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Who's heard the Kii Three speakers?

I visited an old friend (friend of old rather than a friend who is old ;)) today and, knowing of my home demo, he asked me what I thought of the Kii’s. After I summed up my thoughts he said “that sounds how I would describe ATC’s”. Now they aren’t the same thing, but he does have a point.
 
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Kiis/D&Ds are the contemporary equivalent of ATC I suppose.
The BXT modules should arrive here, with a bit of luck next month.
Keith
 
This issue puzzles me. Emotion seems to me to be a property of the art as produced by the artists, and nothing to do with reproduction of the art as performed by audio equipment.

I have never had any problem enjoying the emotion of great art, for example the 1953 Clemens Krauss Wagner Ring with a cast to die for, or Carlos Kleiber's Beethoven symphonies 5 and 7 from the 1970s, on any audio kit from earbuds/MP3 player upwards. To me that concept called PRaT, for example, seem to seek a non-existent overlap between art and its reproduction which I have never found helpful.
Does a work of art photographed on a modern high end high res DSLR have a better chance of being understood and appreciated by the viewer as the same work photographed on a 110 camera?
 
There are analog inputs => AD - DA.
There are quite a few inputs I don't understand. USB is only available via Kii control? Or is there only AES/EBU input which can be used in digital or analog mode? Is the signal always converted to analog or does it stay digital when connected to a streamer via AES?
 
There are analog inputs => AD - DA.
There are quite a few inputs I don't understand. USB is only available via Kii control? Or is there only AES/EBU input which can be used in digital or analog mode? Is the signal always converted to analog or does it stay digital when connected to a streamer via AES?

Each speaker has a single XLR input which can be configured as an analogue or digital input. The Kii Control adds USB, coax and optical digital inputs. Analogue inputs are converted to digital. Digital inputs stay digital until the last moment, just ahead of the amplifiers. Each speaker has six channels of DA conversion and amplification (one for each driver).
 
Thanks for the explanation. Kii control is quite an expensive piece of equipment for what it offers.
I have to audition these speakers.
 
As it happens I heard a system at the weekend that undoubtedly bested my Rpi/Digione/Kii3.

It was Naim NDX2/552/XPS/NAP300 and a pair of Titan 707s. It was lovely, and I was wondering about returning to Naim up until I worked out it cost just north of 50K (excluding cables and Fraim).
I felt a lot better after realising that.
 
what did you like better about the Naim setup?

It scaled well (big speakers, loud in a demo room) and, more importantly, more detail retrieval.
Hardly surprising - this was NDX2/XPS/552 vs. a raspberry pi / Digione & Kii Control. The price difference is several orders of magnitude.
TBH, my overwhelming impression was how much you get for your £££ with the Kii3.
A far fairer comparison would be Kii + BXT + big Innuos/Auralic/DCS, and that would still have been cheaper by around 20K.
 
It scaled well (big speakers, loud in a demo room) and, more importantly, more detail retrieval.
Hardly surprising - this was NDX2/XPS/552 vs. a raspberry pi / Digione & Kii Control. The price difference is several orders of magnitude.
TBH, my overwhelming impression was how much you get for your £££ with the Kii3.
A far fairer comparison would be Kii + BXT + big Innuos/Auralic/DCS, and that would still have been cheaper by around 20K.

Which system gave you the best idea of what the music was about, rather than which extracted most detail please?
 
Which system gave you the best idea of what the music was about, rather than which extracted most detail please?

That's a far more difficult question: Both were fabulously involving and reasonably equivalent in that regard.
We all know that Naim has a ton of PRAT but so do the Kii3s. They are also less shrill than the olive stuff I used to own.
So, in terms of musical involvement, no substantial difference. The major difference is in the price and whether you are prepared to stump up that much for detail retrieval etc. I'll probably investigate a better streamer for my own system in time but can't see myself paying 9K for a NDX2 and PSU. It's not where my leisure priorities lie.

Back in the day I used to have a CDS/CDSPSU/52/super. It was lovely but I found a CDX/72/hi-cap almost as satisfying when I wasn't obsessed with doing constant A-B comparisons, so I flogged the expensive kit and bought some more guitars. We all have our sweet-spot for what we're prepared to pay for a hi-fi and >50K is waaaaay north of mine.

For me, the Kii3s are at a definite sweet spot - you get a real taste of high end for a "moderate" outlay. I use the term "moderate" with caution given what a car costs etc (the dem was for my brother-in-law who is prepared to stick his hands deeper in his pocket).
 
Kii Control is as I understand usb/spdif/optical to ? Kiilink signal converter and a digital volume control. If this is so, then I'm really concerned about value of this product. 1,5k for this is ...
Second thing, why would somebody offer analog input on speakers like this? Why would anybody want to convert the signal 3 times? If people want to enjoy benefits of analog gear this is not a product to do it.
 


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