AVaddict's Full Review: Infinity Kappa Perfect6.1 Car Component System
Please Note:
This is the third part in my overall car stereo review. This was just one of the many components that work together to make this stereo one of the best I have ever listened to, and I've got friends with much deeper pockets! This system is set up for fidelity, not raw sound pressure levels, though it will do that too if need be. This review is of the Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 component speaker set installed in the front doors of my 1995 Accord 4 door.
As mentioned in the previous "Please Note", it is important to understand that this isn't a hack job, the whole car including the trunk was lined with premium sound damping material. The front doors (and to a large degree the rear doors too) were lined with Brown Bread on the back of the interior panels with another square foot or so on the sheet metal of the door itself. This makes a big difference in the overall performance of these speakers. I will soon write a short article explaining this difference in great detail, I need to find a place to put it first though. Well, let's get to gushing!
First Impressions and Construction
I was thrilled to get the package, but was not prepared for how much it weighed. It was not much lighter than the sub and considering how beefy that was, I was drooling at what lay inside this magical box. I opened it before I even got home, spending some twenty minutes in the post office parking lot gawking. There was nothing special about the packaging. In fact, the shipping box the Infinity box was put into barely had enough peanuts. The Infinity packaging was not beefy either, but one shouldn't go around dropping these to verify that.
The magnet structures are very large. For those of you out there that own or have seen the Infinity 63.3i, the magnet structure on the Perfects is even larger! I don't know exactly how much it weighs, but it’s enough that I was consistently surprised every time I picked them up during the install process.
The frame is nothing to sneeze at, but I have seen beefier baskets on 6.5" speakers. They certainly seem to do the job. Weight and thickness of the basket are not the end all be all, any random soft amalgam could be cast tremendously thick and still not be rigid as pressed steel.
The surrounds seem firm and strong, but still compliant. The cones are solid aluminum drawn into form in a process not entirely unlike how steel automotive wheels are made. They are relatively thick and barely flex to the touch. The surrounds are rubber not foam and are referred to by Infinity as "high roll". You will see this design feature on many JBLs as well. All this really means to the consumer is that when you are at peak power and the cone is at full travel in either direction, the cones shape will not distort as a result of the surround. This ultimately extends the life of the surround as well.
Sound
What can I say? I could sit here and make plays off the name of this product all day long, but lets get down to brass tacks. They are truly the best speakers I have ever experienced. Quite some time ago I was told by a guy at Circuit City that the Perfect required "too much" power to be effective and that they "sounded flat". Now that I have a set, in retrospect, I think I should have told him to lay off the cough syrup.
By no means are these speakers flat, the are actually a wee bit on the bright side, so much so I actually set the tweeters at -4db, to eliminate the overly bright character I believed I was hearing, no probs since. The bass is dynamic and multi layered. I have never heard such detail in a few of the discs I have listened to recently, discs I know backwards and forwards. I am hearing things I have never heard before, not even at home. The only experience I can compare this to was a test listen (for about 45 minutes) of the Martin Logan Monoliths...they had no customers and were under no impression that I had the $$ to buy them, but HOLY **** none the less!
The mid range is where I think I am hearing the biggest differences. Hearing people offstage on live tracks, hearing subtle tonal changes in well known guitar riffs. Hearing vocals I never knew were there, especially on Lateralus (TOOL). The guitars, brass sections, and vocals are so clear, (I can't believe I am about to say these words) its like I'm there. Wow. I heard somebody knocking over a beer bottle offstage in a studio released Dead disc. I have had that disc since 1992 and had never heard that.
The way I have the doors set up, I believe, has much to do with how tight the sound is, though I don't mean to take away from their ability. I have extra strips of rubber around the edges. I put it there to stop errant rattles, but also to bring the door as close to a sealed enclosure as possible. Granted the air space is far too large to be reasonable, but I like to think it helps. Again, I know for a fact that the sound is that much more optimal simply because of the sheer quantity of sound damping used. Any way you cut it, these speakers are sharp!
