High Current Amp/Pre-amp recommendation needed - Power for Infinity Kappa 9 pair

[edisonbaggins]

Recap (haha):
The silent Emit tweeters have passed a battery test.
My attempt to jumper the supposed polyswitch solder locations was unsuccessful. That could be due to a crappy jumper job or perhaps the polyswitches aren't the problem.
For now, I have some kappa 9's that work, except for the emit tweeters.
I'm going to move them to a more or less out of the way location, as diagnosing these things and repairing them could take quite a while.

I appreciate all the helpfulness from my QQ buds, btw!

 

[edisonbaggins]

Solder sucker and deoxit ordered. The tone pots on the back could use a cleaning. I doubt they are the problem with the Emits, but I'd like to eliminate the scratchiness and the variable.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Solder sucker and deoxit ordered. The tone pots on the back could use a cleaning. I doubt they are the problem with the Emits, but I'd like to eliminate the scratchiness and the variable.

Dang, Mr. Baggins. This is like restoring a Camaro IROC Z28. 1985.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Dang, Mr. Baggins. This is like restoring a Camaro IROC Z28. 1985.

A 92 RS 5-speed was my 1st car!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

A 92 RS 5-speed was my 1st car!

'69 Camaro Super Sport convertible gold flake was mine! Holly 3 barrel carb I rebuilt. Probably less trouble than your K9 xovers....

 

[edisonbaggins]

Shifting gears back to that Crown amp I'm using to power the center channel of my 5.1 (mainly Quad) listening system:

It puts out pretty nice tone, but is a bit noisy! I wonder if connecting the ground would element the noise?

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Shifting gears back to that Crown amp I'm using to power the center channel of my 5.1 (mainly Quad) listening system:

It puts out pretty nice tone, but is a bit noisy! I wonder if connecting the ground would element the noise?

What kind of noise? If it's hiss than grounding probably wont help. If it's hum then it's worth a try.

 

[edisonbaggins]

What kind of noise? If it's hiss than grounding probably wont help. If it's hum then it's worth a try.

Kind of like a grainy hum. I've heard plenty o' tape hiss in my day and this is different (I think).

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Kind of like a grainy hum. I've heard plenty o' tape hiss in my day and this is different (I think).

Grainy hum. I think you've discovered a whole new kind of noise! And also I think Grainy Hum would be a great name for an indie band!

Seriously good luck I hope you get the reward you deserve going through all this.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Oh, btw, the bridging connections for the D150A are kinda crazy. You use both channels + and no -. I wonder if that can make this thing noisier.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Grainy hum. I think you've discovered a whole new kind of noise! And also I think Grainy Hum would be a great name for an indie band!

Seriously good luck I hope you get the reward you deserve going through all this.

There is joy in the journey, so no worry.

 

[edisonbaggins]

How about a thread update?!
1) I ended up selling the Kappa 9's to a good home, after realizing I don't have the skills or time to do the crossover repair to get the silent EMIT's working again
2) I love my Jolida JD302B 50W tube amp! I also like my ADCOM GFA5300 battle tank of a high current SS amp!!!
3) I just ordered a pair of Energy Veritas 2.3's off of ebay, local pickup. If the seller ever responds to me, I'll be in possession of some really nice speaks for not a lot of $$!
They are bi-ampable (dual posts). I intend to run them purely on the Jolida and see how it fares. If needed, or out of curiosity, I'll unbind the posts and run the woofers off the ADCOM.
4) I intend to pickup a miniDSP HD, with calibrated mic, for high and low pass filtering ahead of the amps, to take a little load off 'em.
5) The source, for now will be an old Sony CDP CE500 and/or my yeah olde Pioneer TT. For the Sony, should I consider a DAC?

Thanks for reading and any advice, war stories, and so on!

 

[MidiMagic]

Oh, btw, the bridging connections for the D150A are kinda crazy. You use both channels + and no -. I wonder if that can make this thing noisier.

