Infinity Kappa 9's sound terrible...HELP

Thanks for turning me in Audiogon...

email I received today from William Legal

From: William Legall <#####@aol.com>
To: Brett McConnell <####@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2018 12:41 PM
Subject: "Claim" went out

$180 “claim” was mailed to you today.

Someone brought to out attention the audiokarma comments from you. As you don’t like our work, we won’t have to worry about further shipping “claims” in the future.

———————-

this was my reply

Hello The Many People Who Answer At And Reply From This Email Address (this email feels like its from Mr. Legall if I am not mistaken):

I made no comments about not liking your work. I did much research including buying other drivers and testing them before I sent you my Polydomes. I think your work is excellent. However your business practices seem very confused. Here are some suggestions that may help:
1) Keep business and personal emails separate--as in separate addresses.
2) Give everyone at your business their own email address.
3) Sign your emails or employ auto signing so customers have some idea who they are speaking with via email.
4) If you are closed on Sundays and Mondays, don’t read business emails on those days (instead of telling customers not to write you on Sundays and Mondays...I have never heard of that or experienced it from other companies, businesses.)
5) Pick up the phone and call customers if there is an issue.
6) Have a standard form customers fill out when submitting an item for repair or refurbishment.
7) Before starting any work on an item, check items that come in for any potential issues and check with the customer if there is any question that an item may have a defect or problem that the customer may not know about. This valuable business practice would have averted this unfortunate situation.
8) If a problem occurs you are the professionals, act professionally and get in touch with the customer. People sending you their valuable speakers understand some things are out of yours and their control and both sides can be reasonable when settling an issue I assure you.

Sending condescending emails about "claims" and emails all in caps exclaiming things like "NO CRACKS!!!!" is hardly what grownups do and is certainly not professional. I would not intentionally crack a rare Infinity Polydome driver that I sent to YOU--A SPECIALST--for repair, just so I could get $180 discount. I love my speakers! And what a pain it has been to deal with UPS.

We could have just come to some sort of agreement instead of emails from you saying "NO CRACKS!!!! I AM DONE." Not professional, not adult.

Please know those Polydomes were the very first piece of audio gear I have ever sent out for repair--EVER.

I will surely post this message on Audiokarma as well. People should know who and what that they are getting involved with when they send their precious speakers to you and your company and how you handle shipping damage when it occurs.

Thanks for your excellent Polydome refurbishments. I currently have two sets that function well, just one driver with unfortunate, mostly-cosmetic damage. I will enjoy them for many years to come.

Best to you and yours.

Thanks,
Brett
http://www.brettmc.com/

Brett just saw this the Kappa 9 should sound magnificent with the proper gear - the amp has to be a comfortable 1 ohm stable -not 2 ohm at 2 points it dips below 1 ohm -if you have any power line noise that grunge can come out so a really good power conditioner also helps -In Australia we have no longer made ME amps and the larger models 850 and above can bang the woofers into the back of the cabinet on Yola ! if you want a terrific bargain that drives them well grab a Dusson V8 or 2 -absolutely fabulous just loses a little in the 3 dimensional image stakes(tone is gorgeous) - at reasonable volumes i can use an Antique Fisher valve x10d and the soundstage is incredible -people who say these are crap A: have a broken pair -very common B: cheap  amps that cannot handle the load C: have not set them up properly I have mine on German steel cone points $700 but worth every penny just reveals bass detail that is still state of the art today -get them off the ground but don’t skimp and you will easily hear good male voice etc
these really do sound good with big Audio Research and VTL -better than solid state because as stated and in personal conversations with Arnie he designed them using them
cheers Roy
ps just checked out some of your work -bloody amazing!

Thanks Roy!

I have my Kappa 8’s sounding great now using a BAT VK-500 on the lows and a David Berning ZH270 on the mids and highs.  There is still some tearing/papery/spitty/white noise distortion type sound making sibilants a bit too broad or lingering but other than that I am at 95% satisfied.

The Kappa 9’s I have pretty much given up on. I need to crack them open and check all the wiring and crossovers. In general I think they are just too big for my 12x17 room.

So which amps would you recommend? And any ideas on taming the odd sibilants I am getting with the Kappa 8’s?

I am using a ModWright Oppo 105 D with Tung-Sol new production tubes and a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 pre amp.

Thanks!

Hi i owned 8's and never ever heard that(used Accuphase p102 and Audio research Classic 60 etc when i had them ) perhaps the Emit needs sorting is it in both sides? First step would be check the crossovers and make sure that is in spec - I have seen so many hacked speakers it is sad - i have no idea who to trust over there but swapping Emits out(with the 9 pair) and using a test cd may help isolate the problem .It could still be the polydomes at the upper end of there range -maybe get a pair of those black drop in replacements and see what happens. Both sets of speakers 8's and 9's should sound competitive with modern day speakers if in perfect condition .
In Germany there are a couple of experts who apparently even get the Emits redone and after these guys do the speakers up supposedly better than new - note not cheap i believe but apparently well worth it -there is an article in the German stereo magazine that you can download -not sure what issue now - think in the first 6 anyway get in touch with that guy I will post a link to the Magazine site -even ask the editor 
https://stereo-magazine.com/
cheers

Hmm, I posted something yesterday plus a response and an edit but it isn't here today... weird.

I'll repost my quick question... I'm a new 9Kappa owner!  After 30 years of window shopping someone in my zip code had an estate sale and I ended up with a pair of Kappa 6's and Kappa 9's -- plus a Nakamichi PA-7, Adcom 535, and a LaserDisc player.  Can someone recommend a crossover and preamp for me to use as a first-time bi-amper?  I'm thinking I should use my Parasound HCA-3500 for low pass and the PA-7 for high pass.


The tricky part is that ideally I would like to be able to split 2 channel music into high pass, low pass, and subwoofer ranges -- but would also like 5.1 to work seamlessly.  Does this require some sort of integrated preamp/crossover hardware or is it more trouble than it's worth to make this happen?  With the two 12" woofers, bass is pretty darn good but I expect it will need some tightening up next time I have disposable income to waste.

I need to upgrade my receiver to one that does HDMI switching anyway, so now is the best time for me to choose the right hardware.

Thanks,
Mark

p.s. to anyone whose Kappa 9's are missing bass -- especially if you had a recent re-foaming -- it is quite easy to wire the lower woofer backward due to the color scheme so double check this next if you are sure that the Low Pass/High Pass jumper and connectors are fine.