First listening impressions
Firing up a new speaker which you have anticipated for a year is a harrowing experience, as it is very possible your expectations have become swollen, and the session could be as painful as a lancing. I try to purposely not set expectations when working with upgrades and new gear as I have many times in the past been disappointed. I must admit, however, that being an owner of the King I really hoped the successor would be a fair bit better. With pen and paper in hand I sat down and prepared to note the changes which struck me with the most force. Within the first moments of listening several things were evident; the driver sets were more coherent, the speaker was entirely sharper and cleaner, though the soundstage did not widen or deepen appreciably it was less cluttered with performers placed more precisely, the bass had no trace of slovenliness. Any one of these virtues would be worthy of a company trumpeting the “new and improved” status of their product. King’s Audio simply wiped the slate clean and introduced a panel which rewrites the rules of how good an “affordable” ESL can get!
Live versus studio
One of the things I appreciate about the elevated performance of the King III is the tremendous degree of added information brought forth in the music. I am an information addict when it comes to sound; the more the better. I insist that there is no such thing as too much detail or definition in a system, but that detail had better be exquisitely presented! I never want to move backwards in terms of definition; to do so is to move away from a more lifelike listening experience. I was very pleased, then, to hear that the King III is far more detailed than the King. This results in more intimacy in the music. When Hugh Masekela discusses the plight of the African coal mine workers at his live concert as an introduction to “Stimela,” he is physically brought so close that one can almost hear his thought process carefully forming each sentence. Later, as he mimics the whistle of the train, one is in awe of how he reaches such a pitch. The King lays open all of what is hidden with lesser speakers, the sound of lips parting, a breath inhaled and hitch in the voice. I am hearing more voices lately; the voices of band members mumbling, giving instructions on timing, humming along or using their voice as a background element to the music. These voices are ghostly, so far away from the mic that dynamic speakers lose them entirely. It takes the chiffon light drivers of the King III to materialize them. Meanwhile, in the foreground one hears in sustained notes the drawing to a close of a phrase signaled by a weakening of exhalation, the artist stopping before it breaks as it fades away.
Live music is marvelously expressive and involving with the King III. I played Little River Band’s music incessantly as a teen and I sang along with it often, knowing the nuances by heart. It was sheer joy to hear “Long Way,” which sounded superior to any other occasion I have heard it. The band was drawn up more immediate, much more intimately, as though I were in the first row, not the twentieth. The King III is so gorgeously complete, everything is more precise without being phony or forced. The speaker bolted through my demo discs like Usain Bolt running the 100M dash!
See through sound
At times the speaker was capable of an almost eerie perspective shift. With particular recordings which were very clean, very intimate, occasionally I sensed that my listening position had shifted from in front of the artist to behind the artist, as though standing and watching over their shoulder during their performance and looking out upon the venue! I have never had such an exotic shift in perception while listening to a set of stereo speakers! I attribute this to the unassailable transparency which allows for much higher ambient information, clues to the venue and audience in live music, that come through with the King III. The soundstage can be so deep that it seems extended far beyond the distance I sit to the speaker, and therefore the mind plays tricks such as creating a space filled with people. When there is a cough or a yell from an audience member it is reproduced so well that it seems to be out there a ways, farther than the distance I am sitting from the speaker. The mind does a quick calculation and thinks it hears the cough out there – an audible illusion.
Part of this effect is caused by the speaker being so good at portraying the artist in front of me that they can seem right in front of me. This is recording-dependent but happens occasionally with live music. I have not heard this effect with studio music. As weird as that effect is it says one thing loud and clear; the King III can do things perceptually that no other speaker I have used can. I understand that in our universe gravity theoretically does strange things with space and time. Similarly, the King III seems to nearly be subtly bending the rules, getting more out of a recording than it should.
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In addition to being overly long and repetitive, this “review” comes across to me as an unmitigated marketing piece. This is neither reporting nor reviewing — it’s crooning.
Bias seems to permeate the entire piece. The wall wart is first dreaded, then hailed as a bright design decision, then dismissed in favor of an expensive VAC unit. Reference speakers are trounced without benefit oF audition in the same room or system. Horrid build quality (for devices meant for living rooms and costing as much as an automobile) is lamented then explained away.
I’m sure that these speakers sound very good, perhaps even better. But this over-the-top exposition, coupled with what I heard from the King II in demos, is tough for me to parse.
Bob
Bob,
God’s Joy to you.
