Classia C336 Build Quality

For those of you that have read the $1500 - $2000 Floorstanding Speaker Shootout article, you've already heard of the Infinity Classia C336s. Overall, they didn't do so hot in the shootout. But one of the things that was supposed to happen is that every speaker was supposed to get an individual review from me before the shootout. The Infinitys were a late addition and there wasn't time (I literally received them the week of the shootout). However, that's not going to stop me from giving them a thorough review. Are my perceptions going to be tainting by the shootout? Probably. But bias isn't exactly exempt from all other reviews of these speakers. Some people will love or hate them for their looks, brand, price, or whatever. I just have the opinion of a few of my peers to contend with. I would like to point out that one of the three participants did say that he liked and would buy these speakers in the blind portion of the shootout. It isn't like they were panned.

Disclaimer - I'm going to tell a trite but true wife story here. If you want to skip over this overused convention of audio reviews, go to the next paragraph, do not pass go, do not collection $200. My wife remarked after I had set up the Classias that these were the first speakers she's ever really noticed without me having to point out that I changed them out. It was because of the cherry wood and swept-back top. From a purely WAF factor, the Infinities have already gotten a check in the "yes" box.

I've recently completed a review of the Infinity Primus P162 bookshelf speakers. I'm sort of on an Infinity kick right now. Because of the aforementioned shootout article, many of my speaker reviews got pushed back which ended up with both of the Infinity reviews happening back to back. The Classias share a similar looking array of drivers to the Primus line but there the resemblances end. The Classias are priced much higher and their construction, weight, and aesthetics all show this. With a nod to my wife, these are one of the more unique looking speakers I've ever reviewed and that alone is something.

Build Quality

As you'd expect from a company like Infinity, the Classias arrived well boxed in individual boxes. The "outriggers" came attached with the rubber feet already inserted. The foam endcaps and side caps held the speakers firmly in place and the speaker arrived with no damage. This was especially impressive considering the weight. At over 55 pounds a piece, the Classias are by no means a lightweight speaker. This contributed to the one problem I had with the speaker - the cotton sock. This ubiquitous piece of audiophilia encourages some to associate the enclosed equipment with quality. I'm not sure why this is but it seems to be the case. Even I, when first presented with the cotton sock, was a little giddy. I had "made it" as an audio guy when my first amp/speaker/whatever it was came in a sock. Of course, just about everything comes in a sock these days so it's lost a bit of its luster. When you unwrap a router in a sock, you don't look at the sock the same way ever again. Plus, it gets fuzz everywhere. Who wants that? And no, I'm not getting paid by the number of times I can mention sock in one paragraph. Sock.

The big problem with the sock vis à vis heavy speakers is unpacking them. It's like trying to wrestle a 55lb squirming fish up onto the deck of a boat - you need help. The slanted top of the speaker doesn't make this any easier as I would normally set the speaker on its top and slide the sock down. Luckily, Infinity designed their foam caps in two parts so that you could "undress" the speaker (mostly) before removing it from the box.

The top and bottom of the speakers have a cherry stained plywood face (high gloss black is also available at no additional cost). The top is molded and swept back. These plywood plates overhang the sides by a bit. The grill has a plastic top and bottom cap and lines up with the overhang of the plywood plates. This creates a very refined look to the front of the speaker. On the bottom, there are four plastic outriggers that can be removed with three screws. There really isn't any reason to unless you are going to add other aftermarket outriggers.

The sides of the speaker have vertical cutouts every 3/4" or so. The back is rounded to mirror the cut of the top plywood panel. On the back, there is a single port at the top (directly behind the tweeter) and two sets of binding posts at the bottom. Everything that is not covered by the plywood is wrapped in black vinyl. While the fit and finish of the vinyl is quite good, it is still a delicate material and scores easily. On the bottom you can see clearly where the walls meet the bottom by the seams in the vinyl wrap. The only exception to the vinyl wrap is the back which has a large, top to bottom plastic plate over it. While I probably would have complained either way, given the option, I'd wrap the MDF in a plastic plate rather than vinyl.

