Quote:
Originally Posted by
FelixM 
Folks,
Did anyone compare
Beta 40 versus
50? I do not care so much about deep bass (I'll get subwoofer), but I'm a little concerned about size of
50's.
And did anyone tried to bi-amp them? I'm planning to get
Denon 1907 or similar, that can be used as 5.1 with bi-amping on front. Is it gonna give me better sound?
Or if anyone know where I can listen them in San Francisco Bay Area, I'll appreciate an advice. [Crappy] Infinity site only gives me
Fry's Electronics as their dealer
See below and thread "Inifinty speakers and bang for your buck " (this is not mispelled copied the thread title).
Here is a selected comment from that thread by plhart which convinced me to get the 40's over the 50's:
"Smaller bass drivers are inherently less sensitive than bass drivers which have larger piston areas. So if you're comparing a Beta 40 at ~89dB/1 watt/meter to a Beta 50 which is ~90.5dB/1 watt/1meter what you'll have in the Beta 50 is a speaker which will play 1.5dB louder for a 1 watt input and will also go about 5 Hz deeper in bass before it rolls off.
The Beta 40 is much preferred by the Europeans who typically have smaller listening rooms than their American counterparts because the bass from the dual 6.5" drivers is smooth and blends more seemlessly into the midrange.
The Beta 50 on the other hand measured flat in the bass (versus the midrange and treble) in the Harman 4pi anechoic chamber but that was with the Beta 50 being virtually suspended in air. Put the Beta 50s in a larger, typical American listening space and you'll be able to basically get as much bass as you'll ever need just be the adjusting the distance from the side and rear walls.
Most times Europeans find this quantity of available bass to be overkill for both their listening tastes and their rooms. Personally, I would rather not listen to and know that the bass is being generated by the speaker. I'd rather listen to the music, not a side effect of the speaker. That why I would go with Beta 40s and a really tight sub like the CSW10 (properly RABOSed for the room/listening position). "
Who is plhart? see this comment from him about the Beta series:
"Interesting comments on the Beta series guys. I designed the entire series with the exception of the C250 and ES250 which was done by Brian C.
The Beta series was basically finished in November 2003. The speakers are made in Harman's Tijuana facility using a European hard vinyl that was originally employed on the Harman-Europe (since closed down) designed Alpha series.
All speakers in the series are of medium-high sensitivity which means for a 2.83 volt input they'll output an average of between 87.5dB for the least efficient Beta 10 to 90.5dB for the Beta 50.
All Beta speakers are rated at 8 ohms but the two three-ways, the 40s and the 50s get down to 4 ohms between 150-300Hz. By edict, no current Harman, JBL, Infinity or Revel speakers can measure below 4 ohms as was often the case with the Infinities in the past.
Many models of the new lower cost Revel series are close clones to the Beta speakers with different, non-CMMD drivers. Even the crossover boards in certain models are the same but with slightly different value components which better match the characteristics of the Revel drivers. Note however that there are a couple of Revel models which have no Beta equivalent and vice versa.
The Revel B12 is a CSW10 with a black painted cone and a different grille. This sub was the the best I've yet designed. It'll hit 104.5 dB at 1 meter at full output and was the source of much investigation after I left Harman because in many situations it could outperform, sound quality-wise, the big $4000 Revel 15" sub with passive.
All Beta speakers went through Harman's double-blind listening Multi Channel Listening Lab and beat out each of four competitive models (selected by Infinity sales) in its price point. They went up against B&Ws, Def Tech, Bostons, Polks and I believe (in a couple of instances) Klipsch.
Hope this helps. I'll be happy to answer questions. "
