K2 s9800

[Brian DK]

I have a pair of k2 s9800.
And i wonder if any of you know what kind of equipment they use at Jbl when they built and test there speakers??

Brian dk

[korgroenewoud]

Hallo,

I don' t know what you mean?
Can you explain that question clearer?
Kor

[Brian DK]

What i mean is, that Jbl must have an idea of which kind of Amps, and perhaps CD-players there are the best suitable for there top of the line speakers.
The reason i ask, is because I,m looking to opgrade the rest of my stereo, and there is MANY fine Amps/CD's. And if I have a kind of referance, a starting point,
maybe it can guide me, and make the search shorter..

Brian dk

[Maron Horonzakz]

I dont think that matters. Weather SS or tube. It will work with almost all flavers of equipment. This is not a musicle instrument but a reproducer of music.

[Robh3606]

Hello Brian

Nice speakers!! So why do you feel the need to upgrade?? Are you unhappy with some aspect of your systems performance??

Rob

[korgroenewoud]

These speaker reproduce what they get. I heard them on Mcintosh MC 2000 Tube amp. Sounded very good. It depends on your taste what you find what a good sounding amp is. I Use the S3100 MK II on Mcintosh. I love that sound. I heard them on Burmester (a german top of the line amp), but that amp was not my choice. It just depends on your taste.

[Brian DK]

No, not at all. But the rest of my system is abaut 10 yers old. So I am more curious for what they can do with a system that is all up to date.
Right now I run the k2's with 2 Aragon 4004m2 amps witch is 11 year old, and a 12year old upgradet harman kardon HD7725.
It sounds Wounderful. But i keep thinking how it wouldt sound with something like a Mark Levinson 432 and 390s?? Or maybe Electrocompaniet nemo.??

[Titanium Dome]

I've heard the K2 S9800 a couple of times in JBL Synthesis set ups, and in those cases they were powered by JBL's own electronics. The very nice SPD-40 processor (Lexicon, really), the excellent SDEC-2500A EQ, and ten of the S800 amps provided the source to speaker chain.

The S800 is a 2X200W stereo amp or an 800W mono amp. I'd look at getting two S800 amps and running them in mono to each K2, or perhaps doing the bi- thing with the amps running in stereo mode.

These THX amps are often overlooked, but IMO are worth serious consideration.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Finding the best amp for your speakers is like wine tasting.

The 9800 in a review was termed ruthlessly revealing.

If what your got sounds wonderful then l'd stcik with it.

Ian

[10 Watt Street]

Here is another review of the K2 S9800:

http://www.ultraaudio.com/equipment/jbl_k2_s9800.htm

[Bernard Wolf]

Finding the best amp for your speakers is like wine tasting.

Ditto on that. I went through owning/trying at least 10 different amps on my S/3100, SSPP,SSSE, Tubed vintage PP, SE tubed, Hybrid(pathos classic one) feedback, no feedback, untill I found the flavor that I liked most by quite a margin, a Jadis defy DA 30 which is a PP 30 watt 6550 based tube integrated amp.

Thing is, the 3100 is so revealing of source that they all sounded significantly different. One of the amps, a Sugden a21 which is a SS/PP 20 watt class A amp that was used in a hi-fi world review of the S2600 and voted as being 'hard to better' sounded kind of 'flat' to me, at least compared to the Jadis.

So, try as many amps as you can would be the way to go... just be prepared to spend a couple of years to get to your goal!

Bernard

[Mr. Widget]

So, try as many amps as you can would be the way to go... just be prepared to spend a couple of years to get to your goal!

A couple of years!!! Who is still listening to the same speakers in a couple of years???

Widget

[Don McRitchie]

Back to the original question, the gear in JBL's listening rooms used for development contained all Harman equipment during my visits. The amplification I saw was all Mark Levinson, although I don't remember the model numbers.

[Bernard Wolf]

Well, you know, when you get the real deal thats were the economics of it comes in... I've had these 3100's for about 7 years now and I honestly cannot imaging changing them in this lifetime - I'm 56 now and just had a triple by-pass - so that might not be worth much, but true nontheless. I paid $4200.00 CAD when I bought them but spread over the amount of time and hours of use they will be a bargain in the end.

Besides which I am tired of dragging in new equipment all the time... stopped that when I got the Jadis about 4 yrs ago.. another long termer.

Now, if I had another couple of rooms to play with.... MMmmm

Bernard

[Zilch]

Interestingly, the reviewer insists on characterizing K2 S9800 as a two-way.

That'd apply to Project May as well, presumably....