Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

It is, isn't it?

$15,000 +/-

Not a good fit for tweekie Audiophiles ( like many of us )

But, I could easily live with this solution, I think, I know my Wife could!

Deep power down to 30 Hz, phew

Where do we send it when it needs repair ?

Will it survive the humid environment of Florida ?

Tony in Michigan

ps. I loved the Meridian M-2 Active Loudspeakers when I owned them ( back in 1985 )

Why is Tony from Michigan concerned about the humid environment of Florida? Just curious.

"While I was struck by the transparency of the Kii Threes' soundstaging and transparency,...the result was somewhat surreal."

Indeed...interesting loudspeakers -- a worthwhile audition. Thanks for the review.

Hello all,

there is a service centre in the USA - Grace Design in Lyons CO handles repairs for the Americas.

All the best and thanks a lot for reading and taking the time to listen to the Kii THREE.

Kii Audio

I'm curious how this system compares with the Devialet Phantom, which could be purchased for $4k for their entry-level Silver system.

There was talk of Kii two and four from Bruno Putzeys. Especially Kii four supposed to be half the size of three still able to dive down 30Hz!! While two is floor stand Kii. Also I heard about a full size "Kii control" with even more digital input via module base inputs and DSP base phono stage similar to Mola Mola Makua. I would also like to see steamer build for Kii for complete solution.

I bought these based on an extensive in store audition.
Kal R. wrote a thorough review that accurately reflects the capabilities of these speakers.

I'd simply stress the amazing clarity of reproduction these bring to the table. It is unlike other systems you've heard - and makes you realize that everything you heard before had a sort of fuzz added to the sound.
In my room I'm getting bass extension down to 20 hz with about a 1.5 db roll off, and very significant, but more rolled off output at 10hz.

BTW, Kal, good to know that adding DRC with these is pretty pointless. Thanks for saving me the cost and time involved to to try it.

nice unique design and appears to be of extremely high build quality. with 750 active watts per channel no chance they will have a "small" sound!
i am surprised that the tweeters see 250 watts- usually active systems supply the tweeters wattage in proportion to the demands of their bandwidth.
no surprise that clarity and transparency are in big supply- this is one area where the class D Ncore amplifier modules truly shine when compared to other amplifier topologies.
well done, i am looking forward to hearing them!

-tony, chicago area

Actually it is 1500w per channel. 250w ncore amplifier per driver. There is also 40 bit DAC per dirver, i.e. 6 DAC per channel.

Just image having DSP to process EQ and cross over send to 12 40bit DACs to 12 ncore 250w mono block to 12 drivers. That is what Kii three is.

I remember in Munich show a Vivid Giya G1 driven by Trinnov's digital active crossover system. Kii is just that in a small box.

I heard them last November at my third annual attendance of NYAS. Before hearing them, my ear-brain was always most pleasantly stimulated by Harbeth MK40.x and SHL5. Volti Audio Showings also really pleased me... and Vinnie Rossi units when paired with any of these were pure magic.

But the Kiis made me forget everything else while I was in room with them. Listened to Waits and Krall (shoot me for being basic) and I forgot about soundstaging, micro, macro, frequency response... nothing stood out except what I was listening to. Honestly the most seductive part of the Kiis is their austerity. As I take steps to simplify and declutter my own surroundings, I'm looking at my Hifi rack with a bit of a side eye these days... do I really need an endless insatiable wish list of rotating boxes that only fulfill part of the equation each? ( Another reason I am considering the Lio to pair with my Druids) I would boldly say that these are THE speakers for anyone like-minded where you're looking for great sound and are ready to drop the nervosa from the audiophilia. It's the next step from the one-box solution, but sounds better than any one-box, I've yet to hear... or seperates for that matter. And for value... to get close to these in performance with anything else I've mentioned, you're going to spend more.

This does seem to be a genuine advancement. (How refreshingly rare!) And the price seems more than reasonable (in the realm of high-end audio), considering all that it entails. Quite impressed! BUT, I find the design a bit lacking... It's a personal call, but I think they would look much better without the metal facia. Just a pure look of the drivers on high-gloss body would look far more elegant, in my opinion. The metal plate with its screws gives it a rather chintzy look, I think.

Hi Kal, just a few quick questions;

In the review you mention that Dirac Live with Kii was "inconsequential". What do you mean by that? I'm asking because I have Kii myself but are struggling with some strong modes- the strongest one at around 40hz, and was contemplating buying Dirac to attack those issues.

And since nobody has asked yet, would you deem the likes of Dynaudio C20, C1, Sonus Faber Olympica 1, Extrema, Focal Sopra No1 and the likes of this world to be in the same league of the Three's - disregarding the all-in-one solution and focusing only on the quality of the sound?
Or would you say this, finally, represents a solid step forward?

Greetings from Norway.

I heard these at the NY audio show 2016 and they were the most amazing compact speaker I've ever heard. Yes the Devialet Phantom is impressive sounding but it's a dazzling sound, not an audiophile sound. The Kii Three is a true audiophile speaker.... but with the kind of lively dynamics that I love and find essential for convincing reproduction.

