Kii Three - my impressions and pro reviews

[baconbrain]

11 hours ago, Yellowspider said:

Hello @ all,

I´m Steve from Germany and Kii Three owner since May 2019. The Kiis are painted in magma red metallic and I´m using the original stands as well as the Kii control. Digital source is an Auralic Aries with external Sbooster powersupply, connected via USB port. Analog equippement is Platine Verdier with Graham Phantom Tonearm, Zyx cartridge, amplified by Einsteins Turntables Choice.

Actually I´m using Groneberg power cables and in front of that a PS Audio P10.
Standard ethernet cables.

Sound is very resolved without being harsh or edgy.
The Speakers are positioned 5,3 ft from front wall,  2,8 ft from side walls, distance between speakers and listening position to speakers 8,5 ft (distances measured from center front of speaker)

I´ve had major problems with room modes at 95Hz, 50 Hz, 27 Hz with my passive systems in this room. Now it is much better by using the boundary control (set up to 6) But still those modes are existing. An implemented equalizer / notch filtes would be great to eliminate the last boomy notes.
 

Some of my favourites for the Kii Three Tidal Playlist:
Philippe Chretien - Le chat noir
Susanne Abbuehl - Bathyal
markusphilippe - Pink Panther
Felix Laband - Falling Off A Horse
Susan Weinert - Die Kraniche

BartolomeyBittmann - Glockenturm
Carolin No - Waters run deep

 

Greetings from Germany

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

 

Welcome to the thread. I have added your songs to our PL and am looking forward to giving them a listen. The kii’s in Magma Red are one of my favorites. Perhaps you could post a pic?

 

Best Regards from Nürnberg

[Bernstein]

1 minute ago, baconbrain said:

Hi Steve,

 

Welcome to the thread. I have added your songs to our PL and am looking forward to giving them a listen. The kii’s in Magma Red are one of my favorites. Perhaps you could post a pic?

 

Best Regards from Nürnberg

German community is growing 👍😂 

Chris Reichardt gave me over 6 playlists from KII for trade shows. I will share them soon! The KII playlist will become a mega-list 😁

[Yellowspider]

Hi,

I will post a picture soon. The magma red is a little bit different to the flamme rouge which is usually the metallic red colour for the Kiis.

I actaully don´t use Roon. I have read about the possibilities to use EQ from Roon. I´ve been on the local Hifi fair and Chris told, that a new software release shall also include 8 notch filters. Let´s see what happens.
It is remarkable that one can listen to the Kiis with their high resolving capabilities over hours without getting fatigue. Really a very special speaker.

I´ve also heard the BXT on the fair, directly compared without BXT. It is definitly an upgrade in performance. But it is too expensive for me, and won´t get sleepless nights not having it in my setup.

Greetz from Königswinter

Steve

[Bernstein]

8 minutes ago, Yellowspider said:

Hi,

I will post a picture soon. The magma red is a little bit different to the flamme rouge which is usually the metallic red colour for the Kiis.

I actaully don´t use Roon. I have read about the possibilities to use EQ from Roon. I´ve been on the local Hifi fair and Chris told, that a new software release shall also include 8 notch filters. Let´s see what happens.
It is remarkable that one can listen to the Kiis with their high resolving capabilities over hours without getting fatigue. Really a very special speaker.

I´ve also heard the BXT on the fair, directly compared without BXT. It is definitly an upgrade in performance. But it is too expensive for me, and won´t get sleepless nights not having it in my setup.

Greetz from Königswinter

Steve

That‘s good news with the notch filter, but with Roon, you have the most freedom. Nevertheless it is a good choice to implement it in the KC also for other sources. 
Adding convolution files would be next step  

[Yellowspider]

And here the promised photo . Would be great to see some more pictures from setups of Kii users in this topic 😉
Greetz

Steve

 

[Bernstein]

2 minutes ago, Yellowspider said:

And here the promised photo . Would be great to see some more pictures from setups of Kii users in this topic 😉
Greetz

Steve

Thanks! Looks great!!!
What is the KC stand? Do you have more detailed pictures? 

[Saburo]

8 minutes ago, Yellowspider said:

And here the promised photo . Would be great to see some more pictures from setups of Kii users in this topic 😉
Greetz

Steve

 

Are you running the Einstein phono stage directly into the Kii analog input or is there a linestage between the two?

[Yellowspider]

Sure, i have 🙂
It´s an acrylic bookholder bought at Amazon. Fits perfectly.
Kii Control Stand

 

[Yellowspider]

The phonostage is directly connected to the Kiis, configured as analog inputs

[Blade1001]

1 minute ago, Yellowspider said:

Sure, i have 🙂
It´s an acrylic bookholder bought at Amazon. Fits perfectly.
Kii Control Stand

 

 

That stand is genius! And that colour looks lovely, mine should be similar once they are finish - all being well!

[Bernstein]

Stand is cool! But I worry my rather heavy SPDif Cable will pull a lot on the KC. 

[Blade1001]

8 minutes ago, Bernstein said:

Stand is cool! But I worry my rather heavy SPDif Cable will pull a lot on the KC. 

 

A little bit of strategically applied velco or blu-tack?

[fpalm69]

So, no problem with the IR remote sensor being blocked with the Kii Control inside the book holder stand?

[Yellowspider]

46 minutes ago, Bernstein said:

Stand is cool! But I worry my rather heavy SPDif Cable will pull a lot on the KC. 

 

Give it a try, it´s quite cheap.

And here two more tracks for your playlist. Really heavy for bass extension (not for the Kiis, but for other speakers 😂)

SBTRKT - Wonder Where We Land
Ricardo Villalobos - Recat
Null+Void - Into the Void

[Yellowspider]

10 minutes ago, fpalm69 said:

So, no problem with the IR remote sensor being blocked with the Kii Control inside the book holder stand?

No, works fine

[input username here]

11 hours ago, Yellowspider said:

Sure, i have 🙂
It´s an acrylic bookholder bought at Amazon. Fits perfectly.
Kii Control Stand

 

 

I wonder about performance a little....  I put my CONTROL *and* my ultraRendu on a grip of Black Ravioli (BR) isolation and the improvement in sound was substantial.   (I don't want to oversell it, the differences weren't night and day, it was just what it was before, only noticeably better in virtually all sonically relevant dimensions--though, especially, soundstage depth.)   So I worry about it when people put their CONTROLS on little, fidgety stands and wonder how that might affect performance.  

 

Reasons to doubt the generalizability of my results: 

1. I de-coupled the CONTROL and the ultraRendu (and LPS1 PSU) all at the same time.  So it's not really possible to tell which these unit's isolation had the largest impact on the perceived sound quality--maybe it wasn't the CONTROL at all, but the rendu or the PSU.  I'm so happy with the improvement, I have very little interest in experimenting with them one at a time at the moment (maybe at some time in the future... when I'm very bored).

 

2. Unlike the Amazon stand which sits on what appears to be a very substantial rack, my CONTROL sat on the top of my glass-topped desk, which rings like a bell.  If I had to bet, whatever the benefits of the BR, I suspect that the biggest improvement was just getting the gear off the desk; it's likely that there would be less perceived improvement in your situation. 

 

3. Since the CONTROL is (still) on my desk, sitting on the BR less than two feet from my right hand, I can see the display very easily at all times.  It's possible that the desire to see the display from across the room might, in your case, outweigh any benefits you might get by better isolating the CONTROL.

 

But, all that said, as the CONTROL is the conduit for all of your digital inputs, I would imagine that isolating it (with BR, Stillpoints,  Iso-Acoustics, or whatever your prefered solution might be) would potentially be a worthwhile improvement to SQ.

 

Just a thought.  Oh, and I freakin' love the red.

[KunterK]

On 10/2/2019 at 6:11 AM, input username here said:

 

I wonder about performance a little....  I put my CONTROL *and* my ultraRendu on a grip of Black Ravioli (BR) isolation and the improvement in sound was substantial.   (I don't want to oversell it, the differences weren't night and day, it was just what it was before, only noticeably better in virtually all sonically relevant dimensions--though, especially, soundstage depth.)   So I worry about it when people put their CONTROLS on little, fidgety stands and wonder how that might affect performance.  

 

Reasons to doubt the generalizability of my results: 

1. I de-coupled the CONTROL and the ultraRendu (and LPS1 PSU) all at the same time.  So it's not really possible to tell which these unit's isolation had the largest impact on the perceived sound quality--maybe it wasn't the CONTROL at all, but the rendu or the PSU.  I'm so happy with the improvement, I have very little interest in experimenting with them one at a time at the moment (maybe at some time in the future... when I'm very bored).

