A shame you have to beat it out of some to admit it.
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Kii THREE versus KII THREE/BXT
- Thread starter Purité Audio
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The basic Kii Threes get you 97% there at reasonable playback levels in a normally sized room. That market and price has to be at least 80% of sales? A normal studio environment, normal listening rooms, non invasive presence in households, and so on. For the large, large rooms at ear splitting levels with low distortion all at the same time it looks like a very smart way to incrementally step it up? I don't believe everyone wants the size or increased price point??
The increase in the price point is ridiculous in my opinion. Keith will correct me if I'm wrong, but if the Kii Threes get you 97% there, the D&D 8Cs get you 99% there. (We used my old Stravinsky bass crap-out test between the Kii Threes and the 8Cs at Purite Audio, and it was obvious that the 8Cs could go significantly farther than the Threes.) The new Kii bass bins do look intense and surely sound good, but they've doubled the price for the system now, putting it in BeoLab 90 street price territory.
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
I see the Three's for around $6,500 each, $13,000 per pair USD. What is the cost of the BXT? I believe the Dutch & Dutch 8C in the US are the same $6,500/each range? Hard to find in Canada to hear them.
The price of the Kii Threes in the United States is somewhere between $13K and $15.5K, depending on whether one gets the pro or audiophile version. To get precise boundary control, one must use the separate Kii remote, which is another $1,500. I've read in several places that the BXT modules roughly double the price of the speakers (which makes sense given the BXTs' size), though I'm not sure MSRP in the United States has been announced.
S0 "double the price of the speakers" is another $13,000 or $26,000? Making the combination $26,000 or $39,000??
Altogether, I believe the package will be in the $25K to $30K neighborhood. My apologies to Kii if it ends up being slightly less.
Definitely not $39K.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #110
The BXT bass bins add another £14k to the price, Kii THREEs alone are £10500, so around £27k for the entire system.
They are expensive but they are exceptional, the chap who sold the Salon 2 thought they were the best speaker he has heard and I agree.
It would be interesting to have a air of Beolabs here to compare.
£27k for a complete system, when you compare the overpriced, Magic, Wilson, etc etc junk isn’t so expensive.
Keith
They are expensive but they are exceptional, the chap who sold the Salon 2 thought they were the best speaker he has heard and I agree.
It would be interesting to have a air of Beolabs here to compare.
£27k for a complete system, when you compare the overpriced, Magic, Wilson, etc etc junk isn’t so expensive.
Keith
restorer-john
Grand Contributor
Keith you are right. When compared to anything with the Wilson badge, they are an absolute bargain.
Maybe one day Wilson (now Dave has left us) might drag their aesthetics out of the 80s. Time to let the high gloss lurid automobile colours and the swing-top rubbish bin design go methinks.
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One thing I have noticed is Kii has a lot more dealers than Dutch & Dutch. Actually, a substantial number of dealers compared to most other high end audio manufacturers. Provided they stay on their toes, they are probably going to stay around. I am not saying D&D is bad, just that Kii is ahead of them in business development.
So I found a used set of BeoLab 90's for $58,000 and new for $115,000 USD. I guess the "putting it in BeoLab 90 street price territory" is a slight "Trumpism"??? Ha ha.
I would love to hear the 8 C's and the Beolab 90's.
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D&D has made leaps and bounds in this respect in the last several months. I've recently been pleased to see some online dealers in the United States for the D&D 8Cs. Given the small market for items like the 8Cs, I think online sales are the future in thinly populated places like (most of) the United States.
I'm not sure if D&D is still having trouble producing enough speakers to meet demand. Last year they were having such trouble, suggesting that their sales capability exceeds their production capability.
It's great to see competition in this area. More of it might bring the consumer cost down in this elite group? I wold love to own Kii Three's, Dutch & Dutch 8 C's or Beolab 90's but the price pint is too steep for me still.
Still the point of $30,000 for a couple of modern monkey coffins with sub's is crazy.
Wilson to Kii to D&D
No way the manufacturing of a couple small speakers should cost as much as a new car.
Wilson to Kii to D&D
No way the manufacturing of a couple small speakers should cost as much as a new car.
Yes, I hope there are cheaper versions of these loudspeakers soon. While I'm happy to have blown some cash to be on the bleeding edge of this technology, I'm waiting for a big company with the chutzpah to release a relatively inexpensive speaker that can do similar tricks. I do wonder whether, in light of strong demand, D&D will be able to scale up and lower its prices. Kii seems content to target the high-end market, in which a high price is for some purchasers more desirable than a lower one.
It is important to remember, however, that even the Kiis with BXTs are cheaper than the (vastly inferior) banana yellow Wilsons pictured in a post above.
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I live in Harris County, Texas. It has a population of almost 5 million. The dominant Hi-Fi dealer here is Magnolia, inside Best Buy. Nobody has Kii or D&D. There is a long list of gear that is only available through home theater/home automation specialists. They don't have anything available to audition on premises and certainly not at home. I can't get a Nikon camera or lens repaired here. We do have great restaurants and a thriving visual arts scene.
There is more to it than population density.
A pair of D&Ds costs significantly less than the Chevy Spark, which is the cheapest new car available in the United States.Still the point of $30,000 for a couple of modern monkey coffins with sub's is crazy.
Wilson to Kii to D&D
No way the manufacturing of a couple small speakers should cost as much as a new car.
For reference, here's what you get in a car priced around $15K in the United States:
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Yeah, but at least you had Magnolia trees. I know bunches of people from Alabama. I can still get a great dinner in H-town. My house would cost 3 times as much in the better parts of Brooklyn and an unthinkable amount as a connected townhouse in Manhattan. I am from the NY area, by the way.
Truth be told, I bought my LS50's without an audition from Kef direct.
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