Somewhat apropos of this thread:
I visited a high end audio store today - first time since 2019! - and had a nice time listening to the Kii 3 BXT system speakers. This is, as many probably know, the more extensive version of the much lauded Kii 3, with the bass extension module.
The Kii 3, in how well it measures and the way it uses the DSP boundary control to "take out the room effects" in lower frequencies, is perhaps closer to "no speaker" than most. The store, a Kii Audio dealer for years, had carefully set up the system, boundary controls etc.
I'd previously auditioned the Kii 3s in this store, and also at an audio show, but I believe this is the first time I've heard the full BXT version. I certainly don't need to "review" this speaker as there are plenty of informative reviews with actual measurements, e.g.:
Link: https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/kii_three/ Erin's conclusion: The Kii THREE is one of those game-changing speakers that you hear and you question what you’ve been missing your entire life. From the aesthetic to the way they sound, I love everything about the Kii...
www.audiosciencereview.com
..so I'm just mentioning my personal reaction, with this thread in mind. I was able to select some of my test tracks via Tidal.
The first thing is, as soon as the music came on I immediately recognized the sound. They sounded exactly like when I heard the Kii 3s at the audio show, and exactly like when I auditioned the Kii 3 a few years ago in the store. They say audio memory is unreliable...but there was zero surprise to the sound, more like re-visiting a sound I was somewhat familiar with. (If it's sighted bias, it's an awfully consistent effect).
Anyway, first impression as always is a "neato, where did the room/speakers go?" effect. I'm looking at the speakers, which were closer to the back wall than I'd normally want, so my mind was expecting some sort of obvious bass lift or bulge but...nope...for the most part it was like the 'walls' weren't there, the entire frequency range sounded very even. Stand up bass appeared near the left speaker, yet imaged like a distinct column of bass energy, detached from the speakers, with no sense of bloat or gloming in to the speakers. For electronic bass, stand up bass, synth bass, whatever - my impressions were: even, taught, solid, strong. Yet never overbearing. Bass was so clean I could really hear the tonal quality of different electric basses, and there was one track in which the bass player is plucking two notes close together at once, which so many speakers tend to blur together, making it hard to hear what is happening. The Kii 3 cleaned away any blurring of the notes and it was easy to hear the two different bass strings being plucked together.
The speakers for the most part really disappeared as sound sources, no sense of box resonance at all. There was always this very sure sense of accuracy. It came from two main characteristics: 1. The evenness of the sound. It wasn't "pear shaped" like many audiophile speakers, which might be emphasized in the bass, have scoop outs here and there in the frequency range making some sounds, e.g. percussion, trumpet, cymbals sound thin. On the Kii, no frequency sounded exaggerated or recessed (especially evident in how even piano recordings sounded), so everything was given what sounded like it's full due. Even little things like wood blocks or cow bells were not thinned out as they can be on some speakers, but had solidity and substance which helped drive the rhythm of the pieces.
Vocals revealed artifice when in the recording, but the artifice wasn't exaggerated or strident. When acoustic guitar parts popped in and out of tracks I know well, it just sounded "right" and balanced. The other thing that gave an impression of accuracy was 2. How precisely the speakers revealed information in the recording. For instance on of my test recordings starts with a vocal, cowbell, plucked guitars. The way the Kii system revealed the cowbell in a very specific space near the vocal, in a very specific reverb, the reverb having it's own little boundary around the cowbell. The same with the vocal. They sat in 3D spatial locations, but not in the exaggerated way that some speakers may spray the high end all around off walls to create spaciousness. Rather, it felt more precise by being clarified of any box or obvious speaker/room influence - simply like the speakers themselves had been removed, revealing these objects mixed exactly as they were....mixed. There really was a peering in to the studio vibe.
So, anyway, those impressions just continued through various tracks. The sound was spacious, the speakers disappeared but the sound had excellent force and solidity, which is a neat trick.
So, thinking of this thread, would I buy these speakers? No. Not personally, not for my own music listening. Despite being able to enjoy and appreciate all of the above, they didn't grab me at all and make me want to keep listening. This is because, tonally, nothing sounded "right" or natural to my ears. Wood blocks, voices, acoustic guitars, stand up bass, etc...it all sounded sort of timbrally black and white, slightly dark. I never got the feeling "That's the real sparkle of an acoustic guitar, THAT's the woodiness of a stand up bass" etc. If something doesn't click in to tonally the "right" colors in my brain, it just sounds wrong.
That's not an objective claim the Kii speakers are "wrong" in some way; it's only that I carry around my own mental image of what I'm looking for, how I like things to sound, and these speakers don't do it for me. As I've said, I find all systems sound colored in one way or another, because even the most neutral speakers can't truly reproduce the range of timbral complexity of real life. So it's all watered down, even in a system like this. So I go with the system that makes me want to stay in place listening to the music intently, rather than feel like I could get up, walk away and do other things with the music in the background.
Before I left I actually listened to a big pair of Martin Logan hybrid speakers in the same store. I'm not the biggest ML fan, but I played some of the same tracks and...boom!...the timbre had that more realistic airiness and the timbral "color" warmed up more towards what I look for. I'm sure the ML don't measure as flat as the Kiis. (I think ML tends to have a bit of upper mid emphasis if I remember). But I did percieve more of a woody timbre to string instruments, that recognizable golden sparkle to acoustic guitar. The same guitar that was very precisely described on the Kii, but never once sounded to me like the real thing, now sounded more like I could believe someone was playing guitar in front of me. It wasn't perfect, but it would have compelled me to sit and listen longer.
Hearing the Kii speakers again also reminded me why I went with the Joseph Audio speakers from that store. Whatever the prowess of the Kii, I just didn't hear that addictive utter purity/smoothness/lack of grain that I do from the Joseph speakers. The Kiis sounded "average" in that respect, more electronic, mechanical. And the Josephs also invoke all the right timbral colors in my brain.
I got home, spun a lot of the same tracks on my Thiel 2.7s which I currently have set up (powered by my CJ amps) and...."aaahhh".....there was that rich, organic, lively "really happening in front of me" quality I seek. When wood blocks or cowbells entered the mix they sounded so much like the tone of real instruments being played "right there" in the room, something I didn't get at any point listening to the Kii. And...OMG, the way the Thiels also disappear and create such incredible holographic sonic images. Blew me away even after listening to the far more expensive Kii system.
So can I see what, say, an ASR forum member sees in the Kii speakers? Abso-effing-lutely! They are amazing! But...preference being preference, I prefer other speakers. The great measurements certainly predict a lot about the speaker, but at least for me, I can't predict whether I'll "click" with a speaker unless I audition it for myself.
Oh, I have to give massive props to the Kii controller! It's a beautiful, smooth-to-the-touch volume knob with additional controls. This is JUST the type of volume control I've been pining after, as I've said in this thread:
I was watching an old Darko video in which he discussed his appreciation for being able to control an audio system with a remote volume knob. He gets to the "why" of this around 51 seconds in: I was like: YES! Someone gets me! I place a high value on the combination of ergonomics and...
www.audiosciencereview.com
Whoever here has the Kii speakers, you are a lucky bugger!
It's already questionable if acquiring and setting up sound reproduction equipment is a hobby in the general sense. If one buys the objectivist kool-aid and think that the electronics part of the equation is solved, then just about anyone can purchase and set up a complete system that is near endgame quality, in a week, for a few thousand euros/dollars, with no previous knowledge of the subject. Spend a bit more and the dealer will bring the goods and sets things up for you. If a cheap, well measuring and somewhat compact full range speaker would exist (like 500€ Dutch&Dutch 8C) there wouldn't be that much to discuss any more.