 

2. Unlike the Amazon stand which sits on what appears to be a very substantial rack, my CONTROL sat on the top of my glass-topped desk, which rings like a bell.  If I had to bet, whatever the benefits of the BR, I suspect that the biggest improvement was just getting the gear off the desk; it's likely that there would be less perceived improvement in your situation. 

 

3. Since the CONTROL is (still) on my desk, sitting on the BR less than two feet from my right hand, I can see the display very easily at all times.  It's possible that the desire to see the display from across the room might, in your case, outweigh any benefits you might get by better isolating the CONTROL.

 

But, all that said, as the CONTROL is the conduit for all of your digital inputs, I would imagine that isolating it (with BR, Stillpoints,  Iso-Acoustics, or whatever your prefered solution might be) would potentially be a worthwhile improvement to SQ.

 

Just a thought.  Oh, and I freakin' love the red.

I don't use the controller as input but just as volume control (aes input directly to Kii from dCS NB) however, reading your post I experimented with where it sits and hey, even in this scenario it makes a difference. Currently there is a sorbothane footer found lying around between the controller and the coffee table which is metal. No cost to try

 

and yes red is beautiful...

[baconbrain]

Tonight the Kii's are groovin in Vinyl ...

 

 

[Bernstein]

@baconbrain 

Please don’t hit me  and put away the vinyls: These are some playlists from KII Audio for our mega super playlist! Special thanks to Chris Reichardt for sharing them 🤘

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/59aaa8fc-5a2f-4517-8f5f-5d1803fb9226

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/5295af12-e609-425b-8629-51124e77782c

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/406ab5ed-8d32-46c2-a174-bc364532225f

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/f5301f8f-39cc-4b61-9393-ead805deb148

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6536bbc5-7752-4ba2-a794-247c294e2316

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/1b79cd69-4e4d-4076-b7b4-f65582025f2b

[baconbrain]

1 minute ago, Bernstein said:

@baconbrain 

Please don’t hit me  and put away the vinyls: These are some playlists from KII Audio for our mega super playlist! Special thanks to Chris Reichardt for sharing them 🤘

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/59aaa8fc-5a2f-4517-8f5f-5d1803fb9226

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/5295af12-e609-425b-8629-51124e77782c

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/406ab5ed-8d32-46c2-a174-bc364532225f

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/f5301f8f-39cc-4b61-9393-ead805deb148

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/6536bbc5-7752-4ba2-a794-247c294e2316

 

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/1b79cd69-4e4d-4076-b7b4-f65582025f2b

 

Mega! 😲 

 

Now I am really going to have to figure out how I can sort by genre ...

[baconbrain]

They are in:

 

https://listen.tidal.com/playlist/768432eb-b8ba-4a1d-b90a-a4c9a9ba8d85

 

452 Tracks in total but not yet sorted or checked for duplicates

[fpalm69]

Dropped Tidal for Qobuz two months ago.  Hope to see some Qobuz playlists soon.

[Bernstein]

25 minutes ago, fpalm69 said:

Dropped Tidal for Qobuz two months ago.  Hope to see some Qobuz playlists soon.

Usually the playlists of KII are in Qobuz. Proposal: if somebody could export the playlist in roon, you would be able to import it and roon will sort out the sources (Tidal or Qobuz). 

[baconbrain]

17 minutes ago, Bernstein said:

Usually the playlists of KII are in Qobuz. Proposal: if somebody could export the playlist in roon, you would be able to import it and roon will sort out the sources (Tidal or Qobuz). 

Guys, let me work on it and I will get back to you.

[input username here]

9 hours ago, KunterK said:

I don't use the controller as input but just as volume control (aes input directly to Kii from dCS NB) however, reading your post I experimented with where it sits and hey, even in this scenario it makes a difference. Currently there is a sorbothane footer found lying around between the controller and the coffee table which is metal. No cost to try

 

and yes red is beautiful...

 

Very interesting.  I am a big believer in quality isolation and very good power cords.  The Kiis actually surprised me with how (relatively) insensitive to power cords they were--it's not that they didn't improve things, they did--just not as much as I expected.  But isolation is just so important--and it seems to be at least as much the case here as in my other systems.