Short subjective review of the Kreisel DXD-12012 DUO (aka MX-5000 Mk3)

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# These are my Subjective thoughts. My intention is to share my experience with others. There are NO MEASUREMENTS or GRAPHS. Trolls and Haters go somewhere else - don't post here.
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>>Official Ken Kreisel product page.<<

A bit of history: I was introduced to M&K in 1995 when a friend bought a full S-150 THX, SS-150 tripole, MX-150 THX system. Later that year I bought a MX-90 and followed it up with an MX-125 in 1996.

System spec: Boston Acoustics E100 R/L, Boston E70 Center, Boston E60 surrounds and a single Boston Micro130x rear. The L/R/C are run off an Emotiva XPA-3, the rest an Onkyo TX-SR805. DXD-12012's connected with Blue Jeans Cable LC-1 Analog Audio Cable.

Room conditions: 14' x 25' x 8' Floor, front and side walls are concrete. Walls are furred out, insulated and drywall. The main listening area is the right 14' x 18' side of the room carpeted with medium padding, the left side of the room has a bar area with ceramic tile. The right wall has an 36" x 81" x 16" deep egress window with a honeycomb blackout blind. The right front corner is a 3.5' long 45 degree angled wall with built in fireplace. The rear right wall opens to a staircase and to the left of the main listening area there is a hallway were the carpet meets the ceramic tile. Ceiling joists to the first floor are 18" truss system layered as follows, first floor Berber carpet, medium density pad, oriented strand board (OSB), 18" truss joist, drywall.

Pictures: These show the room layout that I described in the review. I call it a "real world" example of having a "theater" in a multi-purpose room with many acoustical challenges.





























Review: I've been using the DXD-12012 DUO for about two weeks. I've run break-in material, experimented with placement, run an eight point Audyssey Multeq XT calibration, manually tweaked SPL and crossover points and the DXD-12012's sound amazing. [Link to post with more placement detail] The Duo blends seamlessly with my mains with no hint of localization just anchored added extension and ample LFE when called on. They are not "music" or "movie" subs, they are accurate subs that realistically reproduce whatever I've thrown at them.

The Duo are at all default settings and crossed at 80Hz, E100's 40Hz, E70 & E60's 60Hz, Micro130x 80Hz. I have the Duo placed in the front right corner where the front wall meets the angled "corner" wall positioned at a 55 degree angle into the room.

While roughly twice as large as a single MX-125 the DXD-12012 DUO's clean lines and classic styling blend into my room well and have a fair "spousal approval factor". That said, with 77" tall mains nothing is hiding in my room.

In addition to a great product, KKsound has excellent customer service. The team he has assembled know the product, how it works in the real-world and can provide the information you need to get setup in less than perfect spaces. The amount of personal attention I've received via phone calls and email has raised my expectations for all other companies.

Testing material:
Transformers Blu-ray
Inception Blu-ray
Gear Daddies "She's Happy" vinyl
Son Volt's "Dead Man's Clothes" vinyl
Jack Johnson's "Better Together" and "Banana Pancakes" CD
Norah Jones's "Cold, Cold Heart" CD
India Arie's "Video" CD
HDnet Joe Satriani @ the Grove in Anaheim CA. Dolby Digital EX
Edited by image1 - 7/10/12 at 10:09pm

I haven't tried them un-stacked. The first thing I did was place the stack in the position my MX-125 was in and give it a listen with no other changes. It was impressive. I then moved the bookshelf on the right side of the TV to the back/left of the room and moved the stack to point straight into the room. This didn't sound as good. This is were I did my first 8 point calibration. It improved the performance but not much better than my MX-125. I then moved the stack into the corner as much as possible without blocking the fireplace at a 45 degree angle and re-ran the calibration. This made a HUGE improvement. Then I played with changing the angle and moving it in and out from the front wall. I decided that the 55 degree angle and about 3 inches off the front wall was the best. I re-calibrated and WOW! even better. So this is the position I'm leaving it in for now. I haven't received the stacking brackets or carpet spikes yet (KK is sending them to me - I think I have one of the first pairs sold in the U.S.A. since I ordered them before the web-store came online - and I have consecutive serial numbers :-). So, right now they are not bolted together or coupled to the floor as well as they could be. I expect even better performance once those arrive.

edit: I received the spikes, bolt-up and stacking pads. Now everything is connected and mass loaded to the concrete floor.
Edited by image1 - 7/10/12 at 10:16pm