amplifiers for Kappa 9's
Hey Sean how about two Carvers run as monolocks? You think it would suck them dry? I have no doubt they need some serious current. With all those parts, it's a wonder any signal ever makes it to the drivers.:-) Or how about a Carver ZRx3200 1600 wpc into 2 ohms. Or two ZRx3200 monoblocked with 3200 wpc into 4 ohms! This model may do the trick.LOL |
Unless you get an amp that can provide massive amperage, you will fry your Kappas. The best seem to be old Aragons, I think the 4004 or was it the 8008BB, my memory fails....they were designed by Krell. They continue doubling down to less than 1 ohm...very few amps can do this. I am a little apprehensive of the Parasound 3500...some owners reported problems with humming transformers. No digital amp, especially those with questionable power supplies will ever, NEVER, drive these beasts. It was commented to me by Rick Schutz from EVS, that digital amps have terrible power supply sections, they are overrated in the specs. Go with the heaviest hitting SS, preferably Class A or similar that is heavy, especially to power the bottom. The top, I would also recommend decent power. Finally, make sure you can committ to spend some money in dedicated powerlines for the amps to run the Kappas. The harshness that you hear has a lot to do with current starved amps. There are some mods you can do on those Amp Killers, cabling seem to be common to be exchanged and some people also talk about better stands than those pathetic slabs of MDF or something. Decent, massive power and enough current is the key. BTW, I have a pair of parked Kappa 9s that have been in my mother's garage for the past 16 years...mint, boxed sets. The Kappas are amazing for what they do, and something similar to them today would go for $$$$$ more. Once you get them set up properly, very few speakers out there can do what they can. The last batch of speakers designed by Nuddel? who went on to found Genesis...see what the Genesis cost, ouch. |
There's an Agon member here running two Sunfire Signature's for his Kappa 9's. At the low impedances that these speakers present, he has 1200+ wpc for the top end and 1200+ wpc for the bottom end. These ratings are based on a 4 ohm load. If you wanted to consider this speaker closer to a 2 ohm load, which may be somewhat conservative over much of the range of operation as it drops to below 1 ohm i think, he's got 2400+ wpc for the top end and 2400+ wpc for the bottom end per channel. This is without bridging, so damping factor is not compromised. Having said that, i don't think that two ZR1600's could do the job here. The limited testing that i've seen on these amps wasn't very favourable. Most all of this can be found in the archives though as this speaker is notoriously hard to drive, hence the subject coming up a couple of times before. Sean > |
Bemopti123 Are you sure about Digital amplifiers not ever never being able to drive such a load? Those are pretty strong words my friend. I know some of you fellas are from that old school.I seriously doubt an amplifier like the Carver ZRx3200 would have a problem driving these speakers. I've come to realize Paul you really dislike Carver products. Even though these amplifiers aren't under Bob Carver's name, you seem to associate the two. Carver pro is a different company. I would love to see your face with this amplifier hooked up to those speakers. I guarantee you would have to eat those words! These amplifiers do use toroidal transformers if you didn't already know. Here we go again with the generalizations. I'm so glad you mentioned Ric Shultz. I contacted him sometime back about his Beta amplifier which uses ICE power modules. Guess what power supplies it uses.. switching power supplies! Here's a qoute from his website. Dual mono (each amplifier module has its own separate power supply). These modules use switching power supplies. Some people feel that switching supplies (like Peter at Acoustic Reality who uses linear supplies with his modded Ice Power modules) are less good than linear supplies.....then there are those who feel switching supplies have advantages over linear supplies.....My take is that whatever type of supply you use, it must be tweaked or you have no idea of what it is capable of. The stock Ice Power module sounds....well....lets say zippy and two dimensional.....after our tweaks and mods the module is perfoming better than the Ice Power modules that we were using that use linear supplies....these tweaks were to the power supply and other things. What matters in the end is how something sounds....this is what you guys will determine. Either you or him isn't telling the truth. Which one is it? Quoting from the great Homer Simpson..DALT! LOL |
Here is the impedance curve for the Kappa 9's. http://f4.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/wLtQQtJS003JLQWVCsufEZM95gi5uACVW5ItP_G1a7hnt5eNa9-cVaCZNzyLVt_QjjNhT1i1M2Bt-JMajpCYlvqVDszIGdxD/Infinity%209%20Kappa%20Impedance%20Curve.jpg |
