jbl k2s9800 seg wood grain keep or sell?

I have a friend who owns the K2's. ( S5500 ). They must be the biggest two-way monitors ever made! My experience with the K2's is that they require very high power amps although their sensitivity might suggest otherwise.

I have * seen * pictures of three systems with K2's, one using Levinson 33 amps , second with 4 rowland amps - active , third with two 300W mac's & stellavox's for the highs .Even my friend is using a Mac 350w amp which he plans to bi-amp with another. I have also seen the owners manual in which they recommend up to 300w amps in bi-amp config.

Most of the K2 systems i have seen are very complex using multiple amps , external crossovers & driven in active mode etc. I guess you need to do all this to get them
to sound their best. I don't mean to put you off with all the complexities you can very well try a simple tube amp as suggested & see if it's your cup of tea.Good luck.

This is a perfect example of why not to have a website[harman.com] where someone can buy 30000.00 speakers by dropping them into a shopping cart and proceed to pay with a credit card. If I would have had 5 minutes to tell him he would have been better suited buying the best in the HT section of "best buy", he would be 27,500.00 richer.

Im going on my 3rd pair of K29800s in 3 months and have tried several amp combinations with them. The most response I got from them was in a single amp bi-wire configuration with the crossovers fully to the right using a bridged Cello Duet 350 for each speaker. Even though the speakers are VERY efficient they do prefer to be provided excessive amounts of power. I found the sweet range to be in the 400-800W range. They sounded good with many different sounding amps including Cello, B&K, JBL Synthesis, Meridian Amps. Im not really sure what to say other than I am a bit upset he is willing to pay 30K for speakers and 1k for the amp. That equates to a 5000.00 pair of speakers getting a 166.00 amp.....? Get real! Get a HTIB.

Jbl_user,
Good response! I read a rave review of these speakers in HiFi+ magazine a while back and it really piqued my interest. I hadn't really considered JBL in the context of high end sound but I was obviously wrong. Just wondering have you tried any high-powered tube amps with your speakers? I mean something really beefy like some of the bigger models from VTL? I'm a confirmed tube fan and just think with an extremely flat/neutral speaker like the K2 tubes can inject just the right touch of warmth. Anyway thanks for the contribution, it's always good when a real user of the product in question can step forward.

Jond, there seems to be a segment of JBLs, especially with horn loaded mid/tweeters and a large woofer that are sold overseas, especially Japan and Europe, that do not get to see the light of day in the US, because JBL or Harman Corp has decided that for the US market, they can sell junkie speakers that meet a certain point. Once in a while, you can see these overseas JBLs appear in Audiogon and even used, they can easily run you around 3K a pair, for the last pair I saw.

PS: Never thought that these JBLs were that power demanding. Of course, relative sensitivity means squat if the impedance curve of the system is not benign for amp at hand.

Jond,

As a matter of fact the most recent pair will be soon mating up with some CJ Premiere 8s. I imagine that they will sound fantastic and will bring a touch of warmth to the system. The CJs will have a Meridian 800, 861 V 4 on the front of them so the combination should be interesting.

I also know that Viola has had great experience with the K2S1000 in the Asian markets where the K2s are most popular. The 1000 is the new center channel designed to be used as a center channel in the theater/multi-channel arena matching the k29800s prowice and capability.

I am working on getting some new Viola equipment, it might take me a bit of time and effort to get it but I can't wait till the day I do.

Regards!