Install
These few hours of my life, and I was in no big hurry, could have been much easier. My little Polks that I had installed quite some time ago were still in good condition, overall, but I had butchered the mounting brackets. I did not remember doing this, but there you are. After some haggling, I got a local junkyard to sell me some. Generally they come with the door, but they had a few spare. Apparently, other the color of the plastic, mine is identical to a high model Civics. When I got there, he ended up giving them to me. Not bad.
I had to substantially modify the brackets I received to get these units to fit, but I had the same experience on a different install recently, so this was a easier than doing it with zero experience. These speakers barely clear the window when down, but barely is good enough for me. Each door took roughly an hour to modify and refit. The extra rubber I had installed made putting the panel back on a little harder, but the end result was very worth it!
I mounted the crossover unit far back on the panel, not the door. Water intrusion was a concern of mine, so I figured, get it as far away from the threat as absolutely possible. I also fabricated a small sill, as it were, and fit that over the crossover to redirect any water that did come its way. That simply consisted of a piece of cardboard about 2" by 8", coated in 3000# epoxy on both sides, bent into an upside down "V", then affixed above the crossover. Sounds difficult, but it was way easy and a good precaution, IMO. Anyhow, the whole deal fit, and that’s the bottom line. I simply epoxied the crossover to the door panel. If for some reason it fails I will be able to remove it by heating the layer of Brown Bread below it. I added a small square the size of the crossover on the existing layer for this reason.
Plain old Monster cable was used for wiring. As mentioned before, it’s the newer stuff with the dielectric and thicker casing. Its cheap, easy to use and can heartily take a big load of power (as opposed to 18 gauge). All the connectors were purchased from Radio Shack. Beefy and gold plated though they may have been, they were less than a quarter of the price of some other name brands. Radio Shack ain't all bad folks. I drilled holes in the door and car frame to run the wires separate of any factory loom. I got the grommets for the doors at a pipe shop. I then filled any gaps with clear silicon from the inside, twisting the wire 180 degrees on only one side to incline it to curl (fold) when the door is closed, but without making it kink at an extreme angle.
The Straight Poop
These speakers are run off half of a Sony ES 1004GX, with the high pass set at roughly 100hz. Granted the manufacturer recommends a two-way amp, I didn't want to go that route for several reasons, some financial, some system related. It is important to understand that an external crossover is not only not required, Infinity warns against it. They do this for several reasons, other than defeating their technology.
As told by Infinity, The combined responses of the speakers and passive crossover constitute 4th-order Linquitz-Riley acoustic alignment and cannot be duplicated by any electronic crossover currently available for car audio use. That about sums it up. They also recommend against bi-amping, but that was never an option for me anyway. I can honestly say, though I don't follow their amping direction, these speakers sound phenomenal through my 4-way Sony.
I did mention that speakers were a little bright. That opinion was come to after listening to the system at the tweeter default. I do accentuate the highs, but through my head unit, at its set frequency. Basically a little manipulation will eventually yield the sound you are looking for. But patience is the key and using many different music styles to test with is also paramount. One cannot expect a system optimized to listen to classical will yield ideal results when playing Kid Rock.
The install on these was not fun. With that in mind, if you are a novice, don't go there. Pay someone you trust, company or individual, to do it right. This would be especially true for those that end up paying $500 or so for these. I payed less because I did business through ebay, buying from their Power Sellers. Its a good way to go, and may save you hundreds or even thousands.
These speakers have amazing power handling, but as with any speaker at any level, abuse will kill them. Clipping will do in these drivers as fast as any. Don't spend this kind of money and manage or amplify you signal poorly. Do it right. I won't push Sony on you, but do get something offering at least 50 watts/channel. Overall, I am nothing short of comatose from shear happiness with these speakers. If have you have the funds, I recommend these speakers strongly, they are worth every penny and then some.
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