What Class D amps will drive a 2 ohm load

 joysjane:
"Stay tuned for my first-hand experience as to how these amps drove my original un-modded Infinity Kappa 9's.
One of the amp killing speakers..."

Hello joysjane,

     Wow, a teaser on the W4S SX-1000 class D amps and how they worked driving your very low impedance load and notoriously difficult to drive Infinity Kappa 9 speakers.  
Full details next on News at Eleven? 
Off the record, on the Q.T. and very hush-hush?

     Very tantalizing, great job!  You got me hooked, I'm certainly not touching that dial.
     Drum roll, please?

Tim

Yeah, I had to send a PM to him a couple of days ago to say, "wassup"!!! where’s the result, did it blow and take the house out?

Cheers George

Bahahahaaaaa...
You's are funny, got me laughing.
House is still standing. 

What happened...
The wife called me saying the boxes arrived.
She then asked me, there's amps in these two boxes?
So, had to explain what they were, why they were so small and why they weighed next to nothing.
All I got was an ok.

Removed the WOPL 700's and hooked up the SX-1000's.
I let the amps play on a repeat cd at a low level with the Kappa's in the "Normal" switched position starting early in the morning. Let that roll until 3:00 in the afternoon.
Time to start listening...

At half volume I listened for about an hour. All was ok so, time to crank it up. Turned up the volume to 3/4 on the Oppo (the 105D is driving the amps directly). Listened for another 30 minutes and all is still ok.
Time to get down to amp-busting' Kappa 9's, lowered the volume to 1/4 and switched the speakers into "Extended" mode. I've put many of my amps into protection mode with the Kappa's in "Extended" mode.
Being a little leery of these tiny amps I started out at 1/4 volume listening to various CD's, SACD's and DVD-A discs.
All is well after 30 minutes so, time to crank it up a bit.
At 1/2 volume now, stayed at this level for an hour while checking if the amps were getting warm. This is the point of no return for many amps I've tried. Half volume and up with the 9's in "Extended" mode is a brutal test for any amplifier.

Ok, I'm starting to get curious. I'm getting up and down, feeling the amps to see if there's any sign of temperature increase. Feeling the sides, the top, the front & back... no temp increase.
In comes the wife from running around town.
I haven't given my assessment of the sound for a reason. It will come later.
I'm listening, the wife walks in and is looking at the speakers with a puzzled look on her face. She turns to me and says... what's wrong with speakers? Something's missing, I don't like it.
That's the extent of her ability to evaluate what she hears. 
More on this later...

Time to turn the volume up to 3/4 and listen.
Put in some dynamic music... John Lee Hooker's "BOOM BOMM" 24/96 DAD.
The SX-1000's are still pushing the Kappa 9's in "Extended" mode.
Many amps have shut down at this point and, only a few have passed the next level test.
Volume up to 100% and let's have a go.
After 2 minutes I get some very loud snaps coming out of my EMIT K & SEMIT K drivers on the left channel speaker. Right channel speaker ok.
Wife comes running in from the kitchen asking what was that? I got to the volume control as quick as possible and turned the system down.
CRAP!!!

Not sure what happened. I have the protection on my crossovers by-passed. Have never had this happen.
I looked at the EMIT & SEMIT drivers on the left speaker to see if there was any arcing visible on the membranes. Nope, all looked normal.
Let everything rest for a half hour and then started bringing up the volume. Wanting to make sure I didn't fry something.
Music came back as before. Whew... hoping I dodged a bullet.

I want all to know that I'm in no way a qualified listener/evaluator of equipment and/or speakers.
I also can't give any measurements of what this listening session produced... to/for ME.
What I am is a person who enjoys his system and the music that's played on that system.
I do know what my system sounds like and feel I can give an accurate blah blah of what I heard.

Now let's get to the sound produced. 
And also to what the wife had observed.
At lower levels the music seemed to have lost weight/slam/punch. This loss was in the lower frequencies.
This is exactly what my wife had heard. She's not sure what was missing but, she knew something was missing. I didn't prod her or guide her for an explanation but what she said was "Where's the bass"?
As the volume went up the bottom seemed to increase but, the Kappa 9's sounded anemic. These Infinity's are everything but anemic!

I also found the same thing when driving the amps with my DV-AX10.
Just to make sure it wasn't the Oppo producing what I was hearing.

I'm gonna be the first to say I didn't think these amps had a chance.
I was surprised my Infinity speakers didn't throw the amps into protection mode... I did try.
In no way did I think they could drive one of the most difficult speaker loads ever produced... they did.
When I heard those loud snaps... I'm not gonna say that the amps started clipping at full volume. 
I do know what other amps sound like when clipping, I don't know what a Class D amp sounds like when clipping.

I want to add something to the Class D monos driving my Infinity’s...

With the noticeable lack of bass at lower volumes I must pose a thought I’m having.
Is the lack of bass/bottom caused by the crazy impedance load of the Kappa 9’s when being driven by these amps?

I have a pair of Legacy-Audio Focus speakers tucked away.
They do not lack any bottom end with any amps I’ve driven them with... maybe because they’re a much more efficient speaker than the 9’s might that bottom return with these Class D amps?
I don’t know.

Y'alls thoughts regarding the impedance of the Kappa 9's...

Maybe one of these days I can wrestle those heavy bastards out and hook up the SX’s.
Kinda doubting that will happen as I’m not getting any younger or less broken.

I was really hoping the Class D amps would provide this.
I’m gonna start reducing the amount of gear I have and would have loved amps the size and weight of these Class D’s. I could have moved them around easily.
But, the Infinity’s are staying... the rest are going bye-bye.

So, I now have to carry those heavy/awkward Phase Linear Clair Bros WOPL amps back up the stairs and re-configure...
Damn!

One more thing, about my cables in the system that was tested...
Cardas Golden Reference power cables, Monster Sigma Interconnects with Monster Sigma Speaker cables (ME2’s).
Not junk cabling for sure.

I don't know what a Class D amp sounds like when clipping.

That depends very much on how the amp is designed. Some soft clip and some don't- some 'snap' when they clip. You really don't want to do that with a powerful amp- the tweeters are at risk!