A couple of years ago, I realized that I really missed the dynamics and live feeling of my old horn loudspeakers. Sadly, I had sold them (much too cheap) and invested in "true" HiFi speakers, the Kappa 90's. I always thought that horns were less "HiFi" than other designs and,consequently, I set out to find more HiFi-ish gear. i eventually realized that I would never get the beautiful concert hall dynamics of the horns with these "HiFi" speakers. Compared to my old horns, there was no solar plexus drum kick, the speakers required loads of power and still didn't come alive. In the end, I was simply unhappy with them. In fact, I was generally unhappy because my addiction to horns was greater than I had thought. Horns and Accuphase, it doesn't get any better than that. Yet, I went out looking for something more HiFi-ish... Oh well, I have learned my lesson. I was happy enough to find a beautiful pair of 1992 Klipschorns and life smiled at me again. I will never sell these corner horns. These speakers are simply stunning. They have all the dynamics of my old homebuilt horns as well as all the "HiFi" qualities I thought I was lacking. I can now both hear and feel that wonderful drumkick again and everything else about them is just superb. Really smooth highs, beautiful voices. And I don't need a lot of power, I rarely put more than a watt into these babies. Horns are the way to go. Sure, the Kappa 90's are good bass reflex speakers, but they can never compare with the might K-horns. I'm a happy camper again. Don't trust reviews, listen for yourself. Trust your gut feeling and your ears only.

Neutral, covers most of the audible specrum. Beautiful detailed highs, deep bass. Very good looking.

Require direct connection to nuclear power plant and must be placed in a big room. A tad bright, require electronics that are not too harsh. Lack bass punch (but strength and depth are there). Very big.

As you can see, I have written several posts about these speakers. I have now owned them for 2.5 years and I feel confident to say the following: - I regret the post where I said that speaker cables make a BIG difference, they do, but not that much, they cannot alter the charecteristics of the speaker. - The Kappa 90's are very neutral and cover most of the audible frequency spectrum. - They can sound harsh with harsh electronics, select the amp with care. - You must drive them with a nuclear power plant to get a nice bass response. - They deliver truck loads of deep bass, but they lack punch, the bass that hits you in the chest. I have tried changing power amps, CD players, cables, but to no avail, the Kappa 90's will not run you over like a freight train (granted, I have not tried the monstrous 200 lbs Krell amps, but a speaker should not require an amp that's more expensive than the speaker). - They are very sensitive to room placement, partly because the bass reflex port is on the back side. - They require a big room.

Sooths your brain, blows your head off

Big, difficult to drive, sensitive to room placement

In several reviews in the past, I've been complaining about the lack of mid-bass, such as bass drums. I've experimented with new cables (Supra Ply 3.4, recommended) and switched power amp from Rotel RB-991 to ADCOM GFA-585 (highly recommended powerhouse, sounds much warmer than the Rotel). Mid-bass got better all the time, but it turned out that the problem was the CD player, the ARCAM CD72, an expensive player that I never suspected to be the weak link. The CD72 is a great player in many ways, but it has a serious problem with the bass. Its low-end bass is exaggerated and the mid-bass subdued, which makes rhythmic music sound off-beat. I tried a bunch of different players and replaced the CD72 with a Sony CDP-XB740 for $300, believe it or not. Now my Kappa 90's have really come to life, with very nice bass reproduction. If you listen mainly to rock and blues, like I do, stay away from Arcam CD players, they alter the sound in a seductive way, but lack mid-bass...

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Home-built horn speakers

A fantastic transparent high frequency responce - Emit B! Good power and pouch on high volumes, but never sound "hard". Good looking (!)

The bass can be a little blurring with wrong placement in the room or in a small room - big spaces are required. AND a big amp with lots of current!

This is not a new review, only a translation to English as many of you have been mailing me for a English version. Please, have understanding for my bad English, I hope You can read and understand it anyway... I use these speakers in a home movie system with matching speakers: Kappa Center B and Kappa Rear. Everything sounds very vell and as parts in a system the speakers are nearly 100% matched - very good! There are though some things that must be done to make these big boxes to live up! - A amplifier that can control the speaker to 100% - Placement in the room (and the room itself) - Use only cables of GOOD quality. - Biwire! (makes more then you think) My first impression of these speakers was a good high frequency quality, but almost diffused middrange and blurring bass. I tested with other cables and found a good solution in TaraLabs Prism Bi-Wire cable. The Prism-cable has a characteristic sound more ahead on to the listener, that suites these "soft" speakers very well. I´m very satisfied with my Kappa 90, but in compareness to Tiel 2.5 for example, they leave some things to desire in perspective and details in the lower frequency registers. But they are also more expensive... Above all, the Tiel-speakers has a better high frequency spreading, that allows you not only to sit right between the speakers to experience full frequency responce and stereo perspective. The Kappa 90 has a OK spreading at the side, but not at hight, so make sure that you´re sitting in hight of the tweeter of the speaker for max responce... I´m not saing that the Kappa 90 is the most clean and neutral speaker that I have own (my Chacconne-pillar in pure concrete (weight 40 kg/each) are absolutely clean and correct - on the limit to boring correct), but the combination of Kappa 90:s detailed frequency responce and the power of the bass then you´re turning on the power is absolutely top class for the price! A speaker that plays all music right! At last - don´t belive that your old weak reciver can drive the Kappa 90 to the max. Invest in a new amp with a lot of current and power, or else ther´s a lot of other alternatives to these speakers... I´m giving the Kappa 90 full points, but the equipment around them are very important - especially the cables and a good amplifier that are able to drive the dubble 10" bass-elements on each speaker. Experiment wi

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Opus 3 Chorus. Opus 3 Chacconne.

