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Krell KSA150 vs KSA100S & KSA100 for Inf Kappa 9

I've been struggling for a year now to power a pair of Infinity Kappa 9's or should I say pwering the woofers. I've bought 2 Parasound HCA-3500's and Adcoms Flagship model. Neither can run the Kappa 9 woofers at high volume levels for a length of time. Some of you said right in the beginning to buy a Krell. Well now I'm ready to make that purchase. I'm only going to use the amp to power the 4 woofers. What is the comparison between the KSA150 and the KSA100S and the older KSA100? I can spend up to $2,000. Also should I hold out and spend a little more on a KSA250 or KSA200S? Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
400bill
meadowman's avatar
meadowman
140 posts
 
JCrogan,

What actual real info do you have that leads you to state Krell is having financial problems?
racerxnet
54 posts
 
If driven properly the Kappa 9's are still better than many of todays speakers. They were innovative for their time with the emit and semit drivers. Yes, and unfortunately hard on amplifiers. None the less, still a bargain and very musical from Arnie.

I would not worry about a bad review from TAD as we are all aware that the Kappa 9s are amp eaters. The Krell should be very good at driving a 1 ohm load. I would put the Kappa's against any speakers in the 2K to 7K price range and bet they are able to stand on their own.

You can join the Infinity forum and get a substantial amount of information on the K 9's.

Proud owner of Kappa 9's, RSB 1's, and Genesis 200's

MAK
edwards
43 posts
 
Many years back I drove a pair of Kappa 8's with a Krell KSA-50 MKii. It was incredible. A 50 watt per amp driving the impossible to drive Kappa speakers.

That amp did a great job of owning the low frequency drivers, and had a wonderful presence in the uppers. After a full night of listening I wondered how that amp did not catch fire, but the harder it was driven the better it performed.

The Kapa 9's of course will need at a minimum a KSA-100. My advise is to look for an older KSA-100 MKii where the air vents up out the top of the unit. These would have been made perhaps 1987-1989.

Many people knock the older fan units, I think that this series of amps has the lush warm sound of a tube, mixed with an incredible dynamic low end control.

It really comes down to simple maintenance, keep the amps off the floor, blow the dust out of the unit at least annually, and enjoy. If the pervious owner did not do this, then you may need a new pair of fans, but simple maintenance will make them last noise free for the next 20 years.

You have no idea how good those Kapa's are until you drive them with an older Krell.

Enjoy!
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