I don’t know too many marketing plans which call for thorough, unflinching description of a product’s weaknesses. Rather than mask the speaker’s foibles I laid them out in full view and assessed them relative to its overwhelming strength, its sound quality.
Do not mistake enthusiasm based on performance for bias. I believe you would have a difficult time arguing against my technological reasons for my conclusion.
I agree with you that the King II was not all that, likely a reason it went away fairly quickly. I also heard it at CES 2011, I believe, and was not overly impressed. It had an integral power supply and crossover similar to the original King; the new external power supply and crossover seems to confer a distinct advantage to the King III. The King II also had one less bass panel than the King III. If you are basing your impressions on what you heard from the King II, be assured the King III is an entirely different experience.
I should add an addendum to the article; I also heard Danny Richie’s efforts at a hybrid mangetic planar at RMAF 2012 and felt it was well executed sonically. I believe the use of smaller multiple magnetic planar drive units, similar to the King III implementation of a Line Source type of array could hold great promise for the magnetic planar technology going forward.
To each his own, so thanks to Doug for the great review. I heard the original King years ago and was impressed, so the King II is certainly heavy competition at the price and I can’t imagine how much better the KS-30 would be.
The Red Wine Audio Black Lightning battery supply ($900) is an alternative to the wall wart + VAC supply, gets the speaker off the grid completely and should sound at least as good as the VAC.
Regards,
No record player or tape unit??? Only CD’s and servers??? Unbelievable!!!!!
Ant,
Thank you for your readership and email. Reviews by Phillip Holmes, Richard Mak, Jack Roberts, Ray Seda, to name a few, are often turntable-related, for they are the vinylphiles. Doug Schroeder’s sole source is digital, so is mine and Ed Momkus’. Therefore, you won’t find insights on analog setups from the last three’s reviews.
Of course, there are also the unthinkably resourceful, amphibious Dagogoans who have both analog and digital sources, like Richard Austen, Laurence Borden, Fred Crowder, Adam LaBarge and George Papadimitriou. It’s quite a party.
I’ve been waiting to read this review ever since RAMF 2012, when I mentioned to Doug that the King III’s had impressed me, and he proceeded to tell me how they could sound even better (all the details mentioned in the review). There’s no doubt in my mind that of the under $20k speakers at RAMF, the NOLA KO’s and King III’s were the standouts, each in their own (quite different) way. I would have loved to directly (or at least closely) compare the Kings to the Magnepan 20.7, certainly its main competition. Maybe Doug can talk Magnepan into letting him try (they are pretty close to him)?
Rob,
God’s Joy to you,
Good to hear from you again!
I have doubts that Magnepan would wish to send me their flagship speaker in the context of my comments about the inherent weaknesses of their design. I would guess they would be hesitant to have the 20.7 compared directly to the King III. Further, I’m not sure that a 20.7 review would be the best use of my time presently. However, if Magnepan was confident of their speaker and wished me to write it up, I would give it a fair analysis. I would be delighted if they took some of my criticisms and revised the speaker to make it even more performance oriented. Then I would be eager to review it, as I believe the performance would increase substantially.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder
I did not find a comment concerning listening area width. I have found that ESLs typically have a narrow listening area, sometimes akin to keeping one’s head in a vicelike position. I owned Acoustat Xs, 2+2s, Martin Logan Quest and Monolith IIIs. I have read that the Sanders 10C has a 3 foot wide listening area width. I now listen to Legacy Focus speakers which give me a 9′ to 10′ listening width (it’s a big room). How wide a listening area do the King IIIs have? Thanks.
Stephen,
God’s Peace to you,
You have asked a wise question, one which would come into play with most ESL speakers. However, the King III is quite generous in terms of not beaming or being too narrow when it comes to the listening window. I have the speakers directed at me and still have a plentious envelope of sound such that I can turn my head or lean over to speak to another person and have no falling away of the stereo balance, only a slight shift.
You will note that the treble panels for the King III are quite wide in comparison with ribbons and narrow drivers. Consequently, there is far more forgiveness in terms of the listener’s position relative to the speakers. Regarding the listening area width as you describe it, the King III is rather large, I would say larger than the Legacy Audio Focus speakers. The King III does not suffer from a smallish soundstage at all; on the contrary it is enormous and immensely gratifying! If they were used parallel to the head wall they would yield a giant field of sound. You may lose some of the solidity of the center image if they are used without toe in, so I recommend some to firm up the phantom image in the middle.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder
Doug, the broader mid/tweet drivers provide more beaming and thus narrower “sweet spot”. Their width is no advantage in this regard. Where the bigger upper range drivers help is in allowing extending the XO down a little, or filling in the lower portion of the driver’s operating range at higher volumes.