You need a very powerfull amplifier like me Krell Kav 300 IL to fit the bass. The bass is very fast!

No one.

I´ts a very good looking and powerful loudspeakers. I have a Krell Kav 300Il to drive the bass and a Krell Kav 300I to the outher frekvenses. The sound is brilliant, clear and powerful.

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Many like Magneplanar, Quad etc.

tight bass, warm midrange and very clean tweeter

Demands a lot of your amplifer

When I used this speakers with a pioneer amplifer, the bass was to fat. I solved this problem by using a Harman Kardon AV-reciver(AVR-85). H/K has a very neutral sound that gives stability for Kappa 90. Tight bass, warm midrange, a tweeter that never sounds hard. The Kappas will reveal all the weakness in your system. With a high quality disc you will get a soundstage that are enormous. Just close your eyes and your in heaven. The problem with Kappa 90 are that they need big spaces to sound at its best and secondly a amplifer with strong current stabilities.

Great balance betwenn the low,mid and high frequ..
Powerful bass when needed.The details in music from these babys are incredible..

Practicly none. Powerful amp needed though..

The best stereo speakers 1500$ can buy !
And its a very hi quality box , nice to look at.

Great soft noise! Very strong bass.

None

Sheep loudspeaker bougt it today advance.
they are even very good looking, so youre wife don`t trow you out.

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Many like Allisson Aucoustic one, Martin Logan, Magneplanar etc.

Deep & precise bass, exceptionally good with voices, detailed but smooth highs

Needs a lot of space to build an acceptable soundstage

I've used the Kappa 90's for years and i've upgraded my system several times since i bought them. It's the only way to discover the potential of this speaker. I started using Denon POA-6600 mono amps an DAP5500 preamp, but the Bryston 4Be and Audio Research SP9 mkII combo i'm currently using take the Kappa 90 to a whole different level.

Although this speaker needs a lot of space to build a good soundstage, acceptable results can be obtained in smaller rooms by using a good CD-player (like the Pink Triangle i'm using) with loads of detail and control.

The Kappa 90 is not very difficult to drive, but you'll notice an incredible difference when you connect it to a stable power amp. The bass becomes more precise, deeper and doesn't disturb the mids anymore.

I'll give the 90 a 5-star rating in it's price range (simply because it vanishes every competitor). However, i'll give them a 4-star rating on an absolute scale.

Deep tight bass, full midrange, smooth detailed highs, great build quality

None really, but they are rather big...

These speakers, combined with my new electronics of course, have made me realize that my old system was a piece of junk and what good music reproduction is all about.

Before I decided on the Kappa 90 speakers, I had been looking at various speakers in the same price-range from Canton (quite nice), B&W (okay) and Dali (poor). Sure, there are lots more speakers out there, but for the money ($1000-1500), you can't find that many quality speakers. Canton were quite nice, but not as good as Kappa 90 and they were more expensive. B&W didn't have any decent speakers in my price-range and Dali didn't impress me at all. As soon as I heard the Kappa 90, I knew I had to have them.

The Kappa 90 speakers deliver a very nice deep and tight bass, a full and detailed midrange and wonderfully smooth and detailed treble. I have listened to all styles of music and my Kappa 90 speakers have been able to deal with all of them superbly. Classical and jazz sound wonderful and so do pop, rock and metal. The thing that perhaps surprised me the most was how clearly I could hear the bass guitar on the rock albums I have listened to for twenty years. I can hear lots of new details on my old albums. Great fun, but time consuming... It may depend on the shape and size of the room, speaker placement or on my electronics, but I would say that midrange is slightly "forward" and drums appear more in the background. But I guess that's how it should be. The soundstage these speakers produce is absolutely wonderful.

The Kappa 90 speakers are very nice looking. They are not just square boxes, more triangular (wide front). I chose the black oak color and it looks great. They are rather big, but that doesn't bother me (perhaps my girlfriend). If you don't have a big room to place them in, you might want to reconsider buying these beauties, though, because you need quite a lot of room in order to get a nice soundstage and controlled bass.

I use the following electronics with my Kappa 90 speakers:
CD player: Arcam DIVA CD72 (warm detailed sound, smooth highs)
Pre-amp: Linn Kolektor (why get another pre-amp?)
Power amp: Rotel RB-991 (powerful 2X200W, warm, detailed)
Interconnects: Cambridge Pacific (detailed, smooth and cheap)

I first used them with my old integrated Accuphase E-203 (2X70W), which is a great amp, but everything got so much better when I plugged in the beauty and the beast (Kolektor + RB-991). Especially the bass got tighter. Don't believe people who say you don't need that extra power. The more power the better control of the speaker cones. Of course, it's not just about power, but it's still very important. I could easily use an even bigger amp on my Kappa 90 speakers.

I strongly recommend these speakers. Be sure to get a good quality amplifier with lots of power, otherwise you will not be able to enjoy them to their full potential.

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None, but compared to Canton, B&W and Dali in the same price-range