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RS 6000 or Kappa 6, which to choose?

seifreit

seifreit

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
I have the opportunity to purchase either a set of RS 6000 or Kappa 6s. I am not asking for what to pay or market value as I try to keep up with that and know what I am willing to pay for them. Problem is, I can't get both (funds and space limited), as much as I would like to.

So opinions from those who may have listened to or owned either or both. Here are a couple factors. The Kappa 6s need the poly-domes repaired/replaced. I know what that will cost and have factored that in from a value standpoint. The RS 6000s appear to need no work from the pictures I have seen so far. The RS 6000s are further away though so have to factor in travel time/fuel.
 
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This is an interesting question. You'll almost definitely get better value from the RS6000s, but that's not the question. I've never heard the 6000s, and haven't listened to my own Kappa 6s in a while since they've been in need of refoaming for several years. However, my suspicion is that you'd be happier with the Kappas. The construction quality of the RSx000 series is pretty low (relative to other Infinity models); they're made with thin wood that really could use to be braced, plus Infinity used some of the ugliest vinyl veneer in the industry (IMO). The 6000s may need to be recapped; while the Kappas are around the same age, I believe Infinity used higher quality components in the Kappa crossovers, and they tend to last much longer.

Now, having said that, I doubt you'd be unhappy with either model, least sound-wise.

One issue that came to mind after my initial post: I have purchased more than one used set of Infinity speakers where the woofers were refoamed improperly, adding excursion limits and reducing the low bass. Infinity woofers aren't as easy to refoam as those of some other brands. Keep that in mind when auditioning. It's more difficult to redo incorrect refoaming than deteriorated original foam.
 
Thanks for your input swechsler. I have Kappa 9's currently in my main system and had to re-foam them when I got them as well as a set of Reference Fours so I am pretty comfortable with the re-foam issue. Which ever set of speakers I purchase will likely be used in my second/bedroom system which gets listened to almost as much as the main system. The Kappa 6's win points there as I am familiar with the "Kappa sound". I have never heard any of the RS series or seen them in person so knowing what the construction quality is like helps.
 
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The RS 6000 will sound similar to your Reference Four, but bigger and bolder. I compared a pair of RS 6000 against a pair of Reference Five and they were very similar. The Reference Five had slightly more of a scooped sound, while the RS 6000 had a stronger midrange. They're a hard hitting speaker but they have a lot of finesse as well. I'm no fan of the vinyl veneer, but they're nice speakers, and my bet is that they'll sound better than the Kappa 6. However, if they're going in a bedroom, the smaller size of the Kappa 6 may be preferable.
 
Thanks Rex81. I will admit that I was surprised by how good the Reference Fours sounded given their appearance. I was not impressed by the build quality when I first got them but once the woofers and mids were re-foamed and burned in they are actually quite nice.

Rooms size isn’t a big factor as I had Polk RTA 11Ts in there at one point and they sounded quite good but I’ve gotten hooked on the Infinitys and especially the EMIMs. Thus the desire to get the RS 6000s or Kappa 6s.
 
I've heard RS6000's and Kappa 6's. Both at the dealer. Too me, the Kappa's were clearly better. Much more musical. Tight, realistic bass, clean warm mids, and Emit sparkle. The RS6000's, while not bad, just didn't sound anywhere as good. I couldn't get excited about them at all. Just kind'a bland. And I was interested in them too, until I heard them.
 
So,... I ended up getting both. Between patience and two motivated sellers I was able to get both the RS 6000s and Kappa 6s. The poly domes in the Kappa 6s were just sent out to MillerSound for repair so it will be at least a couple weeks before they are back to do some comparison listening. I did hook up the RS 6000s for a little bit and listened to them against my RS IIIBs. I know, not a fair comparison but given they are both 3 ways with EMIT, dome mid-range and 2 10" woofers I thought, why not. The RS IIIBs are clearly superior as I expected they would be.

In the meantime, while the Kappas are down for repair, the RS 6000s are with my son as I am trying to convert him over to Infinitys. He does admit that they do sound better than his Polk Monitor 10s in all respects. Not a lot better but a little better according to him. A little surprising as he did not like the Reference Fours when he had them for a while. I'll take it as a win.
 
