Infinity BETA40BK (Ea) Beta 40 Black 3 Way Speaker with Dual 6.5 Inch Woofers
By: Infinity Average Rating: 5.0 Total Reviews: 1
More Information
 On: 2008-02-02
These Infinity BETA 40s sound incredible as part of the front-end of my 7.1 Surround System. They are matched up with the Infinity Alpha 37C Center Channel Speaker for the fronts, sides are the Infinity Beta 20s, and the rears the Beta ES250 Surrounds. All are driven by the Onkyo TX-SR805 powerful 130 Watts x 7. You simply cant go wrong with these excellent CMMD speakers.
Check out this line...excellent, full sound, top notch Audiophile quality!
On: 2007-01-04
To briefly sum up the following review: these are fantastic speakers. For the full experience, you should match twin Beta 40s up with the Infinity C360 center channel and Beta 10 or Beta 20 surrounds, and then--without question--add a capable subwoofer (something like SVS if you live somewhere where you can really crank the bass and like watching movies, or HSU or Onix Rocket if you need tighter, cleaner bass for music and to keep the neighbors happier).
Full Review:
I began my search for a new set of home theater speakers after selling off my old, Best Buy-purchased 5.1 set of Sony speakers. I was looking for something that wouldnt break the bank but at the same time would handily outperform the Sony set. Initially I settled on the following: JBL E80 towers, JBL E20 surrounds, JBL EC20 center, and a JBL E250P sub (see my review for more info on this sub). I hooked that set of speakers up in my fathers place in the summer before I headed off for graduate school, and he was so impressed with the improved performance (over an ancient pair of stereo speakers and a jury rigged center channel, without a sub) that he bought the set off of me.
I was happy to do it, because although I liked the JBLs performance, it was not as high a quality as I had hoped. I did some more digging, and heard about the Beta line from Infinity.
I almost grabbed the Beta 50s, but a forum thread on AVS made me reconsider. The actual designer of the Beta line for Infinity came on and answered questions on the speakers, and announced that his preferred setup was actually Beta 40s matched with a capable sub--not the more powerful, larger, and more expensive 50s. His explanation was that the 40s did better with mids and highs, and blended much better with lows when mated with a good sub. The 50s, by contrast, would outperform the 40s by themselves, but with a sub (a necessity for movie buffs, but somewhat less important for exclusive music fans) the 40s came out on top.
So I opted to go with the Beta 40s, and spent the extra cash on a good sub (in my case, I got a great deal on an Onix UFW-10 Rocket, which has been an amazing little sub, otherwise I would have gotten something through HSU Research). I matched them with a Beta C360 center channel.
Ive now had this set up in my apartment since August. I have to admit, although I was blown away initially by these speakers, they have only improved over time. I had read about the tendency for speakers to "break in," particularly higher end speakers, and the Beta 40s (as well as the C360) clearly benefited from a few dozen hours of play time.
The speakers have crystal clear highs and an excellent mid range. They loose steam on the lowest end of things, but thats what the sub is for, and they blend perfectly over with the UFW-10 at 100hz or so. They perform equally well with music or movie sources. Return of the King has never sounded so good.
Hands down this Beta and UFW-10 set up destroys both the Sony and JBL setups that I had the most experience with previously, and I find myself missing the speakers when I listen to setups at other peoples places. I cannot say that these are the best speakers ever, or, perhaps, even in their price range, because I havent heard some other top of the line models in the mid-price-range (Aperion, Klipsch, etc). I can say, however, that these speakers sound amazing (with a good receiver, which should go unsaid) and will knock the pants off any home-theater-in-a-box system you could find.
If the Beta 40s are too much (even after carefully shopping around), check out Infinitys Primus 360s. They are not as capable as the Beta line (the Betas are newer and more expensive, after all), but they are supposed to be good speakers.
|
|
