Down To The Crunch

How large is the room?  Do you listen to music at higher volume levels?  How far is your mail listening position from where these speakers will be placed (remember, they'll be near a wall so account accordingly)?  

Either system is great.  Both have the ability to EQ.  So, I wouldn't worry about tonal characteristics too much.  The one feature I like about the Kii is that it has BT built-in.  That's a nice feature to have (despite audiophiles hating it, I rather enjoy the convenience at times).  ROON will soon be arriving the DD8c, finally.  

Utlimately, IMHO it boils down to this:

Kii THREE is more compact and has a neat little remote with a lot of I/Os and BT as I mentioned.

DD8c can play louder with more bass output (no built-in limiter whereas the Kii has such) and soon shall have ROON.  

How much does aesthetic factor in to your decision?  If the room is small and you don't necessarily listen loud then that really may be the final determining factor.  It's a tough call, for sure.  Hard to go wrong either way as long as you understand the limits.

Putzys comment ( when using BTX Module ) about the system being ' a Line Array ' is what prompted the thought about height.

The images on the website make the stacked modules look higher to me.

But videos with a person nearby for comparison looks like a more typical height.

The Modules are compact.

Definitely something to address with the Manufacturer / Distributor.

The point is that vertical position in a room can be significant.

hardisj - All great points. Room is L-shaped. Main part is 24’ long by 16’ wide with a 12’ by 12’ kitchen off to the right side of the listening area. One speaker in a corner the other will have 14’ of space beside it.

Listening position will be about 9’ away, still in the open space with the kitchen to the right. Then open space behind the listening position. Vaulted ceilings starting at 8’ behind the speakers going to 11’ in the middle (just above the listening position. I have a maximum width of 12’ to place the speakers on the backwall. Lots of hard surfaces and irregular shapes, a hard room to tame acoustically. This is why I’m looking to active speakers. My original speaker option was KEF R11s as they only need to be 9" off the back wall, but the room is to lively, I’m thinking, for a conventional speaker.

I like to listen loud at times, but 96 db is pretty loud, I would say?

A little off the technical stuff, I think the Kiis look better, it would be nice if the D&Ds had some kind of a grill.

Both offer their speakers in white but neither offer their stands in white (my color preference).

Kind of a weird controller for the Kiis. In a way, I’m trying to minimalize, but then you have this big volume knob with a bunch of cables hanging out of it, just not sure where I would keep it?

rego - great point, I will ask!