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Description:
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4.8 of 5
Reviewed by:dkord (Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date June 30, 2009
Overall Rating 
5 of 5
Value Rating 5 of 5
Used product for 1 to 3 months
Having had the entry-level Primus 152′s for a year and impressed with their good sound I wanted to take advantage of the lower internet pricing offered on the Beta 20′s and then give them a user review. Infinity has and still uses their C.M.M.D. (Ceramic Metal Matrix Diaphragm) drivers on some higher-end lines on current models and those that preceded the Betas and the company implies that its properties have sonic advantages over other materials when compared to others including woven Kevlar. I have owned three other speakers that used Kevlar, two made by Wharfedale, that being the Diamond 8.2 and the Evo 2-10′s which I now have that serve as my reference pair. I wasn’t all that happy with the Diamonds since they had some midrange roughness I couldn’t overlook. The Evo’s though are very smooth and detailed with a well defined treble and uncolored response top to bottom. I also own the highly regarded Energy RC-10’s which also uses a Kevlar cone and have good things to say of them as well.
The Beta 20′s are almost as deep as they are tall which gives them a bit of a chunky appearance when viewed from their sides but their clean looking mounting plates and curved fronts mostly compensate for that. In this case, better deep than tall, since their 13.7 inch height and understated appearance keeps them from dominating the room. Infinity also makes another bookshelf model, the Beta 10, which has a five inch woofer as opposed to the 20′s six and a half inch driver. Finish choices are cherry or black-ash vinyl veneer. Since they are rear-ported they are best positioned away from the wall a bit and should be, if possible, stand-mounted rather than placed in an enclosed bookshelf for the flattest response and with each weighing in at 20.5 lbs. good, solid stands are important. With an efficiency rating of 90 dB at 8 ohms impedance, just about any good mass-market stereo or multi-channel receiver should drive them easily.
I placed them about 1.5 ft from the short wall in my 17 X 12 living room, on 24†Wood-Technology stands (heavy metal stands with a 7 inch top-piece would’ve been ideal) and first ran them flat in stereo mode but found that they sounded best when mated with a subwoofer with the receiver’s crossover set to 60 Hz which took some of the bass work off the Betas and onto the sub with its crossover set at about 2 o’clock. The result was very satisfying, tight bass. Running them full-range, the bass is not the best I’ve ever heard in a large bookshelf, but certainly not the worst either. One of the first things I did notice was the way the Beta’s handled midrange instruments and voices – very natural and inviting with very good front soundstaging so that the Beta center C-250, which I also own, is really only needed to anchor dialog and effects when watching movies and while the ‘20’s may sound a just tad warmer than some speakers that accentuate the presence region to the point of fatigue, I find it easy to relax into the Beta’s for extended periods with all the types of music that are in my collection. For example, in Gary Burton’s wonderful smooth jazz CD, ‘Cool Nights’ (GRP) Bob James’ keyboards and Burton’s vibraphone solos have both the clarity and body that closely approaches that of my Evo 10 reference pair. The speakers amply fill an average sized listening room so that they do indeed sound big, like small floorstanders and both male and female vocals are warm without sounding husky. To sum up, it seems to me that Infinity’s C.M.M.D. engineers have done their job well with their low-distortion, rich and neutral sounding Beta 20 speakers and I give them my unreserved thumbs-up.
This model has been discontinued and at this time the Harman Store is still selling them at auction as B-stock singles on Ebay and they come with a full factory warrantee. The average selling price as was mentioned by another reviewer, is in the $50.00 range, plus a $20.00 shipping charge per speaker so they’re definitely worth trying out. They can also be found elsewhere on the net where they are heavily discounted.
Happy jams to you all!
Associated Equipment:
Denon AVR-1707 7 Channel Receiver (75 wpc)
Denon DVD-1940CI Player
Boston Acoustics VR-500 Subwoofer
BIC Acoustech HT-63 Surrounds
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