Tube amp top end of K9's?

A

Albikes

Active Member
I officially have been infected with an audio enthusiast virus! I now search CL and eBay for spare parts and drool when I see or read about the real esoteric equipment.

The latest idea is to find an appropriate tube amp to run the midbass/highs on the Kappa 9's. Has anyone done this? What results did you find? I know we need deep current for the woofers, my 565's can handle that. What are the needs for the tops of the K9's, the resistance average, and how does that convert to tube amp watts?

I'll keep looking around and let you know what I find, but if anyone has some experience here, please share with us all. Thank you AK gang.

Albikes
 
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I posted in your thread in the Tubes forum. McIntosh gear is supposedly a very good match with vintage Infinity's.
 
First post:
I use VTL Compact 100's on the tops of my IRS Gammas with good results. My room is a 21' square, and I listen @ 8 feet away @ 90-100dB without apparent stress.

Glad to be here.
 
Hey Dob,

Do you use an active x-over/line level adjust to cut what the tubes have to amplify and match ouput of highs and lows?

I think I'm learning that tube listening is very expensive! I'm feeling the feever hit again.

Thanks,

Albikes
 
I use a Mac Mc275v on the topend of my RSIIB's and couldn't be happier!My room is 25ft by 18ft and it drives the emins,emits to sound levels(I haven't measured them) that I'm very satisfied with.I use the LF EQ that came with the speaks now but I also have a DBX-223 x-over that works very well in the setup also.

Randy
 
I use the Infinity servo crossover. It does not touch the high frequency signal. The highs are actually full range going into The amps, then the tops of the Gammas, which roll off at around 135Hz in the passive crossover in the speaker. The lows are go to the crossover/servo.
I've considered rolling off the lows going to the HF amps, but that's mor stuff in the signal path and not what Arnie prescribed ...
 
I'm running antique sound lab tube monoblocks with 4 x EI kt90's, about 110 watts each amp, driving RS4.5 top ends quite well. Using an ashly xr1001 analog crossover - 24db slopes - crossing over at 300hz. using a modified phase linear 400 (motorola mj15024 outputs, nasty nec drivers, current limit removed) driving dual infinity beta 12" 4 ohm woofers in parallel, at 2 ohms. hafler dh-500 running dual ev 18" subs in a 20 cubic foot ported box...

experimenting some with a peavey kosmos v2 spectrum enhancement device between a Theater Grand II preamp/processor and the ashly, full balanced interconnects. interesting device...
 
I'm going to check out a Canary Audio CA 100 amp tomorrow. Rated at 80 wpc, seems like a nice entry level tube amp(Iconcievable!), but the big guns will have to be happy w/ Adcom 565 monos to the woofs, and the sweet high end covered by the ca100.

Will let you all know how it works out.

Albikes
 
Sorry for being away for quite so long. The fever is breaking now and I'm on my way to audiophile health.

Starting about six weeks ago I bought the Kappa 9's, then began my quest for equipment to run them. I found some nice Adcom 565's and an original 555 that I was tri-amping the system with. I also tried a couple different pre-amps. First an Adcom GTP 500 II with a C-9 Sonic Holography Generator,then a Carver C-4000. There were nice effects with wide and deep sound-stage, but the detail and accuracy was lacking. So I started tearing things down to simple signal path with no processing.

While testing different setups, I got on a tube kick. I lucked out and found a brand new Canary Audio CA-100, 80wpc amp, for a great deal. Yes, the Kappas came alive with the tubes. Still running the 565's on the low end though, as it should/needs to be, the stereo fever was spiking.

I almost bought a beautiful dual mono tube preamp. Luckily(kind of, one day such equipment will be mine) it sold. Another example of the audio virus running rampant in my body was how excited I was when I dropped in a local audio store to sample tube amps. Wow! They had some very nice stuff, SS, tubes, phonos, speakers galore, and some vintage rebuild projects going on. Wow!

What I ended up liking most was a Rogue Magnum 99 tube preamp. It gave real life sound of voice, keyboards, and cymbals as if being brushed, not hit, not harsh. Great detail, and depth too. So this will be my next purchase. Hopefully here in about a week. I'll give an update when it's set up.



Albikes
 
Albikes said:
Sorry for being away for quite so long. The fever is breaking now and I'm on my way to audiophile health.

Starting about six weeks ago I bought the Kappa 9's, then began my quest for equipment to run them. I found some nice Adcom 565's and an original 555 that I was tri-amping the system with. I also tried a couple different pre-amps. First an Adcom GTP 500 II with a C-9 Sonic Holography Generator,then a Carver C-4000. There were nice effects with wide and deep sound-stage, but the detail and accuracy was lacking. So I started tearing things down to simple signal path with no processing.

While testing different setups, I got on a tube kick. I lucked out and found a brand new Canary Audio CA-100, 80wpc amp, for a great deal. Yes, the Kappas came alive with the tubes. Still running the 565's on the low end though, as it should/needs to be, the stereo fever was spiking.

I almost bought a beautiful dual mono tube preamp. Luckily(kind of, one day such equipment will be mine) it sold. Another example of the audio virus running rampant in my body was how excited I was when I dropped in a local audio store to sample tube amps. Wow! They had some very nice stuff, SS, tubes, phonos, speakers galore, and some vintage rebuild projects going on. Wow!

What I ended up liking most was a Rogue Magnum 99 tube preamp. It gave real life sound of voice, keyboards, and cymbals as if being brushed, not hit, not harsh. Great detail, and depth too. So this will be my next purchase. Hopefully here in about a week. I'll give an update when it's set up.



Albikes
Click to expand...

good to hear, do you have any pics of the setup?

-vic
 
Vic,

Yeah, here's a few pics of equipment and setup. I am loving the sound. Last two nights listened to: Beatles, Robbie(Music For The Native Americans) Joe Jackson, Roger Waters, Eva, Lenny Kravitz, David Byrne, Neil, LedZep. Hmm? That's a list!

picture.php

Pretty tube amp beside the K9's.

picture.php

CA-100 glowing in the dark.

picture.php

Still need my Rogue M 99.

picture.php

K9's new home.

Here's a question: Do I need to try the IRS Sigma's? I've loved those speakers since first sight in '89. Can anyone compare/contrast to K9's?

Thanks,

Albikes
 
Beautiful setup...So close to the Delta, in my opinion. The Gamma would offer servo as an upgrade....
Enjoy!!!
Dave
 
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