Customer Reviews

Infinity BETA20BKS (Ea) Beta 20 Black 2 Way speaker

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I got these to give as a gift as the price seemed too good to pass up.

Compare well with my JMLabs Chorus speakers: different sound, to be sure, but both speakers are a step above their respective price classes. The cabinet is solid. Compared with the JMLabs, the Betas are more detailed whereas the JMLabs seem to have buttered up the sound a bit albeit with a slightly larger soundscape. (I am not an audiophile; this is my attempt to couch the audible differences I appreciated when comparing them with my Audio Refinement Complete setup.) The Betas have rear ports and are rather chunky - better suited for stands than a bookshelf. Decent bass for small room alone, better with sub for moderate to large spaces.

I am run a set of these with a 40 watt amplifier and they sound very good. These speakers have plenty of base response for that old time rock and roll. You do not need a big amplifier to drive these speakers. Highly recomened!

These Infinity BETA 20's had sounded incredible as part of the sides of my 7.1 Surround System. They were matched up with the Infinity Beta 40's and Alpha 37C Center Channel Speaker for the fronts, sides were the Infinity Beta 20's but now Beta 40's, and the rears the Beta ES250 Surrounds. All are driven by the Onkyo TX-SR805 powerful 130 Watts x 7. I have moved these to my Living Room...Crank up the sound!!! You simply can't go wrong with these excellent CMMD speakers.

Check out this line...excellent, full sound, top notch Audiophile quality!

Having owned 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 80 Hz which took some of the bass work off the Betas and onto the sub with its crossover set to roll off the frequencies above 100Hz. 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 not only good with dialog and effects when watching movies but is also great for music. I find it easy to relax into the Beta's for extended periods with all the types of music that I have 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 pair of 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.

Associated Equipment:
Denon AVR-1707 7 Channel Receiver (75 wpc)
Denon DVD-1940CI Player
Boston Acoustics VR-500 Subwoofer
BIC Acoustech HT-63 Surrounds

I was lucky enough to pick up a pair of these for the price of one, and with my system setup works very well as the front speakers in a 5.1 setup! For the average consumer, this speaker will do fine in a decent size, large living room/family room set-up with a good receiver. I have MANY friends who use Infinity as their preferred brand (including my stepdad) and when you hear these babies with a good setup, You will see why!! For the value, you would think these were $500-800 speakers. They're that good. Sorry BOSE, but there's no need to spend way too much $ on speakers when you can have these. BOSE is too overrated! Add a a pair of Primus 150 or over series for the rear and you have a wonderful movie experience. Also, listening to old CD's is like a new experience. Pop in a movie and it's like being in the theater except without the $10 popcorn and the drink holder next to you.

However, the only bad side to these powerful speakers is this: They do produce wonderful bass (and mid-range is a little weak but NOT bad) so don't put your sub-woofer in front or beside the TV and these monsters. Your sub should go across the room (beside the couch or behind it) so the two even out. Highly recommended!

You can always trust amazon.com for your order and at very good price; I ordered these speakers and got them like in less than a week. I connected 12 gauge speaker wire to these. These babies are priced higher just about anywhere on the internet. These rear speakers I have the crossover frequency set @ 60HZ. And, these are just some of the things I was looking for in my rear speakers, sensitivity 90 dB, handles up to 150 watts, 1" CMMD tweeter, 6-1/2" CMMD woofer, 5-way binding posts, bass-reflex (ported) enclosure. They look really cool in black with the grill off, "not that cheesy country cherry look". Alright this is it right here; when you look at INFINITY speakers with the grill off and take a real good look at their woofers and then you look at a JBL or a POLK you can actually see the difference in the making of a higher quality woofer. It does not look cheap! Some people say their overrated not ah, look and compare! you better hurry up & get'em cause their not in production anymore. I've got them paired with Beta 50's, cc360, and SW12 with a DENON receiver to boot!!! SHEAR POWER dudes!!

I would be curious to know what the reviewer from NJ who said that these speakers are poor...who's had them for 4 years...i want to know what is he using for an AVR, what type of AVR is important how much power are you able to push thru each channel, NOT SHARED, but each channel independently driven... watts? weight? THD%? the heavier the AVR the bigger the amps, the bigger the amps the more power goes to ur speaker, reason why the need for thicker speaker cable is important and what speaker wire are you using...im runing a 6.1, of the three BETA20's in the rear one has a Monster cable speaker wire and that one is the loudest and are you able to adjust your frequency cross overs on your AVR....adjust your decibels....can you adjust distance... does your AVR hav MultEQxt system from Audyssey. This last item will do it all for you including the timing, automatically!! but u can still do adjustments...and keep the timing. THD% the lower the# the more quality audio u will hav. PLEASE dont hav a 20lb. AVR and expect good sound out ur high quality speakers or visa-versa. GOOD LUCK!!

