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

Product Information

The E8XT is a big, powerful monitor that doesn’t overstep the mark. Simple to set up and, importantly, excellent value for money. 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. 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. We wanted to put a port on the front of the LP-Series studio monitors so that they could be used in small spaces where they’d be placed against walls. At the same time, we didn’t want noise from the front port to distract from the accuracy of the speaker, so we developed a special front port that doesn’t make noise.

The WS-6.2 takes up slightly more than one cubic foot. It is about the same size as most 8-inch studio monitors, or about half as large as comparably performing subwoofers. This makes it ideal for use under your desk, or in other positions where space is at a premium Kali’s team did our Boundary EQ tuning at The Village Studios in Los Angeles, and came up with boundary compensation EQ settings to help you get the optimum sound for where you need to put your speakers. For the 2nd Wave, the boundary EQs have been updated for using the speakers on a desk with monitor stands. 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. This much power also makes the WS-12 a capable live subwoofer. Its enclosure is 18mm plywood and it has handles for easy carrying. Kali’s team made sure that it will fit in small passenger cars, so you can take it with you even when you’re calling a ride to get to your gig! 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.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. Founded by some former JBL staff, Kali arrived on the scene in 2018 with a range of inexpensive US‑designed and Far East‑manufactured monitors. It’s been an impressive effort so far. The subject of this review is the first of what Kali have christened their ‘second wave’, characterised by a host of technical improvements. These are said to comprise 12dB less amplifier noise, re‑profiled and lower‑mass driver diaphragms, improved cabinet construction, more precise DSP, revised EQ presets and, finally, a little less input sensitivity. The first of these improvements is particularly welcome because one of my criticisms of the IN‑8 was that amplifier hiss was audible. I may as well confirm straight away that this problem has been fixed. The IN‑5 is effectively silent when idling. Let’s Get Physical On most port tubes, air leaves at different speeds from different points of the opening, creating noisy turbulence. This turbulence can be heard as “chuffing,” or an audible air sound coming from the monitor. This sound will add to the noise floor and obscure the details of the low end.

This is decent but should you wish to expend the low end, there’s also a new (and absolutely massive) subwoofer in the Kali range, the WS-12 [see boxout]. The [massive] WS-12 sub-woofer Argentina Armenia Australia Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Bolivia Brazil Cambodia Canada Caricom Chile Colombia Ecuador Egypt Hong Kong India Indonesia Iraq Israel Japan Korea Kuwait Malaysia Mexico Myanmar(Burma) Nepal Nigeria Oman Peru Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore South Africa Taiwan Thailand UAE VietnamIt 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. 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. 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." Kali Audio is a manufacturer of best-in-class audio products for the professional audio market. Kali 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. And besides, that coaxial design means they are best suited to a space where you can really enjoy that fuller and wider sweet spot and are really designed for spaces where up to three people can listen at the same time.

This design, say Kali, delivers a “stereo soundstage that presents the listener with a hyper-realistic level of detail. The soundstage that you hear will have every detail that’s present in the mix”.

Low Noise Port Tube

The IN‑5 is slightly larger than I imagined when I first saw images online, though it still falls comfortably into nearfield monitor dimensions so shouldn’t present too many challenges to fit into even small studio spaces. At just over 8kg the IN‑5 is also unlikely to present any mounting structure problems — although, as with any monitor, it is important to provide a rigid, stable and non‑resonant mounting platform. 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. 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. 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.