Infinity Systems is an American manufacturer of

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...

s founded in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 1968 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Since 1983, Infinity has been part of

Harman International Industries Harman International Industries, commonly known as Harman (stylized in all-uppercase as HARMAN), is an American audio electronics company. Since 2017, the company has been an independent subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Headquartered in Stam ...

, which became a subsidiary of

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, a ...

in 2017. Infinity produces packages for a range of audio applications, including multichannel surround sound home theatre packages, in-wall home speakers, and marine applications. Other products include powered subwoofers and car audio amplifiers. Infinity products are installed as an option on Hyundai and

Kia Kia Corporation, commonly known as Kia (, ; formerly known as Kyungsung Precision Industry and Kia Motors Corporation), is a South Korean multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It is South Korea's second lar ...

vehicles, some Mitsubishi vehicles from the 1990s to 2006, and many Chrysler vehicles.

History

Founded in 1968 by Arnie Nudell, John Ulrick and Cary Christie, Infinity has produced home and mobile audio products by employing innovative materials such as

neodymium Neodymium is a chemical element with the symbol Nd and atomic number 60. It is the fourth member of the lanthanide series and is considered to be one of the rare-earth metals. It is a hard, slightly malleable, silvery metal that quickly tarnishe ...

magnets, mylar diaphragms, and

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefins a ...

cones. The company's first product was the Servo-Static speaker system which, as the. In the late 1970s Infinity introduced the EMIT (electromagnetic induction tweeter) and EMIM (electromagnetic induction midrange) drivers. These were flat quasi-ribbons that worked to move air based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. The system used

samarium–cobalt magnet A samarium–cobalt (SmCo) magnet, a type of rare-earth magnet, is a strong permanent magnet made of two basic elements: samarium and cobalt. They were developed in the early 1960s based on work done by Karl Strnat at Wright-Patterson Air Force Ba ...

s, allowing for a very low ribbon driver mass-per-unit area. Variants were made, such as the EMIT-R (radial emit), the S-EMIT (super emit) and the L-EMIM (large emim). The IRS (Infinity Reference System) was an ultra-high end system, selling at US$65,000 in the 1980s. It consisted of 72 EMIT tweeters, 24 EMIM midrange drivers, and twelve 12-inch polypropylene woofers in four towers. Nudell left to form Genesis Technologies, a high-end loudspeaker company, founded in Seattle in 1991. Genesis' original flagship system, the 1.2, retailed for US$235,000, and is basically an updated Infinity IRS system. Since the departure of Nudell, Infinity speaker designs have taken a more mass market oriented approach. The efficient SM (Studio Monitor) series incorporated a polycell tweeter and graphite impregnated midrange/woofers. While not as elaborate or high end as previous Infinity efforts, they filled a popular consumer niche.

Notes

External links

* Electronics companies established in 1968 Harman International In-car entertainment Loudspeaker manufacturers 1968 establishments in California Companies based in Stamford, Connecticut 1983 mergers and acquisitions {{US-company-stub