Got some Kappa 6.1i's today

Going to be refoaming then recapping eventually. Foams are ordered, probably here friday. Mids were incredibly dirty even from the inside. Fortunately they're still very soft and flexible. Saw a local ad for these, jumped at the opportunity.








They sound fantastic on some light vocal material. Really looking forward to having them refoamed.

They are fantastic.

I own a pair I've had since new, well, they're on extended loan to my brother in law now.


those mids are the material itself oxidizing. What did you use to clean them?
refoam them and enjoy!

I see you have RS-IIIa's too. Once you have the Kappa's refoamed, it would be great to hear how they compare.

jazzmans said:

They are fantastic.

I own a pair I've had since new, well, they're on extended loan to my brother in law now.


those mids are the material itself oxidizing. What did you use to clean them?
refoam them and enjoy!

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I used Meguiars for cleaning them, really had to scrub the inside of the polydome roll with qtips to get the spots off. I'm really happy with how they are now, but I'll still treat the front a few more times since it looks a bit rough.

Seppo said:

I see you have RS-IIIa's too. Once you have the Kappa's refoamed, it would be great to hear how they compare.

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They seem to be at a better ear level that the RS-IIIa's in my current setup. Definitely excited for the comparison.

nice job...looks great..

Congrats .. Glad you like them ( too ) .. Amazing work on those domes !
Mine almost opaque white but still pliable .. I actually have the meguars stuff on hand but havent wanted to risk taking them appart to clean but that result is really tempting . Were you able to hear them before and after cleaning .. any audible difference ? also comparison with 4b ??
and ALSO Ive always wanted an opinion on kappa polydome vs rs smaller polydome if you can offer ..
Enjoy !

Bkphoto said:

nice job...looks great..

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Thanks for the kind words!

Listnnthdark said:

Congrats .. Glad you like them ( too ) .. Amazing work on those domes !
Mine almost opaque white but still pliable .. I actually have the meguars stuff on hand but havent wanted to risk taking them appart to clean but that result is really tempting . Were you able to hear them before and after cleaning .. any audible difference ? also comparison with 4b ??
and ALSO Ive always wanted an opinion on kappa polydome vs rs smaller polydome if you can offer ..
Enjoy !

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Thanks! Treat your domes ASAP. The longer you wait the more they will oxidize and inevitably become thinner once cleaned. I would like to say I hear a difference but I've been down this road before and we'll just chalk it up as placebo and positioning. I'm not quite ready to do a comparison yet, I'm hoping foams will be here today. From what I've listened the 6.1's seem to have better dispersion (tweeter), sound good at lower volume. The domes are also softer on the Kappa6.1's than my RS-IIIa's.

The worst thing about taking them apart is the wires being soldered to the mid terminals, I manage to rip a terminal off trying to get the wires off. Otherwise it's very easy to take them apart, just be careful not to mangle the VC when pulling it apart, do it as straight as possible when pulling it off. I'm going to take the mids apart one more time after refoaming and clean/treat the inside once more. I want to hit the small spots I missed around the edges of the roll. I would say not just the dome needs treatment but the roll and everywhere else that has the plastic, this way the suspension of the dome will hopefully remain in good condition.

Also it took a while of light scrubbing to remove the oxidized stuff, I'm not sure if it's better to let the maguiars soak on it then it's easier to remove or become restored. In my case the layer was very thin/minimal so I went ahead and lightly scrubbed it off with qtips and microfiber.

So you have to actually cut the wires and re solder ? Is there a way one could do this without clipping and soldering .. ( I was thinking if I built a platform to sit driver on very close to cabinet at polydome height i could do cleaning without any clipping or soldering ..would that be doable .. ?? )
I did read a few posts re wishfull listening placebo effect .. I do the same thing .. I swore when I decided to go from just an nad c 720 reciever to bi amp w receiver on top and adcom 545 on bottom that there was improvement but could be case of wishfull listening ..
I realize cleaning the polydome will have no effect on sound but I know its advisable to preserve for the future ..

Congrats. I'm sure these sound great - I have a pair of original Kappa 6's and love 'em.

Listnnthdark said:

So you have to actually cut the wires and re solder ? Is there a way one could do this without clipping and soldering .. ( I was thinking if I built a platform to sit driver on very close to cabinet at polydome height i could do cleaning without any clipping or soldering ..would that be doable .. ?? )
I did read a few posts re wishfull listening placebo effect .. I do the same thing .. I swore when I decided to go from just an nad c 720 reciever to bi amp w receiver on top and adcom 545 on bottom that there was improvement but could be case of wishfull listening ..
I realize cleaning the polydome will have no effect on sound but I know its advisable to preserve for the future ..

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Noo no wire cutting! I just heated up the plugs and pulled em off when the solder was still molten. I accidentally pulled the plastic holder thing with the metal for the wire plug when yanking it. I didn't notice the white plastic piece was barely glued in and came right off ripping the wire going to the dome. You could probably get away with doing it while the mid is plugged in but for the sake of comfort I just did it this way. It would be a bit tricky pulling the dome and VC assembly from the magnet with so little room to move, but I think it could be done.

