Kii Three - my impressions and pro reviews

[Thomas savage]

2 minutes ago, firedog said:

Professional reviews and my personal review.

 

FYI, the Kiis are an active stand mount speaker employing DSP, and 6 drivers each (tweeter, mid, 2 rear, and 2 side firing woofers), and each has its own amp, D/A and A/D converter. The side and rear woofers employ DSP controlled timing so that there is virtually no sideand rear firing behind the speaker. The  rear  and side reflections are almost all cancelled out. Everything left is fired forward in a "cardoid" pattern, so room interaction is much reduced.  The whole setup is also time aligned, so sound from each driver arrives at the same time to your ears. And because of DSP control of the woofers to prevent over firing and distortion,  the system can play full range from 20- 25kh, with an extremely small rolloff at the bottom.

The system can also be adjusted for non symmetric or close to the wall and corner placement.

 

More info and measurements in some of these published reviews:

 

https://www.stereophile.com/content/kii-audio-three-loudspeaker

http://www.audioxpress.com/files/attachment/2609

https://medium.com/@conscienta/kii-three-review-a-revolutionary-speaker-759c15b014cf

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/kii-audio-three

http://kiiaudio.com/en/component/phocadownload/category/1-revies.html?download=7:studiomagazin-kii-three-review-english

http://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/120/kii-three-active-monitors/

https://bobmaccsblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/10/kii-three-speaker-review/

 

I've had the Kiis in my small listening room for about 2 months now. Am very pleased and don't miss the Devore Nines, as good as they were.

I listen in a small room. I started looking for something different b/c I wanted a system with actual low bass output (without a big rolloff below 30hz), and something with more realistic dynamics than what I had (read, "will play back orchestral music, with it's big dynamics, more like the real thing"). And something that with those attributes, that could still sound good in my small room. I was also looking to integrate and simplify - reduce the number of boxes and cables. Obviously, I also had to think the setup sounded good in general, and didn't just tick off those attributes on paper. 

Larger conventional speakers and subs weren't the solution - too big and overload my room, even with full room treatments. I've used solutions like TACT and Lyngdorf in the past - they pretty much worked, but I didn't want to go in that direction. Plus, it wouldn't really get me the dynamics I was after. 

That led me to audition the Kiis. I did a pretty extensive audition at a dealer (no dealer where I live and no possibility of home audition, unlike in other places), listening to all types of music, including tracks I think are hard to reproduce well. I ordered them on the spot.

So how do the Kiis sound? The basic words to describe them are "clarity, coherence, and balance ". The sound is very clear and detailed without sounding forced. Lows, miss and highs sound balanced, without special emphasis, and are well blended and coherent.

You really can hear every detail: 
Every nuance of what your favorite bass player is playing. Every little tap on the cymbals and tone change of your favorite jazz drummer.

Those lyrics you never could make out because the singer mumbled? Turns out with the Kii you understand them - the singer wasn't mumbling.

Quiet sounds amidst louder ones all around in the mix? Yep, those details you never heard before are audible.

There's also very good soundstage/depth, and placement of instruments in space is clear and rock solid. 

I listen to a fair amount of orchestral music. One of the pieces I used to audition the Kii's was Mahler's 6th symphony - which I'd heard performed live just a few hours before. The Kiis can produce a very loud, clean, full frequency playback of this piece, with startingly real dynamics and a decent soundstage/depth - even in my small space.
I don't think there are many (any) other systems that could. 

The clarity of the Kii's is very different from pretty much any conventional setup. The cardoid bass and precise timing control lessen unwanted reflections and improve the timing of what reaches your ears so that at first it seems something is missing. But then you realize that's what's missing is a kind of distortion/fuzz caused by room reflections and a lack of precise timing between the drivers in conventional setups. It's a kind of fake upper-bass/midrange "warmth" that shouldn't be there. 

I'd guess there's a fair number of listeners who are used to that kind of fuzz and think it is part of a "natural sounding" sound. I respectfully disagree. You've just trained yourself to think that's how playback is "supposed" to sound. The Kiis will tell you when you are listening to a substandard recording. They sound like the real thing, but they won't make your music sound nice if the recording doesn't on it's own. 

And yes, due to their DSP controls, they sound the same placed in the corner as they do more out in the room. 

Okay, lots of praise, but how good are they, really? 

I'd say this system, for a similar cost, is about two orders of magnitude better than my previous conventional one. 

Could it be beat? 
Well of course, it isn't perfect. You could spend 15-20k or more and get speakers with 3K custom made tweeters that would give you a little more high frequency extension and a little more decay. The Kii's are good at that, but I won't say they can't be improved on. 

The bass from the Kiis goes very low, as low as most subs, and is done well.  They successfully playback low organ notes or low bass produced electronically in modern recordings. More than enough bass for almost anyone. But, in the end they are small speakers and won't give you the same physical impact as a 15-18 inch woofer powered by hundreds of watts. If that's a must for you, look elsewhere.

And no, they probably don't have enough output to play loudly at full response in a large room or in one with double height ceilings.  

So yeah, you could spend three times the cost on speakers, a DAC, subs, amplification, and cables and get something that would be as good or better than the Kiis in some areas.
But you wouldn't get that amazing clarity....Oh, wait, you could add a box like a DEQX and approach it. 

But you get the point. I think for the money they are an amazing value. In a small to medium size room, or in an otherwise challenging listening space - you can't come close to beating them for the money. 
Every system has its tradeoffs. Decide if the ones made by Kii make sense for you.

 

 

 

 

Great write up, not heard them yet but from looking at the design and reading between the lines of a few industry reviews I'd say your spot on here. 

 

Its great to read a even handed appraisal like this, imo it's a lot more impactful than the over the top unrealistic nonsense you often read. 

 

Thanks