The front baffle is exposed once you remove the grill. The grill has large plastic posts which hold it securely but because of the size, it feels a bit more fragile than the Primus grill (which I liked a lot more). I've generally found that plastic bracing for grills work fine in smaller applications but for larger speakers they just tend to warp too much. I don't think I was ever at risk of breaking them as I removed or replaced them, but I did worry. The biggest problem with the aesthetics is that the speaker looks weird with the grills off. It is because of the overhanging plywood facades. The front baffle doesn't line up with the plywood like the grill does so it looks a little weird. Now, while my podcasting partner might think I'm a weirdo for removing the grills at all, I know that many of our readers are going to do just that - especially during critical listening sessions (usually with drinks and friends). If you're not a grill-remover type, rest assured that the speakers look best with them on.

The Classias sport a 1" tweeter, a 4" midrange, and three 6.5" woofers. All of the drivers are made out of CMMD (Ceramic Metal Matrix Diaphragms), a material that is engineered to be "stiffer than standard metal diaphragms, moving the natural modes significantly upwards in frequency." Unlike the MMD drivers on the Primus that looked like plastic, the CMMD drivers have a bit more of a chrome look about them. Unfortunately, you'll only notice this if you get up really close as the grey surround material makes the rest of the cone look the same dull color. Infinity would probably have been better off going with a black surround and letting the cone shine in comparison. What's really nice about the CMMD cones (especially for the woofers) is that the dust caps are REALLY stiff. Your child is going to have to work to push those in. Oh, I'm sure they'll figure out a way of doing it, but it won't be the faint pressure that it takes most other woofers. As I mentioned, the front baffle is also covered in a vinyl wrap. While I'm not a huge fan, I'm glad that Infinity went with a flat black instead of some sort of woodgrain finish. The flat black tends to blend much better (especially from a distance) with a darkened room and really sets off the plywood facades.

The Classias aren't a large speaker… well, they are tall but not wide. While the tweeter height is about right, the top of the speaker is a good 10+ inches higher than that. Even with that extra height in the back, the speaker is still a bit front heavy and tended to want to tip forward. This seemed counterintuitive until I opened them up (see below). The rubber feet that came installed on the outriggers were probably one of the nicer I've seen but the carpet spikes were, in a word, scary. In the picture to the right, that spike is installed as far as it will go! This is not a speaker you're going to want to drop on your foot with the spikes installed. I suppose you can tell your wife they are Twilight branded vampire speaker and that they'll sparkle if you take them out in the sunlight.

Opening up the speakers, I was amazed at the amount of engineering that went into the Classia C336s. While not a huge speaker by any stretch of the imagination, the inside was even tighter. It looked as if the cabinet was constructed out of 5/8" MDF. The drivers, while sporting stamped baskets (a disappointment at this price point), were heavy. Each had a huge magnet structure and were magnetically shielded. This explained why the speakers were so front heavy. There were four 5/8" internal braces - one between each of the woofers, one beneath the bottom woofer, and one between the top woofer and the midrange. The midrange was enclosed in its own reinforced plastic backbox. The tweeter was mounted to the plastic housing that served double duty as a vanity surround for the midrange. Each of the woofers also has a plastic vanity surround. The knock test, as you might expect, was incredibly impressive. A dull thud no matter where I hit. The inertness of the cabinet on the Classia C336s is to be commended.

Behind each of the woofers and the tweeter was a layer of polyfill glued to the sides and back. The inside edge of the port was flared and looked to be covered in leather (more likely pleather) probably to reduce chuffing. Every exposed wire was wrapped in foam so you'll never have to worry about a wire rubbing and making noise. While you'd think the top of the enclosure would be slanted like the outside, it wasn't. The inside enclosure stopped before that and was actually parallel to the floor. The whole top section is simply for looks and maybe to help balance out some of the weight of the drivers. The only weird part was that the inside walls and back of the enclosure looked to have a piece of wood glued to them. I'm not sure what the purpose of this was as it didn't look to be structural. At first I thought it was to make the inside look nicer but who does that? My second (and only) guess is that their modeling program wanted them to reduce the interior volume and this extra wood was for that purpose. It was a bit odd. Infinity really seemed to cut a lot of corners in their crossover design by employing cheap iron core inductors instead or air core and all electrolytic capacitors instead of polypropylene. I suspect the poor selection of parts choices here are largely the reason why these speakers left much to be desired sonically with respect to transparency.