Need pre-amp help for Kappa 9 & Adcom GFA-555mkii

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Sunfire Signature a Bob Carver design? I used the the Rsb 3 speakers with The Reciever by Carver (200 a side) and it sounded very nice. No harshness in the upper end. But you are right Bemopti maybe more than 200 hundred a side is needed because The Reciever never gave me the slam in the bottom end that I wanted. I remember hearing the Kappa 9 at a CES stereo show in Santa Monica and they were using Denon amps. Very clean sound but no image of any kind because they had the speakers at least and I'm not kidding you 25 feet apart. Who picks these people who set up their equipment. I would hazard a guess that they call their boss Uncle Ralph?

There are few amps that can deal with the Kappa 9's vicious load. I believe it dips to under 2 ohms. I'm actually impressed the Adcom keeps running as that says alot for the Adcom. Two amps I know that will drive that speaker well, my choice would be an Innersound ESL, it's going to drive anything and sound relaxed doing so, it will drive 1/2 ohm!
Another amp is the Parasound HCA 3500. Do a search here on Audiogon as this has been brought up before. It seems like one guy was having most amps he tried shut down. That speaker is one of the most difficult loads I'm aware of.

Damn, that sounds like an overkill, 4 mono Silver 9Ts to control the Kappa 9s. But, I guess if that is what it truly takes, it must sound freaking incredible with those 4 12" woofer hitting you in the chest.

I have a question for you, Mitch, how do the speaker components hold through time and use? Did you have them since the late 1980s or bought them used later? Did the surrounds or any components go bad? I have mines boxed, parked in my mother's garage since the early 1990s and I wonder whether surrounds or what not go bad, even without use.

The Pass Monos will most likely sound amazing...but I wonder whether they will surpass the Silvers.

Yes, I knew that I had the wrong Carver amps, the 4.0s...because they DID indeed overrate their power specs...it was a cheap amp after all, about $799 each, new, but the Silvers, they were different amplifiers all on their own...I cannot remember how much they went for in the late 1980s.

Most Carver corp amps were rubbish in my point of view, except with their reference models. Their advertisement, through seemed very credible. Another amp that makes me think will do a good job running these beasts might be some Sim Audio amplifiers, like the W-5 or W-10 monos. Once again, costly designs.

I own four pair of Kappa 9's. Two pair each of the honey oak and black ash. I'm only using one pair right now.

I bought each pair used, I started with my first pair about 5 years ago and bought my latest pair last summer. The foam woofer surrounds will rot. I have replaced four woofers. You can still buy the woofers brand new from Infinity for about $170 each, or you can have the foam surrounds replaced for around $75 each. All of the other speaker components have been durable enough to not need replacing so far. I'm willing to bet your surrounds have dry-rotted for sure by now.

The two pair of 9t monoblocs are not overkill at all, the Kappas need it. I hear the Silver 9t's sold for about $2500-$3000 a pair. 500 wpc @ 8 ohms and 900 wpc @ 4 ohms. Now they can be had used from $1200-$1500 per pair.