YNWOAN
100% Analogue
I have long been interested in the Kii Three loudspeakers as they combine the very cutting edge of speaker technology into one compact speaker (well, when I say one I obviously mean a pair 
). I was therefore excited when I attended the recent Cranage Hall show (an excellent show I strongly recommend you attend) and found that the Kii's were being demonstrated by one of the exhibitors. Unfortunately, the demo I heard left me rather disappointed. Yes they had great stereo focus and a dry tight bass, but I didn't hear much of the fabled bass extension reviews had suggested, nor was the detail level anything special (also in contradiction to the reviews I had read) and the whole sound was very dry and airless in presentation. However, as fate would have it I was to receive another chance to hear the Kii's and this time it was to be in my own home. After reading my forum posts about the show demo I was contacted by Lee, the owner of 'Strictly Stereo' and Kii dealer; his offer was to come round to my house (a two hour round journey for him) with his pair of Kii's and everything needed to make them work, set it all up for me and then let me spend the day listening to them - now I was really excited .
So, a couple of days later, after exchanging our details, Lee turned up at my house and together we unpacked his car:
Surprisingly heavy pair of speakers - check
Surprisingly heavy pair of speaker stands - check
Black box and controller thing - check
Big bag of cables and things we may, or may not, need - check
Teddy bear - optional but present - check.
We were all ready for action.
After a quick coffee and a brief tour of the house to select the best place to set up the Kii's we settled on the living room. My usual hi-fi has its own dedicated room and we could have set the Kii's up in there; however, it is very full with my rather maximalist (as in the opposite of minimalist - loads of black boxes spread out over most of the room) system and my large Yamaha NS-1000M speakers. The idea of moving my Yammies was a bit of a non starter as they took weeks to set up to the obsessive level of accuracy my inner hi-ifi nerd demanded (not so inner some would argue. Anyway, the Kii's are surprisingly heavy and my audio room is on the 2nd floor - on the other hand, carrying through to the front room from the hall was only a few steps - so that's what we did.
The speaker stands were roughly positioned. We could have set them up either side of the fireplace but instead went for the bay window as it allowed a more 'free space' positioning.
Next up we're the actual speakers, compact and, in my opinion at least, remarkably handsome - certainly very nicely built and finished.
Lee got out his tape measure and we spent a few minutes getting the toe-in correct and getting both speakers the same distance from the listening position (sofa that is).
Then he plugged in a handful of cables and the optional Kii controller plus an Auralic 'Aries Mini' streamer - those three components, speakers, controller and streamer constituted the entire system - in rather stark contrast to the sixteen components that constitute my own single source system!
Lee spent a couple of minutes doing some technical setup stuff, I downloaded an Auralic app for my phone and we were away.
Everything worked super smoothly and I managed to find all the music I wanted to hear.
So much for the preamble - what did it sound like?
In short they sounded excellent - in some ways remarkable even.
The first thing that struck me was how good the stereo imagery was, instruments were very well focussed in space and existing quite separate from each other. The next thing that I noticed was the sheer pace these speakers conveyed, rhythms were locked onto and came over extremely well - I just couldn't keep my feet from tapping to the Courtney Barnett I played. The all important mid range was very well served and voices had excellent inflection and emotion was well conveyed.the sound as a whole was very consistent with very much the same character top to bottom - 'precision' being the term that comes to mind whilst the top end was clear and never shouty.
So what of the bass - well it was tight and detailed and certainly there was no hint of 'room boom'. I think the extension claims are slightly overstated but it was certainly easy to pitch instruments in the bass and follow musical lines.
Overall I was really very impressed and with a little tidying of the cables it would be very easy to fit these speakers into my life.
One quirk Lee pointed out to me was the bass null that exists behind the speakers, this can be very clearly heard and is quite odd when compared to normal speakers.
). I was therefore excited when I attended the recent Cranage Hall show (an excellent show I strongly recommend you attend) and found that the Kii's were being demonstrated by one of the exhibitors. Unfortunately, the demo I heard left me rather disappointed. Yes they had great stereo focus and a dry tight bass, but I didn't hear much of the fabled bass extension reviews had suggested, nor was the detail level anything special (also in contradiction to the reviews I had read) and the whole sound was very dry and airless in presentation. However, as fate would have it I was to receive another chance to hear the Kii's and this time it was to be in my own home. After reading my forum posts about the show demo I was contacted by Lee, the owner of 'Strictly Stereo' and Kii dealer; his offer was to come round to my house (a two hour round journey for him) with his pair of Kii's and everything needed to make them work, set it all up for me and then let me spend the day listening to them - now I was really excited . So, a couple of days later, after exchanging our details, Lee turned up at my house and together we unpacked his car:
Surprisingly heavy pair of speakers - check
Surprisingly heavy pair of speaker stands - check
Black box and controller thing - check
Big bag of cables and things we may, or may not, need - check
Teddy bear - optional but present - check.
We were all ready for action.
After a quick coffee and a brief tour of the house to select the best place to set up the Kii's we settled on the living room. My usual hi-fi has its own dedicated room and we could have set the Kii's up in there; however, it is very full with my rather maximalist (as in the opposite of minimalist - loads of black boxes spread out over most of the room) system and my large Yamaha NS-1000M speakers. The idea of moving my Yammies was a bit of a non starter as they took weeks to set up to the obsessive level of accuracy my inner hi-ifi nerd demanded (not so inner some would argue
. Anyway, the Kii's are surprisingly heavy and my audio room is on the 2nd floor - on the other hand, carrying through to the front room from the hall was only a few steps - so that's what we did.
The speaker stands were roughly positioned. We could have set them up either side of the fireplace but instead went for the bay window as it allowed a more 'free space' positioning.
Next up we're the actual speakers, compact and, in my opinion at least, remarkably handsome - certainly very nicely built and finished.
Lee got out his tape measure and we spent a few minutes getting the toe-in correct and getting both speakers the same distance from the listening position (sofa that is).
Then he plugged in a handful of cables and the optional Kii controller plus an Auralic 'Aries Mini' streamer - those three components, speakers, controller and streamer constituted the entire system - in rather stark contrast to the sixteen components that constitute my own single source system!
Lee spent a couple of minutes doing some technical setup stuff, I downloaded an Auralic app for my phone and we were away
.Everything worked super smoothly and I managed to find all the music I wanted to hear.
So much for the preamble - what did it sound like?
In short they sounded excellent - in some ways remarkable even.
The first thing that struck me was how good the stereo imagery was, instruments were very well focussed in space and existing quite separate from each other. The next thing that I noticed was the sheer pace these speakers conveyed, rhythms were locked onto and came over extremely well - I just couldn't keep my feet from tapping to the Courtney Barnett I played. The all important mid range was very well served and voices had excellent inflection and emotion was well conveyed.the sound as a whole was very consistent with very much the same character top to bottom - 'precision' being the term that comes to mind whilst the top end was clear and never shouty.
So what of the bass - well it was tight and detailed and certainly there was no hint of 'room boom'. I think the extension claims are slightly overstated but it was certainly easy to pitch instruments in the bass and follow musical lines.
Overall I was really very impressed and with a little tidying of the cables it would be very easy to fit these speakers into my life.
One quirk Lee pointed out to me was the bass null that exists behind the speakers, this can be very clearly heard and is quite odd when compared to normal speakers.
