KS Digital Residence 505 (3-way DSP active with coaxial MF/HF and linear phase)

[Ilkless]

KS Digital, a small German pro audio brand just released their first line of home audio actives. They do DSP actives with FIR phase linearisation, with manufacturing in Germany. They now have a 3-way floorstander with a SEAS Prestige coax (just about the best-measuring off-the-shelf coax... but proprietary KEF/TAD/Technics are a step ahead) up top, DSP (including FIR), triamplification, a steel enclosure with walnut faceplate for €3,500.00/pair. Six parametric EQ bands are also available internally, but requires a wired remote control (at additional cost) to access. Looks really cool, and a pretty fair price for the feature set - the direction KEF should have gone instead of dinky "lifestyle" actives with so many connections and points of failure. Right in the Buchardt active price range. Hopefully we get to see more interesting speakers like these and the Buchardts out in the market.

I've spoken to their engineering people before and was impressed. Sound and Recording anechoic measurements show they managed to squeeze +/- 1.5dB across much of the SEAS' bandwidth (much better than the SEAS reference design) with good polars and linearised phase at the crossover, except for a Revel M16-style bass rise and a Kali IN-8 style 10kHz interference notch (that fills in within the listening window as with the Kali). It also has higher max SPL in the bass than the Genelec 8351A. The 250Hz notch was apparently because the measured sample was a review sample with a hard life. It had been subjected to a teardown and reassembly for another review, so it shouldn't appear in production sets.

 

[q3cpma]

KS Digital, a small German pro audio brand just released their first line of home audio actives. They do DSP actives with FIR phase linearisation, with manufacturing in Germany. They now have a 3-way floorstander with a SEAS Prestige coax (just about the best-measuring off-the-shelf coax... but proprietary KEF/TAD/Technics are a step ahead) up top, DSP (including FIR), triamplification, a steel enclosure with walnut faceplate for €3,500.00/pair. Six parametric EQ bands are also available internally, but requires a wired remote control (at additional cost) to access. Looks really cool, and a pretty fair price for the feature set - the direction KEF should have gone instead of dinky "lifestyle" actives with so many connections and points of failure. Right in the Buchardt active price range. Hopefully we get to see more interesting speakers like these and the Buchardts out in the market.

Very interesting.

I've spoken to their engineering people before and was impressed. Sound and Recording anechoic measurements show they managed to squeeze +/- 1.5dB across much of the SEAS' bandwidth (much better than the SEAS reference design) with good polars and linearised phase at the crossover, except for a Revel M16-style bass rise and a Kali IN-8 style 10kHz interference notch (that fills in within the listening window as with the Kali). It also has higher max SPL in the bass than the Genelec 8351A. The 250Hz notch was apparently because the measured sample was a review sample with a hard life. It had been subjected to a teardown and reassembly for another review, so it shouldn't appear in production sets.

I'm not impressed by the lack of manufacturer data and the ridiculous price of the remote, though. Should be compared with the 8351B, the 8351A can rightfully be considered as a "early access" prototype (except that you don't get to exchange it for the final version), which is one dark spot on Genelec's history, for me.

 

[Ilkless]

not impressed by the lack of manufacturer data and the ridiculous price of the remote, though. Should be compared with the 8351B, the 8351A can rightfully be considered as a "early access" prototype (except that you don't get to exchange it for the final version), which is one dark spot on Genelec's history, for me.

It does still speak to both SEAS' expertise in driver design (every SEAS midwoofer I've seen measurements of has good-to-excellent bass distortion for the size - in the pre-Purifi world at least ) and the early problems with Genelec's racetrack woofers that a single 6" coaxial driver could even have substantially higher output than the dedicated dual racetrack woofers 50-80Hz. S&R graphs I have with me show 6dB more output at 50Hz...

Of course the dedicated mid and the minimum-diffraction coax design wins out in the top octave though.

I don't like that the parametric EQ functionality was built in but not accessible without the remote (connects via Ethernet port) - though they do offer a substantial discount if purchased with the speakers (reminds me of the Kii Control). Clever, but I'd rather an ADI-2 approach with the PEQ outboard and optional.