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Consolidating my system to a pair of Kii THREE / BXT's

Mashuri

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In my home office / listening room, I currently have a set of KEF Reference 1's powered by 2 March P451's, augmented by 3 Rythmik F12G's with everything connected through a DAC8. All this gear should be up for sale soon when it's replaced with a pair of Kii's currently on order (now built and being tested -- shown in photo). I've never heard them in person but, based on everything I have read, I'm pretty confident that these will be keepers. Currently looking for some good resources / owners threads to help with setup and tuning once they arrive and would appreciate any info I can get here. I'm hoping to get these in January and want to be as ready as can be for their arrival!

6DB2865B-06A4-4318-B0D3-BA59CC6DE996.jpeg
 

Somafunk

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Not an offer of help but I feel the need to express this

 

Purité Audio

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They are so simple to set-up that won’t be an issue, you just need to get a microphone and download REW if you haven’t already.
Then use the built in PEQ of the Kii ‘control’.
The Kii/BXT is probably the best speakers for all requirements that I have heard .
Keith
 
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Mashuri

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They are so simple to set-up that won’t be an issue, you just need to get a microphone and download REW if you haven’t already.
Then use the built in PEQ of the Kii ‘control’.
The Kii/BXT is probably the best speakers for all requirements that I have heard .
Keith
I hope so! I can get a little obsessive over "fine-tuning" sometimes. I imagine there are firmware and other related quirks/problems to learn about as well.
 

Purité Audio

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I believe there has only been one or perhaps two firmware updates since their release, there really is nothing to do, I would just correct any room mode induced peaks below 300Hz and if you have a traditionally furnished room then you will be fine, adjust the treble to your taste using the speakers own ‘tone’ controls.
If you get stuck send me a message.
BW Keith
 

ethanhallbeyer

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Thanks Keith! I will reach out if needed. :)

Are you still waiting on those Kii speakers? I also have a set of P451. Sounds like quite a setup with the subs and I never even heard of that Dac8 but looked it up and never seen anything like it. Made in Prague apparently.

Just wondering what you felt the Kii would deliver above and beyond that setup?
 
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Mashuri

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Are you still waiting on those Kii speakers? I also have a set of P451. Sounds like quite a setup with the subs and I never even heard of that Dac8 but looked it up and never seen anything like it. Made in Prague apparently.

Just wondering what you felt the Kii would deliver above and beyond that setup?
I've been enjoying my Kii's for the past week or so, and they are absolutely amazing!

Ethan, I would recommend reading some of the tests and reviews of the Kii Three + BXT combination here on ASR to understand what they deliver. My KEF's sound fantastic for any frequencies produced by their Uni-Q drivers, with the exception of some fatiguing harshness on the high end, but tuning the low/low-mid has been frustrating, to say the least. My home office is a challenging space and, while I can get the levels pretty well optimized, getting it all in phase and integrated has been impossible. The Kii system delivers full-range clarity right out of the box. As Keith advised above, all I had to do was level out some room mode-induced peaks and the rest is just tuning the curve to my taste. I plan to treat my room a little more in order to calm high-frequency reflections, but that should pretty much do it. Another significant benefit is that my office will look a lot less cluttered. I will be getting rid of 3 12 inch subs, a power conditioner, the DAC-8, and 2 P451 amps. Audibly and visually, my office is cleaner, simpler, and a lot more elegant.
 

creed

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One of my challenges on my existing setup is not due to room mode but more of a SBIR, there's a serious dip in the 60hz where no amount of EQ can helps, i did try to added a pair of subwoofer but it doesn't really help much, the amount of times i spent into trying to correct this, drives me to think about the consolidation into something like Kii BXT, the cardioid dispersion of Kii likely will be much less impacted by the listening area of mine.

I am not unhappy with the existing system, i just went nuts seeing those graph being measured in REW, may be for a start, I've not heard a proper sounding system, hence I am unsure what I am missing.
 

Purité Audio

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Kii have just increased prices but BXT modules have been reduced at least in the U.K.
Keith
 

DSJR

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I only heard the Kii III on its own once, but I was hooked I have to say. Keith would need to confirm, but speakers like this have an 'easy tactile and surprisingly delicate' way with small scale music and although I've not heard the BXT, I suspect a pretty damned good stab at very loud rock-n-roll as well. A pretty transparent speaker fed with a clean source does seem to better 'unravel' badly compressed recordings and without stripping bare simple ones. Apologies for the bad description.

I may still be a dyed in the wool big-ATC fan, but that doesn't mean I can't get excited about other rather different approaches too and now less costly. I wish the OP all the best.
 

Purité Audio

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Tonally they are pretty much like ATC, voices sound the same, the kiis/8cs are just clearer you just hear more into the mix, deeper bass extension and the ability to adjust to the room, tone/peq filters.
‘They are in many ways a contemporary ATC.
Keith
 
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Mashuri

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Question for Keith: For the sake of boundary EQ, do you find it better to place each speaker equidistant from their respective side and front walls? For example, if the left speaker is 10cm away from the front wall, it should also be 10cm from the left wall? I'm wondering if these two distances are significantly different, it may create phase issues.

Edit: Proper terminology
 
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Purité Audio

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Both Kii and Dutch&Dutch advise leaving at least 30cm from the side wall, front wall whatever is convenient then adjust boundary settings.
Keith
 
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