I have wanted a pair of these since I was in high school in the 80s when a friend of mine worked in a stereo shop. I finally found a pair locally at an estate sale -- along with Kappa 6's to use as surrounds, 2 amps, and a laserdisc player. All 6 woofers needed to be refoamed but now these speakers sound wonderful. Also, I love how they look (not everyone will agree of course).

As a first-time bi-amper, these speakers make it easy with a passive crossover for high pass and low pass. Note that the only place to find a good selection of RCA cables and splitters these days is a local car audio shop. I also picked up a cheap passive gain adjuster just in case, but so far I haven't needed it.

I was surprised right away by how great this arrangement sounds on the Super Deluxe Sgt. Pepper strings-only version of "She's Leaving Home." These 4 speakers do a fantastic job on The Matrix as well! Who needs 5.1 when 4.0 sounds this good? I may grab a Kappa 5 for the center... I tried an Infinitesimal 0.2 just for fun but it isn't a good match.

As a Phish fan, my goal is always to reproduce their live "bass in your face" sound, which this setup does fairly well (I recommend "Tahoe Tweezer" as a reference). Note that if the woofers are wired incorrectly after refoaming they cancel each other out to a certain extent and the bass sounds awful. Please don't ask how I know this.

BANANABRAIN posted a review about 10 years ago with this same bass-murdering lowest-woofer polarity problem. If you are still on this site and still have no bass you probably need to reverse the polarity on the lowest woofer! IMO you shouldn't need a subwoofer with these unless you need club-style thumping to shake out some tooth fillings.

Overall, I am so glad that I finally have a pair of these to play with. I am quite pleased with this purchase so far.

Do not underestimate the current draw of these speakers, especially in the default "extended" mode. I am using a Parasound HCA-3500 for the low pass and Nakamichi PA-7 for the high pass. This adds up to like 500 watts per channel, and my power bill went up noticeably once I added these speakers and amps.

I also think it killed the Adcom 545 that I tried on the high pass at first.

These speakers are definitely fiddly. There are 4 knobs and a switch on the back of each. Room placement is important, particularly since they are dipole. They are too large for most rooms as well, since they need to be a minimum of 7 feet apart (and are like 2 feet wide each).

They look hilarious in my current relatively tiny listening room.

These are indeed extraordinary speakers. I bought them about 5 years ago and had to negociate with my wife to install them in our living :).

They are power hungry and I learned that by burning a beautifull Marantz amp. They are now each driven by STUDER A68 Studio amps. As preamp I am using Revox C279. Sound source is a Marantz CDA-94 hooked to a SONY juke box with optical output.

How can I disturb the sound better than the other reviews ? These speakers are not trying to tweak physics like some small speakers pretending to do it all. The very choice of not having an internal casing volume means that they are not recuperating the woofer's energy behind the front membrane (no bass reflex). This of course obliges the implementation of two woofers. Two woofers mean power hungry speakers that will drain amps for driving two wooders actively to deliver the promper responser.

The immediate advantage is a clean actively driven bass, not a partly recuperated bass through a bass reflex process. The remaining frequencies are also well reproduced with excellent mid ranges and the best tweaters being riboon tweates. Here again these tweaters are very delicate to clipping, another reason not to run these speakers on cheap amps.

Evan the shape of these speakers are designed to give a pleasant self resonance pattern. If you look, they do not have 90° angles, or very little of them. This ensures a colorfull and agreable sound from the box as obviously it is foolish to think that one can isolate these woofers from making the casing resonate. The people who have designed this monster were very wise with their philosophy and the result is here for us to engoy.

I would appreciate if anyone can tell me about the base modification for these speakers as I must admit it would be the only part which was not well finished. I have installed 4 adjustable pins which do a good job at lower power to isolate the speakers but at high output there clearly is a noise coming from this area. I read some reviews explaining of heavy feet, I was thinking of manufacturing a base filled in with sand and installing the speakers on these base.

Fully recommended,these speakers will gain value over time to become collector items. To illustrate this let me share this: the person selling the two A68s was trying to buy them from me and I only got rid of him by explaining that I was buying these amps for these speakers and it did not make sense to sell these speakers :)

I fell in love with these babies after my first listening session and purchased a pair brand new.Now 25 years later I own 2 sets.I keep them in pristine condition by using wood preservative once a year and using a special rubber preservative on the polydomes.Ive owned dozens of speakers and nothing quite does it for me like the kappa 9's.They always ran out of gas until I purchased the mcintosh mc1000 monoblocks.Incredibly ,these speakers will bury the meters at 4000 watt peaks on the 2 ohm posts. I have never damaged a driver in 25 years of hard listening and think most people hurt the drivers by clipping the amp.Nothing I've heard raises the hairs on the back of my head like these.You can find a set of used mc1000's on audiogon between 5K and 7K and it is worth every penny.

