Jump to content
IGNORED

Kii Three - my impressions and pro reviews


Recommended Posts

Unfortunatelly some inexpensive ones. But I have tried good cables and yes they make a diference. Especially since, I presume, they need to be long (at least in my case). I am planning to make one with Duelund wire. Anyhow, I am more then happy with analog sound from my Kii's. So I am shure that you can get there. Before I had McIntosh with EAR 834p phono and Verity Audio speakers and Kii's give me the same analog pleasure. 

Link to comment
On 12/23/2020 at 12:23 AM, Yellowspider said:

Kii Three and Turntable

 

I am little bit concerned about the performance when using my turntable with my Ki. Compared to the digital source, Auralic Aries Femto, this digital source is in most cases sounding better. Analog Source lacks space, the virtual stage is smaller. Tried it with different phono pres. (Einstein turntables choice, Tube Pre by Ampearl)

 

When changing to my analog setup (Pair of Magnepans powered by odwright integrated) there are all those things, we love our turntables for. Space, dynamics, pressure. The digital part is done by a Meitner MA1 in this setup, should not be too bad ;-). But no chance against the turntable...

So it seems that the A/D converter of the Kii takes away some of the benefits of analog music reproduction. What are your experiences?

 

Merry Christmas

Stephan

 

 

 

 

You could try connecting the preamp out of the integrated to the kii (one less variable). 

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everybody,

I`m just waiting for my Kii to be delivered in February. I bought Diva II stands from Liedtke here in germany, because I wanted white glossy stands. They are very similar to the Kii stands. But the Kii stands have rubber pads on the top plate for decoupling.

Does anybody know what kind of material that is exactly or where I can get the original ones?

I read the discussion about the cables in this thread. Nevertheless the question: Is here any Kii owner, who noticed improvements in sound from other ethernet and power cables? And please no policy debate and only Kii owners.

Thank you!

Link to comment
5 hours ago, a_kraut said:

Hello everybody,

I`m just waiting for my Kii to be delivered in February. I bought Diva II stands from Liedtke here in germany, because I wanted white glossy stands. They are very similar to the Kii stands. But the Kii stands have rubber pads on the top plate for decoupling.

Does anybody know what kind of material that is exactly or where I can get the original ones?

I read the discussion about the cables in this thread. Nevertheless the question: Is here any Kii owner, who noticed improvements in sound from other ethernet and power cables? And please no policy debate and only Kii owners.

Thank you!

Used a couple of different ethernet cables and noticed no difference. The ones that come with the Kii's included in that group. Power: I haven't tried it, others have claimed it can help. YMMV.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

Link to comment
5 hours ago, a_kraut said:

Hello everybody,

I`m just waiting for my Kii to be delivered in February. I bought Diva II stands from Liedtke here in germany, because I wanted white glossy stands. They are very similar to the Kii stands. But the Kii stands have rubber pads on the top plate for decoupling.

Does anybody know what kind of material that is exactly or where I can get the original ones?

I read the discussion about the cables in this thread. Nevertheless the question: Is here any Kii owner, who noticed improvements in sound from other ethernet and power cables? And please no policy debate and only Kii owners.

Thank you!

Congratulations! You're in for a treat, the speakers are amazing! 

I've changed both the ethernet cables and power cables with no change soundwise. 

Kii Three/BXT with Control 

Tannoy Precision 8 iDP/TS112 iDP

Link to comment

Yes, congratulations @a_kraut. How long did you have to wait for yours. I heard between ordering and delivery there could be a few month now? Regarding the rubber damping on the stands top plate: To me it looks pretty much like the Tesa window isoaltion band with the E-profile. You probably know what I am talking about. So for a cheap start you could try to use that. It's taped at the outside border of all four sides. I've also changed cables but only for (perceived) better shielding. Soundwise I didn't hear (and expect) any difference.

Also, when you finally have them, you soon might explore the topic of room correction. There is plenty of info in this forum with major input from mitchco. With the Kiis and the Control (and its various EQ filter settings you can use) and an additional mic (like UMIK-1) you could start with fairly basic room correction in the bass region which might come in very handy depending on your room. At least it did for me.

