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

Thanks for the answers Mitch. The price of a pair of Kappa 9s in used condition, is ridiculously affordable, for the type of sound one gets. Have you done other sort of upgrades to the speakers you have? I do remember people talking about rewiring and getting sturdier stands for them.

Do you have dedicated lines for your equipment?

Have you tried to drive them with other branded amplifications, besides the Silver9s? I have heard from people that Aragons were fine with them, but then, they might have never heard Kappas driven to their limits.

With 4 pairs, you really seem to like these speakers, which other commercial designs did the Kappas surpass?

Bemopti123, the Kappas are my only foray into the high end speaker arena. I have never owned any other type of high end speaker. I started out with a pair of Kappa 7.1, then 8.1 then the Kappa 9. I heard a pair of small Maggies at a friends house and wow, they were fantastic! They had their strengths, and one day I might buy a pair of the big Maggies for a change of pace, not necessarily because I believe they are better...just different.

I bought four pairs of them because I was able to get them at a really good price, and I'm afraid of not being able to replace the tweeters and midrange domes if something should ever happen. Four pairs will insure me of plenty of spare parts.

Carver and Sunfire amps are all that I've ever owned and driven the Kappas with. The leap to the Pass monoblocs is a huge step for me. I considered the Krell 750 monoblocs, but at about $15k a pair used, it was beyond my budget. I tried driving them with a Carver TFM 45 amp which was rated at 350 wpc @ 8 ohms....the speakers could barely whisper. I bought an 2nd TFM 45 and bridged them for monos, it sounded even worse...the 4 ohm load made the amps beg for mercy.

The Kappa 9 are great for home theater also...you don't need a subwoofer with them.

I spoke to a speaker repair guy here in LA, and asked him if he could rewire them for me with better wire...he said the wire that Infinity used was good enough and that I probably wouldn't get much if any audibly difference..so I decided against it.

I am going to make a pair of custom stands for one of my black pairs. One of the stands arrived damaged from shipping. This summer, I'm going to design a pair of stands out of marble or granite and maybe make the footprint a little bigger. I have a couple of ideas for a design.

I do not have dedicated lines. But, with the addition of the Pass amps, it is now a serious consideration. I have a friend who's an electrician that would do it for me at a very good price.

I have just moved back to a new space where my listening room will be 22 ft by 70 ft with a 20 ft ceiling. It is a loft that used to be an old Pabst Beer Brewery. I plan to use the Carver monoblocs to power my home theater. I will have a pair of Kappa 9's in the front and rear. I will use a Kappa 7.1 as my center channel. I have lived in this space before and one pair of Kappas easily fill the entire space with sound.

With a space as big as mine, it is obvious that I need big speakers. For the money, nothing else comes close. To buy today's quality big speakers to equal or surpass their performance is waaay beyond my budget. Besides, they are beautiful looking speakers to boot!

With a space as large as mine, I'd love to try a pair of the Infinity 4 chassis designs like the Betas, or the IRS-V.

I'm just moving in, I'll post my new setup when I get settled and I'll notify you.

....later, mitch

This is my first attempt and post to help. I also have Kappa 9's and have driven them with Adcom 565 mono's for some time. I like what they offer and I am currently looking for preamp options as well. I am considering arcam to talk to my adcom's. Maybe stepping into even more power like the 565's might help. Also a sub to relieve the stress produced by the 9's. The low bass response is what draws the low impedence. Roll em off at 80 and see how your system wakes up.

Pick up a used Eagle amp for $400 - someone just had one on Audiogon. It will drive any load, and the control is amazing...even better when Russell at EKSC rebuilds it.

www.eagle-audio.com

I'm not sure what you're running. You initially stated your driving the Kappa 9's with a mono blocked Adcom GFA-565 and further down in the paragraph, you say maybe stepping into more power like the 565's might help.

I've posted for help with my Kappa 9's. I have been using the 2) 565's to drive my Kappa 8's and they work perfectly!
I believe the problem is in the 9's and not the amps.

I read another thread where someone said they used 4) 565's to power 1 pair of 9's. I may be new to the game, but don't understand how that can be done! If you have any thoughts about running the 4) 565's to power 1 pair of 9's, I'd like to hear about it!

Thanks...Bob