RMAF 2017?

Particularly being based in Colorado?

Where is the (usually infamous on most audio sites) white paper showing measurements of how the principles work and how they correlate with delivering what research tells us listeners prefer?

I'm one of those lucky people that owns a pair.
For years (25) I spent buying/upgrading/swapping to the point where I had a tower of Class A with Transports, Dac, Cables coming out of my ears and a very large hifi footprint,

As the years pass by and life changes, I was finding myself listening to less and less to music since it was like powering up mission control - I recognised that Houston had a problem at the beginning of 2017.

I do remember that I visited the Premier London Devialet store in January, which was an indication of my intent to go digital and simple.
The Devialet's, and I only listened to their Top End pair, The Golds ? or something like that were terrible, just terrible. Was this the end of the road ? ... was this as good as it was going to get for what I wanted ?

I can't remember how I happened upon the Kii's, really can't, the Google search term or anything but I must have certainly caught one of the You Tube videos and one thing led to another.

I've been living with them for almost 2 months now, streaming Tidal with a Lumin U1 server. I have the Kii control (for room correction only) and they are sat on a pair of Townshend podiums.
Send them music from Tidal and they switch on, perfect.

For anybody thinking about them, absolutely trial a pair.

Kal, you mention that the Kii 3 is easier to live with, but I'm curious, setting aside the admittedly huge difference in price, how do you think the 3 compares sonically to the 90? Is the 90 significantly better?

Just a quick note to say that for reasons of domestic rearrangement, I needed to move my original B&W 800D's into a much smaller space. Hooked 'em up (with a pair of bi-amped PSA Stellar 300's) and Dirac'd them and lo! it all sounded pretty good.

But the damn things were much too big (visually) for the room. And so I looked around for a while, and decided that the Kii Three's looked a pretty damn perfect fit (I have a pair of Celestial SL6i's, and these things are the same size, except being twice as deep). So I contacted Bill Parish of GTT, and we came to a deal, and I installed the Kii Three's and - well, gosh.

The major first impact is o my goodness the bass sounds right (play Mino Cinelu - Moun Madinia, on his album entitled Mine Cinelu). ooo lovely.

They sounded a bit bright/harsh to begin with, but were behaving as Kal says after a week or two. And I concur - Dirac Live makes a difference technically, as does a DSPeaker (which I bought for the country cottage), but I can't say it sounds any better with Dirac Live.

System is Linn LP12 (hardly altered) into a PS Audio Nuwave Phono Converter (recommended!) which feeds 24/96 into a discontinued Nuforce AVP 18 digital preamp (because the MiniDSP doesn't have enough inputs and because the AVP 18 handles HDMI), which feeds the MiniDSP Dirac Live box, which directly drives the Kii's. Oppo 103 hooks into Nuforce, as does the evil satellite box for TV etc, as does a Mac mini holding the music library using BitPerfect, hooked up by SPDIF. The MiniDSP box happily provides a volume control, else I'd have needed a Kii Control, too.

Just my two cents. Very pleased with the product, and the service from GTT

-- P

Hello Kii Audio,

Should Kii Audio monitor -lol - this thread, would the company comment on the rumored Kii Two and Kii Four?

Thanks for the attention.

This has been an interesting discussion of the Kii speakers. I just wanted to mention that Dynaudio also has a worthy entry in this new product category - their Focus 20 XD at half the price of the Kii's. JVS reported favorably on an earlier version - the 200 XD's - and JA was impressed with the test findings. I am really enjoying them in my rig, simply fed by a Sonore MicroRendu streamer. They do not seem to offer the truly intense tech spec of the Kii's but they sure do sound good!

You wrote: “At the risk of offending nearly every designer and manufacturer of loudspeakers, I think we have not seen anything really new in a long time.”
And the Kii three’s are that new thing. I’ve heard them and if I were in the market for new speakers, I would buy them. I was finally listening to music, not a system, just like some other readers/ listeners mentioned.
And now there is this new company in Belgium and they have a speaker where the woofer has electromagnetic suspension, no spider and no surround. Imo, that is something really new. I only have been reading about it (in Dutch), but the review was extremely positive. Here’s a link to their site: https://www.ilumnia.be/. The site’s in English.
I don’t know if they’re in Vegas or have a representative in the US, but if you want something new, here it is. Check it out!

Yours sincerely,

Jan

Was able to hear this system at the 2017 LSAF, and, perhaps they weren't properly dialed in, but, thought it was one of the worst sounding rooms at the show. After just a few minutes of listening I couldn't get out of that room quick enough.

Just learned about these; I had heard of Kii but just assumed (big mistake) that it was just another tweaky non-science-based product.

Anyway, isn't the same objective of the active wave focusing (avoiding delayed reflections) achieved by in-wall or shallow on-wall speakers, which is what Lyngdorf advises.