Help power pair of Infinity Kappa 9's please

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Steakster, I also own two of the Sunfire Signature amplifiers. It will power the Kappa 9 sufficiently, but not optimally. I put two of the Sunfire Signatures on the Kappa 9 in a vertical biamp configuration and it takes the listening experience to a whole 'nother level.

I put a pair of my Pass Labs X-600 monobloc beasts on the Kappa 9 they didn't get it done, I needed two pair of the Pass beasts to get the speakers to wake up and sing.

The bottom line here is that the Kappa 9 need gobs of power for optimum results.

JT, get rid of them and get the Kappa 8.1 or 7.1 and you'll be much happier and save yourself some money in the process. The Kappa 9 are waaay too much for a room your size.
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The Kappa 9 has been known to cause grief to many audiophiles over the years since its introduction. It is, what I consider, a poorly designed speaker because of the difficult load it presents to the amplifier. Even if you find an amplifier to deal with the load, which would be very expensive, the amplifier's sound will be degraded due to the speaker's load.

It makes more sense to design a speaker with a reasonable sensitivity and an amplifier friendly load. This type of speaker design will always produce better overall sound.

Paul Klipsch was often quoted saying "What this country needs is a really good 5 watt amplifier." What would a really good 5 watt amplifier do for an Infinity Kappa 9?

A good solid state amp that is basically an arc welder will work fine with your speakers. however, you have exceeded your budget. Which is not a problem if you are not in a hurry. do one thing at a time. Don't rush. Mark Levinson 23, 23.5, 20.6, etc. Big Thresholds, Krells, will work fine. you just have to determine which amp's sound you like. Also, if your CD player has a volume control, you don't need a pre-amp at this time and can get one later and stay within your budget. Upgrades should always come one at a time. So, lets say your CD player has volume control, then you only need the amp as long as you like the DAC from your CD player, which in my opinion, typically are not very good because the power supplies are very bad in most CD players. As long as speaker placement isn't a problem, the room size of 12 x 12 isn't a deal breaker. Then, later get a decent DAC and use your CD player as a transport. That will make a huge difference in sound. "if" your CD transport is decent.

my opinion, small steps. one upgrade at a time. make friends with the sound of the equipment before upgrading.

enjoy

The only amp that I can think of that can drive them well, I don't think will sound particularly good with the Kappa 9's. That is an old Sumo Andromeda. The Original, Not the II or III. I've driven that very loudly years ago into 3 ohms without issue. It is a bit dry in the mid range and High end. I doubt your emits will like it.

I have the Kappa 9's. They're now in permanent storage in my attic, waiting for the day that I get the urge to rebuild them just for fun's sake.

Those things were God awful on amps. As many have said, the efficiency is way off what you posted. 88-90 dB/w/m, tops. They're not terribly efficient. The impedance load is absolutely brutal. It actually will drop to less than one ohm at certain points. It will eat almost any amp for lunch and spit out the burnt pieces.

Forget tubes, unless perhaps you look at the McAlister Audio OTL-195 amps. They drive difficult loads well, but I doubt they've tried to drive a less than one ohm load. Besides, those will set you back almost 9K.

I bi-amped them with an Aragon 2004 MkII for the low end, and an Audio Research D-130 for the top end. It was a hopeless waste of time and money. The Aragon, a pretty sturdy amp, would blow fuses within 20 minutes. The AR would shut down the protection circuitry about 10 minutes in. Forget it.

Those speakers will simply destroy the Sumo Andromeda amplifier. They'll blow it to pieces in no time flat. Same with Adcom. I used a pair of Adcoms to bi-amp them with before the Aragon-AR combo. The Adcoms couldn't last five minutes before tossing in the towel. The Macs are a maybe. You willing to spend that kind of cash on "maybe?"

I'd say some huge Krells are about your only hope. Good luck finding them for 2500......

Bottom line, as a previous owner of those monstrosities, I agree with what a lot of people have said. Sell them, and get a more efficient speaker. It's a classic case of "size does not matter." They're huge and impressive looking, but when it comes to playing music, they're just brutes.

You'll have a hard time getting 2K for them....classic or not. Anyone in the know about those speakers isn't paying that kind of money for them.

Don't mean to rain on your parade, but purchasing those speakers was perhaps the dumbest move I ever made with audio equipment, and I've made many dumb moves. They're as close to impossible load to drive as was ever created.

You can party louder and harder with more efficient speakers, as well as getting better sound. Sell the Kappas. You'll be forever happier for it. I have speakers with low powered SET amplifiers that get louder than the Kappas ever would, and I don't have to fret about blowing my amplifiers into the next millenium.