Link to comment
Quote

How long did you have to wait for yours. I heard between ordering and delivery there could be a few month now?

3 months. Someone said, that Kii needed the production of a whole month for a large studio in Berlin and another two months for two new international distributors.

 

Quote

Also, when you finally have them, you soon might explore the topic of room correction. There is plenty of info in this forum with major input from mitchco.

I will do so , I have a good software (Acourate) with a calibrated micro. So far I haven't had enough time to go deeper. I only remove a bass mode at ~32hz with roon.

 

Quote

I've also changed cables but only for (perceived) better shielding. Soundwise I didn't hear (and expect) any difference.

 

Quote

I've changed both the ethernet cables and power cables with no change soundwise. 

 

So there will be no sound improvement. What cables do you use?

Link to comment
18 hours ago, fpalm69 said:

Here you go:

 

Kii BXT.jpg

What size is the room?

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

Link to comment
On 1/2/2021 at 9:27 AM, a_kraut said:

Hello everybody,

I`m just waiting for my Kii to be delivered in February. I bought Diva II stands from Liedtke here in germany, because I wanted white glossy stands. They are very similar to the Kii stands. But the Kii stands have rubber pads on the top plate for decoupling.

Does anybody know what kind of material that is exactly or where I can get the original ones?

I read the discussion about the cables in this thread. Nevertheless the question: Is here any Kii owner, who noticed improvements in sound from other ethernet and power cables? And please no policy debate and only Kii owners.

Thank you!

Hi,

I have custom stands using the same size top plate as the originals and settled on using four Vibrapod Model 3's per stand. I still use adjustable 8mm spikes with pucks on my carpeted listening room.   http://www.vibrapod.com/vibrapod.htm

Link to comment

I was using Supra Ethernet cable with good results but just now installed Blue Jeans Cat5 and I like the SQ better.  The BJ cable is more flexible, reasonably priced, comes with a test data sheet and you can get any color and length.  Been using BJ cables for years with very good results - best value/performance out there.  Nothing fancy, just good solid well made products backed with info and data on what cable and connectors they use.

2 channel : full Innuos suite / Black Cat USB cables / Kii Three BXT

Desktop : Innuos PulseMINI / Roon ROCK / SaBaj A20d amp-DAC / DCA E3 headphones

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello everyone, I'm a new member of this forum and new to the audiophile world in general. I'm still learning about different components, system configurations and optimal setups. I currently have a Dali loudspeaker system (Opticon 6) and I'm very happy with the overall sound. But I listened to the Kii 3s and I was blown away by the music clarity and the soundstage. I ordered my pair of Kii3s and I'm expecting it end of February so I'm very excited! Original delivery date was going to be mid January but Covid restrictions in Germany has pushed back delivery date to end of February. (ordered mid December).

 

My question is around source device. I currently have the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 and very happy with the overall experience. Stream magic app is horsesh!t and still no support for Tidal Connect but it's overall a better experience than what I used to have. My question is compatibility of the Cambridge Audio CXN V2 and the Kii 3s. The CXN V2 has pre-amp and integrated DAC but my understanding is the Kii3s have far superior components already integrated so I was going to connect the CXN V2 to the Kii Control through a S/P DIF Coaxial cable, bypassing the CXN V2's pre-amp and DAC. I understand this is not ideal and I could have gone with a dedicated streaming source, without DAC and preamp which creates unnecessary noise/features/cost but my question is, what am I sacrificing by keeping this streamer and not going with another higher end solution? How much better would sound be with a different, dedicated, more high end streamer and is it worth the cost of upgrade? Also, the CXN V2 does not support MQA playback from the Masters quality of Tidal. How much of a difference will this make?

 

Thank you everyone in advance

Link to comment

Well, I suppose your Cambridge stereamer's basic design is that of many streamers that I assume most of the Kii users here use.
A steamer usually has a DAC and analogue section. What you are refering to is a pure network transport, that can only output/forward the audio digitally. I would assume that the majority of the users here in this (Kii-) forum don't use a transport but a "normal" Streamer (but I might be wrong).
Mine is basically the same construction and I use it the way you described: I use the digital coax out and don't care about the streamer's dac and analogue section.
The Kii's will resample the incoming signal anyway to a sample rate of 93.75 khz independent of the sample rate fed to it.
Besides you have the freedom of choice to evaluate any other streamer/transport and compare it to your cambridge and decide for yourself if another steramer/transport sounds better with the Kiis than your current one...

