amplifiers for Kappa 9's

John Curl measured a Carver Pro ZR1600 and it was so distorted at 180 wpc @ 8 ohms, that he was afraid to push it any harder than that. Much of the distortion that he was seeing was high frequency artifacts from the very poorly designed power supply, but none the less, the amp wasn't performing up to rated spec. Since most amps produce measurably more distortion as impedance is reduced, trying to run such an amp with a very demanding low impedance speaker would only aggravate the problem.

From what i know, this amp was given to him by Brian Cheney of VMPS to test. Brian had verified that the amp was working and sounding "quite good" when Curl received it. As such, one can only speculate that this wasn't a defective model or anything like that.

Supposedly, "Carver Pro" ( who is reallythe car stereo company known as "Phoenix Gold" ) have made some design revisions to these amps based on "audiophile feedback". Given that i've never seen any follow-up on the amps after that point, i don't know if they will actually meet and possibly exceed spec or if they are still in the same boat. As such, buying another model that is rated for more power from Carver Pro may get you more power, it may not actually get you the amount that they are rated to produce with a reasonable amount of distortion. This is strictly conjecture on my part though, as i've stated that i've not seen any further follow-ups on this brand. Sean
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Sean with all do respect. That would be the same if I drove a Ford over to Chevrolet for inspection. And ask them to give me an honest assesment on it.LOL

Seriously though..I've seen this beat to death about the distortion ratings. One guy claims distortion from the tripaths chips at 50 khz and 70 khz. Who the hell listens to anything at that frequency ? :-)

Some of the same proponents against switching power supplies and digital amplifiers go to live concerts where these are the only amplifiers used. Then they come home and brag about how good things sounded.

I never see anyone downing David Bernings amplifiers. Some of the same audiophools that generalize about switching power supplies. Can't wait to drop $4500 on this tube amplifier that uses basically a switching power supply.
Go figure! I've come to the conclusion ..listening is the only way to know. The measurments have their place but it's not with this type of technology IMHO. Maybe someone needs to come up with a different type of measurements for this technology. You seem like a good candidate Sean.Your super technically inclined. How about it ? Let me not leave Eldartford out, you guys should team up. :-)

I challenged statements made in a Berning based thread where both David Berning and one of his cohorts responded. After a series of exchanges that built upon the foundations of where we were all coming from, i asked further questions / made further statements pertaining to the Berning amps and how they would interact with various loudspeaker loads. For some reason, those questions went unanswered even though the other parties continued to post in that thread. Somehow, the points that they couldn't refute or explain were conveniently overlooked.

As to bringing a Ford to a Chevy dealership, etc... Curl has designed gear for dozens upon dozens of manufacturers. Believe me, from his point of view, a design or circuitry that is new to him is a chance to learn about something that he may not be familiar with. Nothing more, nothing less.

As to high frequency artifacts not affecting what we hear, this isn't completely true. High frequency response above the audible band can directly alter in-band response in the ways of transient response, phase shifts, various types of distortion, etc... This is why i've said that spec's ARE important, but you have to look at ALL the spec's and be able to interpret them effectively. Looking at a few individual spec's here and there can be phenomenally misleading, good or bad. Sean
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Kjak67,

Sean was referring to me running Kappa 9's wirh a pair of Sunfire Signature amps in a vertical biamp setup. I also ran them with 4 Carver Silver 9t monoblocks. As far as I'm concerned, biamping them is the only way to go to get the most mileage out of those boys if you don't have a lot of money to spend on amps. The Sunfire Signature stereo amps can be had here on Agon for $1500 to $1800. The Carver Silver 9t monoblocks can be had for $1200 to $1500 per pair.

One pair of Carver monoblocks or one Sunfire Signature stereo amp will drive the Kappa 9's satisfactorally, however, biamp them and it's a different world.

The Sunfire amps were better all around from top to bottom, the bass was very good with the Sunfire amps, but could not duplicate the bass slam of the Carver monoblocks.

Whe I was running my Kappa 9's, I lived in a loft that was 22 x 70 ft with 20 ft ceilings. The Kappa 9's using the 4 Carver monoblocks or the two Sunfire amps filled the room with music to the brim with lots of headroom to spare.

I own two pair of Kappa 9's. I have lent one pair to a friend and the other pair is in storage. Hopefully, one day I'll own a room big enough again to let them stretch out and do their thing again with some serious high end amplification. My current room is 17 x 20 feet with 9 ft ceilings....the Kappa 9's were just too physically dominant in my current room and my wife wouldn't have it......so I am now biamping a pair of Infinity Rennaisance 90's with a pair of Sunfire Signature amps and life is good.

good luck in your quest

Gmood, I do not dispute your info on the Carvers, but then, why isn't there a Kappa 9 owner out there that is driving these ampeaters with the latest holy grail in audio amplification? I trust that these owners have been experimenting with older SS behemots as most Kappa 9 owners will try. I personally do not believe that I would ever try to let them run fullrange with an amp like the Carver Pro.

One word on caution: play with underbuilt amplifiers and the Kappa 9 and you are risking massive failure of either the amp or the Kappas, I would not risk the Kappas with inadequate amplification.

Remember another word: dedicated power supplies!

The last time I remember running the Kappas, it really juiced up the electricity of my outlets....could even see the lights pulsating with the volume going up and down.

hehehehe.