Other Infinity Products

In their early days, Infinity attempted to manufacture and sell an entire range of audiophile products. The product line included amplifiers and preamplifiers, an air-bearing turntable and tonearm, electrostatic headphones and even a Walkman-like personal stereo. I have tried to collect as many of these as possible but am still missing some. If you have any interesting Infinity products, please drop me a line at david@davidsaudio.com.

Air Bearing Turntable

Probably the coolest and rarest non-speaker Infinity item I have, the Air-Bearing Turntable was Infinity’s attempt to produce an audiophile-grade turntable. Very rare, only ten were ever produced, and all of them were snapped up by Infinity employees (mine is serial number 3). It was quite advanced for its time, with both an air-bearing platter and a unique air-bearing linear tonearm  The turntable was designed by Bruce Thigpen (who subsequently founded Eminent Technology) and the prototype units were produced by a manufacturer in Japan. Mine has an interesting pedigree - it was originally owned by Bascom King, a senior Infinity designer, and subsequently by Kavi Alexander, president of the Water Lily Acoustics record label.
Infinity_Air_Bearing_Turntable_Front
Infinity_Air_Bearing_Tonearm_Cartridge_2
Infinity_Air_Bearing_Tonearm
Infinity_Air_Bearing_Turntable_Controls
Infinity_Air_Bearing_Turntable_Top
Infinity_Air_Bearing_Turntable_Back

FET Preamp

Another very cool non-speaker Infinity item I have, the FET preamp was Infinity’s attempt to get into the audiophile electronics business. It was pretty advanced for its time, but they unfortunately didn’t sell very many of them (I have been told less than 200). The ones I have are the only ones I have ever seen outside of a marketing brochure. The production models had a blue faceplate. I have two, one with a blue faceplate and one with a red one.  I was told by the previous owner that the red faceplate was an early unit. Here’s the brochure for The FET Preamplifier
Infinity_FET_Two
Infinity_FET_One
Infinity_FET_Blue

SWAMP - DSP Switching Amplifier

Designed to accompany the FET preamplifier, the DSP Switching Amplifier was designed by John Ulrick and was the first production Class D switching amplifier for audio applications. Way ahead of its time, it was the pioneer for all the Class D amplifier used today. Again, very few of these were produced (less than 200), and I don’t know how many still exist. The one I have is a blue-faced model. Here’s the brochure for The DSP Switching Amplifier

John Ulrick took the idea of the digital amplifier and went on to found Spectron, a manufacturer of extremely high quality digital amplifiers.
Infinity_SWAMP_front
Original_SWAMP

Photo of the original SWAMP
(photo courtesy of John Ulrick)

Black Widow Tonearm

One of the best known of Infinity’s non-speaker products, the Black Widow was an extremely low mass tonearm. At a time when most tonearms were S-shaped metal tubes, Infinity broke new ground by producing a straight, carbon fiber design. I believe this may have been the first tonearm ever to use carbon fiber. Regardless, it is a very nice tonearm, and today sells for more than it did new. Here’s a brochure and writeup on The Black Widow Tonearm
Infinity_Black_widow

Electrostatic Headphones

This is a pretty rare beast. I have only heard of or seen one other pair of these. I have been told they were produced either by Micro Seiki, or Stax, for Infinity, but I don’t know exactly who did make them - I doubt Infinity produced these themselves.

Infinity_electrostatics

Infinity “Intimate Stereo”

I’m not sure exactly what they were thinking when they named this product, but “Intimate Stereo” conjures up different images for me. Anyway, this was their answer to the Walkman. It’s a pretty nifty little cassette player, with an optional radio receiver that pops in the slot where a cassette would normally be. Again, I’ve only ever seen one other of these, so Infinity must not have sold a lot.

Infinity_Intimate_Two
Infinity_Intimate_One

Contact me at: david@davidsaudio.com
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