Pro Musician needs new speakers for home studio

[changer]

How many f*n times can a reviewer say deeeetail without handing a definition of what this is meant to say or any sort of proper description? So the 308 tweeter has a good bit of distortion at its lower bandwidth limit, touching 2 % between 1k and 2k, but we are not so sensitive to nonlinear distortion. Lacking any grounding of what he meant by detail, I just assume that he meant tonal balance: the upper mids are brighter than he’d like and hence, the tonal balance between bass and presence is not as punchy. That’s the separation, or contrast, between lower an higher frequencies.

Something which can due to the the very good directivity be easily corrected by EQ. Just gently bring down some energy from 5k on.

Could be that it is distortion, sure. But I would try them with EQ and only decide against them (return policy and careful handling at home!) after testing that myself.

 

[WaynesterUK]

How many f*n times can a reviewer say deeeetail without handing a definition of what this is meant to say or any sort of proper description? So the 308 tweeter has a good bit of distortion at its lower bandwidth limit, touching 2 % between 1k and 2k, but we are not so sensitive to nonlinear distortion. Lacking any grounding of what he meant by detail, I just assume that he meant tonal balance: the upper mids are brighter than he’d like and hence, the tonal balance between bass and presence is not as punchy. That’s the separation, or contrast, between lower an higher frequencies.

Something which can due to the the very good directivity be easily corrected by EQ. Just gently bring down some energy from 5k on.

Could be that it is distortion, sure. But I would try them with EQ and only decide against them (return policy and careful handling at home!) after testing that myself.

I can’t try them my friend, I have to get them from Germany to go to Jersey, then to me in the UK..

I’m having to read reviews everywhere..
Obviously I'm not mixing on them..

 

[Digby]

A couple of things stuck out about the video.

1. Clickbait title to harvest views, says the speakers sound **** in the title, in the video he says they sound "fine".
2. He says no low bass and you need a subwoofer, uh, these have about as much low bass as any speaker of this size - has he done measurements? (they do hit 37hz, see Amir's review below)

If you want a proper review, check what Amir had to say here:

JBL 308P MKII Studio Monitor Review

This is a review and detailed measurements of the JBL 308P MKII 8-inch Monitor (powered speaker). I purchased this from a member a few months ago. New, they cost US $249. The 3 series look the same for good or bad: The large plastic waveguide is really in your face. Wish JBL would provide...

www.audiosciencereview.com

This guy in the video has charisma, but where are his measurements and what is he comparing them to?

 

[changer]

I can’t try them my friend, I have to get them from Germany to go to Jersey, then to me in the UK..

I’m having to read reviews everywhere..
Obviously I'm not mixing on them..

Sorry, been a while since I peaked into your thread last time, that I had forgotten.

Maybe ask @amirm if he perceived a pronounced deficit in clarity when he tested the 308s. Some people hold distortion responsible for a lack thereof, I mean to remember that this was the reason why @thewas has continuously spoken in favor of the Neumann three ways and their low distortion. However, it might be rather a relative than an absolute question in your case, it must not be critical, and I still think it could well be that the YouTube guy just didn’t like the tonal balance.

If you cannot try a speaker, no review can help you, but the data given in the reviews here is a good indicator.

 

[mhardy6647]

So -- a minority opinion at a place like this but... you could do way worse than what the four lads from Liverpool listened to themselves on for... essentially their whole recording career together.
Altec Duplexes.

If you stop and think about how many of the classic recordings of the 1950s and 1960s were monitored, mixed, and/or mastered on same... I would opine that it's still kind of hard to throw them under the bus. Yes, even in 2022 AD (or CE, as one prefers).

Add a set of MasteringLabs crossovers and... well... I'm a fan.

 

[Puddingbuks]

Why are so many musicians spending tons of money on synths and guitars but so little on their monitors?

 

[DVDdoug]

Why are so many musicians spending tons of money on synths and guitars but so little on their monitors?

Probably because they are more interested in making, playing, and performing than recording, producing, mixing, mastering, or listening. I've heard of musicians that don't care about sound quality as long as the music is good.

 

[Puddingbuks]

Probably because they are more interested in making, playing, and performing than recording, producing, mixing, mastering, or listening. I've heard of musicians that don't care about sound quality as long as the music is good.

The horror.

Music is always first, but better sound and reproduction is making it even more fun.

 

[WaynesterUK]

I wouldn’t know how to mix or record anyway!!!
I’m a performing musician every weekend for the last 30 years…

All I wanna do is play my keyboards at home and listen to my music files and YouTube basically
(Which all goes through my mixer)
My point being when i started this thread was my HS7’s sound horrid
I’ve moved them further from the wall, closer together, tried a few things and nope, i can’t stand em

 

[WaynesterUK]

These do look nice

https://www.thomann.de/gb/kali_audio_lp_6_2nd_wave_white.htm?ref=search_prv_Kali+l_2_8

Can get a pair for £283 British
Probably sound better than my old HS7’s for my type of room and purpose?

