Infinity Kappa 32.9 with bass blocker ?

[VBdiver]

I recently installed a pair of these speakers with bass blockers from Best Buy . BB had 2 choices 3000hz for small speakers & 150hz for medium speakers . these speakers look pretty small .
I chose the 3k , not a lot of tech help at this BB location .

Is this a good choice ? does the 3k take too much away, if that's a proper term ?
i'm no techie either but can turn a wrench on occasion .

The speakers sound good , not any louder than the original , but a cleaner sound to me .

install was a challenge . one thing nice was using the 110 outlet in the console to solder the wires

 

[GrantK]

You chose wisely.

 

[Ukie]

does the 3k take too much away, if that's a proper term ?

I assume you've got a blocker with a cut off at 3 kHz for 4 Om impedance. Kappa 32.9 are 2 Om impedance so your cut off will start @ 6 kHz. Looks kinda high.

Basically bass blockers you've got from BB are similar to tiny blue capacitors found on OE dash speakers. They are 6 μF (micro farad) capacitors and cut at 6 kHz on a 4 Om OE speaker.

I personally tried OE capacitor on a Kappa dash speaker and it sounded pretty much as a stock speaker - output levels were not there, and you are confirming that saying "not any louder than the original ".
Remember, bass blockers/crossovers do not completely block frequencies below their cut off point, they just roll them off like a slope!

Kappas will sound fine without bass blockers. The only reason I've put 300 Hz bass blocker was to eliminate popping sound when my HU changes input mode to Bluetooth to receive a phone call through my cell and my BT volume is cranked up (note, Bluetooth call volume settings differ from standard audio output volume settings). 300 Hz bass blockers did bot completely cured a problem...they just smoothed a popping sound so it doesn't sound like a bomb anymore.

I've got my 300 Hz bass blockers (266μF (micro farad) /50V capacitors) from crutchfield - item #127BB150A2 (they are listed as 150 Hz cut-off for 4Om impedance).

Here's couple useful links: Capacitor and Coil Calculator and 2 Ohm Reference Chart

 

[terra4r]

Since the kappas were both a small mid and tweeter, and given the frequency range they were able to handle, I went with a 133uF capacitor. Since the kappa is a 2ohm speaker (if you read through their whacked out claim of 4ohm and measure it), the 133uF capacitor gave me a first-order 6dB per octave cutoff below 600hz. Of course you could go all out and do something more like a 24dB per octave slope, but for the current setup, its fine.

The 6uF capacitor on the stock speaker (4ohm) was a 6000hz high pass, so only as good as a tweeter. I wanted to get a little more out of the kappas, allowing me to pick up a little more mids, so I went with a different cap. Havent heard any clipping yet.

 

[Ukie]

Havent heard any clipping yet.

Jim, do you use your cell phone paired with HU via Bluetooth? Any popping noise when receiving a call and your phone actually rings through dash speakers?
~ Andrew

 

[Jtraskell]

^^^^Are these guys speaking English?

 

[terra4r]

Jim, do you use your cell phone paired with HU via Bluetooth? Any popping noise when receiving a call and your phone actually rings through dash speakers?
~ Andrew

nope, its all good. Looks like I'm using a cap with little higher cut-off than you. I doubt you'd be able to hear the difference using either of our set-ups (capacitor filtering 300-600hz and below), I just liked a little more safety factor.

With your references (the12volt) for the OP, the 266uF cap will filter out just about everything 2 octaves down, or below 75hz, which is a tad below the range (85hz?) of the speaker. 133uF cap will filter about everything below 150hz, which has a bit of wiggle room from the bottom range. Just my opinion and how I want to run my set up right now.

I'm assuming the popping comes from overpowering, or out of driver frequency signals, hence people without "blockers" may run into the problem. This is probably good info to merge into the Infinity Kappa thread.

 

[terra4r]

I recently installed a pair of these speakers with bass blockers from Best Buy . BB had 2 choices 3000hz for small speakers & 150hz for medium speakers . these speakers look pretty small .
I chose the 3k , not a lot of tech help at this BB location .

Is this a good choice ? does the 3k take too much away, if that's a proper term ?
i'm no techie either but can turn a wrench on occasion .

The speakers sound good , not any louder than the original , but a cleaner sound to me .

install was a challenge . one thing nice was using the 110 outlet in the console to solder the wires

And to the OP, I went off on a tangent there but it was necessary info. The kappa has essentially replaced a tweeter with a small mid and built in tweeter. It has a lower power rating than a larger speaker (2-35W rms), but can handle 85-25khz. If you want to hear a little more range (vocals, string, etc.) and get full use out of your new Kappa, I suggest you go back to BB, get the "Fierce" brand capacitor from BB (SKU:9855066), or http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127BB300A2/Bass-Blockers-300-Hz-cut-off.html?search=crossover&nvpair=FFCategory|[rank760]Car+Speaker+Wire+%26+Installation crutchfied in-line capacitor 300hz@4ohm, or similar. The kappa had a built in crossover for the tweeter, so you dont have to worry about that, the capacitor will only block the lower mid and bass frequencies. Hope that helps.

 

[Ukie]

This is probably good info to merge into the Infinity Kappa thread.

:trophy: Finally we have a dedicated thread for Infinity Kappa 32.9 bass blockers! Let's keep it in the same way.

 

[Dewfang]

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