Every bridging amp I ever worked on or used had that connection scheme. It reversed the phase of the input of one amp at the switch.

Since cars don't have 60Hz AC, there should not be any hum. Look for alternator buzz.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Every bridging amp I ever worked on or used had that connection scheme. It reversed the phase of the input of one amp at the switch.

Since cars don't have 60Hz AC, there should not be any hum. Look for alternator buzz.

This is in my house!

 

[edisonbaggins]

miniDSP HD & UMIK-1 calibration mic show up tomorrow!
Picked up a set of Energy C-8 floor standing towers for my stereo setup. In the next couple of weeks I'll pick up a set of Energy Veritas 2.3 towers.
Both models are bi-ampable and have generally great ratings.
You gotta have options!

 

[edisonbaggins]

Riddle me this:
Powering the Energy C-8 towers - manual says they need moderate power
They're bi-ampable (two sets of binding posts) - the manual shows how to bi-amp vertically, but not horizontally
Anyways, today I tested powering them with just my 50W Jolida tube amp. The result was mostly nice, but missing some bass oomph and extension.
Next I tried just my 200W Adcom GFA 5300. Sounded nice! High to low, me likey.
Then, I removed the binding post jumpers and tried the Adcom on the bottom and the Jolida on the top. Got it sounding pretty ok, but not great! Now, I haven't employed the external crossover yet. I'm thinking the pumping the full range of the music, twice, in to the speaker system creates some mud? I know it has to be better to send just the low frequencies to the low post and the high frequencies to the high post (I'm trying horizontal bi-amping). It will reduce work on both amps and I guess it will give less for the internal circuitry of the speaker towers to deal with.
Anyways, I really wonder why horizontal bi-amping doesn't sound better without the help of an active crossover. Any thoughts, advice or encouragement appreciated!

 

[par4ken]

Riddle me this:
Powering the Energy C-8 towers - manual says they need moderate power
They're bi-ampable (two sets of binding posts) - the manual shows how to bi-amp vertically, but not horizontally
Anyways, today I tested powering them with just my 50W Jolida tube amp. The result was mostly nice, but missing some bass oomph and extension.
Next I tried just my 200W Adcom GFA 5300. Sounded nice! High to low, me likey.
Then, I removed the binding post jumpers and tried the Adcom on the bottom and the Jolida on the top. Got it sounding pretty ok, but not great! Now, I haven't employed the external crossover yet. I'm thinking the pumping the full range of the music, twice, in to the speaker system creates some mud? I know it has to be better to send just the low frequencies to the low post and the high frequencies to the high post (I'm trying horizontal bi-amping). It will reduce work on both amps and I guess it will give less for the internal circuitry of the speaker towers to deal with.
Anyways, I really wonder why horizontal bi-amping doesn't sound better without the help of an active crossover. Any thoughts, advice or encouragement appreciated!

Bi-amping without an active crossover is not real bi-amping! With an active crossover the high frequency signal will not be clipped if the amp is overdriven by the bass. Look at a music signal on a scope display. You will see a high level bass signal with the high frequencies riding on top. The active crossover removes the signal that rides on the top of the waveform, now it is a much lower level and can be reproduced without any clipping distortion. The filtered bass signal can also more cleanly drive the woofer. Bi-wiring schemes are mostly a waste of time.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Bi-wiring schemes are mostly a waste of time.

Are you distinguishing bi-wiring from bi-amping?

 

[par4ken]

Are you distinguishing bi-wiring from bi-amping?

When Bi-amping is used with passive crossovers it is really no different than Bi-wiring. The amps still pass the entire audio spectrum and are still just as prone to clipping.

 

[edisonbaggins]

The Energy Veritas manual gets more specific. They only recommend veritcal bi-amping, not horizontal.
It does seem kinda silly to drive just a tweeter off a whole tube amp. The low posts feed two woofers. The high post one tweeter.