High sensativity Deep bass Solid construction

As all Infinitiy's, tgey suffer from foam rot (difficult to refoam and end up looking like factory due to the design of the frames and the slight sag from gravities pull over 20+ years) Any speakers made with potentiometers suggests that they have some type of flaw they're trying to overcome. The pots are noisy and don't work now. Cheap crossover parts, caps are bulging as most Infinity speakers suffer from bad crossovers. Enormous! Not just big, far too big for normal homes. The one thing that stood out for me was the ability to produce a huge sound even when powered by a 30w x2 amp (basically what is now referred to as 200w x2 for all of those home theater people), even at 15 real watts these came to life. So when people say that they think they need higher watts to power stuff what they really need is to stop buying home theater receivers unless 20w is enough power. They may not be made to be accurate or reproduce perfectly flat response, they were never intended for that use, strange why they name inaccurate speakers "studio monitors"? Infinity has been producing the ill rated SM line for far too long and they've made many bad speakers along the way.it seems that this may have been their final exit by making a mockery of it with this Goliath, basically putting out what should be considered a "joke"speaker that would come from a bet made by design engineers based on how extreme they could make something look without the ability to do much more than anything else but still command a huge price tag based on appearance alone. (White van theory of marketing) I spent 2 days repairing those I have in order to sell them and make some profit. Even if these were free I'm not sure I'll be able recoup my investment in parts alone and have to store them until someone with room for them buys them. Compared to other Infinity speakers they are probably as good as you're going to find since about 1999 til now but are easily outdone by many others using cabinets ¼ their size and about the same cost as these. Not to mention others will not call apart so quickly, time always weeds out the undesirables in the audio world. The junk is always forgotten and tossed while the good gets rebuilt and sold for more than they cost when new. One side note to anyone in the market for speakers, ONLY BUY SPEAKERS FROM COMPANIES THAT ONLY MAKE SPEAKERS! This way if thinking also works with pre/amps and anything else to do with audio. You wouldn't buy a car made by Kl

all i can say is hold on they will rock you i have 4 they are hooked up to an oynko 500 watt power amp with a 24 band eq

Hi, Ive got 4 SM 255 speakers and the crank. they are an awesome speaker.the sound and clarity is amazing from listning to music to watching movies (in DTS of course). Made in france and assembled in the USA i think. I also have 2 SM225 speakers and a Infinity centre speaker of the earlier series but i have replaced the tweeter if the centre speaker with a tweeter from the SM225 speakers wich is 200 watts and it sounds primo with the big speakers when watching movies. i also have the small surrounds in another series of infinity. all infinitied out. its awesome. I paid 2000 for each pair of my 255 speakers when they first came out. the only real weakness ive found with these speakers is that they are too big. lol. you need a massive room to have them in. lucky we built a house to compensate for the speakers.lol

Size, Weight, Sound

NONE

These were the last of a dying breed, Infinity never made another SM line, and probably never will.

Have used these for almost 9 years. These things are big and heavy (3'6" - 87LB) and put out good'ol loud, clear, room filling sound that you feel in the chest. They have nice deep bass (down to roughly 25hz) on a good amp or receiver. A nice solid-state amp (Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony) will only do them justice. Stuff built these days was never designed to push speakers this big and efficient. Have only received compliments on these and people freak when they see them.

If your ever lucky enough to pick up a pair, do so, speakers like this don't come around often.

Note: My price paid is $120 pair, $130 shipping = $250. Thats right, they cost more to ship then to purchase, but well worth it!

Excellent tight and well defined bass-- never overpowering. Great mid presence and very distinct highs... They look excellent with the grills off!!

They are heavy!! It takes a large room to create an accurate soundstage... The highs get abit on the bright side in the higher SPL range, but hey, even the baddest rock concert will leave your ears ringing for awhile!!

In appology, I am reviewing the SM 152's, which I believe has all of the same construction as the 255s other than having the dark wood venuer and slightly different grills... (I could be wrong however here...) These speakers are the best pair I have heard to date. Tigher, more responsive bass than a Cerwin Vega. Far better midrange presence than JBL. And rock way harder than any tame little Bose! Funny, the first 2 companies are all tied into Harman Kardon somehow... The 15" woofer is extrememly potent in higher volumes, but never booms over the mid or high frequencies. Even playing bass heavy music such as Rap, the bass stays tight and well defined. The twin 4 1/2" mid drivers cut through the midbass with a nice sense of presence... The polycell tweeters can get abit bright at higher SPL, but this is easy enough to adjust with proper EQ. Speaking of EQ, you would be surprised by how good these sound even with a flat EQ setting! The front level controls are very usefull in creating just the right sound to suit your tastes. No matter what style of music I listen to or what movie I watch, these speakers never seem to sound dull. One note however to say is if you live in an apartment like I do, it can be VERY HARD to tame these beasts from causing a domestic disturbance. Even at a lower volume, that bass is still bumping! One thing to consider is space. It takes a large listening room for these speakers to create a nice soundstage. In a smaller room they are just a bit too overbearing. Another consideration is how heavy these bad boys are!! If you move often like I do, you better find a good chiropractor or find yourself a roadie cause at about 98 pounds a piece, you are in for some pain!

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Infinity SM 82s

uhh.....loud and clear

Kinda heavy

Man, I have had these for quite a while now. I am in the Air Force and live in the Droms. I have the cops up hear every weekend from these things making lights come out the roof! I am running it on a Sony DE845. The amp has the EQ but not the cooling system or power to even crack these bad boys. I have to put a fan on the reciever so it wont blow up. I have cooked 2 amps so far. My advise is, if you want these make sure you balls your balls in your hand when you turn them on for the first time. PEACE! and keep that shiznit real!

