Kali Audio LP-6 Professional 6.5" Active Near Field Monitor Studio Speaker, black

Product Information

Specs wise the LP8 frequency response is rated at 39Hz – 25kHz (-10dB) and 47Hz – 21kHz (±3dB). Max SPL is 115dB, and system distortion is rated at <3% (80Hz – 1.7kHz) and <2% above 1kHz, reference a 90dB output SPL at a distance of 1 m. The crossover point is 1.5kHz. You rarely see such a usefully low crossover point in a monitor of this price. They’re usually somewhere around the 2-3kHz range, where the ear is most sensitive to crossover distortion, phase and timing errors. On-axis response measured on a ground plane with 1/6th octave smoothing accordingly. With many monitors – especially at the lower end of the market – you simply don’t get a lot to play with in terms of that adjustment, but with the LP-6s you get a lot, and it really can make a difference. This design ensures solid phase coherence throughout the broad midrange and treble regions, avoiding the phase anomalies that plague poorly designed two-way monitors with a mid/bass driver and tweeter at different points on the front baffle. So the subject of this review, Kali's new IN‑8, is one we've been anticipating with great interest, not least because, in contrast to the relatively safe and conventional nature of the LP‑6 (and its larger sibling, the LP‑8), the IN‑8 is significantly more ambitious, while still managing to hit a seriously competitive price.

Vocal reproduction is excellent, male vocals particularly. Here, when compared directly to the PMCs I could only tell the two apart because of a little extra magic dust from the PMCs. However, the LP-6s did struggle a little as you reach further upwards. The cabinets comprise a vinyl-wrapped MDF with moulted plastic front baffle. The front port tube is moulded as part of the baffle itself, and is shaped using computer simulation to minimise port chuffing by ensuring that air exits the port at a constant velocity. A similar port is used to great effect in the IN-8, and I find them to be entirely unfussy about room placement and without the sonic downsides I often hear in ported loudspeakers, namely bloated bass caused by the constricted passage of air through the port, or puffing noises as large volumes of air are forced through a thin port tube. It also means that the midrange needs to stay still. In many other co-axial or concentric systems, high excursion from the larger driver causes intermodulation distortion, and degrades the accuracy of the system. The midrange on the IN-Series is limited to less than 1 millimeter peak-to-peak excursion, making it acoustically stationary while still providing midrange to keep up with the powerful woofer and tweeter. Kali Audio was started in January 2018 by some of the Professional Audio Industry’s most passionate individuals. With engineering at the forefront, Kali aims to make loudspeakers and related products that present the best possible value to our customers. By devoting time and resources to research and development, and with a little bit of panache, we offer high-performance products that fit any budget. The IN-8s avoid anything that could be described as showy, instead finding the fine balance between useful detail and tonal integration. The coaxial arrangement of the midrange driver and tweeter is undoubtedly responsible for the smooth nature of these monitors, allowing the majority of audio to be heard as a cohesive whole, leaving the hefty eight-inch woofer to take care of true bass frequencies.Diagram 2, just for interest, shows the output from the IN‑8 port captured by a microphone placed a centimetre or two inside. Even though the port data typically captured by this type of measurement is unavoidably 'contaminated' by the bass driver output (especially when the bass driver is so close) it can still reveal if there's any undesirable 'organ-pipe' resonances going on in the port. As revealed in the curve though, the IN‑8 port looks completely clean. A very good, and surprisingly unusual, result. Both are two-way loudspeakers with 1-inch textile dome tweeters set within Kali’s custom 3D imaging waveguide. Unlike other waveguides which are a highly directive horn shape, with sharp angles designed to aid directivity but with a small sweet spot, the Kali waveguide is a gentle, gradual contour. Almost an ovoid, though wider than it is deep and with a sharper curve to the faces spanning the tweeter’s vertical axis. The result is an even dispersion that doesn’t adversely affect frontal imaging, but gives you a much wider listening sweet spot than you might be accustomed too with a typical waveguide arrangement. The intent is to cohesively blend the sound from them loudspeaker to the reflective sound that is result of physical obstacles, or even dispersion into the air itself, that occurs as the sound travels toward your ear. Nothing can image like a true coaxial speaker does, but the LP-series waveguide comes very close. This means that anywhere within that listening distance, you can listen for long periods of time at reference volume, and momentary peaks such as bass drops or explosion effects will come through clearly and with minimal distortion. The LP-6 has enough output for most 1-2 person setups, and the LP-8 can handle larger setups easily. Full output specifications, along with maximum listening distances, can be found in our user’s manual. Kali Audio produce studio monitorsthat are all designed in California, USA. Created by a team of experienced engineers, many of whom previously worked for leading manufacturers, these high-quality speakers unleash incredible sound. Kali's latest speakers demonstrate some serious electro-acoustic know-how — and represent remarkable value for money.

