Infinity Kappa Video Centre Speaker
Infinity's Kappa Video has a round-ed-edge, trapezoid-profile cabinet finished in attractive honey- or black-oak veneer; the grille is black knit. A clever sliding prop on the back enables the user to adjust the speaker's vertical tilt over about 115 degrees to direct sound precisely toward the listening position.
The dual 5.25-inch woofers are spaced about 7 inches apart, with the EMIT-R planar tweeter centered between them and offset toward the top; ports at each end of the baffle function as a single large vent. In addition to gold-plated, fiveway binding-post inputs, the rear panel includes the tilt-prop bar and predrilled (plugged) holes to accept an optional wall-mounting bracket.
The Kappa Video delivered well-de-fined, wide-range response with a detailed and clearly extended upper register. Its midrange was well balanced, presenting both male and female voices naturally and without any boominess or nasality. The lower ranges of male voices were not quite as warm as from some of the other speakers reviewed, but this characteristic only emphasized the Kappa Video's extremely good dialogue articulation.
Power handling was also first-rate: The Kappa Video accepted highly dynamic input from the 200-watt-peak center-channel amp without audible complaint, and when run full-range it exhibited impressive bottom-end solidity and clarity to near the amplifier's limit-though I would probably employ the Pro Logic Normal (bass-splitting) mode nonetheless. The Kappa Video maintained intelligibility very well during dense, busy center-channel scenes. Off-axis response sounded fairly evenly balanced: A perceptible high-treble rolloff began at about 15 degrees to either side, but there was only a slight midrange timbre shift somewhat beyond that point, and that's a more important factor for a center-channel speaker. Both effects became more noticeable at 30 degrees off-axis, suggesting that with the Kappa Video, a very wide seating arrangement is probably not ideal.
Infinity's Kappa Video is a high-performance speaker that should suit home theater systems at almost any level. Its neutral voicing should make it a good match for a wide range of speakers, though favoring those with extended rather than smoothed or rolled-off treble.
