Infinity Kappa 9's sound terrible...HELP


Recently I got a pair of Kappa 8's. Plugged them into Adcom 860 preamp and to an old HK Citation 16, GFA-555 and GFA-565's. They sounded...beyond my wildest dreams! Absolutely amazing!

A week later I bought a pair of Kappa 9's. Was really excited thinking they would out preform the k-8's! Plugged them into the same system and they sounded like crap. Tried running each k-9 to 1 GFA-565 and bi-wire them, changed all knobs to flat, experimented with the adjustments on the back of the k-9's in every conceivable position, ran them in standard and extended bass modes...and they still sounded terrible!

Has anyone experienced this before? Any tests or checks I can do to eliminate any doubts of anything? If I can't resolve this on my own, I guess I'll have to take the speakers somewhere...if I can a reliable source between the Philadelphia to Harrisburg, PA area.

Also, if any can suggest any good techs between the Phila and Harrisburg area for amplifier rebuilds (Adcom GFA-555 II models) I would also appreciate getting a name and address.

Thanks guys...appreciate your help!
barricadedbob
Hi i owned 8's and never ever heard that(used Accuphase p102 and Audio research Classic 60 etc when i had them ) perhaps the Emit needs sorting is it in both sides? First step would be check the crossovers and make sure that is in spec - I have seen so many hacked speakers it is sad - i have no idea who to trust over there but swapping Emits out(with the 9 pair) and using a test cd may help isolate the problem .It could still be the polydomes at the upper end of there range -maybe get a pair of those black drop in replacements and see what happens. Both sets of speakers 8's and 9's should sound competitive with modern day speakers if in perfect condition .
In Germany there are a couple of experts who apparently even get the Emits redone and after these guys do the speakers up supposedly better than new - note not cheap i believe but apparently well worth it -there is an article in the German stereo magazine that you can download -not sure what issue now - think in the first 6 anyway get in touch with that guy I will post a link to the Magazine site -even ask the editor 
https://stereo-magazine.com/
cheers
Hmm, I posted something yesterday plus a response and an edit but it isn't here today... weird.

I'll repost my quick question... I'm a new 9Kappa owner!  After 30 years of window shopping someone in my zip code had an estate sale and I ended up with a pair of Kappa 6's and Kappa 9's -- plus a Nakamichi PA-7, Adcom 535, and a LaserDisc player.  Can someone recommend a crossover and preamp for me to use as a first-time bi-amper?  I'm thinking I should use my Parasound HCA-3500 for low pass and the PA-7 for high pass.


The tricky part is that ideally I would like to be able to split 2 channel music into high pass, low pass, and subwoofer ranges -- but would also like 5.1 to work seamlessly.  Does this require some sort of integrated preamp/crossover hardware or is it more trouble than it's worth to make this happen?  With the two 12" woofers, bass is pretty darn good but I expect it will need some tightening up next time I have disposable income to waste.

I need to upgrade my receiver to one that does HDMI switching anyway, so now is the best time for me to choose the right hardware.

Thanks,
Mark

p.s. to anyone whose Kappa 9's are missing bass -- especially if you had a recent re-foaming -- it is quite easy to wire the lower woofer backward due to the color scheme so double check this next if you are sure that the Low Pass/High Pass jumper and connectors are fine.
After doing some reading -- it looks like I should be able to find the crossover I need for biamping at just about any car audio shop.  Is this the case?
After doing even more reading -- it looks like it is common for people to just use a y cable from each channel of the pre-amp to plug into both amps.  This may explain why most threads didn't mention adding a crossover specifically.
Is it really this easy?

This is my last comment on this thread. Yes indeed, it is as easy as I suggested in the last post. Another hot tip: these days the best place to go for your RCA cable needs is a car audio shop. They still use crossovers and RCA cables everywhere!
For $50 I ended up with all the RCA splitters and connectors I could have wanted, as well as a passive gain adjuster just in case. I now have the HCA-3500 going to the low pass and the PA-7 going to high pass. I will A/B the PA-7 vs. the Adcom 545 whenever I have some more spare time.
Next time I have a little bit of money and time I’ll try adding an active crossover just for fun. It looks like there is an affordable one from a company called "Biamp" that will handle low/high/sub just fine. I’ll probably have to give up on finding a single box that can manage both 2 channel music and 5.1/7.2/etc properly... so I’m probably going to have to run 5.0 or 7.0 or whatever since 2 channel is more important to me. Perhaps there are subs out there with multiple inputs? That might work.

Thanks again for these forums! I started with practically no bass due to the lowest woofer being wired backwards -- now I am biamping and I may actually have too much low end. Amazing for 1980s pre-subwoofer gear!

Unfortunately the #1 remaining problem is echo. The theater room is all drywall and hardwood floors (we just moved in to a new house). It makes the most sense to solve this before any other tweaking.
Thanks again