Article: Kii THREE Loudspeaker Review

[baconbrain]

Excellent review and thx for sharing the sample list!

[baconbrain]

On 8/17/2018 at 10:00 PM, tboooe said:

I am curious if the sound can be further improved using DSP?  The  graphs showing the in room response versus the ideal still shows some pretty big dips and peaks.  Since you already have the capability and obvious expertise, why not apply some modest DSP to further improve things?

Just thought I would post the following image showing possible further improvement potential in response when using additional DSP with my Trinnov. Here a flat response was the desired result:

 

 

[baconbrain]

21 hours ago, firedog said:

Okay, wrote to Kii and got this answer:

 

The DSP runs on a high internal samplerate, which is purposely different from any of the typical samplerates used for LPCM audio (multiples of 44,1kHz or 48kHz).

The deciding factor is not the samplerate used (I wouldn´t even know the exact number to be honest with you), but the SRC algorithm at work.

The SRC was written by Bruno specifically for the Kii THREE and surpasses anything readily available on the market by a huge margin.

The jitter reduction at the output of the DSP is quite spectacular

Hope this was helpful.

Maybe it is just me,  but this is now getting a bit difficult to understand... Why utilize an SRC algorithm which uses a LPCM audio "non standard" sample rate as a baseline?

 

Does this truly mean that the Kii will not benefit from being fed a specific (or preferred)  sample rate?  

[baconbrain]

35 minutes ago, firedog said:

Obviously because Kii think their proprietary SRC is the best sounding way to do it. You can't ever accuse Bruno P. of relying on the truisms of audiophilia.  
 

My personal experience is that Kii are correct - it sounds best when fed unaltered input. You can hear, for instance, a difference if you feed it DSD or PCM upsampled to DSD - that sounds like DSD. But I personally think it sounds best when just fed an unaltered stream. At least I haven't heard any benefit when experimenting with upsampling the feed to the Kii (both with Roon and HQP).
If you want the sound of DSD instead of PCM, you could upsample everything to DSD and feed it only DSD. 

Thanks, understood.

 

Still I find it hard to believe that one can develop a SRC algorithm which is so good that it does not degrade the signal the whole time that the conversion is running to a constant degree Independent of the inbound sample rate . 

 

[baconbrain]

6 hours ago, sapporo said:

 

https://www.grimmaudio.com/site/assets/files/1088/speakers.pdf

 

5.2 Clock

The clock circuit is the same as that used in the CC1 except that the sampling rate is set to 93.75kHz instead of one of the more traditional audio rates. This is specifi- cally done to improve the performance of the SRC chip. An uncommon clock frequency reduces the odds that mix products between the incoming clock and the internal clock fall inside the PLL loop bandwidth of the SRC.

 

Interesting article, thanks for sharing!

[baconbrain]

7 hours ago, man10 said:

Wow, what a clear and comprehensive review! I am looking at them for a true corner deployment. Which looks even tougher than yours. In an equilateral deployment against a back wall the nearest surface is 60 degrees off axis, in a corner only 30 degrees.  Have you ever heard them or better measured them in a corner deployment?

Mine are located in the corners and I just love them. Once you have the contour settings dialed in, I believe they sound just as good in the corners as if they were free standing on the floor. You can find many impressions here: