What the Kii Three does solo my original review described. Today is about what happens when we stir in BXT. I leashed up Wattson Audio's Emerson Digital via coax and off went Roon. Tidy, compact and uncomplicated had my name all over it. Ideal for comparisons was that with/without BXT could be had with a single remote command. If you expected complications, decanting a 2019 Sommerhalde Zweigelt from the Zimmerle vineyard (vintner of the year tip) takes longer than setting up these bass integrators. I should know. Let's start with personal expectations. I honestly anticipated only marginal extra bass quantity though far more room involvement given my longish ~30m² and entirely untreated living room. What I got was more; and particularly other than expected. Let's talk bass. The Doom Jazz "Crimson Ways" from Bohren & der Club of Gore's Black Earth album sports truly imperious sub bass that's easily capable of droning out the rest of the bandwidth. It's what happens with standard subs dialed up too high on both low pass and SPL. The BXT treatment instead shortened the leash to drive up control and contour. Where the monitor solo already impressed with extension and powerfully taut output, the woofer docks scaled to the next level. That meant acting more easeful, pressurized, voluminous and downright pugilistic where appropriate. This was bass which knew no limits. It wasn't just extra quantity but more quality. Drum beats teased out more obvious skin oscillations, grew in body and outlined sharper. Likewise for usually embedded virtually subliminal venue cues. Granted, my room asked for -10dB boundary EQ; which is what that's there for. This setting produced the quickest, driest most accurate low bass I've ever enjoyed in this space.

The roughly 8 x more affordable Nubert X-8000 active speakers also pump out euphoric bass jams but (cough) do it less saturated, locomotive or authoritative. Likewise for the ~€4.4K combo of KEF LS50 Wireless II and KC62 sub. Though very extended and physically tacit, its precision lagged far behind. Expense dictated that it had to. The quad of 15" woofers in my vintage Isophon Vertigo also go off the leash on raw bass brutality but couldn't touch the crisp immediacy of the BXT'd Kii Three. Given such bass chops, related virtues couldn't be far off. The system's 28-transducer total (!) allows for SPL which I couldn't even marginally tap. Low mass plus high power headroom also create extraordinarily steep impulse response plus boundless macrodynamic scaling. What thus came as a surprise is how most of the time, I found myself listening more quietly than usual. Huh? It's because this system has likewise mastered the micro domain. Here low SPL don't wash out bass reach, tone colors or the audibility of fine tone modulations. All of it created more believable and persuasive background levels than the Kii Three manages solo. This came as somewhat of a shock.

But there was still more luxuriating refinement to be had; at the opposite end of the bandwidth. Take Tara Nome Doyle's "Leeches I" [Vermin]. It turned out that with the BXT's software overwrite, treble resolution improved while the lower midrange aced more presence and authenticity. It had this album go even deeper under my skin and managed surprisingly more intensity, freer more focused imaging and more overall elegance or elasticity. I suspect that all this was due the new allocation of resources aka division of labor. Less stress on individual drivers equals higher performance. Thus vocals which previously focused down hard now gained a spatially bigger presence within a broader stage to disassociate still more from the speakers as actual sound sources. Across the midband, I didn't notice tonal balance shifts. Neither piano nor acoustic guitar migrated into brighter or darker intonation. Individual timbres simply resolved better and embedded more organically into the whole.

Again, these differences included audible space. Let's inspect another inspired expression of involvement with Max Richter's "Mrs. Dalloway: War Anthem" from his album Woolf Works, Ballet in 3 Parts. As I put it in its review, the Kii Three provided very direct access to the action—"realistic right-in-yer-face projection" I called it—while with the BTX everything moved back a step then grew in height. Simultaneously the sides expanded and even depth rolled out. Further of note was how stringed instruments hung in space with terrific image lock. When I speculated whether one or two glasses of red wine were responsible, a simple remote click reverted to Kii Three solo. That showed how on-stage mapping now took a small hit. I heard the same with Schönberg's symphonic tone poem Pelleas & Melisande.

The BXT scaled up spaciousness and directness to give the composition more expressivity. Hence this bass module really is a transformative affair. It converts a stand mount which essentially lacked for naught into a new more potent integral tower. We'd consider ourselves lucky if all we booked were gains in bass, max SPL and macro dynamics. That alone is quite the experience. But even apparently more ambiguous audiophile virtues factor like greater ease and a more expansive involvement in the depiction of space. This also includes finer more inclusive resolution and a more gushing mid band. That the BXT's adaptiveness won't overdrive smaller rooms then offers cardioid/cylindrical dispersion is a further boon. Even smaller rooms benefit from its greater ease and deeper embodiment factor. Granted, it's quite a serious investment but when we factor in the technological generosity involved, the top finishing, ease of use and most importantly sonics… this Kii III owner found it well worth it.