Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Kii DSP Speakers

They have easy to use boundary control settings.

Why anyone would use an external DAC with them is beyond me.

Siegfried Linkwitz (who knows a bit about speakers) said this about them:

Russ, have you demoed these at home?

The specs seem generous, +/- 0.5 dB down to 25Hz for a speaker that size.

Ken

I just ordered a pair for a small media room. I agree not sure why you would use a different external DAC, but I was told that if you need more room correction than is on board the Kii, then you may want to use an external DSP for full room correction. Hoping it is not needed, but they do have to go close to the back wall, so we'll see.

The Kii Threes are reviewed in the September 2017 issue of Stereophile by Kal Rubinson.

He is generally very positive but it is sad that in all his preamble concerning digital cross-overs and technical innovation he does not mention Meridian once.

Agreed. And he name checks B&O's DSP model along with Focal and B&W for analogues. I do wonder the reason for such a glaring omission.

Cheers

George

As a reader of his column I could guess a few things:
-he got tired of waiting on M for high resolution multichannel playback/streaming,
his main interest.
-he became convinced there are better ponies for movie multichannel.
-he believed Meridian was in no hurry to or cared strategically to chase them down
-he found exciting room correction alternatives.
-he never had DSPs anyway.

Nailed it.

Hi James

I'd agree with all of that, but it's the novelty of a DSP loudspeaker he seemed to be enamoured with in the review, rather than any of the other valid reasons you mention. It's the fact that as a former Meridian enthusiast he didn't even mention that DSPs are long established Meridian line that surprised me.

Cheers

George

Now I am speculating-I sense he sincerely believed M would not cede technical leadership of high end multichannel at the front end. To him that meant music over movies. As VK observed, they shot themselves in the foot being first out to do MQA, then one brother changed the rules on the other brother.

This may just be my bias chasing the best sound I could afford and finding M in 1997. Bought 561, 5500s and 5000C with B&W on walls on back. I was mesmerized by Trifield. Kal praised it when His column began several years later. I had been disappointed in CDs vs vinyl at that time. Shortly after my turntable had a problem and I never got it diagnosed.

Kal is a digital High Rez music guy. He can't do DSP speakers or it would eliminate the variables to talk about in the middle and at the end where the sound comes out. He has 2 homes and setups where he can provide say 2-4 speakers/amps used to highlight strengths and weaknesses of the combined results on different iterations, throw in some cable talk on the side. The constant in his column, and unquestioned truth in digital was the 861. I recall he has/had Anthem and paradigm going in the Connecticut house.

Now here comes Meridian with oops 96K isn't enough after all, and 2 channel is really the truth after all, now that we have discovered the Magic that is MQA. As an owner of 2 homes time split evenly, and, tired of 7 Surround setups(including one in a vacation rental home) when I don t watch movies in any critical way, I am buying it and love my SEs. I don't think I will ever buy another new M processor.

From Kal's perspective, I take him saying nothing as professionally appropriate to keep any disappointment/feeling let down, and resulting bias off the page. He may well have a secret MQA setup somewhere. It was clear to me when he "said goodby" to the M processor in his column, a part of him thought it a shame to have to part with M.

Do the Kiis have an analogue input? Should Meridian DSPs?

Joel

From the Kii manual

XLR INPUT - This is the single XLR Input connector which can be set to process analog or digital audio signals, depending on how the Select switch (c) is set.

As for Meridian, yes perhaps they should although that would make them quite expensive for an active speaker.

YMMV

I think the flexibility provided before by the MPMAX 221 and now by the 218 is sufficient and the correct approach.

Otherwise every speaker would need a stereo A-D input which would only be used on the master in a stereo pair and would be redundant or cause difficult configuration issues in multi-channel set-ups (think centre used as master).

IIUC the Kii uses a separate wired device to provide expanded inputs over and above the speaker analogue inputs.