I refoamed the woofers without removing the wires. I can't remember if there is quite enough room to work on the mids though, try and see what you get.

Also anyone know if the Kappa polydomes always had kind of a yellowish tinge to them?

Ive never seen them sitting on a showroom floor but I believe yours are exactly what they looked like brand spankin new .. I wonder if the kappa series 1 polydome was also clear when new . Many moons ago I worked at a place that had a pair of kappa 6 that were only a few years old at that point and the domes were cream .. I also wonder what the white stuff is and where it comes from .. and ... Did Arnie and Co KNOW the domes would turn white or was that a surprise to them ?
great result there .. you are really tempting me ..
I know there is a thread somewhere that explains exactly how to disasemble and clean but i dont know how to find it .. anyone know where that might be ? ( if you could write a quick step by step that would be wonderfull ) need to get up the nerve to do it .. (Having never opened a midrange driver it conscerns me that you have to use a soldering iron and PRY the thing open .. ) I dont want to loose my babies .. and I hate that murphy guy .

My RS-IIIa's have pretty much clear mid domes, it kind of looks like just the top layer of the kappa mids is yellowish.


Yellowing is most visible on an angle:


It's very straight forward disassembling the mid, just careful not to yank the terminals out or damage the VC.

1) remove 4 mounting screws
2) pull driver, place driver on it's back
3) remove 4 screws of the mid assembly
4) pull dome with VC VERTICALLY off the magnet
5) pull mid dome with VC apart from the plastic ring
6) treat inside with maguiars, lightly scrubbing the buildup (took me at least 15 min of lightly scrubbing the mid)
7) put mid back into plastic ring (align screw holes)
8) align screw holes vertically (between the Dome part and the Magnet) and then lower it slowly back into the gap (avoid jamming or scraping the VC, don't worry too much it's fairly resilient to light contact)

You could use a couple sticks or some kind of jig to align the screw holes but it's not overly difficult to remove/insert the VC from the gap in the magnet by hand.

Thank you very much for that ! I will wait for the time and nerve and refer to your step by step ..
So in # 4 where you say VERTICALLY you mean that with driver flat on back you want to lift straight up as opposed to lifting one side to break magnetic contact ( that lifting from one side might damage VC ?) correct ? ( Does it require alot of pulling pressure to break magnetic contact to seperate parts ?

jindra said:

...
Also anyone know if the Kappa polydomes always had kind of a yellowish tinge to them?

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yes, even brand new there was a slight yellow hue to the polydomes on the kappa .1s

my brother, (who currently has my 7.1s) dented one of the polydome midrange metal foil domes because he didn't realize they were soldered, and being a big strong guy, used far too much force:thumbsdn: to remove the woofers for a refoam.

enjoy yours, I find them to be magical.

Listnnthdark said:

Thank you very much for that ! I will wait for the time and nerve and refer to your step by step ..
So in # 4 where you say VERTICALLY you mean that with driver flat on back you want to lift straight up as opposed to lifting one side to break magnetic contact ( that lifting from one side might damage VC ?) correct ? ( Does it require alot of pulling pressure to break magnetic contact to seperate parts ?

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Yeah lift it straight up because otherwise you will have the VC hit the edges of the gap. I don't think it took much effort to remove it, there is no magnetic force on it since copper isn't magnetic. As far as I remember now it came off easily. Literally the only snag I hit was yanking the one post off the driver otherwise it was very easy to rebuild the mid.

Thanks .. Just want to understand as much as possible .
How are the wires attached ? You ripped something that should have come off easily ? Are the wires attached via some sort of clip ? How exactly would I disconect the driver wires and then re attach ? ( Sorry > If a picture is worth a thousand words , lack of picture costs 1000 )
So you have them all fixed up now .. Nice ! hope you enjoy them
I am ALMOST glad that they are so particular about recordings they like or dont like . If they sounded as good all the time as they do at thier best it would be tough to leave the house ..

It's very easy to rip this piece out: It doesn't seem to be glued in too well so you have to hold the plastic in or you risk ripping the whole thing out and tearing the flex wire going to the VC.


But yeah they seem very picky about source material, even more than everything else I have it seems. But on good source damn do they put out some incredible sound. Very smooth sounding tweeters definitely brighter sounding, but very smooth even at high volumes. Very similar tone to my RS-IIIa's.

Ohhhh OK Perfect . So its just a little clip .. that you pull off and push back on No clipping or soldering .. Now I know its not that big of a deal so I have it on my list . They are the only speakers I own so have to pick a day when I wont miss them .. Thanks !

The wires are actually soldered to that clip, and you can rip that whole white plastic thing out if you're not careful. Then you have to fix the flex wire coming from the VC. Not fun.

i wonder why no foam under the tweets and mids on those speakers...Seems odd that some have it and some don't...