What can I say. I somehow talked my dad into buying these for me back in 1987. I don't know any other high school freshman that had more than a sony walkman. It was between these and a Polk Audio speaker that looked like a refrigerator box and had 12-16 speakers in it. While they looked impressive, they could not even come close to matching the Kappa 9's in audio performance.
They do need quite a bit of power - the early Carver amp that I had could not keep up. That meant blowing even more money at Magnolia Hi-Fi on the biggest Adcom amp that they had. I have had no issues since, even running at very high power levels.
I have had the woofers replaced and need to do it again, but thanks to a nice subwoofer I have been lax about that.
I don't have anything bad to say about the speakers other than durability. But compared to what I would have to spend on my other favorites, Vienna Accoustics, I can have these fixed numerous times and still save money!

As others have said nothing I have heard at anywhere near the realistic price compares to these speakers.

The drawbacks are as was said the eat power, blow fuses and are a headache to drive with amps most people own. Hafler 500s bi-amped handle the job beautifully and even one 500 will get the job done.

The other and bigger problem is the poor support by Infinnity who no longer really exists. Woofers go way too fast. Mid ranges crack and die and no true replacement is available.

If you can put up with these problems it is difficult to find speakers that sound better. Now on my 3 replacement of the drivers and searching for a good poly dome replacement, I remain hopeful that I can continue to listen to the amazing sound they produce.

5 stars plus for sound

4 stars because of reliability and repair issues.

12-25-2010,

I just got my Christmas present 2 days ago, and all I can say is WOW! I found these speakers in an obscure pawn shop in Carrollton Texas. They sat there for about a year collecting dust. I knew what they were from a audio shop that I bought my first set of " what I call my first set of good speakers" back in 1978. By the way the shop was called Audio Labs of Des Moines Iowa. The guy's name was Lewis that helped me with my purchase. Looking back now I'm sure he must have been gay. ( The only reason I'm Putting this in this review is if for some reason you read this Lewis, Jim never forgot you. Merry Christmas!) A pair of B n W DM 220's. I thought at the time I made a great choice. ( And I did for the money ) I looked at the Infinity's, But way out of my price range for the day. By the way, BnW's, Never a bad choice, They rocked !

Now that I'm looking at these magnificent speakers setting right next to me, all I can say is, awesome ! I'm not sure if it's just the size of these things, or the amount of driver's, the crossovers, or what, maybe the fact that they are handmade and tested like a fine automobile. But these have to be one of the best pair of speakers made. The sound, even at low levels is beautiful. I was lucky enough to get a pair in mint condition. All I can say is I feel sorry for the guy that had to give these up.

Now. The down side. Better get ready to shell out some $ on an amp, or 2, or 3, because like all the other reviews you have read. In order to make these things sing, you are going to need some juice ! I just hooked them up to "4" Hafler 220 amps. As you can guess, I am now a true AudioPhile.

Time to really kill you. Want to know what I paid for these babies after a year of sitting in a pawnshop ? $1000.00, $600.00, $499.00, $299.00 ? How about $ 90.00 for the pair ! God Loves Me !
Merry Christmas to all, and God Bless !

Having listened to these. I would have paid a $1000.00 at a pawnshop for them !

I've had the Kappa 9s for about twenty years now and they still amaze me. I've bi-amped them with Sphinx amps (Project 14 stereo hybrid for the mid/highs and Project 12s for the bass system) after I ruined two heft Yamaha power amps on them. The difference is just mind blowing. Where the Yamaha was just to harsh, the Sphinxes are smooth as silk with a full and powerful bass, a very precise midrange and eerie highs.

I've recently changed from stereo (with Sphinx preamp and CD player) to a theater system with Rotel DVD player and the Rotel 1066 preamp. I've bought 8a's as surround speakers and Infinity's Kappa II centers (times 2) with Sphinx Project 12s and Rotels (bridged) to drive 'em. Though the set-up lost some of its clarity and definition with the introduction of the Rotel pre-am and DVD player, the overall sound/impression is just awsome. I now hardely ever listen to CD's any more - I'm hooked on the thrill of having a picture with the sound. And let's be honest: surround sound does add a jawdropping dimension to live concerts!

In short: I just LOVE my Infinity 9s and wouldn't wanna part with 'em for any other system I've heard. I've recently listened to a costly Martin Logan set-up and yes, they're super. But they lack the dynamic power of the 9s. A friend of mine has a hefty system based on wall-to-wall Klipsch speakers and he's still not talking to me because I said it lacked definition as compared to the Infinities. Well, that's what I think at least.

PROS: clarity, oomph and magnificent definition.

CONS: no good when other components aren't up to the job or at least up to par, really.

When I first listened to these speakers they were a revelation to me. I 'd never before heard music the way these speakers present it - crystal clear highs and mids with definition. Individual voices and instruments easily and distinctly heard-each note crisp as if the guitar, piano or vocalist is right in front of you. The bass is tight and deep with no need for a subwoofer at all. Sound that fills the room without having to be loud. Now, a year later I'm no less impressed with them.

