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ISSUE NO. 28 • SUMMER/FALL 2002 17
describe the subject of this issue’s loud-
speaker review, the Infinity “Inter-
mezzo” 4.1t, by appropriately tying
together function and music. The 4.1t
is simultaneously an intermediate
speaker in Infinity’s home theater lines,
positioned between the higher-priced
Prelude MTS and the lower-priced In-
terlude, Entra, and Modulus lines; and
at the same time, of course, does an ex-
cellent job playing music.
The Intermezzo 4.1t is a tall and
relatively narrow floor-standing loud-
speaker with built-in powered sub-
woofer, packaged in a total system that
combines first-class industrial design
and handsome good looks. The 4.1t
system couples a thr
ee-way dir
ect-radi
-
ator system operating above 80 Hz to
a powerful subwoofer using a side-fired
very-high-excursion 12" metal-cone
woofer operating in a closed-box en-
closur
e, powered by a built-in 850-
watt po
w
er amplifier.
The upper thr
ee-way por
tion of
the design is passive and combines a
6
1
⁄2" cone midbass driv
er with a 3
1
⁄2"
midrange and a 1" dome tweeter, all of
which are mounted on the front of the
enclosur
e and cr
ossed o
v
er at a rapid
24 dB/octave rate. The bottom half of
the system is devoted to a rather sizable
closed-box enclosure housing the 12"
woofer, amplifier, system controls, and
connections. All driver diaphragms uti-
lize Infinity’s sandwiched composite
metal/ceramic diaphragm material,
which is said to be light weight, quite
rigid and inert, and allows all the dri-
vers to operate essentially as pure pis-
tons over their respective operating
bandwidths.
I last reviewed a set of an Infinity
systems similar to the 4.1t for
Audio
magazine back in 1996. These were the
Infinity Compositions P-FR systems,
which are similar to the current Pre-
lude MTS line. It performed excel-
lently in all regards except for a
low-frequency response that did not
quite keep up with its upper bass and
higher-frequency performance. My
measurements of the bass output of the
Intermezzo 4.1t, described later, reveal
that it quite significantly outperformed
the bass response of the P-FR systems.
Infinity has been doing their home-
work! The bass improvements started
with the higher-priced Prelude MTS
line, whose subwoofer is quite similar
to the 4.1t’s. The Intermezzo line in-
cludes a separate powered subwoofer,
the 1.2s, which is equally powerful.
The Intermezzo 4.1t includes a
rich complement of controls and in-
puts on the r
ear panel of the sub-
woofer enclosure (see rear panel
graphic). The system is equally at
home in a complex home theater setup
or a simpler two-channel stereo situa-
tion. Inputs and controls have been
pr
ovided for many different operating
configurations, from standalone stereo
operation driven by an external power
amplifier with the system
’
s sub deriving
its signal from the speakers terminals,
to a complicated home theater setup
driven by a Dolby Digital or DTS
processor with separate power ampli-
fiers or a multichannel amplifier
.
The 4.1t’s subwoofer power ampli-
fier utiliz
es a high-efficiency switch-
Manufacturer’s
Specifications
Type: 4-way, floor-standing, with
powered closed-box subwoofer
Drivers: 12" cast-frame woofer
with 3" voice coil, 6
1
⁄2" cone mid
-