Link to comment

There's nothing wrong with what you are thinking of doing. It should work fine. I'd suggest you try it for a while and see if you are happy with it.

If you decide you want a dedicated, specialized device just for feeding digital from the network to your Kii Control, there are endless options. Anything from a $50 Raspberry Pi (which works fine) to a 5K hi-end network bridge - and everything in between. 
 

It's not clear a dedicated streamer will sound superior. And you might need to spend really serious money to get something that is noticeably better. Again, try what you've got to see how happy you are. 

You say you are unhappy wit your units streaming app. Adding new playback/control software that is much more user friendly would be a  good reason to move on to a dedicated streamer that gives you that ability. That alone makes you listening more pleasuraeble.

 

With the Kii Control you can also go direct USB from your server if it is close by. Works very well. The Kii has a very good USB input.

 

As far as MQA, I wouldn't call it critical. I'd find units that fit my needs for other reasons, and then if one has MQA, maybe that's a factor in deciding which one to buy. BTW, you can get a free trial of software like Roon or Audirvana that will enable you to play the "first unfold" of  MQA. Listen and see what you think. If that doesn't do a lot for you, then there's probably no reason to care if you have MQA equipped HW or not. Note: many MQA albums play louder than non MQA counterparts, and that fools you into thinking that the MQA is better. Volume matching is important.

Main listening (small home office):

Main setup: Surge protector +>Isol-8 Mini sub Axis Power Strip/Isolation>QuietPC Low Noise Server>Roon (Audiolense DRC)>Stack Audio Link II>Kii Control>Kii Three (on their own electric circuit) >GIK Room Treatments.

Secondary Path: Server with Audiolense RC>RPi4 or analog>Cayin iDAC6 MKII (tube mode) (XLR)>Kii Three .

Bedroom: SBTouch to Cambridge Soundworks Desktop Setup.
Living Room/Kitchen: Ropieee (RPi3b+ with touchscreen) + Schiit Modi3E to a pair of Morel Hogtalare. 

All absolute statements about audio are false :)

Link to comment
23 minutes ago, firedog said:

 

With the Kii Control you can also go direct USB from your server if it is close by. Works very well. The Kii has a very good USB input.

 

@ntpaledo I have to agree with firedog; if you have opportunity to also get the Kii control it offers a whole level of connect ability options..

 

for example, I auditioned my Kii’s using the usb connection from an Astell Kern mobile music player with stunning results; my first perm set up with was a NAs streamer [ditto] before switching to my dedicated DAC-free HD streamer.. I have personally found the usb connection to be as good if not better than the other options, so no compromise on quality

 

definitely recommend the Kii control if you can stretch to it .... even offers Bluetooth streaming [yeuk!] which keeps the kids happy

Aurender W20 Music Server, Kii Three Active Speakers, Kii Digital Controller

Audioquest Diamond USB, Audioquest Niagara 7000 conditioner, Audioquest NRG-1000 HC mains leads

Link to comment
1 hour ago, Mazza said:

@ntpaledo I have to agree with firedog; if you have opportunity to also get the Kii control it offers a whole level of connect ability options..

 

for example, I auditioned my Kii’s using the usb connection from an Astell Kern mobile music player with stunning results; my first perm set up with was a NAs streamer [ditto] before switching to my dedicated DAC-free HD streamer.. 


sorry, just to add; the Kii’s built-in DACS are excellent and whilst you can feed them a signal from an external DAC, you’d need to spend some serious money to improve on the Kii’s; but you do keep the external DAC’s audio signature

 

It has been mentioned by others, an external DAC’s signal is converted by the Kii through an ADC, then resampled, before being reprocessed by the Kii’s DACS. Bypassing this process by using usb, to me is logical, but other’s mileage will be different I am sure!

Aurender W20 Music Server, Kii Three Active Speakers, Kii Digital Controller

Audioquest Diamond USB, Audioquest Niagara 7000 conditioner, Audioquest NRG-1000 HC mains leads

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...