Wham, bam! Thank you, pam!
PAM is the nickname I picked for some very special solid state monoblock amplifiers I have had the pleasure of reviewing. No, I’m not some oddball who names his components; the association was natural as the amps are the Jones Audio PA-M300. That’s too much of a mouthful, so I shortened it to PAM. These amps with the King II are killer! Imagine a super-fast speaker with a hyper-fast, hyper clean solid state amp and you have a good time! PAM is completely unregulated, which doesn’t sound good but is a very good thing. Not having power regulation means a purer treatment of the signal and a forgiving solid state sound. Further, the power of the Jones amps seems unlimited, at least at sane levels to drive the King III.
Sam Jones of Jones Audio makes much of PAM’s slew rate, a measure of how fast an amplifier is, how quickly it can process transients. You know where this is going, and you know the outcome. Pair an amp that is measurably faster in response to transients than one with a regulated power supply with a speaker having a driver that moves faster than a cone or magnetic planar, and you get a seemingly effortless event, even at high listening levels. There is no cabinet to contribute its resonance, no grill to smash the wave, no mylar sheet to wobble, no sluggishness, no hesitancy – in other words, none of the classic problems of transducers. More than any other panel I have heard the music seems to assemble itself instantaneously off the membrane and exist fully intact, true to life. This doesn’t happen spontaneously any more than life simply assembles itself; there has to be genius behind the action.
The genius of putting a very high power amp with such a delicately speedy driver is a result that smacks of vitality. In a roundabout way, this is confirmed by a recent upgrade to my Legacy Whisper DSW speakers. About seven months ago, I returned them to Legacy Audio requesting an upgrade of the internal wiring to 10 Ga. Clarity Cable throughout, yes, even to the tweeter! Bill Dudleston of Legacy suggested also changing the capacitors to Clarity Caps, and thus was born the “Clarity Edition” of the Whisper. The timing was exquisite as Legacy had in development a new Air Motion Tweeter, or AMT. It actually is a dual air motion driver set with Midrange and Tweeter overlapping, so it replaces the previous 4” planar Midrange and 1” Neo-ribbon tweeter. The older version Whisper entered the production chrysalis a caterpillar and has emerged a glorious butterfly!
This sizable update to an already formidable speaker brought a new technology, the folded ribbon, to bear on the listener. The folds shrink the ribbon’s size to one quarter its full length of sixteen inches. The improvement of delicacy and precision of the AMT over the planar midrange is obvious and instantaneously recognizable. It impresses as being much more speedy and nuanced. With Jones’ PAM the ribbon also takes flight, soaring far beyond the limitations of the magnetic planar. You will be hearing more from me about this glorious redesign in a future article.
With the Pathos Classic One Mk II integrateds
There are times when I just want to hug my little Pathos Classic One MkIII tube hybrid integrated amps, but never more than when I put them to work with the King III! These beauties gave the King III a panache rarely achieved by any speaker, much less a Panel. Such speakers have been written off by some in the audio community as lacking in terms of richness and warmth because they are seen as more technical. With some of the Panels mentioned in this article I must agree; the Quad is the most agreeable of the bunch when it comes to timbre and ease of listening, but the others not so much. Very careful equipment selection is the order of the day for Magneplanar and MartinLogan.
The King III, conversely, oozes richness all the while it remains laser sharp. It will adopt entirely the warmth and lushness of tube amps to an extreme degree. I am awed at this speaker’s subtlety and nuance. When the capacity for superior resolution, transient response, three-dimensionality and tonal flexibility combine it creates a speaker which takes command of a listening session. I have encountered no other Panel speaker which so thoroughly and correctly re-performs the music as the King III.
To wring the utmost from the King III you will need to do something unorthodox; put two full pair of speaker cables in parallel on the speaker. Yes, double up the speaker cabling by simply overlaying one set with another, making sure all connections are in perfect synchrony. This will elevate the King III to even greater heights. This is especially critical to obtain superior bass. The King III is not deficient by any means compared to all these other Panel speakers. The Summit X would have deeper bass due to its being a hybrid, but the King III is inferior to none of the others in bass. With doubled bi-wiring the bass is both steep and deep. You will not have heard such sizzling strings and killer keyboards as the King III yields. You can try to run a subwoofer or two with the King III but it will be very difficult. Even a very capable sub such as the Legacy XTREME HD with 1,000 Watts of Class D amplification barely keeps up, as the ESL panels have wickedly fast transients. Any lesser subwoofer will only blur the bass and occlude the Mid-bass and Midrange, so be forewarned. The specified 32 Hz +/- 3dB extension seems conservative, but the purity and roundness of the acoustic envelope at that frequency is such that you will hardly care.
Recently I have been enjoying the Philippe Saesse Trio on The Body and Soul Sessions, especially the remake of “Lovely Day” and “Fire and Rain.” David Fink’s fingering of the acoustic bass as heard with the Simaudio Moon Evolution 750D, Eastern Electric Minimax DAC Plus with a combination of DEXA NewClassD and Burson discrete Opamps, the Pathos integrateds and all Clarity Cables is so cleanly rendered, so passionately plucked, that even the finest dynamic speakers would be envious. Saisse’s piano and keyboard work are as gorgeous as well.
I thrill to hear exquisitely fine nuances in music which would be otherwise occluded by lesser systems. Saisse switches between computer keyboard effects and a real piano in “Fire and Rain,” and the locus of the sound also switches as he does so. The Left to Right channel separation is so well delineated by the King III that one can ascertain the lateral movement of Saisse’s hands as he plays the keyboard. However, there is no lateral movement to the piano, as it is evident the instrument was recorded to sound consistent in both channels. This is the opposite of what might be expected from these instruments, and only became evident through use of the King III.
