Kii Three speaker

Just read the Stereophile review on these. Considering moving on from my Meridian gear and trying a pair of the Kii Threes. Any more recent experiences with the Kiis?

Been using my Kii Three with Control for a couple of months now. Very impressive SQ - perfect impulse response and deep controlled bass but the best feature is ‘directional control’ that guides the energy to the listener and does not energise the area behind the speakers. This eliminates most of the room modes that smear the sound.
Just requested Roon give it a proper Icon.

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Just wondered @Frank_Palm what system (i.e speakers, dac, amp, cables) you had before you got the Kii’s?

Yggy DAC > passive balanced pre > Acoustic Imagery Atsah 500 Hypex based amps > Tellurium cables > Magico S3

Great sounding system…a bit more resolving and ‘feel’ in the midrange but the Kii betters it in precise attack and bass control. No perfect system out there all require a compromise somewhere. I like the simplicity of the Kii.

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Thanks for that info!

So I’ve just returned from listening to a pair of the Kii Three speakers. WiFi Media in Arnhem were demoing them along with the new Auralic Aries G2 today.

I have to admit that the speakers sounded very good. I’ve lived with a pair of Quad ESL57s for forty years (refurbished last year), and the Kii speakers were the first I’ve heard to make me think about a divorce.

I think if the Kiis were Roon Ready, I’d be signing papers. I asked about this, but the Kii rep wouldn’t be drawn other than to say it would require a new model of the Kii Control to deliver this.

Apparently Kii have sold about 500 pairs of the Three so far. I’m sure they will be selling as many as they can make.

I should probably sleep on the idea of selling all my Quad kit just at the moment, but I am rather tempted to ask for a home trial…

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Ai… If I had known you’d be there I would have come as well – if only to shake hands…

I’ve been eyeing the Kii’s for a while now, but since my Meridians are still going strong I thought it best not to tempt myself at this time. :slight_smile:

Yes, I probably should have flagged in the forum that I’d be going along to the demo in advance. Another time, perhaps… In the meantime, I must try and resist temptation…

Don’t. Take one for the team. :wink:

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The Kii control is sort of an preamp controlling inputs, so no processing capability. It is very easy to connect a Sonore Microrenu ( or something else) and you have your Roon Ready Kii’s. I have them in this config and can only recommend them and Wifimedia ( i haven’t looked back since then to other speakers, just being happy). Btw they were close to 1000 pairs sold when I visited them ( saw the serials) some months ago.

Thanks for your comments, @zegel. In the config you have, is the volume controllable from both within Roon and from the Kii Control - and do they track each other? That’s what I think a true Roon Ready device would give, and I’m not sure that an ethernet to USB bridge, such as the microRendu will do this?

Interesting that you say that around 1,000 pairs have been sold. The Kii person today was Thomas Jansen (Kii’s product manager), and he definitely said 500 pairs… He would have to be the first Product Manager I’ve come across to underestimate sales :grinning:

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No, it does not. To use obtain bitperfect volume control, I use the Kii control and have volume fixed in Roon.
I know Thomas as a great Kii ambassador and music lover, but I known what I have seen and been told.

New Kii control next year apparently, more expensive, more features and more conventional in its appearance.

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Know any more details? You’re implying it will look more like a conventional preamp? Display on front panel?
Hopefully they will offer previous owners a trade up…

Also for me the RoonReady mRendu works fine. I use the Kii Control and the included remote to change volume Works great no issues. Setup and forget.

No I have no more details I am afraid, certainly more conventional in shape, less like a remote! I would assume it would have a display but that is pure speculation on my part.

Darko waxes ecstatic about the Kii speakers in this video review. I’m still hoping that a Roon Ready control might make an appearance - then I might just get seriously tempted…

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Kii Threes are old hat already. :slight_smile: New kid on the block are the Dutch & Dutch 8Cs. Quite a bit cheaper than the Kiis now that Kii have jacked the price up, and they seem to be preferred by many that have compared the two directly. They are also Roon Ready imminently.




Great review of the Kiis over at CA (note to other speaker reviewers: this is how you do it!). He is reviewing the Dutch&Dutch shortly:

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Yes, I saw the reviews of the D&D speakers, and the fact that they appear to be undergoing Roon Ready certification. From the screenshot I saw (in the 6Moons review), each speaker seems to appear as a separate endpoint in Roon. Presumably this will require procedural EQ to be set up for each speaker, muting either the left or the right channels and grouping the speaker zones? - (Edit: I’ve since heard that things may have changed, and a pair of speakers is now one zone).

I also noticed that each speaker has a fan in the base to help cool the electronics. Interesting…

So do the Kiis I believe. Think they only fire up when temperature rise requires it. You can’t put 1kW+ of amplification (even class D) in a sealed box without consideration for the potential few hundred watts of heat that needs dissipating at full blast.

Some interesting shots of the insides here:
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/dutchdutch/1.html
http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews2/kii/1.html