Infinity Kappa 9's


Working overtime trying to get a pair of kappa9's. Heard my friend Traci's and for the past 2 years I have been trying to corral a pair and I think I'm finally gonna get'em (fingers crossed!). Traci sez he burned up (literally) 2 carvers and 2 B&K's that would shut down if he played certain types of music kinda loud. He know runs 4(!!!) Parasound HCA-1200's. Am I uninformed or is this a bit much. It sounds great to me (I did'nt hear the B&K's) but am I gonna have to do something like this to satisfy a pair of 9's?? Starting to rethink this but DAMN they sound good. What should I do??
mtandrews
Kappa 9's need very high current amps. krell Ksa 250 will drive the #$%^ out of them without any strain and do so cleanly with outstanding sonics. Rated at 250 a side into 8 and 2000 into 1 ohm. The krell are cheap right now because they produce a lot of heat from Class A operation. the ksa 250 is smooth not shrill in any way the 9's will like this.
The 9's are a notorious load that dip below 1 0hm. Many amps will see that as a short and automatically shut down . For amps, consider Aragon 8008 and Palladium monos or Spectron. There is no such thing as overkill for those speakers but, as your friend will confirm, underkill is easy and more likely to be fatal.

Other than that, the Kappa 8's are an easier load, shorter, lighter, and don't sacrifice much of the bass.
Hi MT,

The Infinity Kappa 9 speakers will require at least one stereo amp that has a huge amount of current as well as high wattage while also being fully stable down to 2 ohms. The Kappa 9s present a severe phase angle to an amp and many amps that are not up to the task will literally go up in smoke. The more power and current your amp can supply the better the speaker will perform - especially at high volumes producing low frequencies and complex musical signals. Passively bi-amping the speakers (with two stereo amps or four mono amps) is even better but careful amp matching is required. Good luck!

Best,

Barry
I bought a new pair of Kappa 8's after deciding between them and the 9's and kept them for about 8 yrs. I used Adcom 565 monoblocks and those will work fine with the 9's.

The one area the Kappa's could use a little help is in the mid-range and with that, you might want to look into the VR4 spkr. You get tighter bass, which I'm assuming is one of the reasons you're looking at the 9's plus some very good mids and excellent extension. Look at VR4 models with soft dome tweeter, not metal.