I believe the issue with the superior performance of the King III is that they managed to come up with a better coating that allows the stators to be placed closer without arcing – thus increasing the electrical field and ratio of motive force to moving mass – which they increased also by taking a thinner mylar – which is probably why they had to increase the driver area – since it may have limits in tensile strength at the lower thickness. Can you comment on sensitivity and ultimate bass power?
Via bracing one can have stronger and more extended bass from the big maggies. The BG Neo 8 array I use for my midrange gives me the good force to mass ratio which is reflected in the sensitivity as well as the detail it can reproduce precisely. It also has the capacity to provide the ear bleed peak SPL I like, at beyond 120 db at the listening seat. The higher SPL is allowed by the greater excursion. The segmented array has very much the benefit you noted relative to the long drivers in getting rid of the annoying plastic sound. For a listener like me, the drawback of even the biggest ESLs is this loss of peak power. If the big events in big music don’t come through, I can’t care much for the details, imaging and ambient field recovery and true tonal balance and texture.
Completely agree about the grilles needing to be removable on the maggies. There is an issue of taming the ribbon that the cloth does – since it is so much more sensitive than the mids. And there is the WAF issue with the raw maggie drivers looking downright ugly.
I should note that at the moving mass includes the obstructed air in the gap, which is a limitation on how much of a difference the absolute mass/area of the diaphragm can make. It is interesting that the gap is narrow enough and the stators open enough so that halving the thickness of the mylar can make that much of a difference. I wonder what can be done with a graphite conductor on the diaphragm in a rare earth magnet’s strong field. Perhaps for once the current carrying capacity of the graphite would be sufficient to produce reasonable output with the reduced mass. Probably not, since the graphite is 300 times more resistive than Al, while the neodymium magnet is only 10 times stronger.
It is true that the electrostatic diaphragm has a lower mass, and therefore a lower inertia, of the diaphragm of a Eminent VI or a Magneplanar, but should be considered which amplifier is used. With a fast transistor instead of a slower valve, the gap is significantly reduced.
Regards
Doug
Since I stopped publishing the Sensible Sound magazine in 2008 I have been fine with speakers. However, the itch returns and I thought back to the speakers that most pleased me toward the end of the magazine’s 32 year run: The original “Kings” as heard at the 2006 CES.
The haphazard King demo was musically the best of the show, and they have been in a back corner of my mind ever since.
An internet search brought me to your review. The editor in me want to help (everyone needs an editor), but my music lover part says thank you.
I have been with Acoustat speakers since 1984 i heard the Kingsound speakers in a show in Montreal a few years back and i also have a friend that own’s a pair they are great speakers but like many say ( reliability ) will they last ????? in over 30 years with my Acoustats i never had a problem just plenty of mods mods mods they keep on getting better and better Acoustat as been out of the picture ( USA models ) for more than 20 years i for one WELCOME Kingsound they are true full range stats.
Hello,
Having enjoyed Doug Schroeder’s many reviews for Dagogo over the years and sharing a pair of Kingsound King II electrostatics, I was interested to hear if Doug has ever pursued the active crossover route for his Kings.
Unfortunately I haven’t had any success with either the manufacturer or the USA distributor, with my queries being given the usual patronising response.
Best Regards,
Hank Bakker
Melbourne Australia
Hank,
God’s Joy to you,
No, I have not pursued active x-overs for the King. There are a few reasons; I do not have the requisite knowledge to built my own filters, thus it would take another party (who likely wouldn’t do so for free) to be the software guru for the x-over. I also would have to secure the proper hardware, and, frankly, I only have so much time to devote to that if it’s going to be used with a speaker which might see 25% of play time in my systems. I can’t blame Kingsound for being hesitant to go that direction, as electrostatic speakers are tough enough to sell to the public, let alone pushing for an active system. Finally, I have to work with equipment the public can actually obtain, not such esoteric pieces that it bears no similarity to what they could expect to hear. If I customize everything to the point that the sound is not representative of the stock unit, then my review loses some of it’s applicability to the community.
For such reasons I am content to use an upgraded power supply (VAC Royal Power Supply) to the stock King’s power supply, and work with cabling.
Blessings,
Douglas Schroeder