Infinity Kappa 8 Speakers with Marantz 2330B Concept 16.5 ? OK?

[ericleehall]

I wont be playing at high volumes, since it's a fairly small room @ 300 sq feet, and but I don't want any frying of my newly restored babys....

I asked my tech (Randy Buckner) and he said

"Probably but I wouldn't switch in a second set of anything."

Any thoughts ?

Also, I've attached a picture of the rear, shouldn't there be a connection between the Hi Pass & Low Pass speaker terminals?

 

[ericleehall]

Also I've noticed this tip:
As a long time Kappa 8 owner I can strongly recommend a simple bypass modification to the crossover that makes the speaker easy to drive and actually better with a more natural and full bass response. Simply unsolder or cut one side of the 12.5 mh coil from the crossover and solder in a shorting bridge across any one of the three 500uf (1500uf total) capacitors that are the first thing after the woofer binding posts. This takes the 'reactor' out of the woofer circuit. Now your amp will just see a common 4 ohm load and the bass will be very natural without the 'thump' where that cap and coil reactor stores a charge and throws it at the woofer while melting your amp in the process. I listened carefully using the famous Hok-Man Yim Poem of Chinese drum CD and it actually hits harder with better decay after the mod and the amp doesn't overheat in the slightest. The Kappa 8's punch that track harder than anything I have owned with just one 12 per side. If you want to keep protection against a DC short from your amp, ignore shorting out the (series) capacitor, but by all means get that evil 12.5 mh (shunt) coil out of the woofer circuit.

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/infinity-kappa-8-s

Any thoughts on merely cutting this "evil 12.5 mh (shunt) coil out of the woofer circuit." ?

 

[goodolpg]

I'm pretty darn sure you do NOT want to run more than just the Kappa 8's with either of your receivers.
Though not *quite* the amp killers the 9's are I think they do like high current power sources.
I would proceed with caution using those receivers.

No idea about the crossover mod you mentioned.

Hopefully someone will be along with personal experience with the 8's and the power sources needed for them.

 

[jazzmans]

and yes, there should be shorting straps between the terminals, the instructions on the back as much as say so. Otherwise you're only driving the high or low frequencies depending on which you attach to. making a small shunt with 16 or 12 guage cable will do just fine, if not looking 'authentic'

 

[chef free]

Both of those receivers will run your Kappa 8 just fine, but do not hook up any other speakers at the same time, very few receivers can handle two pairs of 4 ohm speakers.

 

[Bahamayellow]

Nice looking collection of speakers. Let us know how that reciever sounds with the 8s.

 

[swechsler]

and yes, there should be shorting straps between the terminals, the instructions on the back as much as say so. Otherwise you're only driving the high or low frequencies depending on which you attach to. making a small shunt with 16 or 12 guage cable will do just fine, if not looking 'authentic'

It's such a short length, the gauge won't matter much at all (although I wouldn't use anything thin enough to act as a fuse ). I usually cut up a short piece of Romex, strip off all the insulation, and run it straight through the holes. Theoretically stranded wire would work better since solid wire only contacts the binding post at one point, but copper is somewhat soft and I haven't noticed any issues.

 

[Kingshead]

The best method to replace the jumpers, just strip the speaker wire long enough to pass through the first set of posts and into the second set. No break in the conductor will resilt in the best connection, even when compared to the original straps.

 

[ericleehall]

Yr

The best method to replace the jumpers, just strip the speaker wire long enough to pass through the first set of posts and into the second set. No break in the conductor will resilt in the best connection, even when compared to the original straps.

Yeah, that's what I did, but I'd still like to have the straps.

I've played the speakers with the Marantz for several hours at moderate volume, and it seems fine, although it did seems to draw more current than I've ever seen, according to my Furman , up to 2 amps at peaks, which I've never gotten to with any other speaker. (it would be too loud)..

 

[Bahamayellow]

Just keep an eye on the heat coming out of the receiver as you don't want to burn it up. The kappa 9 can be a bit demanding and is not the most efficient . How do they sound though. Here's my setup. One of my amp channels is going out. I am just running 3 channels which I don't like but it's cutting in and out too much. Going to send in for a full rebuild.

 

[ericleehall]

Just an update on this, my Marantz 2330B was no match for the Infinity Kappa 8s, even at a moderate volume, and with the extended bass switch off. So I moved it over to my McIntosh 7300, on the 4 ohm speaker tap settings, and blasted it nicely for an hour (with extended bass switch on) and it gamely played powerfully for an hour until it shut down. These infinity's are Amp Slayers!

Sooooooooooooooo.

The New Plan is to Bi-amp the suckers with a Concept 11. (110+ watts into 8 ohms), and the McIntosh 7300...

Question is what speaker tap output should I use on the McIntosh 7300, for the Woofers on the Infinity? 2 , 4 , or 8?

 

[Bahamayellow]

Hopefully your reciever didn't suffer any damage. I'm surprised the Mac didn't hold up. One of my amps took a total systems failure. It's been worked on before but the Kappas found a weak link probably. I am running the 9s gingerly with the one good amp. Sounds ok but not as good bi-amped. I'm sending the amp to Rolland at hightec audio for a full rebuild and better quality output caps. Not sure to run the Mac in 2 or 4 ohm since I don't know much about them. Don't forget to disconnect the speaker straps when u bi-amp.

 

[ericleehall]

I ran it under the above mentioned setup, and it worked nicely under moderate highish power. I ran it out of the Tape monitor output into the MacIntosh 7300, is that the best way?

There are pre-outs on the Concept, but they have a hard wire to the "main" input, so I didn't see how removing that would work, since I needed the amp section on the Concept.