New Kii Seven

[RobL]

I just read the new Stereophile review of the Kii Seven and predictably it was described as sounding excellent and very neutral, and it measured very well.

But what really caught my eye was the cumulative spectral decay/waterfall plot.

Holy cow! I thought the Grimm Audio speakers were clean but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plot this clean:

View attachment 502722

I think the G3 bests it.

Genelec G Three active loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

My review samples of Genelec's G Three powered loudspeaker came with a little hand-sized green and tan cardboard card featuring a poem in bold black letters dated 1898: At the cottage window a little bird sang. And the light of the window did flicker. And look. The roof up it sprang and the...

www.stereophile.com

 

[kharan]

Interesting, where did you get this info?

Sound on Sound mentions it in their review of the Kii Seven.

 

[MattHooper]

I think the G3 bests it.

Genelec G Three active loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

My review samples of Genelec's G Three powered loudspeaker came with a little hand-sized green and tan cardboard card featuring a poem in bold black letters dated 1898: At the cottage window a little bird sang. And the light of the window did flicker. And look. The roof up it sprang and the...

www.stereophile.com

View attachment 502835

I was referencing the waterfall plots.
But in terms of JA’s measurements of cabinet behaviour, it seems the recent Magico S5 is king:

 

[staticV3]

Prime example for why Amir dislikes waterfall plots. They're so easy to misread/misinterpret.

 

[kharan]

Prime example for why Amir dislikes waterfall plots. They're so easy to misread/misinterpret.

and why spinorama.org is so good, because it makes it easier to superpose charts.

 

[Involver]

Prime example for why Amir dislikes waterfall plots. They're so easy to misread/misinterpret.

Might actually be useful if they were all on the same scale. Shame they're so inconsistent in the Stereophile review.

 

[songOVERsound]

All of those measurements are so different from each other, it reminds me of taking in room measurements with REW and each measurement being a different SPL, all the frequency scale, time window, vertical view, horizontal view, all being different from eachother.

It’s almost similar to how people look at frequency response of in room measurements with the vertical increments being 10 Db away from each other which makes the FR look like a straight line, which is why I only look at a FR graph (in my REW) that has each vertical increment only 1 db apart. I’ll use 1/24 smoothing or 1/12 if I want to feel good about myself.

 

[prerich]

I just read the new Stereophile review of the Kii Seven and predictably it was described as sounding excellent and very neutral, and it measured very well.

But what really caught my eye was the cumulative spectral decay/waterfall plot.

Holy cow! I thought the Grimm Audio speakers were clean but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plot this clean:

View attachment 502722

Yep, looks like there's a new king of the hill!!!!!

 

[staticV3]

Yep, looks like there's a new king of the hill!!!!!

CSD is identical to the Three.

Whoever exported the Seven's CSD graph just truncated the measurement at 24dB decay whereas the Three graph shows 34dB of decay.

This makes CSD on the Seven look extra pretty, but it's not any more performant in reality.

 

[bond00777]

Is there anyone that has these speakers or has auditioned them against others? I have a difficult smaller room that would love speakers closer to walls. The Kii Sevens are a fascinating design but I want to learn more before considering that type of cash. In the room I had Q Acoustic Concept 50s (from my previous house) that did not work well with reflections and their wide dispersion field. Now I have KEF Meta 3s which are much better but I'm still looking for something better.

 

[tifune]

Is there anyone that has these speakers or has auditioned them against others? I have a difficult smaller room that would love speakers closer to walls. The Kii Sevens are a fascinating design but I want to learn more before considering that type of cash. In the room I had Q Acoustic Concept 50s (from my previous house) that did not work well with reflections and their wide dispersion field. Now I have KEF Meta 3s which are much better but I'm still looking for something better.

I have, they're my favorite small speaker (cost no object, of course). I actually liked them more than my, very old, Kii Three.
I specify very old because the Threes' internals were updated a few years ago. One rep at Kii told me an old Three and a new Three wouldn't be "stereo matched", while another told me there would be no audible difference.

Of use: https://www.0db.co.kr/REVIEW_0DB/5101668

Unless you're in a rush, I would personally wait for the D&D 6C because it gives you a future upgrade path (bass stand) or AsciLabs (backordered but much cheaper, also offers bass stand).

 

[kharan]

I have, they're my favorite small speaker (cost no object, of course). I actually liked them more than my, very old, Kii Three.
I specify very old because the Threes' internals were updated a few years ago. One rep at Kii told me an old Three and a new Three wouldn't be "stereo matched", while another told me there would be no audible difference.

Of use: https://www.0db.co.kr/REVIEW_0DB/5101668

Nice, the louder it plays, the closer it gets to an old style sealed enclosure system. Like when people had 100 L boxes with a 60 Hz at -3 dB.

 

[firedog]

I have, they're my favorite small speaker (cost no object, of course). I actually liked them more than my, very old, Kii Three.
I specify very old because the Threes' internals were updated a few years ago. One rep at Kii told me an old Three and a new Three wouldn't be "stereo matched", while another told me there would be no audible difference.

Of use: https://www.0db.co.kr/REVIEW_0DB/5101668

Unless you're in a rush, I would personally wait for the D&D 6C because it gives you a future upgrade path (bass stand) or AsciLabs (backordered but much cheaper, also offers bass stand).

I had a failure with one of my Kii's and the repair meant upgrading both - as the old amp modules are no longer made. The upgrade is a conversion to a newer Purifi based amp module instead of NCore. They were both upgraded so they would "match".
Can I hear a difference? No.
And Kii didn't claim there would be. They did say the measurements would be slightly improved.
I doubt anyone can hear the difference between a state of the art module and a slightly more state of the art module.

 

[Matias]

Now online.

Kii Audio SEVEN active loudspeaker system Measurements | Stereophile.com

Sidebar 4: Measurements

www.stereophile.com