 

[changer]

They are some of the most heralded budget high performing speakers discussed in this talking machine here. Read the reviews, order them and be happy! Seriously, you couldn’t do any better for little money.

 

[changer]

https://erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/kali_lp-6v2/ and the first model: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/kali-lp-6-review-studio-monitor.17978/

 

[Matias]

These do look nice

https://www.thomann.de/gb/kali_audio_lp_6_2nd_wave_white.htm?ref=search_prv_Kali+l_2_8

Can get a pair for £283 British
Probably sound better than my old HS7’s for my type of room and purpose?

It's a best buy in the price range imo.

 

[Morpheus]

Buying online is of course cheaper, but if you never heard them, even with all the data here you may not get to where you want, as piano is maybe the most difficult instrument to reproduce with veracity..
The tests done here separate the wheat from the chaff big time, but even among the best, there are differences that are audible and will swing you one way or the other, more than what the minor differences that exist on techically already very good speakers would lead you to believe..
Make a selection based on technical merit and get 80 % done, then go to music shops and listen, and pay the price for being able to get that super important last 20 %..Or buy online for 20% cheaper and forever wonder how much better they could sound for your particular taste/needs/room.
Listen twice, buy once..

 

[audio2920]

The LP6 is certainly a solid choice at that price point.

For what it's worth, again IMHO, the beauty of the IN5 (which we keep banging on about, and yes, is more expensive) is that is has that concentric MF/HF unit; which crucially for your use case, means the directivity is almost equally even horizontally as vertically. So, as you're moving around the room, sitting/standing, it won't get so messy. More even coverage in both dimensions, basically, not just one. As a result it's also less susceptible to ceiling, desk and floor floor reflections making a mess of things. Because of the less colored ceiling bounce then, actually better coverage in all 3 dimensions!

The LP6's waveguide gives very good, even, horizontal directivity only.

The 3 way design of the IN5 also pushes the crossover frequencies in to arguably less problematic parts of the spectrum.

But to your direct question, I think the LP6 will be a significant improvement on the HS7, the latter of which sounds particularly odd to me. I wouldn't be surprised if either the LP6 or 308 made you much happier.

(For context of where I'm coming from: I've mixed on IN8 for real, and find them to be very, very usable, even compared to much more expensive units. I've used IN5 as surrounds only, but would have no issue with them as smaller nearfields. I've heard 306 and 308 JBLs, and HS7, but not tried sitting down and actually mixing on them. The HS7 being one of the speakers I've least liked the sound of. I've never used LP series at all, so for these I'm basing opinion solely on measurements not listening experience)

 

[WaynesterUK]

Thanks for the advice

Think I’m gonna go with the IN5’s
Hopefully they’ll sound much better than my HS7’s

Although, I’m still in 2 minds between the IN5’s and the LP6’s

Based on my room and particular usage, IN5’s seem to tick the boxes more

https://www.thomann.de/gb/kali_audio_in_5.htm?ref=search_prv_In5_2_7

https://www.thomann.de/gb/kali_audio_lp_6_2nd_wave.htm?ref=search_prv_Lp6_2_6

 

[WaynesterUK]

I still haven’t bought any speakers yet

I’ve found an online retailer selling a pair of Kali Audio IN-8 speakers in white, the price is a steal at £400 for the pair, recently sold my Yamaha HS7’s as I hated the sound on them

The IN-8’s for sale are not the 2nd wave versions, but the 1st type, is this a problem? I can’t find any reviews and just wondering are they a good speaker ? and can I get isolation pads for them as they seem a pretty large speaker

 

[thewas]

The first gen are quite decent too, here is the ASR review

Kali Audio IN-8 Studio Monitor Review

thank you @napilopez for your response. I'm waiting for the retest results because i want to do a multichannel setup 7.4.4 with these or the presonus sceptre s8.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[ZolaIII]

There is no speakers in the world which won't sound boxy when put against the wall like that (especially back ported one's) and no EQ will help. Move desk up front at least half a meter and do the same with speakers (and at least 30~ 40 cm from side walls), do a acoustic treatment of the room (back wall and all corners with bass traps, front wall with difuzers and depending on the nead side walls combined), then EQ peaks and try to compensate for deficits.

 

[WaynesterUK]

Looking at Amirs review of the 1st edition IN-8’s, it seems I’ve saved myself from a set of awful speakers then!