What Class D amps will drive a 2 ohm load

Well that would make sense as you describe it sounding sterile.
Most definitely would be the reason why my wife asked what's wrong with the stereo...

I am happy they didn't damage my Kappa Tweeters. Did an inspection right after and all's ok.

They're singing with the WOPL's now....

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The OP asked a simple question...
"What Class D amps will drive a 2 ohm load"

Specs Shmecs,
Opinions Shmapinions.
My Brother’s Shmother’s Frother’s Caruther said.
Ba-Loney!

1. Get a Class D amp.
2. Find some Kappa 9’s.
3. Set the the switch in the rear to Extended.
4. Crank up the music.
5. The Class D amp that doesn’t shut down will drive a 2 ohm load.

I can say this after completion of the above five steps,
This is gonna be one very short list of Class D amps... Bahahahaaaaaaa!

My answer to the posted question,
Stay away from Class D amps to drive low impedance speakers.

By the way dsper...
Truly a great pair of speakers.
Enjoy them with whatever you pair them with.

Holy moly, 3000w for $299?
That amp blows away the puny watts in my stable.
What was I thinking!

Wait a second.................

Wow!
The Wilson Alexia's get into areas of the Kappa 9's for difficult to drive?
Did not know that, thought all Wilson's were very efficient speakers.

We're gonna need a bigger boat...

Hello georgehifi,

I may be purchasing a pair of mono blocks.
They're Wyred4sound SX-1000's.
Some of the higher power Class D amps.

If the sale goes through I'll be sure to let you know whether they can drive a very difficult load speaker.

To let you know what I'll be driving...
A pair of original Infinity Kappa 9 speakers.
This will end the debate of whether these Class D amps can drive some low Ohm speakers for sure!

Right now I drive my 9's with 2 WOPL Phase Linear 700 amps along with my Krell KSA-250.
The Krell drives them to realistic listening levels with zero issues.
The WOPL's drive them as well but they do require active cooling.
I keep my Kappa 9's in the "Extended" mode as that's a true measure of whether the amps can drive them or not.

I have been very curious myself if these Class D amps are up to the task.

Will let you know if I do acquire these...


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One of the reasons I’d like to give these a go...
Specifications

• Design: Monoblock Power Amplifier, Class D.
• Power Output: 570 Watts RMS into 8 Ohms, 1,140 Watts RMS into 4 Ohms.
• MFR: 20 Hz – 20 kHz, ± 0.4 dB.
• THD+N: 0.2% at Rated Output.
• IMD: (CCIF): 0.0005%
• Efficiency: 79%
• Sensitivity: 2.95 Volts.
• Output Impedance: 0.005 Ohms.

It’s gonna need every bit of those ratings to drive the 9’s!

Without dropping a name I was advised they’re rated into 2-Ohms.

It’s worth a go...

Damn fair question... because of the selling price.
If the moderators won't kick me off the thread I'll post what I'm paying for them.
At the purchase price I can't lose...

Oh hell no...
The Kappa 9's are my last pair of speakers.
Will be selling my Legacy-Audio Focus & Infinity Prelude MTS' some time in the near future.

My KSA Krell is great for the winter as we live in WY. I switch to the PL WOPL's for the rest of the year. They both make the Kappa 9's sing...
And they damn well better!
KSA rated to 4kw @ 0.5 ohm with the Claire Bros WOPL's testing to 513w per channel to 8 ohm.
That's over 1kw per channel @ 8 ohms of Phase Linear bi-amp power that's sweet as honey!

At eight-hunge for the two 1000's it's worth a go. 
I seriously doubt they can compete with my amps but, it'll be fun to see what Class D amps sound like w/the 9's.
I'm intrigued by the small package & lack of weight.
It's just a curiosity thing.

I'm pretty sure the Kappa 9's are gonna suck/inhale these two mono blocks half way into the speaker cables, good thing I have some large ones, and pull my power cables tight on the outlets!
Bahahahaaaaa......


Hey dsper...
Huh, don't those Class D amps have a Damping Factor of 1000?
That surprises me.
I would have thought they would start to get harsh on the upper mids and higher freq's.

Gotcha.

Yep... exactly like that Bahahahaaaaa....

Won't be able to find out if the SX-1000's would power my speakers.
The deal fell through.

Was really looking forward to see if it would have been able to drive my Kappa 9 speakers

Oh well, I'll carry on...

joysjane

Won't be able to find out if the SX-1000's would power my speakers.
The deal fell through.

I say lucky you, that was to me was more divine intervention.

Cheers George


Hey George... update.
Looks like we're gonna find out if the Class D amps will drive the Infinity Kappa 9's after all.

Am in a transaction with a fellow a-goner for the purchase of the Wyred4sound SX-1000 monos.

Will be reporting to this thread if they truly can drive difficult loads. 

Fello A-Goners,

The Class D SX-1000 amps arrived today.

First impression is this...
I'm definitely blown away at the size of these mono block amps!
They're tiny compared to my Phase Linear 700's in size and weight.
Even my wife said WHAT!

I go into this without ANY preconceived thoughts.
I'm an open minded individual.

Tomorrow will be hook up time, to do an evaluation, on these Class D amp's ability to drive some ridiculous low impedance speakers...
Infinity Kappa 9's.

We'll be able to put this discussion to a real world evaluation rather than what my brother's smother's friend of the family said!

Stay tuned y'all...............

Damn georgehifi,

Didn't think there was ANY SPEAKER harder to drive than the 9's.... WOW!
I know the Scintillas were close but DANG!

Something I've noticed with hard to drive speakers.
Given the right amplification they just seem to be more powerful at music reproduction than the high efficiency speakers.
Especially in the bass region.

Had to take a quick trip y'all.
A bit of time since my last post.

Was able to get the SX-1000 Class D amps hooked up before leaving.

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...

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.