Infinity Kappa Speakers

[padgett]

Circuit City is having a sale this week on Infinity Kappa speakers essentially 4 5.25" for $135.

Are these any good (am assuming late '88 used 4 5.25s - know fronts are but have not removed rears) and is this a good price ?

- audio is not my field.

[Rawja]

While I can't give a specific recomendation on the speaker model you linked to, I have had good experiences with Infinity's speakers in general and have installed dozens of sets over the years.

I currently have Kappa 52.3i speakers installed in the doors + the stock tweeters, and the BEST upgrade I have done to my Reatta was installing Kappa 693.3i 6X9s in the rear.

I don't know what your listening preferances are, but the improvement gained by getting rid of the small 5 1/4" speakers in the rear quarters is breathtaking, Bass reproduction and intensity of volume dramatically improved over the 5 1/4" speakers. All you would need is the 90-91 speaker brackets, as the grilles are the same.

If you decide to stick with the stock set-up, you will need four 5 1/4" speakers.

[Guest EDBSO]

I am distinctly unimpressed with my Infinity Kappas with the 6X9s in the front doors with 1-1/8" EMIT Supertweeter

Infinity Kappa 52.5i The best I could findyou should be paying under $90 for the pair plus shipping.

$102.86 all in from here

If you can get 4 (four) for $135 grab and run then resell on ebay??

The Bass is fine the tweeter IMHO is sadly lacking. I have 6x9 Phoenix Golds in the front doors of a Riviera and they blow the Infinity away. The Infinity Kappa line has great reviews. I am thinking that by folding the extra speaker wire around itself and then taping it to the external cross-over and then the door frame so it wouldn't rattle, that I have built a choke and have killed all the treble? I am unhappy enough with them that I will remove them, cut out all the extra wires and substitute 28AGW solid silver wire in Teflon tubes and braided.

[Rawja]

I like my music a little "bright", so I kept the stock door tweeters hooked in as well as using the Kappa tweeters. Worked for me.

[Guest EDBSO]

Circuit City product.

http://store3.yimg.com/I/speakersound10_1705_7490024 Infinity Kapa 52.51

Frequency Response (Hz) 72Hz-20kHz Circuit City and 55-21,000 Hz for Infinity Kapa 52.51

I think that The speakers are different. Would have to have Model #s to be certain.

All bets off as to whether the Circuit City ones are a good value. I would be 90% certain that they will be better than stock especially with 4 that are all matched.

[Reatta_Cruzin]

EDBSO, the pheonix gold speakers are a great speaker. You get what you pay for. No offense, but comparing the Infinity's to the pheonix gold's is like comparing a 1980 Chevette to a 1991 Reatta. The infinity's are good for the money, thats it. I have also noticed that a round speaker sounds more clear than a oval shaped speaker such as a 6"X9". The 6X9's do seem to have a little more Bass, but for that you'll lack in clarity. I do not have actual proof from a magizine or anything, just from personal experience with my stereo in my Reatta.

[Guest EDBSO]

Then why do my Infinities sound so poorly.

All connections were silver soldered and taped. There are no air leaks because all have been sealed with acoustic/construction sealer.

Could have I wound a choke? when I installed them as I think I might have?

They are not even close.

My home system with Tannoy Arden 15" Monitors are exquisite, for an old speaker and I listen to them with everything set flat. They offer the true British sound which is also flat frequency response. More recording studios, even today, have the same Tannoy dual concentric monitors in them. I believe I know good, excellent and poor sound. My Infinities are poor

I know that they "review" very well (that is why I purchased them) but not by my experience. Car parked for winter. I have app 70 hours on them and imaging came together reasonably well. Still no high end.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I give them a 3.

ideas?

[Reatta_Cruzin]

EDBSO, I honestly think that if you had the kappa's in a 5.25" instead of the 6X9, your results would improve. If clarity is what you are looking for, I would have to suggest MB Quart speakers. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Sounds like you have a great home system! I'm using Klipsche towers powered by a Yamaha Receiver/amp. Complete with Klipsche center, rears, and a matching 15" 800 watt powered sub. Not to shabby for the money.

[Guest EDBSO]

Yes I like the MB Quart but they are a very power hungry speaker. Stock Reatta power won't drive them adequately.

I have tweeked the Tannoys by removing the dust covers and and a a braided version of these. I can hear every single one of the wisk bristles hitting the symbol and the decay ring is a thing of beauty, shimmering not just a "SSSssssss". Hard to explain.

Mfg's quote "The 1 and 1/8th EMIT Super Tweeter ? The latest and greatest Kappa 693.5i utilizes Infinity's world-famous EMIT tweeter technology. This super tweeter further extends high-frequency reproduction to ensure that every last ounce of information is reproduced flawlessly." It should be out of this world.

I think that their EMIT Super Tweeter is not available in the 5.5? All I can think of is the wiring is acting as a cross-over and I am not getting the power to drive it??? It should blow the 5.5 away.

[2seater]

IMHO the Infinities are a good speaker but not enough db per watt if you are using the stock radio. Just my .02 but, I looked for efficiency in the replacement speaker rather than peak power handling. With a little more amplifier power, there are a lot of good to great speakers out there. I wound up using Polk component speakers in the front and Pioneer two-way 6 x 9 in the rear. Both are good for about 50 watts and are rated at 93 db @ 1 watt @ 1 meter. Even the upgraded Pioneer CD deck is only good for about 16 watts rms x 4, so the speakers match fairly well. This was installed five years ago so there is better stuff out there today. I actually tried three sets of speakers in the doors before I selected the ones I have now.

