Room Size

176 sq ft (16 sq m) rectangle; speakers on far short wall

System Overview

System (in small home office): ifi AC purifiers>Isol-8 Minisub Axis Conditioning/Protection>QuietPC Fanless Server>Audiolense DRC>Stack Audio LinkII>Kii Control>Kii Three> Secondary setup and analog input:Server>Raspberry Pi>Kii Three. Analog: Matrix Element i>Kii Three. Also ifi Nano One Dac. Also an SBT and a RB Pi 3B+ running piCorePlayer as an SBT emulator.

Music Preferences

all types - mostly classic rock and jazz; and later classical; some world; some avant garde weird stuff; some modern rock/pop/hip-hop

Room Description

Small home office. I sit about 9 ft from speakers, but up against back wall. Speakers are about 2.5 feet from side and front walls.

Acoustic Treatment

Wall opposite speakers has GIK panels to prevent echo/bounce back in small room. In previous system had full set of acoustic treatments. Sounded echoey and unfocused before adding acoustic treatments; acoustic treatments were the best investment I ever made in audio and the most cost effective. Unless you have a perfect room and setup, you should at least have bass traps - that alone will improve the overall sound of just about any system/room - not just the bass. A small investment in acoustic treatments is more effective than expensive equipment upgrades. Tried DSP solutions like TACT and Lyngdorf, they were good, but the room treatments are good and cheaper.

Listening Impressions

The Kii are an amazing system. Mostly eliminate room effects. I can listen to a Mahler symphony played loudly with full frequency extension on both ends and good soundstage width and depth. Amazing, almost lifelike dynamics. I now use DRC to eliminate a room node. It's the final polish on the setup that the Kiis' can't take care of. It's Just a very clear sound with lots of detail. Sounds real, not digital.

Media Storage

internal HDD in my server;multiple backups

Other Comments

Not much to do.

Components