As I don't swim in money so my objective is to get the best result for a moderate price, and if that takes driving from the Netherlands to Berlin or the Ruhrgebied to buy 4 Kappa 8.1 loudspeakers, well I go for it. The Kappa 7 are connected to the Yamaha AX 900 which I owned brandnew 35 years ago, sold for the Harman Kardon AVR 7000 of which I have 2.
Later I bought A used AX 900 in Germany and had it restored to nearly new condition.
The AVR 7000 takes care of the surroud sound with a nice solid Kappa B center speaker and Infinity HPS 250 sub. Actually the sub was recommended by a local HiFi dealer, I bought it new, later I decided to have all loudspeakers of the Infinity brand considering their fine reputation and own unique philosophy for building loudspeakers. And eh, for me big sound really does require non- bookshelf loudspeakers. Later addition were the 2, now restored, ST-7 tangential record players as I still love vinyl. For the modern era a HK BT bluetooth unit to play mp3 was hooked up to the AVR, internet radio etc from the laptop for convenience. Along with a 10 inch electric operated 16:9 screen and wide angle beamer as I am a film(house) fan. The room is square, the sides are a bit sloped, almost entirely made of wood, so the sound is very good indeed. The Infinity's are still in good shape, as are the Yamaha and AVR. I love how for instance. Toots Thielemans sounds on the HK/Kappa set it really blows your mind off no kidding. When selling my Philips FB 825 floorstanding loudspeakers they were bought by HiFi enthusiasts from the Hague. These men had spent endless money on silver cables and that kind of stuff, had the bad luck of living in homes with poor acoustics. Well they came for a quick haul and ended listening for over 4 hours to this double HiFi set, they were truly amazed. So, I use thick copper cables to wire the Infinity's, but I am not a "cable spender",. You won't catch me spending 1000 euro's on a ls cable. I do believe in filtering the net as a sound improvement so that has been taken care of. As I do use spikes quite often for damping. The St-7's became golden connectors. But eh as a Dutchman I use my common sense :) The sound is as loud as you can bare without clipping. You can be kicked out of your chair watching Starwars or melt away listening to Mozart, either way it does a pretty good job that "old American stuff".
Hi Johnnysaleh and yyman23, thks for your kind comments. Yeah that old equipment still rocks so it was built well :) The Kappa 7.1 does have more bass than the 8.1 but I guess that older series is just better. To bad the bigger loudspeakers were real amp killers with their odd impedance otherwise I would have bought 2 Kappa 9 sets instead lol. In regards to expensive, yeah at least twice as expensive as in the USA, I buy small parts in Amercia from time to time trough Ebay but the shipping costs are not in favour of getting them 9's over the ocean LOL. Harman Kardon is a luxury brand here, the first amp in Holland was the 2 x 25 W A 401 which I bought 40 years ago In a setup with B&W D5 2 way bookshelf speakers in a small room it was super. A fan ever since as you can see tough the citations were allways way out of reach LOL Well at least I got a hold on two ST-7's which set you back 2500 dollars a piece 37 years ago, in Holland that is.
I love the Kappa's! I own the 7.1 and 8.1's, but i find the 7.1's to have way more bass. It could be that my crossover caps are just too old. How is the bass on your 8.1's? Collecting all that stuff in Europe is very impressive. Way more expensive than the U.S.
great system and definitely great set of Infinity speakers.
I had both set of speakers in the early to mid 1990s. I wish I kept mine, but constant moving to many cities in that period thus becoming a bit of hassle in keeping those speakers.
The only set that I kept during those days is my pre-amp Sony 1000esd which I occasionally use it with my current set up. I just love the internal equalizer.