Fine rocker versus crass rocker
The King III is a “Fine Rocker” speaker, as opposed to the classic dynamic “Crass Rocker” speaker. By that I mean it does not have the level of dynamic impact of a speaker like the Whisper DSW Clarity Edition, but it does have wonderful capacity to untangle the oft knotted sound of rock bands. My casual observation is that some listeners want a more visceral, gut-punch rock experience even if it is as the cost of some definition. Such an individual is the “Crass Rocker,” who is more concerned about the experience of feeling sound waves, having their eardrums pounded and listening at decibel levels which begin to contort the sound.
Conversely, the “Fine Rocker” is all about hearing the entire performance; nothing is more irritating to him than a loud, indistinguishable barrage of notes. Far more enjoyment is had by the Fine Rocker when the instruments blend with proper proportion and as cleanly as a Jazz quartet. The gut-punch is not necessary, as long as the right notes are cleanly presented and the lyrics are clear enough to understand without having to read them. The King III is a legitimate speaker for Rock music, and in fact brings more pleasure as such for me than the bulk of dynamic speakers I have reviewed, the most notable exception being the Whisper DSWCE. When impact overrides accuracy I begin to lose interest, especially at listening levels which begin to hurt my ears.
I enjoy Joe Satriani’s guitar playing partly because he is an instrumentalist with little in the way of lyrics to wreck the instrumental showmanship. A piece like “Two Sides to Every Story,” from Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards showcases the talent of the King III nicely, as it slides to and fro between the mood of a West coast Jazz club and a college town rock band. The subdued undertow of the piece gets interrupted by spacey riffs, like Satriani’s guitar is itching to break into full metal mode. I may not feel as though I am sitting in front of a stack of loudspeakers at the concert, but I will hear every note and the mood communicated! The King III makes this easy!
I assumed that the King III would breeze through Paul McCartney and the Wing’s “Live and Let Die,” and it did. This theme song from the James Bond movie is a dumping ground of electronic and acoustic dissonance which causes some hoity-toity speakers to have fits. I have heard supposedly very capable speaker systems barf out this piece with little grace, and the worst offenders are typically undersized two way floor standing dynamic speakers. Whereas these others die a painful death, the King III thrives.
Your choice: bling or blistering performance?
The King III is not going to dazzle you if you are bling-crazed audiophile, unless perhaps you use the side with the silver grill. It is not defensible as a showcase speaker which is arresting for its fit and finish. It is not going to make you stop looking at top end speakers of different technologies. It is not going to make your WAF problem disappear. It is not able to magically fix everything wrong with your system.
However, the King III is a big, fat slice of SOTA performance. If not for the existence of the KS-30, King Sound’s 30th anniversary version which is 25% larger and a three-way design at $30K, I would be tempted to say the King III is the embodiment of SOTA performance. It has world class sound quality that a normal audiophile can own for a tenth of the price. I realize that sounds outrageous, but the King III is an outrageously superior performer. In terms of pursuit of the finest sound in Panel speakers there is no better money to be spent on a Panel speaker under $20K than the King III. The King ESL stood tall among other Panel peers, but the King III stands alone. My conclusions about the King III stated here may stand alone as well, but this has never bothered me. What has often bothered me greatly is not being able to obtain extreme sound quality at a relatively affordable price! Having used the King III for months and realizing just how incredible are its performance capabilities I am tempted to kiss the plywood and plastic and praise King’s Audio effusively for not making it a $25K ode to excess! It has easily and definitively replaced the King as my reference Panel speaker.
Associated Components:
- Source: Simaudio Moon Evolution 750D DAC/Player; Cambridge Audio 840C; Denon 2900 Universal Player; Sonos Digital Music System; Oppo DV-970HD
- NAS: Buffalo Linkstation 500G
- DAC: Eastern Electric Minimax DAC Plus with Burson and Dexa NewClassD Discrete Opamp Upgrade
- Preamp: VAC Renaissance Signature Preamplifier MkII; Purity Audio Design Silver Statement; Cambridge Audio 840E
- Amps: VAC Phi 200; Pass Labs XA160.5 Monos; Jones Audio PA-M300-1-2 Monoblocks; Cambrige Audio Azur 840W
- Integrated: Pathos Classic One MkIII stereo tube hybrid (two units bridged to mono); Peachtree Audio Nova
- Speakers: King’s Audio Kingsound King; Legacy Audio Whisper DSW “Clarity Edition”; King’s Audio King Tower Omnidirectional; Daedalus Audio Ulysses; Eminent Technology LFT-8b
- Subwoofers: Daedalus Audio BOW
- Interconnects: Clarity Cable Organic RCA/XLR; Tara Labs RSC Air1 series 2; Wireworld Equinox; Wireworld Silver Eclipse; Wireworld Platinum Eclipse
- Speaker Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Speaker; Tara Labs RSC Air1; Wireworld Equinox 5; Wireworld Silver Eclipse
- Digital Cables: Clarity Cable Organic Digital; Tara Labs RSC Air 75; Wire World Startlight 6; Wireworld Gold Starlight 5, Wireworld Gold Starlight 6
- Power Cables: Clarity Cable Vortex; MIT Oracle ZIII; Tara Labs RSC Air; Xindak PF-Gold; Wireworld Stratus 5, Electra 5 and Silver Electra
- Power Conditioning: Wireworld Matrix Power Cord Extender; Tara Labs ISM Power Screen; Tice Audio Solo
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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