Loudspeakers

Two controls are provided on the rear of the speaker to tune the sound to the room and system with which they're used, and the listener's requirements: one effects very subtle changes to the treble level, the other alters the bass damping for better amp-matching. The cabinet is pure Fink, from the shaping of the front baffle, designed to reduce diffraction around the tweeter, to the walls of the enclosure, which are a sandwich construction featuring strategically-placed bracing and Helmholtz resonators 'to avoid standing wave modes without removing all the fun from the box'.

Chest Thump
Before even considering the KIM speakers, you have to challenge some preconceptions: if you're thinking 'small speakers, small sound, not much bass', you're on the wrong track. I'll admit that I expected some allowances would be needed for the diminutive KIMs on their slender stands. That was, until heard on the end of PM's Melco/dCS Vivaldi One/Constellation Inspiration Mono reference system [HFN Jun '17/Feb '18/Oct '19], where they proceeded to do a very good job of thumping my chest and rumbling the sofa, while at the same time casting a coherent 'free of the speakers' sonic picture.

Crystal Clear
This whole 'soundstaging above the speakers' thing is a clever trick, and a little bit amazing when first you hear it – the Neat Iota Xplorer speakers [HFN Jul '18] I use in my own set-up do it exceptionally well – but it takes very little acclimatisation to get used to that being just what the KIMs can deliver, and simply relax into the music. Well, when you've stopped revelling in the almost startling clarity, that is.

These are remarkably open and well-integrated speakers, as is clear with one of my well-worn test-tracks, Lake Street Dive's stripped-back take on The Jackson Five's 'I Want You Back' [Fun Machine EP; Signature Sounds Bandcamp download]. Each of the elements – percussion, bass and trumpet, and especially Rachael Price's powerful, plaintive vocal – is crystal clear, and set in a credible and intimate soundstage.

The same is true with more substantial musical forces, as in the 'Lacrimosa' from Mozart's Requiem [LSO/Colin Davis; LSO Live LSO0627], with the hushed tones of the opening delicate and detailed, and then the orchestral/choral crescendos delivered with real power and slam, plus that sofa-troubling bass. The extended, tight low-end also makes startlingly dramatic the Newcastle City Hall organ opening ELP's 'The Three Fates' from the band's eponymous debut album [BMG download; 192kHz/24-bit], while in the fugue section the speed and control of the speakers ensures Carl Palmer's percussion really sparkles, with Keith Emerson's Yamaha grand soaring through the mix.

Via some speakers this work can sound brash and decidedly 'vintage', but there's none of that here. Instead, the speed and even-handed balance of the KIMs brings it up fresh, and just as the haze of nostalgia would have you thinking it sounded – but probably didn't – when you first spun it on LP several decades ago. All too often, revisiting the favourites of your youth can be a disappointment, but that's really not case with this music via the KIMs.

Snappy Funk
Of course, with a rough or muddy mix there's little the speakers can do to clean things up, but even with the less than perfectly clean sound of The Stones' live Sweet Summer Sun [Promotone 0060253750266], the KIMs get on with their best impression of a big PA system – impressive enough given their size – and give 'Gimme Shelter' bags of energy.

Just as dense, but rather more finely recorded, is the bold reading of Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'Carousel Waltz', played with real vigour by the John Wilson Orchestra [EMI Classics 50999 3 19301 2 3]. Here the KIMs let rip with their punchy bass while handling instrumental timbres with finesse, from skittering strings and woodwind to rasping brass. And best of all, they let the music swing, evoking the spinning ride of the title.

Yes, they will eventually harden up if you let your exuberance run away with you and crank the level too far. But you're going to be at seriously neighbour-rattling levels before you get even a hint of that.

Switch to the snappy funk of Bowie's 'Golden Years', from the 2016 remaster of Station To Station [Rhino; 192kHz/24-bit] and the track, which can sometimes seem to be swallowing the vocal via other speakers, sounds crisp, forthright and above all downright danceable on the KIMs, even Bowie's echoing handclaps brightly resolved. Asked to do more than a credible soundstage, the KIMs shine with an effects-laden track such as Jean-Michel Jarre's 'Souvenir Of China' [from Jarre In China; Warner Music 5046761-662]. Those ping-pong balls and myriad camera shutters ricochet from loudspeaker to loudspeaker, but even more impressive is the sheer depth and impact these modestly-sized enclosures bring to the bass and percussion here, which is truly striking, and will be sure to get that sofa moving again.

Mono Master
At the opposite extreme, the Applewood Road album [Gearbox Records GB1531], bringing together the voices of Emily Barker, Amer Rubarth and Amy Speace, placing them with minimal instrumental backing around a single mic and recording them in mono, proves a test of any speakers' dispersion and pair-matching. It's a test the KIMs pass with flying colours, creating a solid central image and keeping it stable to the point where the unusual set-up slips from the mind and the focus is on the music. And when the music is as good as this, that's a very enjoyable experience indeed.

Hi-Fi News Verdict
Mixing as they do slightly old-fashioned 'big standmount' proportions with innovative design, and angled up on slender but rigid frames, the KIMs have a decidedly unusual look, and it'd be easy to spend the same money on bigger floorstanders. Yet their weighty and refined sound has a precision and conviction that's hard to overlook, creating almost magically focused and extended sonic images that draw you in.