Hoping for someone in the know who can help find info on this model crossover since I do not have a manual. Anyway I was hoping to use this to bi amp my k9's. This was made for the rs 2.5-4.5 speakers as a suggested accessory for bi amping them. Does or is there anyone familiar with this particular crossover enough to tell me how well it would work on the K9's. Thanks Augy
Bi Amping Kappa 9's with the Infinity RS45 Crossover
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I plan to use both....I am still using the passive crossover in the speakers. But want to use a crossover to seperate the frequency into hi and low since I am horizontally biamping. I hope to get a slight improvment in sound quality ( since the internal crossovers will not be doing as much work filtering ) . but more importantly hoping to get a little more headroom from my amps since they will not have to reproduce the full spectrum of sound from the preamp.
The Concern
Without the manual I am a tad in the dark....As you know this crossover was designed for an entirely different speaker. The RS4.5 I believe did not use drivers but (eminim and emits) for the mid-hi section as the Kappa 9 uses a mid bass dome and a midrange dome driver. The kappa crosses the woofers at 80hz or 90hz depending on where you get the schematics. The lo pas frequency dial on the Infinity RS45 crossover starts at 75 to 300hz which is fine for me ....but the hi pass frequency dial starts at 150 hz to 600 hz...therein lies the concern. This would mean if using this on my kappa's there would be a gap in the mid bass region of the sound spectrum. So if I set the low pass freq. to say 90 or 100 hz there is a gap from that point to where the hi pass would begin which is 150hz so in theory I would be missing out on say 50-60 hz of the mid base spectrum. Will this make an audible effect on the sound from the kappa's??? Would the hi and lo pass gains on the crossover compensate for this inadequacy??? I also have the adjustments on the speakers passive to fiddle with as well. What do you think??? Is this valid or am I just being anal retentive. :yes:
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Without the manual I am a tad in the dark....As you know this crossover was designed for an entirely different speaker. The RS4.5 I believe did not use drivers but (eminim and emits) for the mid-hi section as the Kappa 9 uses a mid bass dome and a midrange dome driver. The kappa crosses the woofers at 80hz or 90hz depending on where you get the schematics. The lo pas frequency dial on the Infinity RS45 crossover starts at 75 to 300hz which is fine for me ....but the hi pass frequency dial starts at 150 hz to 600 hz...therein lies the concern. This would mean if using this on my kappa's there would be a gap in the mid bass region of the sound spectrum. So if I set the low pass freq. to say 90 or 100 hz there is a gap from that point to where the hi pass would begin which is 150hz so in theory I would be missing out on say 50-60 hz of the mid base spectrum. Will this make an audible effect on the sound from the kappa's??? Would the hi and lo pass gains on the crossover compensate for this inadequacy??? I also have the adjustments on the speakers passive to fiddle with as well. What do you think??? Is this valid or am I just being anal retentive. :yes:
:When you remove the straps I'm curious which drivers produce sound when speaker wires are connected to low pass only. Ditto which drivers emit sound when wires are connected to high pass. I guess I'm thinking low pass may include the mid-bass coupler allowing you to set the added x/over low pass at 300HZ and high pass starting at 300? The problem is the mid-bass coupler plays frequencies up to 700HZ in the 9 design.
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The low pass connections on the speaker are for the woofers only , the hi pass is for the remaining drivers....would've done the trick if it wasn't!
Hi, I am attaching the manual for the RS-2.5/4.5 electronic crossover. The crossover provides low pass and high pass frequencies of 110, 156, 220, 312 and 440 Hz. Only 6 dB/octave slopes are provided. There is also a high frequency equalization control which is defeatable. If your speaker can use these crossover frequencies then it should be an adequate active crossover.
Kman. Thank you very much this should be most helpful....I will read it today and decide what to do. Thanks augy
Kman....According to the manual you provided both high pass and lo pass start at 110 hz. So if my kappa's cross at 80-90 hz I can set the infinity crossover at 110 its lowest point and the crossover should work just fine. Am I crazy to keep it all infinity vintage as I know there are better crossovers out there??
Hi Augy-- yes, the lowest crossover on the RS-4.5 unit is 110 Hz. I suppose that crossover selection might be close enough but you need to first determine if the internal crossover in the Kappa can be disengaged. The RS-4.5 has a switch on its passive (internal) crossover to allow for biamping.
I do not know much about your Kappa so you need to find this out. If it does not have such a switch, you options become limited to modifying the internal crossover so that it can be bypassed for use in an actively biamped system or "passive biamping" without an active crossover. Bear in mind we are talking only about the crossover between the woofer and mid-range units-- the RS-4.5 active crossover only provides that function.
If the internal crossover can be bypassed to allow biamping with an active 2-way crossover like the RS-4.5 unit you have, you need to determine one more thing. That is the slope characteristic recommended by Infinity for the low to mid-range crossover of this speaker, for example, 24 dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley or 6 dB/octave, etc. The RS-4.5 unit only provides 6 dB/octave by the way and if you need higher order slopes you will have to find another active crossover unit to do the job.
