KSD A200 MK2 Review / Experience Request ?

[UpperLevelEd]

KSD is a long term well established audio company from Germany that recently acquired limited distribution in the US.

They have a very unique design with their A200 mk2 line which includes a 10” low driver, 3” soft dome mid, and a silk tweeter in a nearly closed cabinet made of I believe a steel composite with unique internal dampening. Analog and AES inputs. they have a proprietary internal DSP for <2ms latency for phase alignment. This is due to their Class D amps providing a DDD (direct digital drive) using PWM direct from digital to control the movement of their drivers (as I understand it). This means there’s no DA in the traditional sense. If you run your own converter into the AES input, your converter is the sound of their digital process… if you upgrade, so does the conversion in the monitor, no internal chip to bring back to analog. A lot of the tech implemented seems like very intelligent solutions to a lot of things various listeners fight finding the right balance between.

There are a lot of other really unique features any quick search will show. The mid dome driver’s crossover is well outside the usual issue of being right in the critical mid range (similar to ATC’s midrange dome setup of which they are famous for) .. except KSD’s low end extension is supposedly far deeper and more linear. The time domain is very quick as there are only 2 thin ports they claim is intentional to keep the feel of a closed cabinet.

On paper, these things seem pretty incredible and I’d love if anyone here could really break em down with testing or experience. data or anecdotal, doesn’t matter, I just want to start the conversation. I’m very interested in them for a ton of reasons, but that’ll hopefully come out in the discussion.

Thanks.

 

[LTig]

No waveguide for mids and highs - that doesn't look very promising regarding a smooth off axis response.

 

[UpperLevelEd]

matching waveguides for both.

“The mid and tweeter share a single machined aluminum waveguide with two concentric apertures on a common vertical axis. KSD’s stated function is twofold: absorb cabinet-edge diffraction (reducing baffle-step ripples) and create a coherent MT radiation pattern that works either vertical or horizontal without polar penalty”.

source: KSD website and

KS Digital A200 Cherry 3-Way Active Monitor Speakers (10" Woofer, 3" Mid, 1" Tweeter) - Pair

KS Digital A200 Cherry 3-Way Active Monitor Speakers (10" Woofer, 3" Mid, 1" Tweeter) - Pair The KS Digital A200mk2 is a compact, powerful 3-way reference monitor for all applications. With the new composite steel housing we have been able to further optimize the acoustic properties. The larger...

studiocare.com

(i believe their comment on the TI/Burr Brown and <4ms latency is spec’d from the MKi model, because i’ve read conflicting data… which is one of the issues I have is that they don’t post a lot of specific data…. They claim a lot of proprietary tech, which would bother me more if the company wasn’t so established long term, where as (no disrespect), Ex Machina is a new company that posts a lot of data but ends up hard to verify in the real world… they also have a unique thing going, but they’re so new and already abandoned their first design model, so that makes me hesitant for Ex Machina, but I don’t doubt they make great stuff)

 

[LTig]

What KSD calls waveguide is just a small means to reduce reflections at the chassis. I'd like to see a Spinorama measurement which proves the coherent MT radiation pattern.

Look at the much larger waveguides of the Neumann KH310 and KH420 or those of the Generic 80xx series monitors, and their specs regarding off axis frequency response.

 

[UpperLevelEd]

i did notice it didn’t seem like a wave guide i’m used to. Thanks for pointing that out. Some reviews mention the sweet spot is pretty wide for doing dsp phase correction over coax, but i don’t know how waveguide related that is, and how that affects the imaging or causes unnecessary room reflections across a wider area etc. Def worth investigating. thanks

 

[dfuller]

No waveguide for mids and highs - that doesn't look very promising regarding a smooth off axis response.

When things are even less waveguided than ATC you know it's gonna be rough.

 

[UpperLevelEd]

Isn’t that notion reversed a little? the waveguide assists the directionality of frequency dependent spread across different drivers… so in the mix position, (all other things being equal), a speaker like the neumann would hit you with a more directional and non reflected sound, so image is improved etc. but the combo of wave guide and non-coax means as you step off axis, the linearity of the phase and directionality drift. coax is physically 2 drivers in one location, so there’s no position that disrupts the alignment. DSP solutions work well, but they don’t account for edge cases as you can’t dsp a physical distance outside of a given axis.

So, in an untreated room, or on a meter bridge, the wave guide / neumann example wins… there’s less vertical dispersion, so less comb filtering off the console and early reflection points, especially the ceiling. but going off axis destabilizes that, like what’s common w ribbon tweeters.

KSD’s approach is their FIR crossover, which phase aligns between drivers, and if your room is treated, you get a larger axis to work with…no?

but then larger axis could mean more smearing and less precise spatial image. so in an orchestral recording, pinpointing the stereo position of the players (which is important for the genre) wave guide makes sense, but in terms of modern mainstream music, that spatial detail is a trade off for the feeling of being ‘inside’ the recording. in a proper room, time domain picks up the slack the lack of a waveguide makes. Like how NS-10’s (love em or hate em)… that time domain is what makes em special, wo the wave guide.

I guess what i’m saying is… there are many ways to implement image and spatial detail and phase anomalies, I couldn’t tell you which is better or worse without context of the room and personal preference. analog crossovers can’t touch the alignment a dsp controlled one can (coax excluded), so there’s a lot more ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ happening when it comes to looking at a picture of a monitor and knowing what the sound will be.

… which is why i would love the hard data aspect on the KSD’s lol.

also, maybe everything i just said is a bunch of bull, i’m just going off years of experience across a lot of monitor designs. not saying any implementation at this level of monitor is wrong… until i hear em of course

 

[UpperLevelEd]

just wanted to bump my own thread and see if anyone else has any experience or insight w these. thanks

 

[Putter]

There doesn't seem anything all that special about the speakers except a fairly high price. AFAICT a waveguide is not a necessity especially since this is a 3 way with the tweeter and mid close together.

Looking through the line it seems a mix of good and not so good. There are coax models,but also an 8 inch woofer with a 1 inch tweeter which will give a poor match.

Most importantly it does not seem to be a measurement based company with minimal specs given.

 

[andrew]

The C100 Reference looks interesting with its mix of coaxial design and horn / compression driver design. I’d imagine that the dynamics are great but, as others have stated, it’s a difficult proposition with measurements.