Like much high powered equipment tke Kappa 9 requires special treatment. The highs are very detailed and clear but might be a little to much for some people. Fortunately there is a tweeter control on the reverse. I have it set about one third the way up to soften the sound . I have'nt found the need to cover the tweeters with felt like some people describe. They need a lot of clean power.
I quickly found that my Yamaha receiver was completely inadequate even with the speakers low impedance
protection switch on. The Kappa 9 would flip the Yamaha's protection circuitry on with any but the lowest volume and undemanding music. I had better success with the Sherwood A-986 125w multichannel amp and bi-amping the kappas. The Sherwood can handle low impedances. I found that I was able to turn the impedance protection switch off and not clip the amp at comfortable volume but I wanted more power.

Now I am bi-amping with the NHT Power 5 class D amp which delivers 200w per channel. Even with that much power and the ability to handle low impedances it is still possible to clip the amps if you play loud enough with demanding material. It's probably safer to use amplification with soft clipping type circuitry to
prevent damge to the tweeters if you over drive the amp unless you can afford mega powered amps
with 300w or more per channel with abilty to handle low impedances and bi-amp to reduce the load on each channel.

They immediately draw attention because they're large at 5 feet tall and built with solid wood tha looks like fine furniture. Build quality is obvious and excellent. They look like no other speaker made today. When I played the "Jurassic Park" sound track on them my wife said that it was appropriate because the speakers look like dinosaurs! I have them in our finished basement in a basic home theater setup. They're probably too big for most living rooms and most wives. It's possible to get them for around a $1,000 to $1,400 which is a steal because you would have to spend $5000 or more to get comparable new speakers today and I suspect it would be difficult to top the kappas at any reasonable price.

If you get a chance at a pair in good condition and got the spot for them, go get 'em, you won't regret it.

Strenghts: Incredible sound quality especially for the price you can get them today. Beatiful speakers

Weaknesses: Big Imposing. Require tremendous amplifier power preferably bi amping which can run into big bucks

I have owned Infinity Kappa 9s for 15 years and have never found anything that matches them. Unfortunately, I have to replace the speakers but have decided to sell the cabinets cheap and let the new owner replace them.
I'm gonna miss these babies.

Full sound, very analytical and excellent bass. Due to their design, there is a very good dispersion of the highs, but they need to be located away from the walls.

They need a big room for full enjoyment. The driving amplifier must be really powerful. They require a chain of good quality components, because they show all weaknesses of the system.

After so many years, I had to replace the foam suspension of the woofer buffles, since it had started to get grated. Fortunately, I found the same material and a specialized technician who replaced to all woofer units of both speakers for an affordable amount.

I bought these speakers in a New Orleans shop (unfortunately, I cannot recall the shop's name) in 1992. My only information for them was coming from the Audio Magazines of those days, so I was not fully aware what I was going to buy.

When I entered the shop, there were a lot of speakers in display and the guy there was very helpful. He was ready to give a listening on every pair I was interested in. Firstly, I auditioned a Polk pair, which was a vwery well sounding pair (i don't recall the model now). Then we moved into another room, where all Kappa Series were on display.

I had with me the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture CD, if I remember well it was the Erich Kunzel performance with the Cincinatti Orchestra, the recording of which uses real cannon shots during the performance. I aked him to play it, using an integrated amplifier of about 100 watts per channel only.

My jaws were dropped! The decision for buying them was instant.

I am still using them in my living room, in a stereo system, fed with a Hafler XL-600 or (alternatively) a Hafler 9500 Series THX Power Amplifier and a Classe CP-50 stereo preamplifier. Sources are: a Sony SCSD-XA777ES SACD/CD player and a VPI 19W Jr turntable with an Alphason HR-100 Tone Arm and an Ortofon Cartridge.

I believe that theiir sound has very little rivals, even within today's modern speakers of the same price. I had the opportunity to compare them with Mirage M-3si floor standing pair, which is also an excellent speaker of the same price range and I own them for my Home Theater. The 9Kappas are more analytical and their low frequeny goes much more down than the M3-si. The Mirage's are sweeter and their middles give you a more relaxing feel, but they must be accompanied by a subwoofer, to give you the same "abyss" bass, that you get from the Infinity's.

Their middle and treble is also excellent. The EMIT and SEMIT tweeters, combined with the Polydome and Polygraph middle drivers and a really sophsticated crossover will give you a music result to remember.

As already stated by other users, they will rreveal the system pros and cons. Therefore, they have to be accompanied by selected components. Most important is that they need a well designed and powerful amplifier. At the beginning, I was driving them with a Sansui AUX-911DG integrated amplifier of 110 w/ch, which was an excellent unit, but weak for the Infinity's. My Hafler's have given me what I was looking for.

Today, I am still enjoying them and I don't want to give them away for something else, unless this is really good (which means really expensive).

Similar Products Used:

Mirage M3-si speakers