It's enormously important to understand that there is absolutely no possibility of having any pleasure in life at all without skill. Money doesn't buy pleasure ever."-Alan Watts Measurements are provided in a format in accordance with the Standard Method of Measurement for In-Home Loudspeakers (ANSI/CTA-2034-A R-2020). For more information, please see this link. 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.

The integrated Class D Power amp delivers clean, reliable power that's optimized to this speaker.Both models use 40W for the 1” soft dome tweeter. The LP-6 uses 40W for the 6.5-Inch woofer, and the LP-8 uses 60W for the 8-Inch woofer. Specifications When it came to listening, as usual I fed the IN‑5 with a diet of Pro Tools sessions and favourite CDs. I’ve experienced some high‑end monitors recently, and while the IN‑5 perhaps doesn’t, unsurprisingly, provide the extraordinary detail and natural clarity of some of those models, it nonetheless made a positive impression. While I found the IN‑5’s inherent tonal balance slightly dull, its midrange emphasis provided a good dose of useful mix detail. There’s not so much mid emphasis that it risks mixes not translating well though, and the slight dullness can also be effectively ameliorated using the +2dB HF EQ option. The benefits of the midrange/tweeter dual‑coincident format are very clear, with the IN‑5 showing strong image focus and really good consistency at different listening positions.With a pair of Kali Audio LP-6 studio monitors, you should be able to achieve a usable sound without expensive speaker calibration software and an advanced understanding of room acoustics and acoustic treatment. However, if you’re looking to sound-treat your studio for an optimized listening experience, this acoustic treatment guide for home studios is a great place to start. 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 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. Bass on the LP-Series monitors is delivered by larger magnets and larger voice coils than any comparable speakers on the market. This gives you more accurate bass response that extends lower, so you can dial in exactly the low end sound you need. Easy Connections 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.

Let's dig into the issue with disturbance around 1 kHz by looking at the near-field measurement of the woofer, port and tweeter: If Focal Care is of significant importance to you, and you’re willing to spend a little extra cash on the inverted dome tweeter design and shelving features that the Focal Alpha 65 delivers, you won’t be disappointed with these studio monitors. For further information, you can view the full list of Alpha 65 tech specs here. Although Kali Audio is a fairly new brand, they've already started to form a great reputation within the close-knit community of recording hobbyists. Despite their affordability, the LP6 monitors project audio with incredible fidelity, allowing you to mix your music with excellent precision. The On-axis Frequency Response (0°) is the universal starting point and in many situations it is a fair representation of the first sound to arrive at a listener’s ears. Kali Audio was formed in January 2018, but despite their youth, they are already establishing themselves as one of the leading brands within the affordable home studio market. You can expect pro-grade audio from their LP Series studio monitors.Starting on the right, the filter at 965 Hz reduced some of harshness and opened the sound a bit. Bass was shy so I dialed up the 70 Hz broad filter. That filled in the bass quite nicely with no increase in distortion.

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. The midbass driver is an optimised paper cone construction with large dual-layer voicecoil, convex dust cap and carefully tuned surround, giving plenty of excursion but maintaining the integrity of the cone around its outer circumference where the cone is naturally weaker. The tweeter waveguide ensures that the acoustic centres of the drivers are as aligned as much as possible, though there’s plenty of opportunity to correct for any time alignment and phase error in the digital crossover. The reference plane in this test is at the tweeter. Volume set to ‘0’ with XLR input. The dip switches were all set to ‘0’ for the free field setting.Kali Audio defines a listening distance as the maximum distance at which the speakers can play continuously at 85 dB while maintaining 20 dB dynamic headroom. Focal’s Alpha 65 brings you a 6.5” woofer and a 40-22,000 Hz frequency response. The frequency response of these monitors isn’t quite as wide as the other studio monitors on this list. However, sub frequencies should be handled by a subwoofer anyways, while the linear response of frequencies between 20-20,000 Hz is arguably more important than a speaker’s maximum frequency value. You can learn how to properly set up a studio subwoofer here. Yes, I know that is unfair to compare a set of 300-quid speakers to monitors that cost a couple of grand more but what impresses me with the PMCs is their flat response, something the LP-6s are attempting to emulate, so this method should reveal how the Lone Pines stand up in that regard. By matching the reflective sound with the direct sound, you will hear both the sound that comes straight from the monitor as well as the sound from the room when the signal bounces off objects in the space. When these sounds are exactly in time, you process the signal better and therefore perceive the sound as better with a more three-dimensional sound. One of the features present in the second wave of Kali monitors is a clever Boundary EQ adjustment, which provides several positions to select preset compensating EQ curves depending on where the speaker is positioned. On a stand in free space (the ideal position for the loudspeaker) the EQ can be disabled.

Great horizontal directivity. Really, really good. The vertical directivity shows some vertical lobing resulting in a shift in the DI around 1.5 - 2.0kHz. The Early Reflections Floor Bounce and Ceiling Bounce data shows this as well and indicates we need to stay on-axis with the reference plane (the tweeter) and that you may want to put some ceiling absorption in place of your studio (floor absorption isn’t likely possible). Adjustments are provided for installations on stands or on desks close to a wall (within 0.5 m) or against a wall (as close as possible allowing for cables). There are also curves for placement on a sole bridge or on a desktop with stands or purpose-built studio desk with monitor platforms. All data collected using Klippel’s Near-Field Scanner. The Near-Field-Scanner 3D (NFS) offers a fully automated acoustic measurement of direct sound radiated from the source under test. The radiated sound is determined in any desired distance and angle in the 3D space outside the scanning surface. Directivity, sound power, SPL response and many more key figures are obtained for any kind of loudspeaker and audio system in near field applications (e.g. studio monitors, mobile devices) as well as far field applications (e.g. professional audio systems). Utilizing a minimum of measurement points, a comprehensive data set is generated containing the loudspeaker’s high resolution, free field sound radiation in the near and far field. For a detailed explanation of how the NFS works and the science behind it, please watch the below discussion with designer Christian Bellmann: The Lone Pine Series is designed to allow you to hear every detail that's happening in your mix. This starts with an exceptionally accurate frequency response. Whatever is present on your mix is what you'll hear in these monitors. Nothing is boosted or suppressed to cover flaws or try to sound more pleasing. The LP-6s deliver a sound that punches well above their price point. If you were to blind test them against speakers a lot higher in price tag, I’m pretty sure you’d be surprised as how well they stand up. Similarly, if you were to do the same against monitors at their price point, I think they’d stand head and shoulders above them.

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Kali Audio has solidified themselves as not only a contender in the pro studio monitor market, but a frontrunner in studio monitor technology and advancement." - Charles Hoffman for Sonic Scoop Vertical directivity gives more freedom than usual although I suggest you stay at or slightly below tweeter center: The Listening Window is a spatial average of the nine amplitude responses in the ±10º vertical and ±30º horizontal angular range. This encompasses those listeners who sit within a typical home theater audience, as well as those who disregard the normal rules when listening alone. When we launched these products, we had two data points in mind: 1. the hiss was on par with our nearest competitor and 2. conversations with producers led us to think that the hiss would not be an issue. Indeed, for most people, it is not. However, for people mixing close to the speakers and in small and/or quiet rooms, it is noticeable.