# Infinity ribbon tweeter



## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

I have an old infinity 3 way set, I think it was called 1.1cs. I have been playing around with it and it has what I call their ribbon tweeter. I love how it sounds especially crossed over high enough. Lets say something happens to these tweeters and I need to replace it, who makes something close to it. I think Hertz has a version of the ribbon, but who else? If all else, does someone have a set of the infinity that wouldnt mind parting with so I can keep an extra set?


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## jimbno1 (Apr 14, 2008)

Was that the set with a 6x9, a 4, and the EMIT tweeters?

Regardless the EMIT car versions are rare as hen's teeth. The home versions can be had on ebay. I am actually trying to sell a pair of EMIT-R (the round version). Be VERY careful with the cossovers. I had a pair of the car EMITs I blew last year because I did not pay attention to the crossover.


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## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

that is the set. All kappa green cone with a 6 x9 midbass, 4 inch mid and emit ribbon. How much differnce in the home and the car? I assume a 4 ohm ribbon is a 4 ohm ribbon. I thought it was the case and mounting that they changed for the home vs. car versions.


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## jimbno1 (Apr 14, 2008)

I think it is mostly the case. A majority of people on here use home drivers.


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## Hernan (Jul 9, 2006)

Hi, I have a spare one. Only the Emit tweeter.


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## jimbno1 (Apr 14, 2008)

Anybody know if the EMIT tweeters can be repaired?


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## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

They say and I have seen that the foil can be replaced. I see those kits on ebay, but dont know if they work


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## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

Hey Hernan, you say you have an extra one. Is that one tweeter or a set? Do you havethe car version and is it for sale?


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## Hernan (Jul 9, 2006)

Jroo said:


> Hey Hernan, you say you have an extra one. Is that one tweeter or a set? Do you havethe car version and is it for sale?


Only one working. From a Cs1A component set (6x9, 4, plannar tw).

I really love these tw! I have no problem on selling it for cheap but I live in Argentina and shippment is steep. 

I you or I have a friend going to the states, then from Conus shippment is cheap.


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## ls1115 (Aug 2, 2010)

jimbno1 said:


> Be VERY careful with the crossovers. I had a pair of the car EMITs I blew last year because I did not pay attention to the crossover.


I have two pairs of Infinity rectangular EMIT tweeters originally installed on my '91 Volvo, which I would like to use on my new car (they had been stored away all these years!) I used them with a Sony 4ch 20w/ch amp (just for the tweeters), which I plan to put back in service.

Although I have the original passive crossovers that came with the tweeters, I would like to install an electronic crossover this time. Any suggestion on crossover frequency and/or cautionary measures, as per your quoted experience? Or is the risk too much for experimenting?

Thanks!!

Luis


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## imjustjason (Jun 26, 2006)

I've got the owners manual still for my CS-IIk set that I can look that x-over freqency up for you.


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## ls1115 (Aug 2, 2010)

imjustjason said:


> I've got the owners manual still for my CS-IIk set that I can look that x-over freqency up for you.


Thanks!!


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## imjustjason (Jun 26, 2006)

Well I lied to you. The manual makes no mention of crossover freq's. So I looked up the specs on the EMIT sets that they sold seperately and they list the freq. response of an EMIT ribbon to be 3.5k - 45k with a sens. of 93 db. I thought the crossover freq. was higher than 3.5k but it looks like you are good with any x-over higher than 3.5k. 3.5k is a pretty standard mid / tw x-over freq.


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## jimbno1 (Apr 14, 2008)

I would not start lower than 6 KHz. 8 KHz might be safer. They are very fragile. Be careful. I cannot say for sure but I think I had the crossover set for 3.2 or 4 KHz. And I did not turn it up very loud and they blew right away.


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## imjustjason (Jun 26, 2006)

Strange as it sounds I think I remember the x-over freq being 7.5k. I will not be running mine down to 3.5k... but that's the numbers Infinity put out. I'll run mine over 6k min.


