Well, I guess it depends what you think sounds good. I have the Kii''s, and one of the things that convinced me to buy them was how good I thought they sounded with classical music, especially orchestral music. I auditioned them the morning after hearing a live performance of Mahler's 6th symphony, and was very impressed by what a good job they did giving an illusion of a symphony - including the low bass notes and extreme dynamic swings. It's definitely one of the things that convinced me to buy them.
Maybe it means that like many listeners, you confuse the fuzz and distortion your room adds in to the sound that reaches your ears with what's "natural". Your room effects aren't "natural sounding". Sounds in nature, including live classical music (assuming it's performed in a suitably large space), don't suffer from such effects.
I don't think that makes me or anyone else who likes the sound of such speakers a "leaf studier". I don't study leaves and know little about them.
Just to point out that my posts were largely to balance Keith’s sales hype and denigrating what he doesn’t sell when this thread wasn’t in the dealer section of the forum.
I’ve no wish to denigrate your choice and I have many times pointed out that these cardioid speakers are excellent, but not perfect. A lot depends on how you as an individual perceive reproduced audio and what aspects trigger a recognition of the original performance.
When I had a pair of D&D in my house a guest who attends many classical concerts remarked on how impressive they were. When we switched to a pair of MBL speakers his response was “but they sound like music”. We were playing Saint Saens Organ Symphony and Tallis Spem at the time.
As for confusing fuzz and distortion of a room with what’s natural, I have worked in a “non room”, an anechoic chamber, so know that all speakers, even cardioid speakers, rely on the room. Try not to be taken in by Keith quoting B&O documentation for their very different speakers to mine. How much we want speakers to interact with the room is a matter for us as individuals to decide, and in the case of omnis how we are free to place the speakers in our room. In my rather lively room the finest resolution with MBL speakers was indeed very slightly smeared but that had to be balanced against their almost holographic presentation which made soloists in chamber music, especially, appear in front of one. In the last analysis that slight loss in resolution was less important than the sense of realism. I have since heard MBL speakers in a more sympathetic room, expertly set up, give as much resolution as cardioid speakers but not losing that “holographic” quality. Thus impressed I have now optimised my own set up.
My current thought is that if reproducing the detail in a recording is of primary importance in creating an illusion of the original performance than well designed cardioids can, as you have discovered, be an excellent choice. If you are also sensitive to spatial qualities then other speakers, proper omnis or dipoles, perhaps, could be more effective for ones perception but only if you have the space to accommodate and position them. From a visual point of view I would much rather look at a pair of Kiis near the end of the room than a large speaker 1/3 of the way into the room! Also my entry level MBLs do also need a socking great sub, especially for that Saint Saens and often in Mahler!
It strikes me that there isn’t an ideal speaker for all genres of music and more importantly all people, and that needed pointing out when this thread was in the discussion rather than dealers’ section of the forum.
