Infinity Kappa 9's sound terrible...HELP

I always liked the 8's better. Friend of mine bought the 9's after hearing my 8's and gave up on them because he couldn't find an amp to drive them that he could afford or liked. Yours might be broken. They might make good organ donors for the 8's.

I never got around to doing the surgery on the xovers. There is an RS1b active xover listed now that might help tame the 9's one ohm impedance dip. Paradigm X-30's could work too. Ask an expert. All I know is that the top of the line Infinity/Genesis are active biamped.

The Kappa 8's sound great no matter what amp I use. The Kappa 9's sound a little muffled and offer no imaging, presence or clarity. I first heard the 9's driven by Adcom equipment in 1987 and that is what sold me on the combination, plus the overall economics. I do understand you get what you pay for as well!

I will contact Bill @ Millersound and drop them off if needed. I assume, until I speak with Bill that he has amps that will drive the 9's even for testing purposes.
If it is an amp issue, that is an easy fix. If it's a speaker issue, I can't offer them for sale in this state and I won't part them out. I maybe stuborn, but it's my nature to find out and know what the problem is good or bad.

In the mean time, I will check the other sites some of you mentioned and see if there's any feed back or experience with the combination of Adcom and Infinity, or more particulars about driving the 9's. Really appreciate everyones help and will keep ya posted.

OK...I got this stright from Bills mouth at Miller Sound!

FIRST...Bill wanted to thank all his friends at Audiogon, for their support and recognition, especially Vinh Vu.

SECOND...Bill said the Adcom GFA-565 was more than sufficient to drive the Kappa 9's...provided they is ample line current and the ability to maintain that current.

THIRD...Bill said the Kappa 8's were...in general much superior speakers than the 9's, without all the fuss!

FOURTH...I should send Bill a digital photo of the woofers. If the foam was replaced and the proper foam was not used, that would considerably inhibit the performance of the 2 - 12" woofers in each cabinet.

FIFTH...Hold some wire leads to the binding posts, + to + and - to -, and lightly contact the + after the - is secure. The 2 woofers should move in the same direction at the same time. If not, they were wired wrong.

SIXTH...absolutely, unequivically, the woofers should be balanced!!! Due to the very narrow profile of the cabinet and it's unforgiving design, if the woofers are not balanced, the before and after sound will be noticeably different. The woofers should take a week or two after receiving to balance.

Looks like I have my homework to do now. Really appreciate everyones thoughts and comments and will post again as things develope!

The Kappa 8's are very good, but they are not in the same league with the Kappa 9....no contest. The Kappa 8's are much easier to drive. The bass, highs, midrange and dynamics of the Kappa 9 completely overwhelm the Kappa 8 if the rest of your system is up to it.

To get the best out of the Kappa 9's, you need to biamp them and have amps that are stable down to one ohm. I currently own the the Kappas 7,8 and 9, the Infinity Rennaisance 90 and the Infinity IRS Betas. I own four sets of of the Kappa 9 and will never sell them.

If you don't feed them lots of kickass power, they simply won't respond. Either something was already wrong with the speakers when you bought them or your amp doesn't have the testicular fortitude to get the job done.

I've biamped the Kappa 9 with two pair of Carver Silver 9t monoblocs (900 wpc @ 4 ohms) and they sounded great. I used a pair of Sunfire Signature amps (1200 wpc @4 ohms) to biamp them and they sounded great....and I've used two pair of Pass Labs X-600 monoblocs to power them and they sounded excellent. I used Audio Research LS-10, Reference 1, Ref 2 mk2 and Reference 3 preamps in front of them and the Kappa 9's sang like beautifully.

There is nothing wrong with the Kappa 9

Below are some links to Audiogon testimonials about how good the Kappa 9 sound to very satisfied owners.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1171199763&read&keyw&zzkappa=9

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1140795879&read&keyw&zzkappa=9

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1103047552&read&keyw&zzkappa=9

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1060960471&read&keyw&zzkappa=9

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?cspkr&1142533363&read&keyw&zzkappa=9

Also.......you need a big room for Kappa 9. For small to medium rooms they are overkill.