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## ls1115 (Aug 2, 2010)

imjustjason said:


> it looks like you are good with any x-over higher than 3.5k. 3.5k is a pretty standard mid / tw x-over freq.





jimbno1 said:


> I would not start lower than 6 KHz. 8 KHz might be safer. They are very fragile. Be careful. I cannot say for sure but I think I had the crossover set for 3.2 or 4 KHz. And I did not turn it up very loud and they blew right away.


Thanks to both of you!

I remember now that the manual made a big point of not using anything other than the supplied passive crossovers. Maybe they include some kind of protection for the tweeters. Since anything near 3.5 kHz would work well with my MTX Blue Thunder 5.25" midranges (of same vintage as the EMITs), I will consider sticking with the original crossovers for the tweeters and using an electronic unit for everything else.


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## bakkenar (Jun 8, 2010)

yeah, good luck finding more infinities... other options are walmart has some ribbon tweeters (I know, right?) and Sony has a component set with some ribbons in it that are pretty good, but the crossover in the set is junk


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## kmarei (Nov 13, 2009)

The crossover frequencies for the cs-1a were 400hz low pass for the 6x9s
400-5000hz for the 4"
And high pass 5000hz for the emit
I used to own a set of those components, still using the emits
Those are one of the best tweeters ever made
Don't use anything lower than 5khz high pass
I don't know if the original crossover was 12db or 24db


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## kenikh (Jan 17, 2011)

Funny, I just dug mine out (4 ohm, also from the old CS-1a set) and plugged them into an orphan passive crossover from an Alpine DDDrive compenent set. I forgot how amazing they sound!

I would actually used the whole set - the mids were so silky - but the foam surrounds all rotted away. I may het around repairing the surrounds one day, but I don't feel like going to the trouble of shimming, etc. I still have the crossover, too.

Funny how stuff piles up and resurfaces 20 years later...


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## kenikh (Jan 17, 2011)

Update...after bench testing equipment, some old, some new, the interesting thing is that I am ditching my Pioneer Premier PRS tweeters for my 20 year old Infinitys. They DO sound as good as I remember!

The detail and sparkle of these tweeters is epic. I guess I will use one of the PRS tweets for the center. Yes, there I am using an MS-8.


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## kenikh (Jan 17, 2011)

And last but not least, while info is sparse for these online, amazingly Infinity's site has the specs listed for the CS1A KAPPA set that my Emit-N tweeters came from. Most interesting, the crossover points for the passive taht came with the set are listed:

SPECIFICATIONS 
General 

Woofer 6 x 9" 
Midrange Driver 4" 
Tweeter EMIT-N 
Power Rating 200 watts 
Frequency Response 34Hz - 45kHz 
*Crossover Frequency(ies) 250Hz, 4kHz, stereo crossover network *Sensitivity 89dB (1 watt/1 meter) 
Mounting Depth 3-1/8", 1-9/16", low profile surface mount

Sounds like taking the tweeters down to 4Khz is not the issue. In researching more, it seems that they blow NOT because of too low a crossover point (at least directly), but because the tweeters are _extremely_ sensitive to clipping. These tweeters love clean power and will eat it up, but too little power and once you get clipping, causes the ribbons heat up and melt, blowing the tweeters. I'd bet that clipping and a lower crossover point exacerbates the issue.

One of the Infinity enthusiast sites mentioned that these tweeters love a minimum of 75W active, ideally 100W. Amazing.


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## tatatundra (Mar 12, 2011)

By coincidence, i just pulled my kick panels from my truck prior to selling it. In it is a 4" mid driver and infinity kappa EMIT ribbon tweeters. I absolutely love them but the design in my new Toyota Tundra I'll be using new Focal components instead of my kick panels.

I'm looking to sell the infinity speakers and/or the custom built kick panels.

Let me know if you're interested.





