Infinity Kappa 7.1 8.1 Owners!

Infinity Kappa 7.1 Owners...Help Please!!!

I recently purchased some Kappa 7.1 II speakers and curiosity got the best of me. I pulled the woofer out of each speaker only to stumble across a mystery. My Kappa's appear to have foam traps inside only each speaker is different than the other and both speakers differ from infinity's drawing below. These speaker's are consecutive serial numbers which made me curious.

One speaker looks like this inside: Dacron batting at the bottom of the box on only one side of the front facing port (split the speaker in half and it would be on the right side facing the front of the speaker) filled about halfway up the port. There are two foam baffles shape like a trapezoid, one above the woofer and one below.

The other speaker is identical with the addition of a piece of foam directly behind the woofer up against the back of the box (it's missing in the other speaker completely).


I was able to get the original drawing from Infinity which actually shows no batting at the bottom of the box, just an additional foam trap like the two flanking the woofer. The drawing also shows no foam behind the woofer. Official word from infinity (John Rico, in Northridge, Ca) says that it may have been a running change however he has no documentation regarding the way my cabinets are set up which was the case allot of the time with infinity, revision's weren’t always documented.

If anyone has or knows someone who has these speakers, would it be possible for you to tell me what the inside of your cabinet looks like as far as batting and foam placement.

I have attached a couple of photos of what mine look like and the original drawing from Infinity. One pic shows the 10" X 22" piece of foam found behind the one woofer and the trapezoid foam baffles. The other shows the batting that was around one side of the port at the bottom, no foam on the bottom like the drawing shows.

Edit: Kurtgo, just noticed you have a set of 7.1's (series II ?) Would you be willing to pull the woofer out and peer down into the bottom of your cabinet to see whats in there, either a bottom foam baffle or Dacron down below the port, also curious if you have the foam behind the woofer on the rear wall of the cabinet? I've got my babies on the living room floor and need to reassembly them quicky!

Thanks!

Anyone?

Anyone? Thoughts?

Welcome to AK and the Infinity Forum CAK1

I'm curious why the concern, do they sound different?

Two reasons...

Thanks for the welcome, awesome site!

I'm curious as my Kappas don’t match the drawing from infinity, just wondering if there was a running revision from infinity or if someone cracked these open at one time a did some modifications to them. If someone else can confirm what the insides of their Kappas look like, (either like the drawing above or like mine will determine how I reassemble them). One speaker was missing the foam piece behind the woofer and missing polyfill on either side of the polydome chamber. Neither speaker had the foam trap at the bottom but polyfill only on one side of the port (which is strange as speakers should be symmetrical right to left).They did sound different. I'll replicate someone else's assembly or make an educated guess if someone can verify what it should look like inside.

CAK1,

Interesting predicament. I don't have Kappa 7s so I can't offer definitive help.

I would make both speakers the same though. Whatever arrangement you try, at least they will be the same. From there you can experiment until someone helps out, which is hopefully the case.

It would seem that the foam behind the woofer replaced the bottom trap, so getting one into the speaker that had it missing would be one solution.

It's been a while since you posted now. Any updates on what you have done, and how it worked out? THat is way cool getting that print BTW. :thmbsp:

Alot of experimenting...

Well, I spent three days trying different combinations until I found one that I preferred.

I went to my local Foam Mart store and purchased some foam with identical characteristics of the foam pieces that were missing.

The first thing I did was rebuild them precisely how Infinity's drawing shows, I took the polyfill out of the very bottom and replaced it with the foam trap and removed the foam piece behind the woofer on both speakers. I also removed all the polyfill from outside the midrange enclosures, measured and reinstalled equal amounts in each speaker in the fashion shown in the drawing.

I sounded good this way but the midrange was a bit too forward and seemed like the transition from low's to mid's to high's wasn't quite as clean, I also lost a little bass response.

I went through probably three of four more renditions of different combinations and finally ended up with the following.

I removed my replicated foam trap out of the bottom and re-installed the polyfill up to the bottom of the port only spreading the polyfill evenly on the bottom of the enclosure (when I took them apart originally the pollyfill was only on one side of the port). I replaced the foam directly behind the driver and against the back of the cabinet with two identical pieces, one for each speaker. The foam traps above and below the woofer shown in the drawing butt up against the rear foam making a foam chamber behind the driver. With the speaker assembled this way, it seemed to smooth out the x-over transitions as well as making the speaker a bit warmer in the mid range octaves. I also gained a bit of base response however the speaker still retained its awesome mid-base transient response and punch. Snare drums kick you in the chest and are super clean. Some Dave Grusin was used as my reference music (this set up also toned down some box resonance I was getting).

I think I'll keep them this way until someone responds. Depending on what they have will determine weather I pull them apart again.

Great info CAK1. Lots of work you did there. I've never had to play around with speaker "stuffing", so it's good information to know it can make such a difference in sound. Just goes to show it's a good idea to inspect the innards of a new vintage speaker.

See you around the forum.

Infinity 7.1's

CAK1 -Sorry about not responding sooner. My bad. I'll open them up and let you know what I find. Try to get a picture or two as well.

That would be great!!

Thanks, very curious. It might be interesting to note (if they are the series II) the speaker serial number. If they differ maybe we will be able to determine where the change took place.

infiity speakers use red &black wires for woofers

you wires are clear speaker wire. You can assume they were rewired.

Nope...All Factory Wiring...

Its all factory wire. The leads that come from the x-over up to the drivers have the color codes on them. Red and red with black stripes, etc. You just cant see them in that picture as the color codes are close to the driver connectors. The speaker wire has the Infinity logo on it, factory solder joints at speaker connects as well. I'm sure that wasn't touched, just the intrenal baffling.

7.1 insides

I've attached a few pictures for your reference. Mine are the 7.1's, not the Series II's. They are however, exactly as shown in the schematic. No foam backing behind the woofer. 2" foam immediately below the woofer and on the bottom, below the duct. Above the woofer is as diagramed also. Can't comment on what the foam does behind the woofer but hope you get it tweaked to your liking! Let me know how it turns out.

Thanks

Thanks Kurtgo,

Interesting, looks like someone played around with mine, or they were some test speakers sold by Infinity.

I after more testing of different configurations, I think I finally came up with the holy grail (for my ears that is). I set mine up with the foam above the woofer, below the woofer and foam at the bottom of cabinet, just like the infinity picture shows with the addition of some pollyfill on either side of the port on top of the bottom foam. This seemed to deepen the base without taking away from it's thump, snap and transient response. Too much fill at the port area kills the base as I found out. I also removed the piece of foam behind the woofer as shown in my first pictures. After listening to them set up both ways, the foam behind the woofer actually seemed to masked alot of details and clarity not apparent in my first test's.

One thing I learned is make changes and listen for a week, it takes time to evaluate a change. The sound I liked in the first ten minuets after a change I ended up disliking in a couple days.

Thanks again.

CAK1 - Good luck. At least one things for sure, if you don't like the current sound you will know what to change!