can a new amp amp tame my speakers?

I was warned away from bridging by Richard Schram at Parasound as well. He said to go with the 2250. I've since read that an HCA 2200II is a better amp, though. It certainly specs out better in terms of current,but that doesn't tell me how the high frequencies would sound. I'm not writing off the PSB's, but the goal is to solve my high frequency issues with the Kappas with the right amp so I don't have to spend $3500 + on speakers

My Thiel 2.4s were a bit on the harsh side with a Hafler 9500, very nice from top to bottom, but losing some detail and transparency with a B&K 2220, wonderful with a Conrad Johnson 2300A and really gorgeous after I had the C-J completely re-caped with polyethelene capacators. A revealing speaker like yours should improve a great deal with an amp upgrade. As an aside, an ATI 1502 was literally unlistenably harsh with these revealing speakers, despite ATIs good reputation. I have learned that the amp matters a lot, given revealing speakers.

Amen Drjay, All a speaker can do is let you hear what your amp sounds like. I have a pair of Focal Titus 200 little monitors I bought off craigslist for 200 bucks.
They are fully able to let me hear the difference between my 2K Van Alstine and my sons 20K worth of Lamm.Much to his surprise.

I am a little surprised that my Kappa's, $1600 list 25 years ago, weren't blown away by what I heard out of the PSB's ($3500-5500). The PSB's were better, don't get me wrong, but not enough to justify that much cash. An amp is necessary purely because I need more power to drive the Kappa's to the volume levels I occasionally get to. I've always known amps sound different, I just wasn't sure if the degree of help I needed was possible from an amp change. I didn't notice the need until I added a sub, and even then, the volume does have to be high for the highs to be objectionable, but that's where the idea of the problem being the amp came from. So I can get the amp I need anyway and solve all my problems.....

Well.....for now....(evil grin)...

FWIW, taming my bright upper-mids and lower treble was a very long, involved process. My original speakers, with metal dome tweets, were very harsh at higher volumes. An amp upgrade, from a Rotel to an Odyssey Audio Stratos, did a lot to clean up that band, but I realized that the speakers were just bright-sounding, too much so for my tastes. I upgraded to Ohm Walsh 2000s a few years ago, and the problem is mostly gone now. But along the way, changes to other components, cables and even a power filter all helped in taming a hot brightness range. With each improvement, I got smoother sound in this range and beyond, while gaining improvements in detail retrieval. So it was not just the amp, or just the speakers - it was everything in the system, even the room treatments, that killed the harshness. IME, I found the PSBs that I've heard to be extremely harsh in the upper-mids and lower treble, especially when pushed hard. In fact, I find most affordable speakers with crossovers in the 2-4kHz range to be too hot in that frequency range. YMMV, of course. Older SS mid-fi amps, like the Yammi, also tended to be harsh in this range. Although there were, and are exceptions. While my old Pioneer AVR lacked detail and soundstage dimensionality, it was not too harsh in theat frequency range.

I guess the challenge is to "warm up" the sound without throwing a blanket over it, losing detail in the process. To me, that elusive combo of detail with natural warmth is my holy grail in this hobby. I am getting close, but a recent loan of some high-powered Class D amps has made me realize that I need a lot more power.