[Guest EDBSO]

My Infinities are rated at Sensitivity: 90 dB @ 1 watt @ 1 meter. A speaker rated at 93 @ 1 watt @ 1 meter will play twice as loud as my 90s. Still they are no slouches.

I find Mb Quart run 84 to 87 so you really have to have lots of power behind them, certainly much more than a Reatta has.

[2seater]

No degrading of anyones choices are intended. Speakers are like many things in life, it's all a personal choice of what sounds good to you. We aren't dealing with a lot of power, especially in stock form, so that is why I mentioned efficiancy as another criteria to look at. To be fair, all of the speakers I tried did sound cleaner than the original paper cone ones. The only thing I noticed was it required more power to attain the listening levels I was used to. The factory stuff is actually pretty efficient (although a little muddy) but they are all getting pretty tired after all these years.

[Guest]

WOW just as I thought my MK system was state of the art

Remember in a car audio for a pure audofile is like boxed wine to a French wine steward

[Guest EDBSO]

No offence taken or perceived. Hope my reply didn't sound harsh or anything. Just sharing my understanding of things and trying to figure it out.

To find out just how loud the Infinity will play I would require a good pair of ear defenders. As they are now they can play way too loud for sustained listening . Also as you get near the limits the amp starts to clip and that is where real and often terminal damage will occur to speakers. You toast them quickly. With the 89 radio controls one never knows whether you are using 10% or 99% of the available power. At very loud levels (for short times) I cannot hear any signs of distortion. But being prudent I am afraid to really crank it.

Still think I caused the problem by twisting the extra speaker wire around itself and the external crossover and taping it to the door frame. I think I have built a coil, increased/decreased the impedance and/or capacitance and the end result is I have modified the characteristics of the crossover and killed all of the treble. It is really that bad.

They could not get the great reviews with the sound I have. I think shortening up the leads and taking all of the loops and twists by replacing them with silver wire will fix things up. Silver also sounds bright.

I can't do anything until spring.

[Guest]

Coiling the wires acts as a choke.

A) Negating stray interferance and feedback (stray RF)

KILLING the top end. <VBG>

Come Spring and you unspring your wire you will get higher highs.

[Guest EDBSO]

Coiling usually makes a choke.

Parallel wires usually increases capacitance and impedance (bad).

Twisted is usually good. Twisted, twisted pair is usually very good.

Multiple small individually Teflon insulated wires are better than one big wire.

If you want to get lost in wire and cable minutia go here.

[color:\\"blue\\"]Back to the thread. Should padgett get the Infinities?

They are probably much, much better than the stock. You can do better but at approximately 2 times price.

OTHERS

[padgett]

I have a bit different problem. As a result of an all expense paid tour of SouthEast Asia in the late '60s my hearing is 65-70 db down (under normal conditions I need hearing aids to function).

The cars I get from Avis these days all have radios I can listen to unaided though usually with the treble at max and bass at the midpoint (most of my loss is above 2kcps).

Consequently I need speakers that will play well at relatively high volumes but probably cannot tell "English" from "American" tonal quality. Do need clarity.

At home we have Bose systems in both bedroom and TV room but was for wife - have Sennheiser headsets in both rooms that I use.

From the sound systems heard at stoplights these days I wonder if an investment in hearing aid company stock would be advisable.

[farnelle]

I'm not at all a speaker person and my ears are not good enough to tell the difference between a $20 speaker and a $100 speaker. I did, however, replace the door speakers in my 89 coupe because the factory Delco speakers had totally rotten out. Though about replacing the rear speakers also and noticed that they were 10 ohm speakers. The guy at the local radio shop said I would need to get the speakers from GM because 10 ohm speakers were not available and using anything else would damage the system. Can anybody help with this one?

[Guest EDBSO]

Garbage:

Truth be told there is no such thing as a true 16, 10, 8 or 4 ohms speaker.

The resistance, which is measured in ohms varies across the frequency response of a speaker.

A speaker has an impedance that gives varying resistance to current depending on current frequency. The current frequency varies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz - and it defines the speaker resistance from 2 to 16 Ohms (better speakers give less range of resistance). The 4, 8, 10 or 16 ohms of resistance is an average or typical value.

In all but the most sensitive amplifiers you can use an 8 ohms speaker in the place of a 10 ohm speaker. Go ahead and use an 8 ohms speaker.

[Reatta_Cruzin]

That looks like a great cable. currently, I'm running "Monster Cable". I'm sure that you've heard of those. I use that product at home and in my car.

And yes, the MB Quart does like power. I am getting ready to install new speakers now. Currently I have a 4-channel amp driving them. when it's all said and done, I will have a 1-channel Xtant amp(cannot recall of-hand the model #)driving each set of speakers. (5.25") w/ there tweeter at the four corners of the Reatta. I already have the Xtant 1001d 1-channel amp(1,000 watts) for the two JL Audio 12" subs in the trunk.

You should goto www.jlaudio.com site and research their componet speaker sets. I haven't checked them out yet. If you like them maybe I'll look into it a little better before I go spending the Money on the MB Quarts.