Brucemck2

Any recommendations for power cords and power treatment for the Kii3’s?

Almost ….. The MiniDSP Flex would require me to use the MiniDSP and not Roon as the crossover, which wouldn’t be horrible. I don’t think the Flex is Roon ready, but their SHD product is. But, the problem using the MiniDSP line to perform sub crossover duties is that the max delay you can insert into the subs is 30ms, and with 90ms of latency in the Kii3’s I couldn’t get the subs and mains time aligned. I need at least three independent channels into the device so that I can use a combination of Roon’s crossover functionality and convolution filters to get everything properly time aligned. Devices that only have two input channels won’t work.

Kii3 does NOT have XLR (or any other) outputs for subs. Convolution filters cannot align subs without a sub channel, which requires three channels, which was the point of my original post.

Yes! (Ideally with Roon as my player.) I often use Thierry’s (HomeAudioFidelity) convolvers to get everything time and phase and frequency aligned, and “play” with lower levels of correction using manual solutions where I use REW to get the basic timing and PEQ parameters. I’ve gotten great service and results from Thierry across several implementations.

I currently go USB to the Control unit that comes with the Kii3’s. That Control unit then connects via an Ethernet cable (but it’s not a computer network setup) to the Kii Link input on one Kii3 and then daisy chains to the other Kii3. To add a sub, unless I use the BXT modules, I’ll have to ditch the Control device.

Page 12 of the PDF you see “Input” over the XLR connection. It can be set to digital or analog but not to output. I have in the past used it as an XLR analog input fed from an AV processor.

The BXTs are great subs but the combined height won’t work in my setup. My room already has five calibrated 18” subs (for home theater use) and I can integrate those pretty easily if I can get a properly time aligned low passed analog signal to their controller. Topping won’t work. I want to use the crossover functionality in Roon so that I can separately equalize and time align the mains and subs. That time alignment is particularly important given that the Kii3’s have 90ms of latency. (90ms of latency is equal to the speakers being 90 feet away!) Plus that allows me to both run the subs in mono (as Roon will properly sum the L+R subwoofer channel) and volume adjust the Kii3’s and subs (as Roon allows me to set volumes separately for the subs and mains). The Kii3’s only have XLR inputs, not outputs. They do allow PEQ and high pass functionality but don’t have any way to output the low pass signal.

As best I can tell from the websites neither the Topping nor the Schiit are Roon compatible endpoints? I am hoping to not have to change to a different player. I am looking for a digital output to feed my Kii3’s and an analog output to feed my sub, so the Schiit won’t work for that. And as best I can tell the Topping is only two channel, so I could not use my player (whether Roon or JRiver or similar) to perform crossover duties. To put my specs differently, I am looking for a USB input Roon ready multichannel (at least three channels) D:(D and A) converter, with USB in and both digital and analog multichannel out. Absent that I need a Roon ready multichannel D:D and would put a D/A downstream of the subwoofer output of that to feed my subs. Absent that I can just give up on going digital to the Kii3’s and use any Roon ready multichannel DAC and feed analog to both the Kii3’s and the subs. (The multichannel element of my spec is why I posted in the immersive audio section.)

I have a pair or Kii3’s that I feed via USB from Roon on a Windows 10 device. I’d like to add a subwoofer to augment below 50-60Hz. One option would be to add a multichannel DAC, and then feed the Kii3’s analog inputs and my subs analog input, using Roon to perform the crossover functionality. Is there a (high quality) device that would let me send high-pass USB or SPDIF to the Kii3’s and analog to my subs? (If necessary the Kii3’s have a built in high pass filter I could use to roll them off, but I’d still need to low pass the subs separately.) If so I’d avoid an incremental D/A/D for the Kii3’s. Thanks.

Any way to add a small subwoofer?

Any recommendations for the settings most likely to work best for an MSB Reference fed by an MSB Digital Director?

I'm a knuckle dragging two channel and a hard core multichannel guy, and have been for many years. One is not "better" than the other. Instead, they are different and "better in their own way." That being said, most of my two channel listening these days is two channel music with Auro providing modest enhancements using a Trinnov processor. If you keep Center Spread "on" and the effects channels very (very!) light it provides a nice listening experience. In years past I augmented a purist two channel setup with surround processing. I had a purist two-channel rig (BAT monoblocks, Audio Research Pre and custom line arrays) that maintained absolute two channel fidelity. I sent a second output from the AR Pre to a surround processor that fed only surround speakers (no center channel) and kept those surrounds 5-8db below "normal" matched surround levels. While McGuyver-like it offered outstanding performance: it did not degrade my two channel purist playback chain while adding subtle ambience that purist two channel doesn't (usually) provide.

At that price point SVS is terrific. You could do two smaller subs or one big one easily. The sealed ones are particularly nice.

The Trinnov devices perform superbly. For a two channel system the newer model DEQX devices also perform well (the digital sections in the older versions were not terrific, IMO).

Yes, UltraCap LPS-1.2 And to complicate things, everything in the system, including the LPS-1.2 and everything connected to it, is powered from a Richard Gray balanced isolation transformer (240v in and 120v out).