StimpyWan said:
Don't tell him that! That's like saying Morpheus told Neo to take the blue pill...! :p
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It's way too late for that. I got back into audio a couple years ago after being occupied with other distractions. In two years I have acquired Infinity 1500s, 3000s, Quantum 5s, RS 5bs, RS 3bs, Reference Fours, RS 6000s, Kappa 6s and Kappa 9s. And, I see no end in sight.
 
seifreit said:
It's way too late for that. I got back into audio a couple years ago after being occupied with other distractions. In two years I have acquired Infinity 1500s, 3000s, Quantum 5s, RS 5bs, RS 3bs, Reference Fours, RS 6000s, Kappa 6s and Kappa 9s. And, I see no end in sight.
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It sounds like you need to start looking for an Emim based model now...? :D
 
seifreit said:
That's the plan. I have my eye on a set of 2.5s but they are a bit of a drive and I am playing the waiting game to see if they will drop the price a bit more.
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Those 2.5's would be awesome. Not huge, like 4.5's. Me, I'd love to find either Ren 80's or RS2B's. Both one box solutions, that always get rave reviews.
 
I’d really like to find some RSIIa/b’s. I’ve really been enjoying the Kappa 9s and ultimately would like to get something like RS1bs but I’m pushing the envelope of the WAF right now with the 9s.
 
seifreit said:
I’d really like to find some RSIIa/b’s. I’ve really been enjoying the Kappa 9s and ultimately would like to get something like RS1bs but I’m pushing the envelope of the WAF right now with the 9s.
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Go for the Gamma/Delta! They're basically a pair of Super 9's, that use planar mids, instead of domes. Gamma's even have the same driver layout. Plus, with the Gamma servo unit, the bass response will blow away the 9's!

Oh yea, read the High Performance Review (Stereophile) article on the Gamma's. High praise. A crappy scan though. My magazine, but I had a cheap scanner back then, and it didn't copy very well. I still don't know why it was marked as a Stereophile review?

Gamma

IRS-Gamma3.jpg
 
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So, this may be a bit rambling but a lot to cover. Since the Kappa polydomes were off at MillerSound for repair I decided while I was at it I would do a partial recap and replace all the NPEs in the crossovers. I have always been a bit skeptical about the benefits but figured after looking over the crossover that there weren't too many to replace so the cost would be relatively low regardless of the outcome. As luck would have it, the caps arrived last Friday along with the beautiful "new" polydomes from Miller.


Sunday morning I dug into them and recapped one of the Kappa 6s and installed the polydome. Those of you who commented that I would like the Kappa 6s were spot on. They are just smaller versions of my Kappa 9s. Clean, clear, tight controlled bass, etc... . Now I had to see if the recap actually made a difference. I installed the polydome into the untouched Kappa 6 and set them up with the amp set to combined mono output and popped in a CD. I could immediately hear the difference in the bass between the recapped and untouched. The untouched bass was less defined, not as tight. As the replaced caps were strictly in the woofer and polydome sections of the crossover it made sense that those areas would show if there was improvement or not. Those of you who have preached the need/benefits of re-capping have a new convert.

So, on to the RS 6000s. They have been at my son's since I picked them up and I have to ask this question. Does anyone in the speaker repair business know how to hook up woofers in series correctly? When I got the RS6000s home I did hook them up for a few minutes and listened to them against the RS IIIbs. I knew they wouldn't compare but there seemed to be something off about the 6000s. So, my son calls me the other night and ask how the woofers should be wired up. He had noticed that the bass output on one was really weak and wondered if a woofer was bad. I told him to check which wires were connected to which terminals. He discovered that one of the speakers had the woofers wired incorrectly. He reconnected the wires in the right order and now both speakers were putting out the bass they should be. I had the same issue when I bought the RS IIIbs. The owner was selling them partly because the just never sounded the same after they came back being re-foamed. As soon as I got them to the house the first thing I noticed was the weak bass. I immediately checked the woofer wiring and, indeed, both speakers had the woofers wired incorrectly. I am 2-for-2 on multi-woofer Infinitys being wired wrong after a re-foam. And, it's not the owner doing the re-foam, both were done by a shop. The only reason I didn't that issue with my Kappa 9s is I bought them from the original owner and they had been is storage for several years and never re-foamed.

Now my son has started really liking the RS 6000s and is wanting me to re-cap those after the experience with the Kappa 6s.It looks like we have another member joining the vintage Infinity ranks.
 
I'm glad to hear that the recap was a success! Another convert.

Bass wiring can be tricky. Especially when there are dual woofers involved. The woofers need to be correctly wired in both speakers to sound right. Some use parallel connections, some series. Regardless, both speakers need to match. Otherwise, a speaker not only cancels out it's own bass, but being out of phase, it affects the bass responce of the other speaker too.

While not Infinity's, my AR90's never sounded correct in the bass either. Now I know they were probably miswired. Something I'll correct, when I finish their refurb.
 
Fantastic. For years I've been thinking that the caps that Infinity used were high quality and would last a lot longer than the 30 or so years since they were manufactured. Now we've got someone here who actually did the replacement...and so I need to go down that rabbit hole too, on the Kappa 8s which are way more complex and difficult to work on.
 
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