Size

None

Size does matter. In my opinion, it is not possible to make a pair of little cube speakers put out big sound, not if your comparing side by side. These tiny speakers and the slim towers are marketing gimmicks designed to appeal to customers because they will fit in the living room nicely. Wake up consumers, it isn't physically possible to make a tiny pair of cube speakers (that have to cover all the treble and mid-range) and a subwoofer sound as good as a hefty pair of conventional speakers, your being brain washed by the marketing guys. I compared two grand worth of Bose to these less than half the price speakers, and the Bose sounded literally pathetic. Don't beleive me, just compare side by side, these blow away the "gimmick" speakers. Go one step further and get a equalizer/spectrum analyzer with microphone and flatten the response. Just going to these full size speakers is an order of magnitude better than even the best of other gimmick speakers, using an equalizer to flatten the response gives you another order of magnitude on top of that. I'd venture to say, that these speakers sound 4 times better than other small or slim (built in powered sub-woofers makes me want to cry) configurations.

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None

There physical presance in a room is awsome. As you would expect the mids and highs are incredable.

Blown voice coil in one of the 15's

I'm an avid audio enthusiest and I'm in my early twenties...which means I like my music LOUD. Ooh I forgot to throw in that I'm an artilleryman, so I'm deaf as well. Anyway For $500 a pair they're awsome but as the last guy mentioned the bass out of these things was "acceptable" at best. My solution? a powered subwoofer is the best way to compliment these monsters for hard hitting music and F/X packed movies.

I replaced the blown woofer with an aftermarket 15 with a similar SPL and identical ohm rating (4), although the new one far exceeds the factory recomended power input. The result is I now have to replace the other 15 because the the bass is unbalanced between the two. After a visual(internal) inspection you'll soon figure out where your money went...the tower and not the woofer. The 15 and the crossover aren't even worthy of being sold at Radio Shack. I've seen Pioneer 6X9's that had BIGGER magnets on them than these things. If you don't share my enthusiasm for LOUD music and movies save your back as well as the floorspace in your living room, and buy a set of bose
AM-5's. Otherwise buy'em, find a buch of stuff to put on top of'em and watch it all fall off as they rattle your teeth with their mids and pop your eardrums with their highs. Sorry, for involintary bowel movements you'll have to replace "both" the 15's AND get a powered subwoofer(with at LEAST 250 watts!!!).

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Bose AM-5III...no contest

High SPL, Balanced sound.

Not as detailed as more current designs, completely lacking in DEEP bass.

The tag at the beginning of this review is misleading for several reasons: for one, the model year is for my brothers speakers, and my comments apply partially to them, but also to the older ones. Read on.

What is an "audiophile" doing reviewing this speaker, you ask? I must admit it's nostalgia. The first "hi-fi" speakers I ever owned were a pair of SM 150 +s back in, I believe, 1987 (these were the predecessor to today's SM 155's). I couldn't believe how good they were back in those days. Head and shoulder above anything else you could buy for their price (like, $650 a pair- I think adjusted for inflation they're even cheaper today).

I recall a couple of amusing incidents regarding those old speakers. A good friend had just purchased a pair of Klipsch speakers-don't recall the model anymore. He paid half again what I did for my old SM's; genuine wood veneer, the works. Naturally, everyone thinks their gear "rocks" more than the other guys, so a face-off was in order. We set up our speakers in his large dorm living room, both hooked up to his really nice Harmon Kardon integrated amp, one on the A switch and one on the B.

It didn't take long! My buddy was near to tears over it! He couldn't believe how the SMs trounced his Klipsches in every catagory: dynamics, clarity, and especially bass. (It's not just the haze of the beer and the years: several people I've queried agree the new ones can't come close to the bass of the old ones. The 150+'s were RATED to 29 Hz, for what that is worth. They would perform feats of bass that my brothers newer 155s can't even approximate. I feel this may be due to the fact that subs are so prevelent now that designers of entry level gear don't bother engineering bass. Who knows...). About the only this he could do was to mutter that his looked nicer, with the real wood, and on that point,I didn't argue!

Likewise, a good friend in my residence hall back in my college days came home with a brand new pair of Bose AM-5'. He was so proud, like the cat that swallowed the canary. Of course, there wasn't room for the two of us in this town...

We drug his little Boses to my room (all the rooms were alike, and the SMs were pretty damned heavy!) and the shootout commenced. It was over in minutes. To make a long story short, he returned them the next weedend and bought some SM 150+s. They had a loose speaker wire to the tweeter out of the box; five minutes with a screwdriver and he was in heaven (hmm...that didn't come out how I meant it).

My aspirations have risen in the last fifteen years, but even now, listening to my brothers 5 speaker, all-SM theatre set-up, I'm still surprised by all that they do right, especially for around $1500 for the whole set. Pretty uncolored and neutral, good balance (sans anything resembling deep bass), very dynamic. I no longer feel they are the best at the price, but if you listen only to rock, metal, reggae, and movies you may as well look no further. I'd have no trouble recommending them to a buddy looking to get into the hobby, providing his main goal was to really rock out.

I guess I'll get off memory lane now. Live long and enjoy the gear.

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The list is long, but distinguished.

Excellent speakes! 15" woofer cranks out some meaty, yet tight bass, while the dual 5 1/4" midranges make for some clear mids. The highs are very sweet, perhaps not as detailed as others, but I like the sound. I found mine for $500 for the pair at electronics express.. if you have one in your area you may want to check them out.. they are clearing their infinity stock to make room for "Energy" speakers.
These are large speakers, close to 4 feet high and nearly 80 pounds. Even though they are "floor standers", I find a 12" speaker stand makes the highs sound a little higher, and un-muddies the bass a bit.