Neumann KH 150 Monitor Review

[Pearljam5000]

The tweater is likely the same as the one in the KH 80, but I don't know for sure:

View attachment 325900

Neumann KH80DSP Teardown

A friend of mine decided to look at the inside of the KH80DSP because he found the Neumanns run hotter than his JBL LSR305P MkII. Seems like there hasn't been any teardown picture of the KH80DSP on the internet. My friend kindly allowed me to share these disassembly pictures on this forum, so...

www.audiosciencereview.com

In which case it's nothing much to look at. The woofer, with that sturdy cast frame, looks the part though.

I think ASR has shown that the whole is often more important than the sum of it's parts. A well designed item that uses components of modest price and quality can outperfom those that ticks all the audiophile boxes with beautifully finished enclosures and all the right types and brands of components. Expensive Nichicon, Elna, Vishay, Mundorf or Mills components used in a poorly optimised circuit won't do much to help performance.

It's interesting that now that many resistors are tiny surface mount things, only a millimeter or so in length, that people seem to get less hung up on which brand they are. Whereas when they were larger through hole components, the distinctive Vishay Dale or Mills resistors were a sign of "quality".

View attachment 325897 View attachment 325898

Looks are important for some and who can deny that the some of the things made by premium brands, which are beautifully finished, inside and out, aren't impressive:

View attachment 325902 View attachment 325903

Some of them even perform well.

As the owner of a pair of KH 150s, I hope that Neumann have done their homework and that as a "professional" monitor, they are well engineered and long lasting, but I guess only time will tell.

Great info thanks

 

[mj30250]

It looks like the KH 80 is loaded with CapXon as well. One would think that in the 7 or so years since the KH 80 was released that we'd be seeing an outsized level of complaints if this was indeed a concern worth fretting over.

 

[dfuller]

The tweater is likely the same as the one in the KH 80, but I don't know for sure:

View attachment 325900

Yep, same tweeter up and down the line. Titanium/fabric hybrid, with a big honking ferrite motor with a bucking magnet if I'm looking at it right...

It looks like the KH 80 is loaded with CapXon as well. One would think that in the 7 or so years since the KH 80 was released that we'd be seeing an outsized level of complaints if this was indeed a concern worth fretting over.

There have been a rather large number of failures of the original KH120, usually the power supply failing. It's all over Gearspace.

 

[mj30250]

There have been a rather large number of failures of the original KH120, usually the power supply failing. It's all over Gearspace.

Does the 120 A use CapXon for sure? A quick search turned up the below teardown, but it's hard to get a view of all of the caps. The big boy at least looks like Matsushita (Panasonic).

Neumann KH120 Disassembly Pictures

Hi all, it seems pretty hard to find any pictures of the KH120's internals online, so I thought I would post these here. Maybe they can be of use to someone! :) These pictures aren't of my own KH120s. I found them several years ago with great difficulty thru Google Translate on a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[DJBonoBobo]

CapXon stuff still fails prematurely on the regular.

What is your proof/data? And if you have something about CapXon how do you know it is relevant for Neumann speakers? Do you know better than Markus Wolff?

 

[RobL]

Does the 120 A use CapXon for sure? A quick search turned up the below teardown, but it's hard to get a view of all of the caps. The big boy at least looks like Matsushita (Panasonic).

Neumann KH120 Disassembly Pictures

Hi all, it seems pretty hard to find any pictures of the KH120's internals online, so I thought I would post these here. Maybe they can be of use to someone! :) These pictures aren't of my own KH120s. I found them several years ago with great difficulty thru Google Translate on a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

The majority of the 120A caps look to be Yageo (Teapo) from this guy’s tear down/repair.

 

[Crazylove]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum.
I am interested in the mentioned Neumann kh150 speakers, mainly based on the superior measurements performed by Amir. But unfortunately I can't hear and try them live before buying.

But I'm a bit confused, because I've heard many times that studio monitors are not suitable for home use because they are too analytical and sterile, that the angels don't really sing there. And if I want to be on the safe side, I should rather buy speakers that are intended for home hifi use.

What makes studio monitors unsuitable for home use? My room is 25 square meters and the distance to the speakers would be about 2.5 to 3 m (I would place them to the left and right of the tv).
Would this be a suitable setup?

When I read this thread from the beginning, some people wrote that they use them exclusively for studio work, and they have others for home hifi setup. Can someone please explain to me what the real point is and the difference between hi-fi and studio speakers.

 

[Somafunk]

What makes studio monitors unsuitable for home use?

The hifi press would rather have you drop a fortune on fancy veneers and a speaker companies marketing budget that buys off the hifi press with advertising in their slick magazines/websites, no other reason.

 

[Karmacoma]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum.
I am interested in the mentioned Neumann kh150 speakers, mainly based on the superior measurements performed by Amir. But unfortunately I can't hear and try them live before buying.

But I'm a bit confused, because I've heard many times that studio monitors are not suitable for home use because they are too analytical and sterile, that the angels don't really sing there. And if I want to be on the safe side, I should rather buy speakers that are intended for home hifi use.

What makes studio monitors unsuitable for home use? My room is 25 square meters and the distance to the speakers would be about 2.5 to 3 m (I would place them to the left and right of the tv).
Would this be a suitable setup?

When I read this thread from the beginning, some people wrote that they use them exclusively for studio work, and they have others for home hifi setup. Can someone please explain to me what the real point is and the difference between hi-fi and studio speakers.

I don't understand the people saying they're not intended for home hi-fi use, since they're the very definition of high fidelity.

