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Kii Three - my impressions and pro reviews


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4 hours ago, Bernstein said:


I love this forum! This is the BEST IDEA!!!

maybe I could do something with a sliding mechanism to slide it out and slide it in after listening. That could work!!! Appearance is then not so important and after listening I could slide it in...practical!!! 
so: who will be built me something like that...hopefully my dealer has an answer to it. Or I can buy a wide Absorber and store it as you proposed behind the sofa. Sliding mechanism is more sexy though...

 

Friend of mine had a guy (guru type) come by who walked around his listening room and just clapped his hands. After a bass trap here, and couple of absorbers there, he made some very nonintrusive adjustments to the living / listening space which really made a world of difference. Given that each room is unique and room treatment is a bit complex, perhaps getting an expert opinion from someone who has evaluated your room is an option?  I wouldn’t want to hang something on the wall that the first lady doesn’t like and then it doesn’t even have the desired effect in the end.

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11 hours ago, ragwo said:

 

Thanks a lot for the info even if it's a real bummer for me. I have the six screws version and I'd love to have the opportunity to use wall mounts to avoid damaged speakers caused by curious children.

I actually put mine together as a DIY project before I later discovered that Kii had their own. Given that with my design the speaker sits in a low profile tray, it is complety independent of speaker version and is decoupled from the mount with dampening material. Can send you a parts list / specs if you are interested.

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13 hours ago, Bernstein said:

Hi guys,

 

I have the KIIs at home since a week and hear sometimes a ping or click noise (once) during warmup or cooldown of the KIIs. I mean I also sometimes experienced this with amps and other devices and I think due to the construction of the KIIs (plastic combined with metal parts with different thermal expansion rate + Metal Parts which also act as heatsinks and get hot) this should be normal and shouldn’t worry me. It happens on both so...


But it does worry me (I am a emotional 😭 guy and sometimes irrational) and sometimes to hear from someone else that this is normal can help to have peace of mind :) 

 

Pls disregard, my browser was not up-to-date content wise.

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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 ;)

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1 minute ago, Bernstein said:

 

Mega! 😲 

 

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

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  • 4 weeks later...
43 minutes ago, Bernstein said:


IMPORTANT!!!

 

After reset on the backside the KII go to 100% volume!!! Please adjust it before you start anything. 100 Volume is not harmful due to the Limiter, but your ears...

 

Thanks for the info but after starting the Control the message luckily went away. Will refer back to your advice if it happens again. 

 

Maybe it has something to do with Halloween ... 👻

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5 hours ago, ragwo said:

I get the same message when the ethernet cable between the master speaker and the Control is disconnected and the USB input is connected to a source. The Control is powered by the USB input when not connected to the master speaker. My master speaker is powering the Control when in standby. Has this problem just occurred? Have you tried turning off the master speaker for a while? Does the problem still persist? Are you able to get the speakers out of standby when the message shows? 

 

Edit:

I'm way too slow responding. Glad the problem is solved. Note to self: Update browser regularly 

 

Even if somewhat delayed (also have the browser refresh challenge... ), I still appreciate the response. My master is also powering the control and am hoping that it was possibly due to the ethernet cable not being completely seated. Time will tell.

 

Did you make any progress with your DIY project?

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29 minutes ago, Craig1512 said:

Been enjoying reading your posts and HT setup journey over on Devialetchat @ragwo I came from a dev 440Pro and B&W 802 D2 to Kii three and never going back. The dev phantoms are an amazing active speaker for the money and I encourage anyone interested in active speaker technology to check out the Devialetchat forum. Again, @ragwo HT set up journey is an interesting one to read for anyone thinking going active HT.

 

I have not been keeping up with Phantom HT topic lately but it‘s a bit of a shame that Devialet doesn‘t get serious about it. There is so much potential ...

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  • 3 months later...
22 hours ago, firedog said:

I made it simpler. Used Audiolense to measure the room and create correction filters, then put the filters into Roon for playback. Eliminates all the playing around, and is probably more accurate. 

 

My Trinnov makes it even simpler. It measures, creates and applies the correction filters at more or less the press of a button. Still, I was wondering if some of you could possibly recommend some good reference literature as I find the topic incredibly interesting?

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1 hour ago, Yellowspider said:

I´ve had the chance to test Innuos Zenith MK3 via USB, Hifiakademie Netplayer via Spdif and Auralic Aries Mini via Optical input.

I did play the same Music on all three units parallel. The stream came from my NAS. Innuos had the tracks directly on it´s ssd.

 

They were sounding slightly different, if you listen very! carefully. (Maybe a highend afficionado would call this Milestones, I won´t) Regarding the money and the benefit in sound quality there could only be one hero in this setup. I think you can guess right 🙂

 

I did this comparison by switching through the sources via Kii Control remote, and managed to get the right track time allignement . So there were no time breaks by switching between the sources. This should eliminate psycho acoustics.

 

My friend with the Aries took part in this session. We had the same opinion according to the sound quality.

 

But give it a try in your surrounding. I think, it´s easy to compare.

 

 

 

Interesting results. My personal experiences have been somewhat different over time. For me, the connection type (USB, Coax, or Optical), their respective interconnects, and source have influenced SQ. I tend to believe that it is the right mix of each that really makes a difference in the end. Make sense?  

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4 hours ago, H665 said:

I moved from a fully activ Linn system (Majik DSM, C6200, Miso’s) to Kii. It’s a good bit of kit but the move to Exakt would have cost me as much as my demo Kii’s. So I sold off all but the DSM. Linn is good as a total system. As individual components...mwah. Needs very careful matching imo.

 

I purchased an ex demo streamer from a small Dutch company, Audio Aan Zee. Custom built with mostly off the shelf components and a bit of tweaking here and there.

https://www.hifi-advice.com/blog/review/digital-reviews/music-server-reviews/audioaanzee-reference-flow-music-server-part1/

 

Nice looking music server!

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14 hours ago, H665 said:

And it sounds even better ;) I have a modified version that also has Roon server installed.

 

Very nice, I think the Roon interface is second to none. Also find it quite interesting how many Dutch companies build excellent music servers. (Taiko, Pink Faun, Audioanzee, ..) Must have something to do with the climate! 🙂

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4 hours ago, Cazzesman said:

Now the Kii’s have the high and low pass filters in the dsp, has anyone tried adding a quality sub or 2 into the mix.

 

I’m wondering what a sub would do in freeing up the Kii’s where a crossover was set 60-80.     It is not that the kii’s don’t go low enough as i get 20htz easily in my room, but I was just wondering about the advantages if any of taking some of the pressure off them.    Any thoughts.

 

I like the look of the SVS SB3000 with the new SVS App to tune it.

 

Regards Cazzesman

 

Here‘s some past feedback from Kii Audio regarding crossover settings:

 

 Imo a SW really adds a lot to the Kii experience once they are correctly dialed-in.

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I have a question to the community regarding the analog connections of the Kii's.

 

How is the analog signal handled by the internal DAC's of the speakers? Does it go through an ADA conversion for each driver or is it simply passed through? My assumption would be ADA, but am a bit uncertain since I have never used them until now,

 

Thanks 

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