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Kappa 9. Parasound HCA-3500 WILL NOT power them

I purchased a pair of Infinity Kappa 9's a few weeks ago. I had the Infinity RS3A's and decided to sell them and upgrade to the Kappa's. I first hooked them to one of my Denon POA-2400 200wpc amps. Not enough power. So posted this problem on here and after some research I decided on the Parasound HCA-3500 350wpc dual mono amp. So I bought one from a real nice guy here on audiogon. I hooked it up last night and this thing won't power them! The amp gets real hot fast. It clips when turned up and the speakers sound like crap. We hooked up a pair of Infinity SM-152's to a Denon POA-1500 150wpc amp next to all this and it sounds better! Also, I think I blew one of the soft poly mid-ranges. The yellowish white rubber on the mids turned clear around the outter edges after listening to moderatly loud music. I'm really frusterated. Three thousand dollars later my stereo sounds way worse and I can't turn it up as loud as I used to. Does anyone have any advise? Could there be a short in the speakers? Why did my midrange blow? What amp should I buy now?
400bill
cytocycle
1,043 posts
 
Btstrg: Kappa's are know at for killing equipment like Apogee speakers... they present a basic short to amplifiers and hence require amplifiers that can produce huge current at .8ohm-1ohm loads.. Very few amplifiers can do this for a sustained period. When these lesser amps fail they will clip the speakers and damage the amplifier or the drivers.

Another solution would be to sell the infinity and pickup some other brand of hard rocking speakers like Von Schweikert VR 4 Gen III SE which can kill the bass at 16hz but are an easy 4ohm load. Get yourself a pair of Parasound JC1 monoblocks and be in Rock heaven! Some of the larger Legacy speakers can produce high SPL. Or get some subwoofers to agument a new set of speakers so you can remove some of that load off your main speakers.

I would recommend fixing and selling the speakers... it will be cheaper than paying for maintenance on old Krell, Threshold, Etc amplifiers. Otherwise check out the Apogee forums to see what amplifiers they are having good luck with at these short circuit loads.

I've owned the Music Reference RM200 and while yes it could hand my 2.78ohm dip on my Wilson Watt puppies it still would not be a solution for your speakers.. Wolcott's would be one of the few tube amps for you. Stick with solid state.
sogood51
2,157 posts
 
Here is the Stereophile HCA-3500 test report:

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpoweramps/100parasound/index3.html

Dave
hiend2's avatar
hiend2
437 posts
 
I hope you mids arent fried, sounds like you clipped the amps and may have damaged the drivers. The kappas will need something that will drive a 1ohm load all day long. Big krells thresholds plinius will But I bet you still dont get all that loud of levels. A Great speaker that can rock is the stratus Goldsi that can be had for under 1000. Sorry to hear of the problems.
audiokinesis
2,746 posts
 
The InnerSound ESL amp is a possibility. Designer Roger Sanders told me that it was stable into a 1/2 ohm load.

Duke
400bill OP
5 posts
 
I did not cross or touch any wires together. Asked for amp advice a few weeks ago when I purchased the Kappa 9's and my Denon POA-2400 wouldn't power them. I decided on the Parasound HCA-3500. The amp came in Thursday via UPS. I thought everything was going to be great. I hooked everything up Saturday and all this happened. I'm asking more than one question at a time because more than one bad thing happened Saturday. The drivers seem fine, but there is no sound comming from the soft polydome mids and they did have sound at first. I've already seen that Orange Co Speaker has replacements, but I don't want to replace anything until I get this worked out. I ask amp questions because so many say that it takes a monster amp to power these. I do think that the 85 Parasound is a monster. I'm just trying to find out if it's monsterous enough.
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