 

[unpluggged]

Can someone please explain to me what the real point is and the difference between hi-fi and studio speakers.

And how you understand this difference yourself? Do you think that sound engineers record, mix and master records on studio monitors (we are talking of serious commercial recording studios, including those that make classical music recordings and movie scores) so they would sound wrong on any "non-pro" sound system? And what can be wrong with accurate frequency and phase response, low distortion, precisely engineered crossovers and acoustical characteristics?

And I don't even consider these audiophool claims to bear even a tiny bit of merit, considering that people today listen to all sorts of lo-fi systems, from cellphone speakers and TV soundbars to cheap earbuds in noisy places, and still manage to enjoy it. I doubt that most of us could easily discern between a well-performing and poorly performing speakers of similar size. I've recently got a pair of Kali LP-6 speakers for my grandmother's TV, and I really enjoy their sound, despite the compromises that had been made to allow such low price (the most obvious is that their cabinets are not dead silent). The KH 120 are more refined, sure, but the Kalis perform above what I would expect for their price.

 

[boxerfan88]

But I'm a bit confused, because I've heard many times that studio monitors are not suitable for home use because they are too analytical and sterile, that the angels don't really sing there. And if I want to be on the safe side, I should rather buy speakers that are intended for home hifi use.

Look at it another way, would you prefer
a) a nice clean & clear mirror?
b) a cloudy mirror with reddish/bluish/greenish/greyish/yellowish tint?

Whoever is telling you to only buy speakers that are intended for home hifi use is trying very hard to influence you to “b”

Having said that, certainly there are home hifi speakers that are in the “a” category, just need to find them.

 

[rrahmanucla]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum.
I am interested in the mentioned Neumann kh150 speakers, mainly based on the superior measurements performed by Amir. But unfortunately I can't hear and try them live before buying.

But I'm a bit confused, because I've heard many times that studio monitors are not suitable for home use because they are too analytical and sterile, that the angels don't really sing there. And if I want to be on the safe side, I should rather buy speakers that are intended for home hifi use.

What makes studio monitors unsuitable for home use? My room is 25 square meters and the distance to the speakers would be about 2.5 to 3 m (I would place them to the left and right of the tv).
Would this be a suitable setup?

When I read this thread from the beginning, some people wrote that they use them exclusively for studio work, and they have others for home hifi setup. Can someone please explain to me what the real point is and the difference between hi-fi and studio speakers.

I asked this same question on one of the neumann threads and got alot of great responses… My summary, good speakers will sound better within the recommended listening range because of the proportion of direct/indirect sounds heard at MLP will be optimized. At far distances it can be difficult to achieve appropriate balance of direct and indirect sounds, as indirect sounds will dominate. That being said, if your MLP is further than the recommended distance and the speaker can reach an appropriate SPL, good, well behaved speakers are going to be preferred than crappy speakers with poor tonal balance and directivity.

I realize my interpretation might very well be wrong, but posting a wrong statement on the internet will probably get you an answer fastest.

I went ahead and bought a pair of KH 150s for my very large room, listening at 3-4 meters and they sound awesome. I am a full believer.

 

[Curvature]

I asked this same question on one of the neumann threads and got alot of great responses… My summary, good speakers will sound better within the recommended listening range because of the proportion of direct/indirect sounds heard at MLP will be optimized. At far distances it can be difficult to achieve appropriate balance of direct and indirect sounds, as indirect sounds will dominate. That being said, if your MLP is further than the recommended distance and the speaker can reach an appropriate SPL, good, well behaved speakers are going to be preferred than crappy speakers with poor tonal balance and directivity.

I realize my interpretation might very well be wrong, but posting a wrong statement on the internet will probably get you an answer fastest.

I went ahead and bought a pair of KH 150s for my very large room, listening at 3-4 meters and they sound awesome. I am a full believer.

Somewhat off:

Minimum recommended listening range is to make sure you are far enough away so that the drivers integrate acoustically. Maximum is about the output the speaker can achieve. Staying within those bounds guarantees you are within the speaker's linear range (here, linear=undistorted, nonlinear=distorted, distorted=unwanted tones in the output).

The direct/reverberant ratio, directivity and tonal balance are only partially related. Exactly how they are related is a much more complicated discussion.

 

[thewas]

Good monitor manufacturers give also the recommended range as the point where the direct sound dominates which is different to the distance from SPL point of view, for example:

Source: https://www.genelec.com/correct-monitors

 

[Pearljam5000]

I'm between Genelec 8350 and KH150
But can't decide

 

[Curvature]

KH150

This one.

Newer design. Lower distortion. Lower self-noise.

 

[Pearljam5000]

This one.

Newer design. Lower distortion. Lower self-noise.

Won't the 8 inch vs 6.5 inch size make a big difference also ?

 

[Curvature]

Won't the 8 inch vs 6.5 inch size make a big difference also ?

I would take lower self-noise as a priority in this specific comparison.

 

[volteon]

Is there a budget friendly One-box solution to get the KH 150 into home cinema as a 2.1 setup with TV? Pretty much like the Wiim Amp, but they are already active speakers.

Must haves of the component:
- knob volume control
- streaming services (Spotify Connect, Tidal)
- HDMI port

Much appreciated.

 

[Waxx]

Is there a budget friendly One-box solution to get the KH 150 into home cinema as a 2.1 setup with TV? Pretty much like the Wiim Amp, but they are already active speakers.

Must haves of the component:
- knob volume control
- streaming services (Spotify Connect, Tidal)
- HDMI port

Much appreciated.

Have you looked at the Bleusound Node? That should have it all. The volume knob is on top with other controls (not a round knob).