Leximarley
New Member
I still want them can I have them lol
Kappa 9 crossover
- Thread starter Leximarley
- Start date
slimpikkins
Super Member
Kappa11's ?
okeeteekid
Well-Known Member
Kappa 9.3 Prototype ? I'm surprised that nobody noticed the larger L-emim in the epsilon, they have only three rows of magnets but the ones in my pic have four making the L-emim 1/4 larger, A guy could dream lol
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okeeteekid
Well-Known Member
I've seen that one, cool, there is a guy on ag that has a surround system with a pair of IRS v's for fronts, two pairs of IRS betas for the rears and a IRS gamma single speaker for the center channel, must sound unbelievable.
Bahamayellow
Super Member
Let us know how that it goes. Also post some pics as you go along the restoration.All right, you all have done it now. Great thread. I'm gonna bring in my stashed 9s from the garage this weekend and get them going. Never had them working properly but am motivated to do so now. Its on!
the Beasts are in the house! Taller than I remember. Impressive aesthetics. Need some work though. My Emotiva XPA v2 at 300 WPC trembled and quaked at them and shut down after any over moderate volume. Wow surprised me. Obviously no current capabilities. Needless to say, selling the wimpy sterile Emotiva. It has never impressed me. Time to look at a Krell I guess. KSA 250 - bring it! I have a yearning to hear the 9s at their best.Gonna keep trudging.
MiamiBoy
Active Member
I own a pair a Kappa 9's. The problem with all modern mid-fi and even most higher end amps is not that they don't have enough watts or current but that their internal components were not designed to handle the low impedance dips of the Kappa 9's. Speaker manufacturers today don't make speakers with impedance drops below 1 ohm. Internal amp components like transistors that can handle very low impedance drops cost more and drive the cost of amps up. If you want to buy a modern amp that is designed to handle a Kappa 9 you will pay a high premium which doesn't really make sense. Best option is to find a nice, clean, well cared for VINTAGE amp made during the "muscle car era" of amps designed to handle "muscle car era" speakers.
Also, you will make it easier on yourself if you think of each Kappa speaker as two separate speakers in one box so that you use one amp for the top ends (very easy to drive) and another amp to drive the low end (tough to drive).
Seppo
Super Member
Yep, Emotiva XPA's are known not to be able handle Kappa 9's. I remember seeing multiple consistent reports.
I have Emotiva SA-250 (400 wpc at 4 Ohm) driving RS-IIs, and the amp works and sounds great IMO. This amp had beefier internals than XPA series, and was supposedly their best sounding amp at the time. But then again RS-IIs are not as bad amp killers as K9's...
Yes, the Emotiva is not a bad amp, I was a little ticked (and a little inebriated) when it shut down so quickly. Looks like a matter of the protection circuit working very well. It does what it is supposed to do.
You are right Miami. I should have known better. You have been through it with the nines, any recommendations on amps that will do without breaking the bank. Thanks guys
MiamiBoy
Active Member
Don't want to get in trouble here for heresy but "friends don't let friends buy Kappa 9's." Of course once they do you have to support and help them but K9's are an alluring trap that so many fall into without knowing what they are getting into. If someone buys an Infinity speaker at the IRS level like a Beta, Gamma, Epsilon, etc. they pretty much know what they are getting into. Those speakers have a much higher entry fee and that keeps new entrants away. Not so with the K9's.
The down side to K9's is that it can cause a less experienced "audiophile" to have to go down a path of expensive vintage amps when it is not in their best interest to take that route but they have no choice once they are saddled with K9's. There are so many great speakers that are reasonably efficient with much higher impedance curves so they can be paired with higher quality but lower watt amps, SS or tube, and sound wonderful.
That is what I advise my friends to do.
The down side to K9's is that it can cause a less experienced "audiophile" to have to go down a path of expensive vintage amps when it is not in their best interest to take that route but they have no choice once they are saddled with K9's. There are so many great speakers that are reasonably efficient with much higher impedance curves so they can be paired with higher quality but lower watt amps, SS or tube, and sound wonderful.
That is what I advise my friends to do.
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So what is out there that compares to the 9's sonically?
MiamiBoy
Active Member
Once you get into the higher end of speakers each has a unique sound. And to make it worse even the same speakers will sound very different driven by different equipment or in different rooms. And price of a speaker won't be a guide of whether you will like it more or less. Folks who set a price point and only consider speakers at that price point are making a mistake.
To me it is about realism vs accuracy. I like realism and vintage speakers give me that. Modern high end speakers are about accuracy. Both are great but one may be best depending on what type of music you prefer. When I listen to small group acoustic jazz on my K9's it sounds like I am in front of that jazz group in a small club. When I listen to symphonic orchestra music on my other speakers which are modern hi-end speakers I can hear all the details and precision of each instrument.
Bahamayellow
Super Member
I would agree. The K9s have a very realistic sound to them. Friends of mine also have commented on how realistic the instruments sound. I feel pretty happy about that being I was experimenting with leftover equipment laying around. I have also found out if recordings are poor the K9s will point that out. Where as my 8.1s are really forgiving. I must admit I didn't know the power requirements for vintage Infinitys. I am always asked would I do it again. Hard question. I don't know if I could have the same sound for what I paid for these. When bought the 8.1s I thought they would behave more like my home theatre speakers. Boy was I wrong about that. Tried hooking a receiver to them and luckily I didn't burn it up or the tweeters. Amps and pre amps were new to me two years ago.
Bahamayellow
Super Member
Just curious did you try to run them in normal mode and not extended. I have mine set on normal mode for the bass and it's plenty for me. 4 12 inch woofers in normal mode is enough to to make my couch rattle at 20 watts. My amps wouldn't be up to the task in extended mode and I'm not trying to burn anything up,lol
MiamiBoy
Active Member
IMO that extended mode is overkill. Whenever I switch it to extended I always end up going back to normal. Stuff in the room starts vibrating loudly. In normal mode the switch puts a 5ohm resistor in the signal where as in the extended mode the 5ohm resistor is by-passed. That is all the extended switch does is by-pass the resistor. It might make more sense to install a 2.5ohm resistor in the extended mode so then it would not be such a huge difference between that and the normal 5ohm resistor and it may actually be more usable in extended mode. Or heck, just replace the switch with a variable resistor pot and be done with it.
<--that is my "thinking up another K9 mod" emojie.Superampman
AK Member
I have Kappa 9s I've been using for the past 5 years. Great speakers. But this is what I've been listening to for a while. A bit of an experiment to say the least. Front firing Acoustat Monitor 3, rear firing Acoustat Model 3. I just put the Model 3s behind out of curiosity. But just by themselves, the Monitor 3 is a magnitude better than the Kappa. What elevates them to this level are the direct drive OTL mono amps so there is no interface. The membrane has a mass equivalent to the air on either side of it to the stators, about 7mm. So the speakers really do disappear sonically. Distortion is equal to what the amps produce. It reveals how little influence the amp actually has on sq.. They are uncannily realistic. The Model 3 otoh do have interfaces and as such are still also better than the Kappas. They are both full range, dead flat to 30hz but then drop off a cliff so I do use a pair of subs. But I used them with the Kappas too.
Wow, those are Uuuge! Bet they sound sweet. Would like to try some panels sometime. Have read a lot of good thing about the Acoustats. 30hz is not shabby at all.
Bahamayellow
Super Member
I'm surprised you use subwoofer with the Kappas. I get plenty of bass and it goes really low on normal mode. Some of the music I have has deep bass and compares a lot to my own subwoofer for my home theatre set up. I'm also in a smaller room than you have as well.
