Home > Consumer Reviews > Infinity BETA C360 BK Three-Way Center Channel Speaker, Black Finish

I bought one of these last week, not sure what to expect after reading how it was very large. Well very large does begin to describe this behemoth, no way to fit this sucker in a shelf : BE WARNED. Lucky for me I was setting it atop a very sturdy(thank god) entertainment center, which my tv sits in front of. Now on to the sonic qualities. I'm using this speaker with a set of Definative BP 8 S in front and great old pair of M&K s Sats in back, along with a Yamaha 315 Subwoofer(shameless PLUG INSERT look for my review on it) :) all this comes together well with my Yamaha 5990 HTR. A note to all any good speaker takes a certain amount of break in time before it sounds it's best. Known fact.

So I started out with a nice dose of Saving Private Ryan. I find it to be a good test of movie quality special effects and different tones of voice. The voices were clear and deep, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were perfect. This speaker already made my old Sony sound tinny and hollow. After this movie I thought it was time for a music DVD first up Pearl Jam "Touring Band 2001" WOW what great sound, everything from Eddie's voice to the banging guitar, was clear loud and rocking.
Next I popped in the LED ZEPPELIN special DVD with all the old great songs live. I was floored by the quality of this speaker to Bring it on home.
I can't wait until it breaks in a bit and gets a little softer edge. If you have room for this speaker and it's in your budget, go for it! You can do better on $ if you look around the net a bit. One warning I would not place it on my TV for fear of it crushing it JK. For the price and range of where this speaker is you can't do better without at least spending twice as much.

This speaker is huge for a center. Bring this monster home and be ready for a domestic dispute with the wife. I'm speaking from personal experience. It's like putting your sub-woofer on top of your T.V. This is a very good speaker. It has the looks, weight, and sound quality of a full sized stand-up. I agree with the other reviewer. Not much to add there. Music with this speaker sounds "full". If you can win the battle at home, this is worth keeping. On a side note though, for 1/2 the $, the c250 is more practical and sounds almost as good. I think it's a better deal for the price, but after using this one, I can't go back to something that's almost as good. E Expo is great and ships fast, no problems and good customer support. They delivered a replacement grill for me that was falling apart.

Anyone who has spent time researching multi-channel home theatre sound knows that the center channel may be the most critical of all 6 (or 8) speakers. Yet it's the one most people seem to skimp on due to space constraints, looks, or just plain ignorance. So many times I have been to friend's homes and seen 50"+ TV's with a center channel propped in front the size of a sub sandwich. Personally, I don't buy my speakers based on how cute they are... ;-)

This C360 is the 3rd center channel I've owned in a progression of steadily larger (and better) speakers. I started with the usual teeny-tiny speaker, then upgraded to a JBL N-Center. It was not a bad speaker... excellent value. But, I knew something was missing so I decided to hunt for a good 3-way center channel that would absolutely nail action and dialogue to my screen.

The C360 caught my eye early on due to it's size, sealed enclosure (a personal preference), and great reviews. What finally sold me on it was the price. You can't touch a center channel with this level of performance for under $500 in my opinion. One of my reference speakers was the Aperion Intimus 6C. It's a $600 center channel that specs out very similarly to the C360. While the finish on the Aperion is probably better (the C360 isn't bad at all though), there was no way I could justify the price difference.

The sound quality is everything I had hoped for and more. Voices are simply amazing. This center channel handles mid-bass incredibly well. But the treble is so clear, giving voices a crisp, almost raspy quality that I have only ever heard in very good theatres. The actors sound like they are standing in the room with me. What really put me over though was the musical quality that I wasn't expecting. The C360 seems almost better at multi-channel music than movies! I had to back it off a bit to keep from overpowering my other speakers (JBL S-38 Fronts) due to the 91db sensitivity.

Yes, it's big and heavy, but I didn't find it overwhelming. This speaker was never meant to sit on top of a CRT... Bottom line is this is all the center channel you will ever need even for a large dedicated home theatre system. It's a shame Infinity quit making a center channel in this class. The much smaller PC350 could never deliver the way this speaker does in my opinion.

My only complaint is a small aesthetic detail. The grill is gray. I would have preferred it was black like the rest of the cabinet. Very very small detail though. The grill itself is quite substantial and very well constructed.

c360:
1. Center speaker needs 2 person team lift... This is huge.
2. You may need to buy new entertainment furniture in order to accomodate this speaker (I did)
3. If you want a stylish addition to your living room....stop reading this review right now and look else were.
If you are game with above..the quality and price cannot be beat...hands down. It is worth all the effort for me. If you are not a music lover..dont worry this speaker will make you passionate lover very soon. I am begining to like music and songs I did not like much with my previous speaker system. It handles dialogue in a movie to perfection.
If you planning to buy this speaker please consider following...
1. get a good reciever, use HDMI where you can.
2. In my opinion these speaker will over power any sized televison.. better for a projection screen if you are setting up home theater.
3. Dont insert weeny wires... buy proper prethreaded connection cables which runs up to 30 dollars per speaker in amazon.
4. use front speaker and subwoofer from the same family if you can afford it... I could not afford it but I bought it anyway!

If you have been watching movies for the visual...after this family of speakers you will start watching movies/ videos for the music.

My home theatre setup had a small JBL L series center channel speaker from the 1990s (two 3.5 inch mid ranges and 1 tweeter) with a pair of Bose 301 Series II bookshelf speakers for my right and left front speakers. I also have a 10 inch Velodyne subwoofer.

I wanted to upgrade the center channel and after much reading of reviews I chose the Infinity Beta C360. It us huge, and it sounds great. I give it a 99 out of 100. The only drawback for me is the grill is a dark silver and I would prefer black.

I liked it so much that I decided to replace the Bose 301s with more Infinity Betas so that I would have a uniform sound up front. I was going to get the Beta 20s, but they would not fit that well in my entertainment center, and I was not convinced that they would be a great match for the C360 since the C360 is a 3 way while the Beta 20 are 2 ways. This means from 500 Hz to about 2.4 KHz the Beta C360 would be putting sound through its midrange while the Beta 20 would still be outputting through its woofer.

So, I bought 2 more Beta C360s so I now have 3 across the front (1 for the center, 2 for the L,R mains). It cost a bit more than the Beta 20 bookshelfs, but I got a great deal here on Amazon via the Audio Video Source on the Beta C360s so it was not that much extra. I know this is a bit unorthodox, but I think they sound fantastic together. The highs are crisp and clear, the bass is strong and tight. I could not be happier. That goes for movies, TV shows and music. They all sound great.