical of bidirectional
speakers. The PSW310W subwoofer has response up to
400 Hz when its crossover is
bypassed, making it useful for
pairing with small satellites.
The sub has relatively limited
dynamic capability and low-fre quency extension, but its
sound-pressure abilities are
uniformly distributed over its
bandwidth. — Tom Nousain e
Surround ■■ 135 Hz to 16.1 kHz ±6.7 dB
Subwoo fer ■■32 Hz to 130 Hz ±3.2 dB
L/R ■■51 Hz to 19.1 kHz ±3.7 dB
Cent er ■■156 Hz to 17 kHz ±3.9 dB
C336 ($1,798/pair)
:: 1-in tweeter ; 4-in midrange; (3) 6
1
⁄
2
-in
woofers ; 48
3
⁄
4
in high; 56 lb
CC225 ($ 499)
:: 1-in tweeter; (2) 5
1
⁄
4
-in woofers; 31
3
⁄
4
in wide; 16 lb
C255ES ($998/pair)
:: (2) 1-in tweeters ; (2) 5
1
⁄
4
-in woofers;
11
3
⁄
4
in high; 9 lb
PSW310W ($799)
:: 10-in woofer; (2) 10- in passive radiators ;
400-watt amplifier; 17
1
⁄
2
x 15 x 14 in;
50 lb
68 SEPT EMBER 2008 SO UN D & VI SI ON soundandvisionmag.com
Infinity Classia speaker system
The C336 tower’s measurements indicate a wide
floor bounce centered at 200 Hz, followed by narrow band irregularities beginning at 800 Hz. The
CC225 center displays a similar character at
higher frequencies, along with low-frequency
response that falls quickly below 400 Hz. Overall,
20 100 1k 10k 20k
hertz (Hz)
15
10
5
0
–5
–10
–15
decibe ls (dB)
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