I purchased these speakers to replace a set of Infinity Reference Two bookshelf speakers that were still fine after 18 years of use. I am still breaking them in, so they probably don't yet produce the full accuracy and range of sound they are capable of, but they already sound amazing in my office, just sitting on a carpeted floor, and even better sitting on top of a wood credenza. That's true whether I play Mozart piano sonatas, Miles Davis, Yes, Green Day, Annie Lennox, Living Colour, Radiohead. The highs are accurate without being harsh on my ears, and the mid-low range is solid, tight, not at all "boomy" - yet i can feel it. i figure they will sound even better after they are broken in.

Like virtually all modern two-way bookshelf speakers at this price level, these don't have the deep low end of older, large-woofer speakers. these are more than enough sound for my office or a medium sized room and would undoubtedly be fine in a 20x20 living room as stereo or front channels for a very nice but not bank-breaking surround system. i would recommend a sub-woofer if you are thinking about a 15x15 or larger room, or for people looking for earth-shaking bass for music, home theater or gaming. i have read some people use these as satellites, but they seem a little large for that purpose, and you would need a powerhouse set of front speakers if these are the satellites. they are really a little large and heavy to wall-mount, and they don't have any slots in the back to do that. if you are space-challenged, you may find these (14" high x 13" deep x 9" wide) somewhat bulky.

this is a rear-ported speaker, so it sounds better if you leave some room between the back of the speaker and the wall. the cabinet feels very solid and appears to be engineered wood with a vinyl wood-grain exterior. Mine are black. The grille is metal and solid, so you're not going to damage anything underneath unless you remove the grille - or smack it with a baseball bat, maybe.

to make the most of them - get a receiver that has clean power and a good dynamic range (i happen to like onkyo and harman kardon, but even their low-end receivers are quite good if you don't need lots of bells and whistles) and use good, thick speaker wire. also, keep in mind that while these sound great, higher-resolution sources (CD/DVD) sound better than your ipod.

Infinity does not make these any more, but i found a pair for less than half of the original list price. Don't get hung up on the newest models at this price point - speakers haven't improved that much over the years. as a brand, Infinity speakers have proved to be very reliable for me.

i couldn't be more pleased with the sound - i have heard speakers that don't sound this good at twice the price. For the sake of comparison, think about Polk Audio's Monitor 30 or Monitor 40 and Cambridge Soundworks Model Six bookshelf speakers.

The Infinity Beta 20 are perhaps the very best bookshelf speaker in the sub-$1000 category, they compare favorably with models offered from B&W, Paradigm, PSB, NHT, Wharfedale, Monitor Audio, and Mission, and the fact that they routinely sell for less than $200/pair makes them the singular best bargain in Hi-Fi today. I've owned mine for several years now, and absolutely love them.

The reviewer who stated that they have poor mid-range could not be more wrong, IMHO. Mids & voices are airy & holographic, bass is plays extremely deep & tight due to the use of that C.M.M.D. which is a proprietary material also used by Infinity's sister company Revel, and highs are very well dispersed as a result of the use of a wave-guided tweeter, which is also composed of C.M.M.D., which contributes to how well integrated this speaker sounds.

The speaker is substantial, attractive, and very solidly built.

I use these speakers in a simple 2-channel set-up along with the equally excellent Harman Kardon HK3485 Stereo Receiver and DVD37 DVD/CD Player, with some budget cables & stands, and the result is simply breathtaking, and for a system that cost about $500, you could do no finer.

This speaker really is the best bookshelf out there in its price range. It has extremely good response for base, midrange and highs. Despite what some have said with a 80hz crossover and paired with a decent subwoofer these speakers handle music extremely well. They are accurate and give a nice flat response on a good receiver. I have used these on an old Panasonic HE100 and a new Onkyo 705. The Onkyo 705 is much better match for the speaker and much more capable of bringing good sound out of these speakers.

Make sure you give plenty of air between the speaker and the wall because it is rear-ported.

The best center for these speakers is the 250 not the 360. The 360 is way to big to match aesthetically and it's a bit louder since it's a 3 way.

If you set these up right and use a good receiver and sound mode you will get great musical performance.

For movies the Beta 20s work fine for the left and right channel giving you the flexibility to use them for music and movies. Though you may be better off using this pair for music and a full satellite set like the KEF 3000 series for movies. I prefer them without the grills on because they have very nice looking insides.

The speakers are amazing as noted in many reviews. I do want to point that they also have the greatest customer service. They answer phone calls right away and emails within 24 hours, and go out of their way to make you happy. Thank you so much Lady B.Wilson. You are an angel.
A.