Jroo said:


> I have an old infinity 3 way set, I think it was called 1.1cs. I have been playing around with it and it has what I call their ribbon tweeter. I love how it sounds especially crossed over high enough. Lets say something happens to these tweeters and I need to replace it, who makes something close to it. I think Hertz has a version of the ribbon, but who else? If all else, does someone have a set of the infinity that wouldnt mind parting with so I can keep an extra set?


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## kenikh (Jan 17, 2011)

Yes, very interested!


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## tatatundra (Mar 12, 2011)

Ok, sounds good. I can post additional pics, send to your email or we can talk by phone. Just let me know what you prefer.









kenikh said:


> Yes, very interested!


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## cvjoint (Mar 10, 2006)

These are actually planars right? Looks nice!


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## kmarei (Nov 13, 2009)

tatatundra said:


> Ok, sounds good. I can post additional pics, send to your email or we can talk by phone. Just let me know what you prefer.


would you sell the tweeters seperately
i can mail you a brand new pair of pioneer tweeters to mount on the kickpanel
and i'll pay for the tweeters
email me at my username at hotmail.com since i can't send you a private messge yet


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## kenikh (Jan 17, 2011)

I bought the above set to round my system out. Here's a gratuitous side by side comparison of two types of Emit-N tweeters - quite a few differences actually:










My old CS-1A kappa set is on the right, the set I picked up from Rick are on the left. Here's a better shot of the mids, also very different than my gray graphite drivers:


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## kmarei (Nov 13, 2009)

Do you think you can fit the ones on the left into the frame of the ones on the right?
I might have one of my old frames I can ship to you, if you need it
Mine are from a cs-1a setup I used to own.


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## kenikh (Jan 17, 2011)

I think it is possible - not sure how i want to approach it yet. Do you still need one?


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## kmarei (Nov 13, 2009)

kenikh said:


> I think it is possible - not sure how i want to approach it yet. Do you still need one?


Yyyyeeeeeesssssss!!!!!!


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Ancient thread but does anyone know where I can get a pair of these old hings? I really want another set.


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## High Resolution Audio (Sep 12, 2014)

Should be able to find them on E-Bay.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

sometimes theu pop up on german ebay.
Very nice sounding tweeters


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Yeah I love them but I never see them on ebay. I did find someone with 4 pairs though and I am buying two. One NIB and one set almost new.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

I got one pair stashed that I dont want to sell. Sounds much better than majority of todays so-called "hi-end" tweeters


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## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

I am pretty sure I have a set stashed somewhere. I have the 3 way set, by memory it is the cs 1.1 or something like that. It was the ribbon tweeter, 4 inch mid and 6 x 9 midbass with the crossover network. Let me do some digging, if I find I might be willing to part with them.


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## LaserSVT (Feb 1, 2009)

Well I found a nice gentleman that had a couple sets available. One new and one used but great shape so I bought both. lol He has another used set for sale in pretty good shape and also has the slightly older MK1 EMIT-N that are in good shape hes selling. 

I bought these two:





















He still has these for sale:


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## Jroo (May 24, 2006)

laser SVT, just sent you a pm. You are making me rethink the ribbons.


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## Oscar (Jun 20, 2010)

From what I can tell, they are simply planar ribbons, where a conductive trace (usually aluminum) is etched onto a thin diaphragm (usually kapton or mylar). There are plenty of similar ones on Ebay. Do a search for "planar magnetic ribbon".

You probably can't use these due to size, but I have some big-boy ribbons available:


















*MASSIVE *heat sink










These are Loud A. F. 105 dB @ 2.83V1m sensitivity in the midband. If your crossover/DSP tuning aptitude is high, these can be used from 1.5 kHz+, roughly. A step-up from these, with regards to low-harmonic distortion are AMT pleated-ribbon tweeters.


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## LBaudio (Jan 9, 2009)

Jroo said:


> I am pretty sure I have a set stashed somewhere. I have the 3 way set, by memory it is the cs 1.1 or something like that. It was the ribbon tweeter, 4 inch mid and 6 x 9 midbass with the crossover network. Let me do some digging, if I find I might be willing to part with them.


They were called Infinity Kappa Super CS1


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