Infinity Renaissance 90 questions

Hmmm Okeeteekid, Clavil's comments make me think you mod on your K9's may have cured an efficiency problem. Those monsters Clavil is driving his Rens with, and the similarly superb results owners report from similar set ups makes me think that if you can overcome the Ren's efficiency issue, you can really see what they're capable of. I know the Kappas are preferred for those wanting a "big" sound and more bass slam, but I can't believe that, given sufficient high quality amplification, the Kappa's tweeters could be more revealing than the High Energy Emit which Cary Christie described as Infinity's best tweeter to date. The thing is though, the Rens MUST be connected with upstream components purer than holy water & MUST be driven with a LOT of very smooth, clean power. Plug in the wrong amp, and the Rens sound just "ok". But your experience is interesting. I just wonder if with a given set up, the Rens wouldn't outstrip the Kappas..to me, save for the above caviat, they should sound more revealing...

With the above said, if you have hit the jackpot with your current set up, fantastic! It's just a shame you're not in Timpani's neck of the woods, otherwise I might have been able to come over for a listen one day :(

I only ever feed my system from CD / SACD source but there are many CD's (old and new) where the soundstage is so wide that it wraps around - 360 degrees. Instruments often appear to be behind my listening position - and no I'm not using any pseudo 3D encoding. I wonder if anyone else gets this experience from their Rens. Indeed a friend of mine who owns Krell gear driving B&W800S speaker ($$$) claims that the Ren's are somhow creating an artificial 3D experience. I don't buy that though. I believe the Ren's are one of a select few speakers that can actually recreate the actual recorder soundstage.

Hi Okeeteekid,

Thanks for the comments. Yes as indicated in an earlier post I made a dedicated EMIT crossover using Mundorf SIO and copper foil inductors. I have also tried Claricaps. My favourite are the Mundorfs but they need a special DC bias generator to sound their best. I'm sure there are quite a few caps that sound better than the Solens but IMO they are not too bad and if they do err it's on the polite side so they might be more listener friendly for most people. But then it's more about personal choice when it comes to caps and there always seems to be a diversity of opinions. Nice work on the K9's though. They are a great bang for buck speaker.
Cheers,
Timpani

Melbguy1, with the upgrade that i did on my k 9's, if i compare them to my ren 90's, it's not even close, with the k 9's you hear so much more detail that when i switch to the rens you don't even hear what the k 9's are revealing, it almost sounds like the rens tweeters are broken, the rens sound like you have cotton balls in your ears as compared to the modded k 9's, i think that it is the sound that the solen caps produce because when i put new solens in my k 9's they sounded much like the rens sound(dead) if you heard the difference you would not believe your ears.

Melbguy, you mentioned how sensitive the rens are to electronics. That is definitely the case and has enabled me to hear subtle changes in the preamps I've designed over the past 10 years. Although the power amp usually offers the biggest contributor to SQ I have also heard great power amps ruined by poor preamps and front ends. One power amp that was really outstanding was a ME1400. I had Trevor Wilson from Rage audio up here one day demo'ing one and I have really never heard any amp since to drive the Watkins woofers the way the ME1400 did. Unfortunately the ME1400 was going to set me back about $8000 so I resisted the purchase - just. That big ME amp could apparently output more than 60 amps so I think there's a message in there - that high current is the way to go to get the best out of the WWs.