I do not know much about your Kappa so you need to find this out. If it does not have such a switch, you options become limited to modifying the internal crossover so that it can be bypassed for use in an actively biamped system or "passive biamping" without an active crossover. Bear in mind we are talking only about the crossover between the woofer and mid-range units-- the RS-4.5 active crossover only provides that function.
If the internal crossover can be bypassed to allow biamping with an active 2-way crossover like the RS-4.5 unit you have, you need to determine one more thing. That is the slope characteristic recommended by Infinity for the low to mid-range crossover of this speaker, for example, 24 dB/octave Linkwitz-Riley or 6 dB/octave, etc. The RS-4.5 unit only provides 6 dB/octave by the way and if you need higher order slopes you will have to find another active crossover unit to do the job.
Well guys......I am not planning to do an active only crossover.....Rather an active/passive combo......I am still planning to use the crossover in the speakers as there are too many drivers to seperate. So as I stated earlier the amps I am using are doing the job just fine. I was however hoping to get a slight increase in sound quality since the internal passive crossover would be doing less work filtering the sound frequency. as the signal would be split before the amps ....I was hoping to get a slight increase in headroom as well since the amps would only be amplifing either the hi or low sound frequencies only instead of the full spectrum that they are doing now....
the following is what i've gleaned from reading a lot of threads on biamping. IMHO no increase in sound quality will come from the internal crossover doing less work - those components are passive and could care less. what i have read is that you may hear a small increase in sound quality from isolating the highs from the lows inside the amplifier, supposedly by minimizing signal interference/distortion. the headroom increase is nothing to sneeze at either, at least for the top amp - you can probably get away with an amp that's quite a bit smaller than the bottom amp while maintaining ample headroom, all things like input sensitivity and such being equal. if you keep using the same amp as before, you may also notice an increase in sound quality just by having the extra headroom.
Will this still be the case if I am also using the speakers internal passive crossover ??or Would this be true only if you were using an active only as a crossover?? I would think there would be a gain anyway as each amp is would only be amplifying a portion of the sound frequencies instead of all of it. .....Now you got me thinking my top amp might be too powerful ( Though it is the weaker of the two ) but I assume changing the gains at the active crossover would adjust this possible difference in power ratio. Adjust hi gain lower and lo gain higher sort of thing or vice versa.
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You know you are probably right... the quality of music is probably just fine as it is and I should save a few hundred and be sastisfied.....but......If it does create a slight increase in quality and or power especially on the top end its not like I have to break the bank to do it. The cost may justify it....but you will never know unless you try. AS I have upgraded over the years each upgrade has only been a marginal increase in quality. But if you add them all up it has totaled to a substancial increase as everything counts. I keep the cost low by using 20 year old stuff..... Poor boy style....
Did you reverse the leads on the speaker wires?? This crossover is phase inverted and as such you must reverse the speaker connections to keep proper phase. So the pos wire from the amp goes to the neg connection at the speaker.
whoaru99
Epic Member
Afaik, there is little or no headroom gain when you're going through the passive crossovers.
The speaker crossover input is set up to supply the same signal to the crossover sections when the jumpers are in place to run the speaker conventionally. That means the sensitivities etc are all matched/balanced to see the same voltage signal to both sections/inputs of the crossover.
So, when the jumpers are removed, the same level of voltage signal should be applied to the individual inputs to the passive crossover. This is necessary to keep the signal levels matched up between the lows and the mid/high, or wherever the crossover split is.
In such a case, if you put a smaller amp on the mid/highs, it will clip before the amp on the woofers (or vice versa if the smaller amp would happen to go on the woofers).
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In such a case, if you put a smaller amp on the mid/highs, it will clip before the amp on the woofers (or vice versa if the smaller amp would happen to go on the woofers).[/QUOTE]
I am no expert but from my experience with my speakers I am Not sure if this is entirely true for the kappa 9 although it does sound correct in theory......
.......On this particular speaker K9... its the woofers that suck the power...I am horizontally biamping now 325wpc on the woofers and 225wpc on the mid/high.....The mid / high pass requires much less power/current. Threrefore the slightly lower power amp on top seems to be a perfect balance without a crossover. But another benefit of the crossover is... with a crossover the gains can probably be adjusted on the hi and low to match even better. I only say this because at one time I had two identical amps on these speakers and the woofer section would always be the first to clip.
I am no expert but from my experience with my speakers I am Not sure if this is entirely true for the kappa 9 although it does sound correct in theory......
.......On this particular speaker K9... its the woofers that suck the power...I am horizontally biamping now 325wpc on the woofers and 225wpc on the mid/high.....The mid / high pass requires much less power/current. Threrefore the slightly lower power amp on top seems to be a perfect balance without a crossover. But another benefit of the crossover is... with a crossover the gains can probably be adjusted on the hi and low to match even better. I only say this because at one time I had two identical amps on these speakers and the woofer section would always be the first to clip.
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