Kii Three Measurements

[Matias]

Here are some interesting new measurements of the Kii Three.

https://www.soundandrecording.de/equipment/kii-three-midfield-monitor-im-test/

 

[detlev24]

Thank you!

Here's the link put through Google Translate, DE -> EN:

https://translate.google.com/transl...equipment/kii-three-midfield-monitor-im-test/

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

No interest from anyone?

I was hoping someone who understands these plots better than I do, could give their opinion

 

[MZKM]

No interest from anyone?

I was hoping someone who understands these plots better than I do, could give their opinion

Really frickin good.

 

[NDC]

There was some explanation of measurements in the Stereophile review: https://www.stereophile.com/content/kii-audio-three-loudspeaker-measurements

 

[JeffS7444]

More like "extraordinary" I think: Never seen a waterfall plot that just stopped dead at all frequencies above 200 Hz in 5 mS, nor such a tidy horizontal off-axis frequency response plot as that.
(in case anyone missed it, need to use the left and right scroll buttons to see all of the measurements)

 

[posvibes]

Price/performance ratio is a lot lower than I would have expected.

 

[firedog]

Price/performance ratio is a lot lower than I would have expected.

Yeah, that rating is sort of odd. Are they expensive? Yes. But they are a complete system. The rating doesn't seem to reflect that-as if for the price you are getting only speakers.
In my room I get useful, only slightly rolled-off bass down to 10hz. With DRC I can get flat response from 20k to 20K,

 

[phoenixdogfan]

What's their system. Are three pluses (+), the highest rating? The only downside to them as far as I can tell is they don't seem to be able to play all that loud without distorting, but phase, FR, and Directivity look impeccable.

 

[Scgorg]

What's their system. Are three pluses (+), the highest rating? The only downside to them as far as I can tell is they don't seem to be able to play all that loud without distorting, but phase, FR, and Directivity look impeccable.

3 pluses is the max, yes. A little surprised at them only getting one for price/performance, would have expected 2 from reading their past reviews. The M2 and the KH420 for example got 3 pluses both IIRC, so this certainly seems deserving of 2.

 

[ttimer]

Yeah, that rating is sort of odd. Are they expensive? Yes. But they are a complete system. The rating doesn't seem to reflect that-as if for the price you are getting only speakers.

Keep in mind that this is a German pro-magazine. Their yardsticks for price/performance is stuff like Neumann or Genelec at European pricing. They probably don't care about "system", because they only compare active speakers (and their users probably use external sources).

 

[TomJ]

Never seen a waterfall plot that just stopped dead at all frequencies above 200 Hz in 5 mS...

B&W Nautilus 805 from 20 yrs ago, stops dead in ~3 msec. possibly the best sounding speaker B&W ever made?

 

[TomJ]

Kii Three waterfall plot, same test conditions

 

[Zuccinho]

Is there no one in the US who can send some in to Amir? I have a pair of Kiis which I seem to me to be perfection but I'm in the UK. I would also be interested to see how they measure vs the Dutch 8Cs which I (and no doubt many others who looking for this sort of thing) considered but were ultimately not going to be up to snuff visually in my lounge.

 

[AnalogSteph]

Dispersion narrows a bit more towards the top end than I thought it would, but it's expectedly exemplary either way. Very high level handling in mids and highs, still decent if somewhat limited in bass (but that's what the BXT Extenders are for). A 15 dB(A) @ 10 cm hiss level has got to be about the lowest I've seen in a fully active speaker, though maybe this shouldn't be too much of a surprise, it is a Bruno Putzeys creation after all. Multitone distortion looks well-behaved and steadily drops from the bass region, as you would expect in what's basically a 3-way in classic terms with some linearity-enhancing trickery.

I do wish S&R were conducting their multitone testing at a fixed level(s) rather than fixed distortion threshold. Makes it quite hard to be comparing different speakers.

For a kind-of-sort-of comparison, I pulled up their review for the Genelec S360, a fairly different loudspeaker indeed. While the S360 will play slightly louder and definitely handles a lot more bass, its distortion is worst in the midrange - quite typical performance for a PA-style 2-way. I can literally imagine its sound at this point, screechy like an overdriven PA speaker. We're talking 108 dB / 104 dB(A) at this point though (easily 10 dB higher than you would run mot speakers @ 1 m), instead of the "measly" 99 dB of the Kii Threes. I imagine the woofer doesn't have the most constant inductance, and they probably didn't do the transition to current driving at >>fs that Bruno Putzeys implemented in the Kiis.

 

[Absolute]

The measurements doesn't surprise this previous owner in the slightest. Excellent dispersion control, well behaved frequency response and not quite enough capacity for far-field listening at medium-high spl if that is needed.

Hiss is non-existent, ease of use is ensured by auto-on when signal is sensed and auto-off after 15 min silence. These things are awesome, nice looking, versatile and good-sounding but unfortunately have become too expensive.

 

[richard12511]

The measurements doesn't surprise this previous owner in the slightest. Excellent dispersion control, well behaved frequency response and not quite enough capacity for far-field listening at medium-high spl if that is needed.

Hiss is non-existent, ease of use is ensured by auto-on when signal is sensed and auto-off after 15 min silence. These things are awesome, nice looking, versatile and good-sounding but unfortunately have become too expensive.

What do you own now? What prompted you to switch? And how does what you have now compare?

 

[DSJR]

Specs aside, I loved the Kii III's when I heard them. Made a mockery of those who slag off Class D amps as being 'clinical' as I found the Kii's almost 'sweet' - not at all a criticism. I never got to hear the BXT's though.

Fascinating comments on the B&W N805 as when I heard them in free space in a very large space, they seemed to lack 'presence' which gave a 'deadening' effect to acoustic instruments.

 

[richard12511]

How valuable is cardioid bass from 50Hz to 80Hz? Is it even a guaranteed good thing? I never liked the sound of the cardioid subwoofers I've tried, but that could just be the situation. I don't have a lot of experience with them, but I've always had better results achieving smooth and consistent low and ultra low bass by use of 2-4 omni subs spread out strategically through the room. I'm looking at the BXT modules, and I'm wondering how good the value really is there. The III's themselves seem to be pretty good value, but I'm less sure of the BXTs. For $15,000, you could get 4 really nice subwoofers that have the added advantage of distributed placement potential. I guess you lose the automated integration. How valuable is that?

 

[Purité Audio]

The BXTs extend the cardioid response way down, the improvement using cardioid through the midrange is unsurprisingly just a clearer sound.
This was demonstrated to me when we compared the D&D8C’s ( cardioid ) and the near identical 8Ms non-cardioid.
Keith