Despite its diminutive size, the WS-6.2 is capable of 120 dB max SPL, and lower frequency extension down to 27 Hz. This makes it an ideal companion to almost any set of stereo studio monitors. Diagram 3: An on‑axis and 20‑degree off‑axis measurement of the IN‑5 (blue and green traces, respectively). Though not without its quirks, there's no denying the IN‑8 is a huge slice of monitoring bandwidth for the money, and its dual‑coincident driver is exceptional. It's very much worth hearing." Taking up the space in between in the hero of the IN-Series: the 4-Inch, profile-optimized midrange driver. This driver has a lot of work to do. In addition to reproducing midrange frequencies, it also acts as the waveguide for the tweeter. This means that the shape needed to be precisely engineered to provide an ideal dispersion characteristic for the tweeter. So here we weren’t really expecting that claimed greater sweet spot but we certainly got it, so much so we nearly wore our chair wheels out rolling around the studio space finding its limits. We’ve enjoyed reviewing the IN-8s so much that it almost pains us that we can’t recommend them to everyone.The volume control is indented in the central position, which is recommended for normal use, though while slight adjustment may be necessary in some situations, monitoring levels should be controlled from your mixer or DAW. That, dear readers, is monitoring in a couple of sentences. You want to hear all the detail, even the mistakes; in fact especially the mistakes so that you can correct them. KRK’s Rokit monitors look and sound the best yet, and the RP7 represents an excellent balance of power, footprint and price. Kali Audio’s opening salvo in the speaker market is a great one. The company set out to design an accurate speaker at a very low price and they have gone and done it with the LP-6s. They really are some of the best monitors you can get at this price and can easily out punch models twice their price or more.

Setting them up is a breeze though. Kali say they are designed to be as easy to use as possible. There’s the flexibility of a trio of input types: RCA (for consumer grade inputs) plus TRS and XLR for more pro devices.I'll describe the benefits of dual-coincident drivers in a few paragraphs time, but first there's a little more general IN‑8 description to run through. The IN‑8 is not a small monitor. I had read the dimensions from the spec sheet before the monitors arrived but I was still slightly surprised at just how substantial an IN‑8 turned out to be in the flesh. At 10.4kg each they're not particularly heavy, so there ought not to be any great issue with mounting arrangements. The fast roll‑off above 120Hz or so is partly a measurement artefact and partly the bass driver’s low‑pass crossover filter doing its job. What isn’t an artefact, however, is the sharp dip in the response at around 43Hz: that’s the port resonance locally reducing the driver output. So we know now that the port is tuned to 43Hz which, while being a relatively low frequency for such a compact system is also, coincidentally, close to bass guitar bottom E (41.2Hz in concert pitch). In some respects having the port tuned in such a musically significant region is a good thing, in that it reduces the workload of the bass driver. At the same time, however, the port tuning frequency is likely to be the point at which low‑frequency latency is most significant, and similarly, where port distortion and compression effects will be most apparent. Part of the skill in electro‑acoustics, especially on a tight budget, is knowing how best to manage this kind of compromise. In the second option, which I've called 'Conservative', the port is tuned to 30Hz, which results in an increase in the -3dB point to about 70Hz and a drop in 50Hz group delay to about 5ms (yes, the group delay increases significantly at lower frequencies but they are not so musically significant). The system also rings only for a cycle. In all our years testing monitors there is really no better feeling than playing a mix you have been working on through better monitors; just hearing the clarity, the extra width and extra dynamic range.

In the first option, which I've called 'Extended', the bandwidth reaches 50Hz at -3dB, the group delay peaks at 12ms (again at 50Hz) and the step response shows the system ringing for one and a half cycles. The port is tuned to 50Hz in this system. I was always impressed by the level of bass the Ayras could produce given their small driver and cabinet and that holds true to this day, though there’s no doubt the Kali LP-6 has the edge. More so than the extra inch of cone surface would suggest. The larger cabinet helps, but no doubt the efficiency of the driver and the clever port design are major contributors. Not to mention the more modern amplifiers, a total departure from the fully analogue, archaic class AB amps of the RCFs. The E8XT is a big, powerful monitor that doesn’t overstep the mark. Simple to set up and, importantly, excellent value for money.Argentina Australia Bolivia Canada Chile Ecuador India Israel Korea Malaysia Mexico Myanmar (Burma) Nigeria Peru Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam While the recently reviewed ribbon-tweeter-equipped ADAM T8Vs impressed with their incisive treble response and snappy transients, they do not produce the cavernous image of the IN-8s. While the smoother-sounding PreSonus Eris E8XTs excel with more organic, natural-sounding music, they don’t quite manage the focus and projection of the IN-8s’ central image. Whilst Kali Audio have aimed to make their monitors as natural and accurate as possible to give you a true representation of your mix, they also understand some mixing engineers are used to a certain response from their monitoring rig. If you prefer a certain character of speaker with more or less bass, you can reach for the high and low-frequency controls to customise the response of the monitor to your personal taste. These controls are also handy if there are any problematic frequencies in your space that need to be compensated for. The LPs have always been praised for their accuracy, and we’re pleased to share that the 2nd Wave versions realize slight but noticeable improvements in that regard, particularly on the top end. POWER One of the key design specifications for the WS-12 is that it be capable of providing bass management in a 5.1 system where all of the full-range speakers are Kali IN-8s. As such, the WS-12 is powered by a 1000W power amplifier mated to a high-excursion 12-Inch driver.