Kii Three - my impressions and pro reviews

[fas42]

Why these things matter, is because human hearing is very sensitive to unpleasant anomalies, even at very low levels. And because the conventional "audio engineers" decided many, many decades ago that the ear/brain is quite primitive in the way it behaves, and that it can be easily persuaded that nominally decent reproduction is "as good as it gets!", very little progress has been made, where it really counts. Lower than what's possible quality playback still dominates, irrespective of the money paid - I sometimes wonder if things will ever turn around ...
 

[Beren]

When you think about it, its quite easy to see that vibrations of any kind will cause problems. With the speakers obviously, since speakers moving back and forth will affect the timing of the sinus waves, while some floors might be affected by vibrations also. Not so obviously with digital sources, but the crystal clocks may be affected by vibrations also and cause problems in the time domain. I fully understand that some listeners do not hear that, but I will at least give it a try. Some brands like Stack Audio offer a full month for testing, so I am going to trust my ears.

[grubble]

Quote

Ditch the heavy cable

I wish I could let it go. It actually sounds audibly better than other USB cables I've used. I've run through them all multiple times and my ears do not deceive me, as much as I want to not believe it!

[input username here]

On 1/2/2024 at 12:58 AM, Beren said:

When you think about it, its quite easy to see that vibrations of any kind will cause problems. With the speakers obviously, since speakers moving back and forth will affect the timing of the sinus waves, while some floors might be affected by vibrations also. Not so obviously with digital sources, but the crystal clocks may be affected by vibrations also and cause problems in the time domain. I fully understand that some listeners do not hear that, but I will at least give it a try. Some brands like Stack Audio offer a full month for testing, so I am going to trust my ears.

 

Don't know if I'll be able to afford the BXTs... but I'm thinking about it. Does anyone have any experience with isolation/footers for the floor standers? I am using ISO Acoustics stands on my THREEs, so it seems like the Gaia's might be a good product to try. I was also thinking Stillpoints. But I am very curious about anyone's experience.  

[Beren]

One day it will be the BXTs for me too. But until then there are a lot of little steps to improve the (amazing!) sound quality of the Threes. I chose the Stack Audio Auvas over the Iso Acoustics because of the way they work and I'm more than happy with them. Biiig improvement for a few hundred bucks.

[fpalm69]

Since I am on wood floors the stock BXT spikes were an accident waiting to happen with floor gouging.  I considered the Gaia's but the cost for that size is up there.  I use sorbothane rubber pieces under the base plates.  The Navy uses it on submarines for sound/vibration control.  Easy to find in any shape or durometer (hardness) you need.  

[input username here]

16 hours ago, Beren said:

One day it will be the BXTs for me too. But until then there are a lot of little steps to improve the (amazing!) sound quality of the Threes. I chose the Stack Audio Auvas over the Iso Acoustics because of the way they work and I'm more than happy with them. Biiig improvement for a few hundred bucks.

 

I'm not surprised. I am a big believer in isolation--even on the CONTROL, so I'm certain that the effect would be even greater on a pair of speakers w/ all the electronics inside them. Mine are on a desk, in the (very) near field and I liked the way that the  ISOAcoustics ISO stands worked (and the price). So I got them but I can't say I A/B'ed against anything else. @Beren, it would not surprise me at all if there was more improvement to be had. 

 

... I used to use the Ardán Audio stands (those are in the picture for my bio), but they took up a lot of desk space and were fiddley. Like I said, I'm pleased with the ISO stands; I cannot say that I notice a significant change in audio quality one way or another since I switched. 

[Per A]

On 1/21/2021 at 7:20 PM, H665 said:

For sure a Linn Majik DSM (MM) or Akurate DSM (MM/MC) will work. They have a built in phono stage. Analogue phono signal gets converted to digital and can be connected to the Kii controller through SPDIF.

Yes it works, I did just that after I got my Kiis but when I configured the Akurate DSM to output analog instead of digital to the Kii’s analog input the sound was much better. The Linn was first generation and its ADC obviously not very good. 

[H665]

On 1/24/2024 at 7:37 PM, Per A said:

Yes it works, I did just that after I got my Kiis but when I configured the Akurate DSM to output analog instead of digital to the Kii’s analog input the sound was much better. The Linn was first generation and its ADC obviously not very good. 

Majik doesn’t have the balanced analog outputs the Akurate has. I had a Majik DSM with Akurate MM/MC card. But I upgraded phono to a Goldnote PH10 which also has balanced outputs and indeed sounds better. At least with my TT.

[Per A]

I see, and I read somewhere it was only the pre-Katalyst, like mine, where you could keep the analogue inputs analogue. Like you I also upgraded the phono preamp by getting PS Audio Stellar between the LP12 and Kiis — extremely satisfying.

[[email protected]]

On 1/4/2024 at 5:48 PM, input username here said:

 

Don't know if I'll be able to afford the BXTs... but I'm thinking about it. Does anyone have any experience with isolation/footers for the floor standers? I am using ISO Acoustics stands on my THREEs, so it seems like the Gaia's might be a good product to try. I was also thinking Stillpoints. But I am very curious about anyone's experience.  

I thought my Iso acoustic Gaia1s were a great upgrade to the BXT system with much better imaging and detail. I have nil regrets.